Saddle party: it is cycled again
Andreas losch
You can rely on it – as soon as winter closes in and the first sunny, warm days make a gray, cold franconia temporarily a thing of the past, they turn out: the cyclists. The habberge district, with its beautiful landscape, is a particularly popular destination for extensive tours.
So it was not difficult at all to find cyclists for this article. For this, the reporter only had to stand in front of the editorial office, because someone always cycles through zeil. But that would be too easy, so the frankischer tag took up position on the cycle path between sand am main and limbach and lo and behold: not a minute's wait and hermann and silvia kraub come cycling up.
The couple from trunstadt kindly let themselves be put out of step and answered the frankischer tag's questions. More often on the road by bike? "Yes, we ride as often as we can, preferably daily", says hermann kraub. 20 to 30 kilometers are then usually the goal. They like the cycle paths along the mains best: gentle, flat stretches, great nature – you can get there easily and still enjoy the landscape and the fresh air. The bike paths there are, according to hermann kraub, "quite good expanded.
He and his wife found their way around easily, the signposts were reliable and provided the right orientation. They put up with the fact that they have to use the normal county and state roads from time to time: that's not a problem for the couple, but it would certainly be desirable, especially for families with small children, for the bike paths to be expanded further.
725 kilometer route network
The network of cycle paths will hardly reach top level overnight, especially since the various communities in the district are always debating who will finance the costly construction of cycle paths and to what extent. The district of habberge has even set up a small demand program for a long time to promote the idea of a cyclist-friendly district. For some years now, bicycle tourism has also been advertised more intensively: on the website of the habberge-tourismus association it says: "a whole 725 kilometers of well-developed bicycle and theme routes lure visitors to the habberge to wine and wide landscapes, castles and beers, castles and lakes (…) hardly any other cycling region offers such a wealth and variety of palaces, castles steeped in history and historic half-timbered towns amidst an idyllic natural backdrop of gentle undulating hills."
The bike handlers are also following suit? Michael einbecker, owner of the bicycle shop "fahrrad schnaus in habfurt's city center, explains that the habberge district has always been a popular destination for cyclists. That tourism should be further challenged, however, he considers the right approach. From the dealer's point of view, the success story of the pedelec has been a real blessing. Around the year 2011, it started: numerous people changed from "normal" bikes to pedelecs bicycles on electric motor supported two-wheelers. In the meantime, the new models have reached a very high technical level, and the bikes are selling well. "The market is still growing," says, says einbecker.
E-bike boom
Michael barthel, marketing manager of the bike store, can do the same thing in habfurt's east business park: "out of ten bikes we sell, about seven are e-bikes, he explains. "And there are no age restrictions: young people as well as older people are on board."
At that time he was advising wolfgang kropp, who was thinking about buying a second e-bike. He came from weibenbrunn (city of ebern) – with his e-mountain bike. Now he wants to buy a trekking bike. Kropp also wants to ride his bike to work more often – the electric motor-assisted drive is an advantage: you don't arrive at work so sweaty – the distance he has to cover through the habberge "is relatively easy", says wolfgang kropp.
