Video: Two cyclists ride from Berlin to Prague - without a map

Two cyclists from Berlin-based fixie brand 8bar Bikes set themselves a rather unusual challenge – riding their bikes from the German capital to its Czech counterpart Prague, without using a map, with their journey filmed for a short video.

Armed with just a compass to keep them heading hopefully in the right direction, Stefan and Max hoped their ride would hark back to a simpler form of cycling before the days of reliance on maps, let alone GPS navigation and other technological aids.

Aiming to stay off main roads and on small tracks as much as possible, the video captures what turned out to be an evocative journey with a real sense of timelessness about it.

8bar Adventures - Berlin to Prague without a map from 8bar BIKES on Vimeo.

In a straight line, the distance between the two cities is 280km, and the cyclists were allowed to check their position twice a day to ensure they were going in the right general direction.

As a graphic towards the end of the video shows, the two cyclists rarely deviated too far off that line – but their route did meander, and they did get lost on occasion, meaning that by the time they arrived in Prague, they had ridden 457km.

“Don’t plan too much, and you will have a memorable adventure,” they conclude. “Go for a ride, take a new path, and just go as far as you want.”