Death road - Bolivia

Hi,

my little bro is out in south america doing some travelling and whatnot. He came across the opportunity to do this bike ride on bolivia's famous death road which looks pretty awesome. But am looking for some advice from anyone who mightve been there before.

My brother is not a cyclist, I mean he rode bikes as a kid and occasionnaly (like once a year) jumps on one for fun. So knows about basic handling. But he has never ridden as transport and is NOT AT ALL athletic.

I think it will be very exhausting for him even if its technically non-demanding, but this should be OK if he gets some friends to ride slow with him. But am worried more about a combination of skill challenge with exhaustion, which could get dangerous.

http://www.vertigobiking.com/

Underwear.... I.e. padded shorts or whatever. From day 1...

Moisturiser (vaseline if that's lacking)...

Carbs. Lots and lots of carbs - but that'll be entirely obvious... Underwear choice less so...

standard stuff: eat and drink little and often.

My friend broke his ankle doing it: he's a very experienced cyclist.
One of my Cycle Training trainees had done it without incident though on London roads she could barely keep upright.

it's really easy, anyone who can ride a bike (i'm talking basic skills) can do it. the road itself isn't really very steep. It's pretty much downhill all the way, so exhaustion won't be a problem unless you have major health problems.
Go with one of the more expensive companies (i went with gravity) who are more organised and have full sus/disc brake bikes. Saw some pretty crappy things around and having decent brakes is handy when there's a 300m cliff off one side and no rail.

^ this. There is one incline, 100m or so... as in 100m long, not up.

I got an amazing deal, but the bikes only had front sus. imo you don't need discs, but the full sus ones will have them. Towards the very end, it opens up and the road gets wider, but quite bumpy. Unfortunately my hands were so tired that I couldn't cane it, which was a shame.

The other group with us were with Gravity. They seemed good.

Oh one other thing, is the brakes will prolly be the wrong way round. If it's going to be an issue get them to switch them over at the beginning.

You should also tell him to check out the Argentinian steak house, sushi restaurant and also there's a hideous Israeli hostel that has a restaurant attached with good traditional Israeli food called El Lobo - sounds like an odd thing to do but if you like food it's worth a look.

Oh and depending how fit he is and what he likes doing, there's a trek up to hyuna potosi with full ice gear. It's hard and there's a 60-70% chance he'll get altitude sickness. But it's an incredible experience/opportunity. Equally if he just wants to get mashup La Paz is a good place to do it.

The Death Road is fun, and as easy as you want to make it. La Paz is an awesome city, Bolivia generally is fucking boss. He'll have a blast. Trust.