In November 1962, Heinz Stücke did not just quit his job. He staged an escape.
He was a young toolmaker in Hövelhof, Germany, trapped in a grey loop of waking up before dawn and grinding through suffocating shifts at a factory. The routine was eating him alive. He looked at the map, then he looked at the factory walls, and he made his choice.
He climbed onto a heavy, three-speed bicycle with a simple goal. He wanted to see the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He eventually arrived in Tokyo in 1971. He was seven years late.
But by then, the Olympics didn't matter. Heinz had discovered an intoxicating secret. The road did not have to end. Every time he crossed a border, he felt the magnetic pull of the next one. He realized he did not want to go back to the factory. In fact, he did not want to stop at all.
So he just kept pedaling.
What followed was not a vacation. It became the longest commute in human history. For fifty years, Heinz lived entirely on two wheels.
His journey reads like an adventure novel. He cycled through scorching deserts and navigated freezing mountain passes. He pedaled through war zones and slept in peaceful villages. His bicycle was a heavy steel beast that became his closest companion. Thieves stole it six times, yet he somehow recovered it every single time. The frame snapped under the strain of the journey, forcing him to have it welded back together sixteen times.
His body took a beating too. A truck ran him over in the Chilean desert. Soldiers in Egypt beat him unconscious. In Zambia, rebels shot him in the foot.
Most people would have gone home. Heinz just bandaged his foot and got back on the bike.
He didn't have a trust fund or corporate sponsors. To survive, he sold handmade booklets and some of the 100,000 photographs he took along the way. He relied on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter.
"I trust everybody," he famously said. "Because if you didn't, you just wouldn't go around the world."
While the newspapers back home told stories of a dangerous and divided planet, Heinz saw something else entirely. In village after village, spanning 196 countries, he found a world united by hospitality.
He finally pedaled back into Hövelhof in 2014. He had left as a restless 22-year-old in the era of the Beatles and the Cold War. He returned as a legend in the age of the smartphone.
He had covered 648,000 kilometers.
Today, at 85, Heinz lives in a quiet apartment near a museum that houses his battered bicycle. When people ask if he regrets trading a normal life for a nomadic one, he does not hesitate.
He has no regrets.
Heinz Stücke proved that the biggest barriers we face are not mountain ranges or oceans. They are the excuses we invent to stay comfortable. He showed us that the world is open, waiting for anyone brave enough to take the first pedal stroke.
Went to check my rear cam for a close pass last night, and it turns out I'd been riding with my local bike mechanic for a coule of km and didn't even realise. Happy Christmas Matt and all the team from GA Cycles, best mechanics in town!!! 😃🎄🔥
AverageManOnaBike
Makes sense.
6 days ago | [YT] | 96
View 9 replies
AverageManOnaBike
About right.
1 week ago | [YT] | 159
View 8 replies
AverageManOnaBike
#pray4motorists
1 month ago | [YT] | 124
View 11 replies
AverageManOnaBike
Should the Speed Awareness Course be part of the driving test?
We discuss here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksWz...
1 month ago | [YT] | 49
View 8 replies
AverageManOnaBike
The Man Who Came Home 50 Years Late
In November 1962, Heinz Stücke did not just quit his job. He staged an escape.
He was a young toolmaker in Hövelhof, Germany, trapped in a grey loop of waking up before dawn and grinding through suffocating shifts at a factory. The routine was eating him alive. He looked at the map, then he looked at the factory walls, and he made his choice.
He climbed onto a heavy, three-speed bicycle with a simple goal. He wanted to see the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He eventually arrived in Tokyo in 1971. He was seven years late.
But by then, the Olympics didn't matter. Heinz had discovered an intoxicating secret. The road did not have to end. Every time he crossed a border, he felt the magnetic pull of the next one. He realized he did not want to go back to the factory. In fact, he did not want to stop at all.
So he just kept pedaling.
What followed was not a vacation. It became the longest commute in human history. For fifty years, Heinz lived entirely on two wheels.
His journey reads like an adventure novel. He cycled through scorching deserts and navigated freezing mountain passes. He pedaled through war zones and slept in peaceful villages. His bicycle was a heavy steel beast that became his closest companion. Thieves stole it six times, yet he somehow recovered it every single time. The frame snapped under the strain of the journey, forcing him to have it welded back together sixteen times.
His body took a beating too. A truck ran him over in the Chilean desert. Soldiers in Egypt beat him unconscious. In Zambia, rebels shot him in the foot.
Most people would have gone home. Heinz just bandaged his foot and got back on the bike.
He didn't have a trust fund or corporate sponsors. To survive, he sold handmade booklets and some of the 100,000 photographs he took along the way. He relied on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter.
"I trust everybody," he famously said. "Because if you didn't, you just wouldn't go around the world."
While the newspapers back home told stories of a dangerous and divided planet, Heinz saw something else entirely. In village after village, spanning 196 countries, he found a world united by hospitality.
He finally pedaled back into Hövelhof in 2014. He had left as a restless 22-year-old in the era of the Beatles and the Cold War. He returned as a legend in the age of the smartphone.
He had covered 648,000 kilometers.
Today, at 85, Heinz lives in a quiet apartment near a museum that houses his battered bicycle. When people ask if he regrets trading a normal life for a nomadic one, he does not hesitate.
He has no regrets.
Heinz Stücke proved that the biggest barriers we face are not mountain ranges or oceans. They are the excuses we invent to stay comfortable. He showed us that the world is open, waiting for anyone brave enough to take the first pedal stroke.
1 month ago | [YT] | 108
View 4 replies
AverageManOnaBike
Start as you mean to go on. Happy new year everybody. Ride, drive, train, fly, walk safe x
1 month ago | [YT] | 126
View 8 replies
AverageManOnaBike
Went to check my rear cam for a close pass last night, and it turns out I'd been riding with my local bike mechanic for a coule of km and didn't even realise. Happy Christmas Matt and all the team from GA Cycles, best mechanics in town!!! 😃🎄🔥
1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 78
View 3 replies
AverageManOnaBike
Not sure blinding the rider is a good feature for a bike light.
3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 37
View 45 replies
AverageManOnaBike
Overtake and close pass while I've got my arm out to indicate right. What a pigeon.
3 months ago | [YT] | 70
View 35 replies
AverageManOnaBike
LOL
3 months ago | [YT] | 329
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