Rafał is an extraordinary person. Among others he is a Polish ex-soldier, a multiply champion and Poland’s representative in weight lifting, a scuba-diver, a parachutist, and naturally a bike traveller.
Rafał used to serve in the Polish Navy. However, he was forced to quit his career in the army due to his severe tumorigenic illness, which led to the amputation of his left leg.
Nontheless, he has never given up on the active, healthy and adventerous way of life. He decided to prove that even a heavily disabled person can still move the mountains, or just bike the world as he does every day. Owing to his tremendous athletic ambitions he manifests that a life after the amputation is not the end of the world, that there is more than a lot to be achieved.
Despite being one-legged man, he went for the weight lifting where he has won the Polish champion for several times, and as if it was not enough, he got the European champion as well. The weights were not the only thing which was absorbing Rafał. Cycling was simultaneously becoming more and more seductive. On his fat bike he took a part in many different races and pulled off some crazy expeditions like the one when he conquered Śnieżka peak in the winter season.
In April 2017 Rafał switched from his fat bike to much lighter and faster bike - PELETON 8 Speed produced by LOCABIKES.
So far PELETON has ridden with Rafał a few thousands kilometers including Tatra expedition, where he reached the highest peak available for cyclists. They both have visited the Lower Silesia’s castles rout, since Rafał loves old remainings of castles.
In August 2017 Rafał accomplished a 2200km, 5,5 weeks long tour across Scotland which took him over 5 weeks.
In spite of the significant load, which some times is up to 440 lb (water + bike + luggage) PELETON handled the situation and didn't break even once. Rafał didn't even need to change a tube and was very surprised that a light, potentially more fragile city bike turned out to be more reliable and durable than his previous fat and mountain bikes from big brands.
What Rafał appreciates about the bike next to its reliability is its weight, speed and the Shimano Nexus 8 derailleur. Due to these features he is able to ride further with less effort. He likes the fact that the bike is equipped with Schwalbe Spicer tires which provide effortless leading on asphalt or even more demanding surfaces. The derailleur Nexus 8 ensures few things: the wide overall range of gears, reliability and possibility to change the rear chain ring form smaller (18t) to bigger (even 22t) accordingly to your needs. The latter feature was used by Rafał during his Tatra expedition. He changed his rear chain ring from 18t to 22t, however, even this could not have gotten him to the top. He must have changed the crankset to the one with 28t. With such a drive no hill or a mountain is a threat to his legs anymore!
You can read more about Rafał's adventures on his blog.
Below you can take a sneak peek on some pictures from his expeditions. We will submit more photos as he continues his adventures - stay tuned!
