Next chapter in our Pelago Ambassador Interview- series is Julia Oláh from Gothenburg, Sweden. Julia is simply amazing human-being who inspires us by just being herself and doing what she does. We are proud to introduce Julia to You, dear reader, so sit down, take a cup of coffee and get inspired!

Hi Julia, where are you at the moment and what is up?

I’m sitting in my small apartment in Gothenburg thinking about life and the upcoming summer, winter has been way long now and I’m ready to move on. Recently started to work in a workshop closer to where I live, which mean less commuting, but more mountain biking I guess. Forest is just around the corner.

I figured out that now was a good time in my life to get a dog, so I just signed up to adopt a rescue dog that will come to me in May. I’m looking forward to train this dog to come with me on cycling adventures, mountain bike adventures, trail runs, and all sorts of things!

I’m sure a lot of our followers have seen your photos and name here and there but please go ahead and introduce yourself shortly?

I started out in some art schools and ended up working as a bike mechanic! I guess metal art and repairing bikes goes hand in hand somehow. Some years ago after I cycled my first 20 kms I started thinking about crossing bordes on my bike. That led to my first touring adventure across 9 countries – I cycled from North Cape in Norway to Sahara in Morocco. That took me 7 months.

After that trip I continued to do adventures in the summers, the main one is usually around 4-5 weeks, and aside from that I go micro adventuring, alone or with friends.

With the Covid being kind of bad in Sweden are you still able to do stuff you want to?

I must say, the pandemic is not affecting me at all. I still have to go to work and I can still be out in the nature cycling. As soon as I’m around people I just try to follow the restrictions.

Let’s get to the thing we are here for: cycling. Tell me about your relationship with cycling? How did it start at first?

Cycling is the only thing in my life that I never stopped. Everything else that I did in my life turned in to performance anxiety more or less. But cycling has been so easy. From the beginning it was just a tool that took me from A to B, and the reality is that it’s still the same tool, I just added some bags to my bike and the distance between A and B are longer.

I remember I cycled on my dads old Crescent for a long time, until it broke the first winter I cycled. I was cycling around with a lubricant spray in my bag, every time it behaved weird I turned it up side down, sprayed it and continued. I definitely know better today, the whole drive train must have been so worn. On the new bike I bought I decided I wanted to be able to do some easy maintenance my self. And the interest just kept on growing and lead me to the work shop where I’m working today 😊.

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You have been on some really long bike trips, some of them alone as well. The one you did recently to Swedish Lapland looked amazing, tell me about that trip, how did it go and where did you get the idea from?

If there is one thing I wanna thank Covid-19 for, it’s that trip. If it wasn’t for the pandemic I would never explore my own country, but I would seriously do it again!

My knees are unfortunately getting punished for all the heavy cycling nowadays, so I planned this trip shorter and mostly offroad. That’s because I wanted to have a variety of ways to manage the terrain. And I’m not lying if I said I had some of my worst (hardest) days on that trip. I did some hiking trails over mountains where ever full suspensions bikes are struggling. I had some days where I had to push and carry my bike over hills and through forests, where it was just not possible to ride. But I never regret things, it was beautiful!

Another lovely thing with riding in Sweden is the Allemansrätten (every-mans-right). That means you are aloud to pitch your tent nearly everywhere =).

You’ve been on trips with companions and by yourself. What is the biggest difference between these two types of touring? Which one do you like more?

Oh that’s not an easy questions. I did all of my trips on my own actually. Sometimes I teamed up with strangers along the way for just some days. On my longest journey I had a friend with me for one moth and continued alone for the rest of the 6 months, another trip a friend joined me one out of five weeks. But it’s not always easy to ride with others, to have a good flow you really have to come along very well. But to have someone sharing the memories with is also something amazing.

So in the long run I think I’m having a better flow and better routine by my self. But I can’t ignore that the thought of having a friend/partner sharing all the fun and not so fun parts with is something I dream of. Maybe in the future I will meet that one person that I team up with very well, who knows. Until then I’ll mix it up =).

Any big riding plans or dreams for the near future?

Haha, I’m really bad at planning actually, and that must be the reason why I haven’t started cycling around the world yet, because that takes a bit of planning. Usually when the spring starts, around now, I get inspired again and small ideas pops in to my head that later become a reality. So I guess I’m just in the beginning of planting seeds.

Right now I’m really looking forward to train my new dog to cycle and camp with me. So this summer will be special, I don’t know where yet, but adventure is going to happen.

Tell me about your current setup – what gear are you using at the moment? Why that setup?

I tried some different setups actually. But on my two latest trips I tried to have a more compact setup. A mix of touring and bikepacking I would say. On my latest trip I had a big saddle bag, 20L, where I kept my sleeping gear. I had a big frame bag, there I had a water bladder and rain gear. I had a Restrap front bag that I filled up with electronics, sun block, mosquito spray and snack. I had two ”smaller” panniers in the front, one for food and kitchen and the other one for clothes and tools.

I kind of like the idea of this setup, but it still gets pretty heavy. I’m still practicing to pack as light as I can, but I’m just a very restless person and I always need to bring some ”unnecessary” things. 😂

Any advice to folks over there who are planning a longer bike trip? Pro tips?

I might be the first one giving this tip. If you are a beginner and you want to try bike adventuring, plan a long trip! Give yourself a nice challenge and plan a trip where you even manage to surprise yourself and try to reach that goal. This tip might only work for those who are 100% or 0% people like myself. I heard many others giving the tip to start small, but that did not work for me. I needed something big to aim for as my first trip. I think I managed to travel across 4 countries and I was still not sure what I was doing 😂.

My second tip would be, if you are bad at planning things, start with Europe (if you are already living here), or your own country. Then you don’t have to plan flights, visas and that kind of stuff.

My third tip is that be aware of the weather conditions. 🙂

Thank you Julia!

Follow Julia on Instagram: @julia.onbike.olah

Julia is riding Pelago Stavanger.