Real Rider Stories: Juli's Journey

Life is a series of moments. Those moments change with each passing second, and the choices we make in every moment not only shapes who we are now, but who we want to be in the future. Juli Hirata is a rider that lives for each moment. Her time on the bike is spent connecting with her surroundings, exploring the vast landscapes of the natural world and making meanigful connections with amazing people from all different backgrounds and walks of life along the way. She is a solo adventure rider, and uses the bike as a way to not only see the world, but also to encourage and inspire other Latin American solo female bike travelers to do the same.

“Since 2000 when I was in college in Brazil, cycling has been part of my routine as a commuter and an activist in mobility and feminism. I started bike touring in 2002 and since then I have traveled by bike in Brazil, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Turkey.”

In 2015, Juli decided to embark on an epic adventure unlike any other. “After a long period of struggling with depression, I got to the point where I had to do something to get closer to myself. So I got divorced, quit all my jobs, sold out all my things and just kept my bike gear and equipment. In April 2016, I took my bike up north to Prudhoe Bay Alaska and with the Arctic Ocean at my back, I started to bike southward.”

This type of trip is nothing short of monumental and would test her both mentally and physically. Her goals on the bike were more than just racking up the miles, “My goal when I started this trip was to be in contact with nature with low environmental impact, but with time it grew as an expression of my love for people and freedom. The more time I get on the bike the more I can experience and collect stories along the way.”

No trip like this is without its trials and tribulations. After suffering a bad crash in Panama that left her with a significant shoulder injury, Juli had to head back to Brazil so she could properly recover before starting her leg of the trip through the Andes mountains in Colombia. “I always had a love-hate (I confess that sometimes it was more hate than love) relationship with hills. When I had my first Retul fit session I was about to start to “climb” the Andes in Colombia and was coming out of a long recovering period of a serious shoulder injury, the comfort and the improvement of my performance in hills was immediate and it just grew with time.”

Julie connected with Retül Certified Fitter Bruno Rosa of Drop SP in São Paulo Brazil to help ensure she could still ride those long hours even after suffering from her shoulder injury. Rosa is a former Retül Fit instructor for Specialized Brazil, who decided to pursue his passion for bike fit full time to help long-distance enthusiast riders like Juli . “Fitting someone to spend so many hours a day in the saddle is always a huge challenge. Normally long travelers have preferences and habits that are difficult to change and you have to discover and consider all this during the interview.”

Rosa first fit Juli on an old 26” Specialized Myka with a butterfly handlebar. After realizing she needed a bit of an upgrade to continue her trek across South America, Juli left the old Myka behind in Ecuador and came to Brazil during the beginning of Covid-19 to get another fit with Rosa. 

Juli’s second bike fit was on a 2018 Specialized AWOL that DROP SP decided to customize and build to support her as an ambassador. “We mounted the AWOL with a flat and wide MTB handlebar because the dirt roads in the Andes are very tough, with rocky long downhills. The old bike has a butterfly handlebar, which has a lot of hand positions but is also super narrow and not safe in dirt downhills.”

Rosa continues, “Juli told us that she was struggling in the Andes dirt roads, so we decided to change to a flat bar for added control and confidence. With all the heavy luggage, the bike also needs to be stable. We also used some bar ends in the middle of the handlebar to emulate road bike hoods and added a different hand position,” (talk about personalization!)

Juli has learned a lot about herself during her bike touring journey, but her bike fit also taught her some things that she might not have learned without taking the time to invest in herself.

“My Retul session was a journey to understand and empower my own body. Bruno Rosa made me realize that I could get much more from my equipment just by understanding better how my body position could influence my performance in the short and long term. Rosa pointed to areas of weakness that I didn’t know and needed to improve. I don’t think I could get to know some of the things I learned with him by myself,” she explains.

“It may sound quite obvious, but to have a session in a non-judgmental and inclusive environment was crucial for me as a woman with a non-conventional body type on the cycling scene to share important information about my body. It was quite surprising to me that the human factor was as important as all the technology involved in the session.”

Since her Retül Fit experience with Rosa, Juli has been educating women everywhere who struggle with issues on the bike about the importance of a proper bike fit. “I’ve been recommending the Retül fit not just as an investment for comfort and performance but as an investment in the equipment. I get a lot of messages of people (especially from women) complaining about pain and the ridiculous amount of money they spend in new bike parts to make it more comfortable and to make the experience of the bike ride more enjoyable. A good part of these complaints could be eased or fixed with a good bike fit session. The Retül fit made me realize that small changes can feel large and change drastically that 7th, 8th hour on the bike by the end of the day.”

And at the end of the day, the amazing time you had on the bike should be the only thing you are thinking about. “As a bike traveler I consider the bike fit as important as any other equipment and gear of my bike. After the bike fit I noticed that I was more comfortable to stay on my bike for more hours per day which in a long solo bike trip can be translated into more autonomy and a better experience.”

From a fitter perspective, Rosa was able to use the Retül data to help make those decisions based on Juli’s personal needs as a rider. “The Retül data is very useful, even in cases like this where the rider uses flat pedals. We use the data here in the same way that we normally use on a rider with standard cycling shoes; to find the sweet spot for the saddle height according to her pre-fit assessment, and we spent a bunch of time analyzing data from the upper body to adjust the stem length and angle to make sure that her back, arms and hands were in a more neutral position to avoid numbness and pain.”

“During the bike fit, she wanted to absorb every detail to guarantee that everything is in the perfect position. And to learn what that position is, and how she can replicate it in case she will need to change some components or disassemble the bike for transportation.” Stated Rosa.

“I had other bike fit sessions before my Retül fit with Bruno Rosa in São Paulo and it was just with him that I valued the bike fit as being important as any other part of my bike. Every single information I gave to Bruno, he used in a problem solving way.”

No bike touring adventure is without its setbacks, whether its bad weather, injuries or in Juli’s case having everything literally taken from you in one moment.

During her solo tour through Peru, Juli experienced some of the realities bike packers face when traveling abroad by themselves and had everything taken from her in an instant. At the end of February, the bike that Bruno and Drop SP built to support her was stolen along with almost all her equipment. The police in Peru didn't find her bike and on top of that, Juli’s Peruvian visa expired so she decided to fly to a friend's house in Miami, FL to regroup and figure out how she could continue on with her goal.  “To have my “home” stolen was quite a shock, not just for the things but also the whole situation. Gladly I am having surprisingly good support from people and businesses like Drop SP to help me recover from the situation.” 

Juli took some time off in April while she figured out her next move. Thankfully she was able to build back some gear and equipment from generous donations received from supporters and friends that she had made along the way. 

A month or so went by, and we had not heard from Juli in a while, so we decided to reach out and see where things had settled in this time of her life. As things change from moment to moment, we must accept the reality of our situation and adapt. And that is exactly what Juli has decided to do.

“I realized after what happened in Peru that my own persistence to get to Argentina was weighing too much and I was getting too attached to the path and the desire to reach the “destination”. Like Buddha said, “our suffering arises from our attachment to desires,” so I decided to eliminate the root of my attachment and instead fly to Portugal and ride from there to Japan.”

“Portugal is the European origin of my Mother (even though most of her blood is a crazy mixture of Brazilian First Nation people, East Africa and Portugal) and Japan is my Father’s family origin, most specifically Kumamoto Island. The idea is to be in Japan for my father’s 70th birthday in February of 2023 to meet him there. To have the Brazilian side of the family in Kumamoto was the dream of my grandfather and he never got the chance to see it happen.”

“So that’s my new route, and my destination this time is my ancestry.”

This new adventure is not without its own challenges considering the current political landscape in the regions she must cross, but that is not something Juli is taking lightly. 

Juli’s route for the first 2.5 months of her trip

“I have a whole world of amazing friends that I really want to visit, so I’m working on a route to visit most of them in the shortest route possible. l have to cross the border of the Schengen area in 3 months. I’m coming up with a bunch of options because one thing I learned about planning a long term trip like mine is that time, space and myself are in constant change. In 2012, I rode my Brompton [commuter bike] in Turkey and it was amazing, so I’m planning on doing it again, which will be a nice way to avoid the conflict in the northern part of the Black Sea.” Juli explains.

We could not have been more thrilled to hear about Juli’s next solo trip and what it will mean to her family when she reaches her destination. However, the biggest, and probably most important piece of all this is still missing. The bike.

After hearing Juli’s story and everything she has gone through, we decided to connect with the Specialized team in Spain to collaborate with us and help support Juli on the next chapter of her bike touring journey. We are so grateful to the team in Spain for the effort they are putting forth to help make Juli’s dream of connecting with her ancestral roots a reality. “The bike nowadays is more than my transportation, it is the main tool that allows me to experience nature and people in the most vulnerable and human way.”

Juli is currently making the necessary preparations for her ancestral journey and will begin her solo adventure in the coming weeks.

You can follow Juli’s journey on Instagram at @juli_hirata and stay tuned as Juli prepares to embark on a voyage of self-discovery unlike any other.

Check out some photos below of Juli’s previous solo adventure