Watch This Guy Ride a “Barbie” Bicycle Across the Country

YouTube extraordinaire Max Fosh He decided to ride across the country on a children’s bike because he knew no one had done it before. A friend assured him that he would not make it. One ‘Barbie’ bike—a child-sized pink monstrosity with what appeared to be 20-inch wheels, one speed, and training wheels—later and he was off. It had a basket and a seat for his stuff.

Although the idea of ‘cycling across the country’ sounds great, Luxembourg is only 1,000 miles in size (roughly twice the area of Los Angeles). It could take 50 km to cross the country from one border to another. Still, it’s not an entirely unimpressive feat—especially since he was riding on the coldest day of the year in 14-degree F weather. And he took the training wheels off.

His first issue? He realized that he would need to climb hills. The downhills were not so bad.

But the cameramen missed the point. As a cycling journalist, I noticed that he had abandoned his training wheels early in the ride to improve his pace.

Fosh realized how uncomfortable it was to ride on a less than ideal bike in the dark as the sun set. “The brakes won’t work. “I don’t think it works,” he declares, close to tears. Despite his comedic leanings, it’s pretty clear that he actually is genuinely pretty miserable—sure, it’s a bit of fun satire, but as anyone who’s sat on a kiddie bike saddle for a few minutes can attest, that’s not an easy ride. At 34 km, he hits the wall. He decides to stop and go home.

He made his final push early in the morning. After a short nap, he was able to get back on the bike and pedal as morning commuters cheered. He reached the German border just as the sun was rising, and celebrated his victory by holding his bike high over his head.

Fosh’s feat is not quite as impressive, as other feats, Lochlan Morton’s ridesEven though the bikes are pink and bedazzled, it’s still a lot of fun to see Fosh taking them to the masses. We just hope that he will try it again, but this time on a more comfortable bike.

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