![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/HeinzStueckeParis.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe first step<\/p>\n
It was in November of 1962, that the 22-year-old tool and die maker left home with about $300 in his pocket and a three-speed bicycle. He planned to see the world. And that curiosity never stopped.\u00a0Rather than settling into a conventional life, St\u00fccke spent the next 51 years riding the world. He eventually travelled more than 600,000 kilometres through 211 countries and dozens of territories.<\/p>\n
Guinness World Records recognized him as the person who had travelled farther by bicycle than anyone else.<\/p>\n
An inspiration long before social media<\/p>\n
Long before bikepacking became a word, St\u00fccke inspired thousands to pack their bikes and start pedalling.<\/p>\n
The tribute posted following his death described him as \u201ca beacon of the analogue age.\u201d He never owned a smartphone and never learned to reply to emails. He financed his travels by selling postcards, photographs and small travel booklets featuring stories and images from the road.<\/p>\n
A journey filled with hardship<\/p>\n
Over 50 years you\u2019re bound to gather some stories along the way. And he was full of them. He was hit by a truck in Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert, beaten unconscious by soldiers in Egypt and shot in the toe during political unrest in Zambia. And of course, he wasn\u2019t immune to bike theft; his bike was stolen at least six times. But none of it discouraged him.<\/p>\n
St\u00fccke used the same steel-framed three-speed bicycle, often loaded with gear for about 500,000 km of his journey.<\/p>\n