Tim Moore (1) (1964–)

The Cyclist Went Out in the Cold:
Adventures Riding The Iron Curtain
Author: Tim Moore
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publishing Date: 2017
Pgs: 340
Dewey: 796.6094 MOO
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Scaling a new peak of rash over-ambition, Tim Moore tackles the 9,000km route of the old Iron Curtain on a tiny-wheeled, two-geared East German shopping bike.

Asking for trouble and getting it, he sets off at the Arctic winter’s brutal height, bullying his plucky MIFA 900 through the endless and massively sub-zero desolation of snowbound Finland.

Haunted throughout the journey by the border detritus of watchtowers and rusted razor wire, Moore reflects on the curdling of the Communist dream, and the memories of a Cold War generation reared on the fear of apocalypse – at a time of ratcheting East-West tension.

After three months, 20 countries and a 58-degree jaunt up the centigrade scale, man and bike finally wobble up to a Black Sea beach in Bulgaria, older and wiser, but mainly older.
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Genre:
Travelogue
History
Bicylce Travel
Iron Curtain
Europe

Why this book:
I love a good travelogue.
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The Feel:

Favorite Character:
The elderly Norwegian guy, 18 hours after he first started out, giving him the “you’re not from around here, are you?” He questioned him about whether he knew what the weather was like there as he rode his East German Shopping Bike a hundred miles north of the Arctic circle, sliding down Norway into Finland and on along.

The MIFA 900 shopping bike.

The German shopping bike enthusiasts giving him advice on how to modify his little East German MIFA into something that could actually make the ride all along the Iron Curtain Trail(EV-13).

EuroVelo 13 - The Iron Curtain Trail

Least Favorite Character:
Tim, himself.

Favorite Scene:
The image of droves of fisherman along that riverside in Croatia, all suntans, in Speedos, with a fishing rod in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Favorite Quote:
Describing his 30-year-old East German shopping bike with it’s nailed snow tires as looking mean like something Mad Max's aunt would ride to bingo during the apcalypse is hilarious.

Riding a bicycle through Finland in the winter being described as a dribbled slurry of gloom and delusion.

Favorite Concept:
Arctic karma: when you live in a difficult region and find yourself in a bad situation, you must attend, 100%, on other people. They didn't want to help him, they needed to and, now, they feel happy and more safe because they can believe that someone will be there to help them when they need it.

Hmm Moments:
Finally looked at a picture of a MIFA 900 shopping bike...this sumbitch is crazy trying to ride that thing 10,000km from Norway all along the iron curtain to the Black Sea.

He dips into moral lassisitude more than a few times over the course of this hellish bike ride.

After 6,000km, having a kidney stone issue pop up along the road, and managing to drink a bunch of water and do what had to be done and stay on the road. That's a tough man, a tough, tough man.

WTF Moments:
Holy s***! The Schonenberg, East Germany landfill where trucks from the West could dump a ton of anything for $20. And the residents still have an 80% higher cancer rate than those around them. Holy s***!

Meh / PFFT Moments:
He uses way too many column inches talking about his and his wife's previous trip along there and curtain. I like this story and this adventure, but it would have been better served if the editor would have talked him and his page count down a bit, and maybe left half of the story of his and his wife's 1990 car ride around Eastern Europe out.

Wisdom:
HIs trip was horribly planned.

Juxtaposition:
I read some Ugly Americanism into the way he reacts to some of the people along his route. ...then realize that he is being an Ugly Englander. ...guess it’s something to do with all of us Englishers...or whatever the common term for all of us is. Though Ugly Canadian sounds like a contradiction in terms. The way he writes about Finland, he sounds like an ugly tourist, classic cliche-like. Frozen, winterized arctic circle bicycle riding might have impacted his appreciation, but his appreciation is still ugly sounding. Though at the end of the ride, his appreciation for those early days, especially pre-Russia, seems greatly improved.

His visit to the MIFA factory seems odd. Them inviting him and wanting it to be about the future, while what he's doing is obviously about the past.

If EV-13 follows the Iron Curtain shouldn't the trail go down the Adriatic Coast to Greece including Croatia to Albania, but instead goes through Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia across toward Romania. I'm confused about what's considered the Iron Curtain, I guess.

The Unexpected:
His visit to Probstzella and the Haus des Volkes seems very The Shining, all alone in a huge resort hotel in a town that is lost in time and cut off both because of its GDR past and it's “not here yet” future.
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Pacing:
It’s well paced.

Last Page Sound:
So, the big finish, he writes a paragraph that describes what's going on in the last 56km and, then, he's sitting on a bench with those 56km still to go waiting on his family to show up, I don't get it. Built in anticlimax. That paragraph from that last day could’ve been a chapter unto itself, as opposed to the short shrift it was given.

Questions I’m Left With:
So, was he afraid of the camp owner in Finland, the one who he was all alone with in a building full of empty beer cans in the middle of the blizzard, 3 hours from the nearest house...the one who really wanted to get him drunk. ...raised eyebrows.

Why didn't he start in Norwegian and Finnish Summertime, going in winter when it hovers around -14°C, the sweat you build up riding the bike or having breakfast...once you go outside in the Arctic could freeze solid and kill you? Of course on the other end, I wonder what those Balkan mountains would have been like in late summer or winter instead of being there in summer when they were baking him alive?

Editorial Assessment:
Should’ve been a bit more present in focusing the story on the “current” trip as opposed to previous trips through the same areas.
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