With bike trailer and kayak through the Alps

With Bike2Boat, Redbull athlete Adrian Mattern and Brendon Orten have teamed up with kayak legend Olaf Obsommer and videographer Jens Klatt to travel by kayak and mountain bike from Innsbruck across the Alps without carbon emissions. Their faithful companion: the reacha bicycle trailer. Starting in Innsbruck, they cycled 800 kilometres for 21 days and paddled 9 different rivers and always with them: the reacha SPORT.

Bike2Boat in numbers

21 days on the road
1 lay day
800 bike kilometersr
8,000 meters of altitude
4 cycling hour on average per day
9 rivers paddled
9,000 kcal consumed per day
20 Euro Budget per day
up to 48kg equipment per athlete
4 reacha Sport to transport kayaks and equipment

„As a kayaker, I am completely dependent on nature. I need the untouched nature so that the rivers can flow freely. For this reason environmental protection and nature conservation are extremely important to me.“

-Adrian Mattern, Redbull Athlete

Under this premise, the two athletes, with the support of RedBull, set out on a round trip through the Alps, starting in Innsbruck. Starting from their own front door, they went from spot to spot through the Austrian mountain landscape with only willpower, muscle power and the necessary equipment. The two were accompanied by photographer Jens Klatt and videographer Olaf Obsommer. Klatt and Obsommer had already made Bike2Boat trips through Norway and the Alps in 2012 and 2013, and were now able to bring Adrian and Bren into the Bike2Boat 2020 team.

One of the biggest hurdles on such a trip, apart from the psychological component, is the common question of how to transport all the equipment in the first place. One of the requirements that Adrian Mattern set for this adventure was to be 100% climate-neutral on the road and to have only the bare essentials with him. This is where we were able to support the athletes with the reacha SPORT!

For Bike2Boat, what was needed was a bicycle trailer that could also handle uneven terrain, was quick to assemble and still managed to pull a kayak plus other equipment. This shows the great strength of the reachas: The trailers can not only be used for relaxed trips to the beach, but can also pull a lot of luggage on the bike.

„We used bicycle trailers from a company from Bavaria called reacha. Even though we heavily overloading them, they stood firm.“

-Olaf Obsommer, Kayaker und filmmaker

From Innsbruck to Lofer, Lienz and Meran

In order to have a certain degree of planning certainty, it was necessary to consider which rivers had enough water for such a trip in the summer, and the choice quickly fell on the glacier rivers in the Tyrol region. Bike2Boat began with a journey from Innsbruck to Lofer, which demanded everything from the athletes. From there they went over the Teufelsschlucht (Devil's Gorge). Then to East Tyrol through the Isel, on to the Defereggenbach through waterfalls and tunnel sections. They continued over the Stallersattel to South Tyrol. From there, the athletes fought their way over the Timmelsjoch and finally back into the Ötztal valley until the adventure ended back in Innsbruck.

You can see in the video by Olaf Obsommer, who followed the tour with his camera, that this trip was not only exhausting, but also demanded everything from Adrian Mattern and Brendon Orten, both physically and mentally. What you can also see in the video: Despite crashes, high-speed sections, rides through a river bed or up an alpine pass, the reacha SPORT takes it all in its stride and doesn't let itself be beaten in a hurry!

The Bike2Boat Story won the award for best kayak video at the 2021 Waterwalker Film Festival and was also nominated for ten other film awards.

You can now watch the complete half-hour documentary by Olaf Obsommer for free on YouTube.

Because the trip was to take place without the help of cars, the bicycle trailer naturally had to be transported disassembled through more than one raging river. Fortunately, the reacha is designed in such a way that it can be disassembled and reassembled in just a few minutes without any tools.

Like all reacha models, the reacha SPORT can be assembled and disassembled quickly and easily. Floko, one of the founders, demonstrates this in a five-minute video, on how to assemble a reacha bicycle trailer in just a few minutes and also points out the special features of other models.

Climate Neutral Adventure!

One important message Adrian Mattern wanted to send with Bike2Boat was to put an exclamation mark on more climate awareness in kayaking. He usually travels to the best kayaking spots in the world several times a year. This puts a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere, but a healthy nature is a prerequisite to continue his sport for many years to come. That's why he decided to start the trip in his home country and perhaps inspire one or two others to take a trip at home and seek adventure in front of their own doorstep.

At reacha, too, the issue of environmental protection is a special concern for us and we are proud to have been part of this adventure. We also try to produce our trailers with the smallest possible carbon footprint and avoid unnecessary waste in the supply chain. Therefore, almost every reacha modell is available in a DIY option, which allows the upcycling of old bicycle tyres. If you are interested in the topic of sustainability at reacha, you can also find out more here.