I’ve been wanting to give a boost to the collaborations we do thanks to the MV patches for some time now. In my opinion, the real heroes of these territories are all those who still live in the villages, who maintain a small business, who offer us a service or feed us with their products. I have always wanted to find the right way to do our bit as a community.
Therefore, from now on, the donations collected will go to create points along the route where you can find spare parts for your bike, such as tubes, tires, patches, lubricants, cables, chain links, tire levers, gas canister, etc.
As a novelty, for each donation I will send, apart from the usual patch, a few stickers of a couple of types, a print of the map I drew during the confinement, in A3 folding size, waterproof, with some route info on its back, and… an access to download a high resolution digital version of it, so you can print it at your local print shop and hang it at home.
The idea is that the proceeds from the donations we will buy material and send it to points along the route that have supported us from the beginning, such as grocery stores, bars, or hostels. These points will be able to sell this material (or give it in exchange for a donation), which closes the circle in a very interesting way. We ourselves create a resource in the villages from which they can benefit, and from which we ourselves can also take advantage.
We’ll go step by step, we must be aware of our limited power. For now it will be enough to have some points distributed along the route and to be able to replace the material that has been sold. This way we’ll see and learn how it works, the possible needs, improvements, or feedback from the parties involved.
On the other hand, more and more villages are interested in hosting an MV-Point, but the resources to maintain them all are limited. For this reason, I’ve created the concept of «Self-managed» MV-Point, so that the local businesses themselves will be responsible for maintaining a basic stock of the different supplies and tools, reinforcing the idea that bikepacking can be a useful resource for the area.
These are the MV-Points already available:
Teruel: SURYA BIKEPACKING. Bikeshop, rental and bikepacking gear. (@SURYABIKEPACKING). 653927363
GRIEGOS: ALBERGUE DE GRIEGOS (@alberguedegriegos). 676 28 80 72
PERALEJOS DE LAS TRUCHAS: Tienda Peralejos. 609039847
PERALEJOS DE LAS TRUCHAS: Camping La Serradora (@laserradoracamping). 699986494
VALSALOBRE: Bar Valsalobre (@barvalsalobre). 633270954
ZAFRILLA: Bar-Casa Rural Papi (@barcasaruralpapi). 657052007
ALOBRAS: El Mirador de las Tejadas. 636296795
MORA DE RUBIELOS: Bar El Escalón (@elescalonmora). 629449077.
Regarding «Self-managed» MV-Points:
TERUEL: Surya bikepacking (@suryabikepacking). 653927363
Teruel: Ciclos Mudejar (@ciclos_mudejar). 978610445
Albarracín: Casa Cauma (@casacaumaalbarracin). 625 97 95 51
Tramacastilla: La Posada de Santa Ana (@laposadadesantaana). 652807769
Molina de Aragón. Club de montaña El Huso (@dietistarural). 686114348
CHECA: Bar el Puente. 629694780
BETETA: Alojamientos Rurales La Hoz (@alojamientos_la_hoz). 641126936
VALDECABRAS: Hostal Ciudad Encantada (booking). 659409860
TORDELLEGO: Sabor de Pueblo (@sabordelpueblotordellego). 611179583
The procedure for obtaining patches and other items will remain the same:
- Make a donation to MV’s Paypal account: montanasvacias@gmail.com (once logged in Paypal.com, go to Send & request money, then to Send to friends abroad). Choose the amount of money you want to donate. Let’s say that a coherent amount could be around 10€ for each kit including: patch, stickers, printed map and downloadable map.
- Save a receipt of the donation and send it to montanasvacias@gmail.com and choose the way you want to get the kit:
- The priority method will be by post. Add the shipping cost to the donation, give me your address and I’ll send it to you.
- You can get the kit in Surya Bikepacking as well, the MV Point in Teruel.
- If not possible, we can do some Geocaching and hide it somewhere on the route (easy, I promise, I’ll send you the treasure map so you can find it easily…).
I know, because I know you, that now a thousand proposals or ideas may arise to make all this grow, I know, but let’s try to empathize with the MV philosophy of keeping everything as simple and powerful as possible. For the moment there is no need to create points in all villages, for the moment there is no need to supply more complex, specific or perishable materials, and obviously for the moment there is no need to make Ernesto’s life too complicated. He wants to keep it simple, independent and with no budget to run it all. The message we want to send is becoming much more powerful as a result. It can be very nice to show that all together we can create something that works and that proves that there is another way of doing things.
Montañas Vacías 