MONGOLIA TO AUSTRIA By moped

Young Austrian rides 13,000km home on Puch Maxi

Stephan Regensberger, one of the growing band of overlanders choosing to use the smallest bike possible, shipped his 1977 Puch Maxi out to Ulaanbator in Mongolia, then spent the next three months riding it home to Austria. He and the moped made it back despite snow, mountain passes, temperatures of over 40 degrees C and a serious bout of food poisoning, which saw him hospitalised in Kazhakstan.

It wasn't his first mega-trip by moped. After leaving school in 2012, Stephan decided to tour Europe, and explained in his blog why he chose to do that by Maxi. “Train and bus were out of the question because I wanted to travel at my own pace and not constantly worry about timetables. A car was too expensive and too fast. I wanted to experience the act of travelling as well, so there were not many options left. Just walking would take too long and a bike (bicycle) was, in my opinion, too much exercise, which brought me to mopeds. They are small, slow, but not too slow, easy to fix and if you run out of gas or your motor stops, you can at least pedal to the next town.’

That trip ended prematurely when a main bearing failed in Nice, but Stephan was clearly fired up to do more of the same, which led to him having the Maxi flown out to Mongolia. It had no special preparations apart from two luggage racks, a spare fuel can and spare tyre. He stayed in hostels and cheap hotels or camped.

HILLS & HEADWINDS