Pakistan is barely on the map of great cycling destinations, and is often portrayed in the media as a dangerous place – but one man has ambitions to change all that. Moin Khan wants to showcase the best his country has to offer as part of a 100-day bike ride from one end of Pakistan to the other, and he's doing it all on a locally-made bike.
Khan is no stranger to adventure. In 2011, aged 24, he rode a motorcycle from San Francisco to Pakistan over six months, including a one-month hospital stay as a result of a bad crash.
"This journey was basically to let the world meet a Pakistani," Khan tells BikeRadar. "As i went to university in San Francisco, I felt people had many misconceptions about us. I never had to face any racism myself, but I did feel people around me would get uncomfortable when I told them I was from Pakistan and that I was a Muslim. We are peace-loving, adventurous people just like everyone else in the world."
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The journey gave Khan a taste for adventure, so in 2014 he teamed up with nine other riders from around the world to explore the northern reaches of Pakistan on motorbike. The adventure was chronicled in a documentary, Rediscovering Pakistan – The Untold Tale.
Khan himself is from Lahore; after attending university in the US he returned to Pakistan. He is determined to share the positives of his homeland and challenge some of the negative portrayals of it that surface via Western media channels by showcasing its beauty, diversity and friendliness.
"Its an unbelievable country, the hospitality here is unmatched and the views are spectacular." Khan told BikeRadar. "The motorcycle community has been coming here in large numbers, and I feel the bicycle community should be given a chance to come explore this country too."
An epic end-to-end ride
Made in Pakistan
Charting the adventure
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