KO SHAMO: The Tall Bike That Made It from Munich to Beijing
KO SHAMO: The Tall Bike That Made It from Munich to Beijing
Every brand needs one bike that makes absolutely no commercial sense and all the sense in the world. For HUHN, that bike is the Ko Shamo. It is a tall bike. You sit roughly two meters above the road, people wave at you, kids lose their minds, and every fuel station stop turns into a conversation. It is the most unserious serious bike I have ever built. And it carried the most serious mission of anything that ever left my workshop: 12,000 kilometers from Munich to Beijing, for the German Cancer Aid.
Spoiler, because this one deserves it: they made it. On August 19th, 2025, after 111 days on the road, Tommy and Jakob rolled onto Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. The donation goal was already broken two weeks earlier, somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
Meet Tommy
Tommaso Weller, better known as Tallbike Tommy, is a tinkerer through and through. When he first told me he wanted to ride a tall bike from Munich to Beijing, my first thought was: of course you do. My second thought was: we need to build you a proper one.
The reason behind the ride makes it bigger than any bike. Tommy's uncle Christian died of leukemia at just 13 years old. He was a passionate builder and tinkerer, just like Tommy is today. Tommy never got to meet him, but that story shaped how he wants to live: fully, now, with big dreams that are allowed to look wild and unrealistic from the outside. So he turned his ride into Tallbike Against Cancer: one euro for every kilometer, 13,000 euros for Deutsche Krebshilfe, the German Cancer Aid.
Tommy and Jakob visiting Deutsche Krebshilfe in Bonn. Photo: Deutsche Krebshilfe/privat
The bike
Tommy designed his dream machine and we built it together in the workshop, from the ground up, as a real touring bike that happens to be two stories high. The name comes from the Ko Shamo, a small Japanese fighting chicken with a long neck and an upright, slightly absurd posture. If you have ever seen one next to a tall bike, you understand.
Underneath the silliness sits honest engineering, because 12,000 kilometers through Kazakhstan is not the place for a joke that breaks:
- Steel frame, designed and built at HUHN. Repairable anywhere in the world, which matters when the nearest bike shop is 2,000 kilometers away.
- Pinion P1.18 gearbox: 18 gears, sealed, nearly maintenance-free. The perfect drivetrain for a trip where derailleurs would be a liability.
- Gates belt drive: no chain, no oil, no stretch.
- Custom Intend suspension fork with 80 mm of travel to soothe the long-necked chicken.
- 29" mountain bike wheels and tires for everything from Bavarian tarmac to Mongolian washboard.
- Reisefix frame bags, made in Halle, Germany, sewn in the colors of Deutsche Krebshilfe.
And here is the thing nobody believes until they try: once you are rolling, a tall bike rides like a normal bike. It is even more stable. Getting on and off gracefully, that is a different chapter, and Tommy had 111 days to practice.
Bespoked Dresden 2024
We showed the Ko Shamo at Bespoked Dresden 2024, and it did exactly what a tall bike does: it made people grin. BIKEPACKING.com wrote that it was "the one bike at the show that tempted me to drop everything and ride it off to the horizon." I will take that over any award. Half a year later, someone actually did ride it off to the horizon.
Show photos: BIKEPACKING.com, Bespoked Dresden 2024 coverage.
The ride: 111 days, 12 countries
On May 1st, 2025, Tommy and his friend Jakob Wall rolled off Odeonsplatz in Munich, with friends and family watching. Tommy on the Ko Shamo, Jakob on a regular mountain bike, which officially makes Jakob the sensible one. Less than 20 kilometers later: the first flat tire. Great confidence booster with 12,000 kilometers still to go. Luckily only one more would follow on the entire trip, in the Caucasus in Georgia.
Across the Balkans to Istanbul
The first two weeks took them over the Balkans to Istanbul. It was the hard adjustment phase: bodies getting used to the daily load, rain and hail thrown in for character building.
Turkey: tea by the liter
In Istanbul they crossed onto the Asian continent. Turkey treated them well: outstanding food, invitations to tea by the liter, and one night sleeping in a historic mosque, which Tommy counts among the highlights of the whole trip. In Tbilisi, Georgia, they took their first rest day to prepare for what was coming.
Russia: no money, strong headwind
Then Russia, and a problem nobody plans for: no way to get money. Credit cards did not work, withdrawing cash was impossible. All they had was what they exchanged in Tbilisi. For several days it was a choice between food and shelter. One night behind a fuel station, another in a mosque. Add relentless headwind, and progress came at a crawl.
Kazakhstan: 3,000 kilometers of treadmill
Kazakhstan welcomed them with an invitation on the very first night, a warm crash course in the culture. Then came the mentally hardest stage of the whole trip: the endless, flat Kazakh steppe. Over 3,000 kilometers through one country. For weeks the landscape simply did not change. Tommy describes it as riding on a treadmill. On top of that, a heatwave with up to 40 degrees and no shade anywhere. They answered with several days of more than 200 kilometers, took a few days off in Astana, and pushed on.
The Altai: 61,000 meters of climbing pay off
Back into Russia, this time with enough cash, lesson learned. Waiting for them: the Altai mountains, the section they had been looking forward to through all those flat weeks. A big chunk of the trip's 61,000 meters of climbing happened here, and Tommy calls the Altai an absolute highlight. It continued right across the Mongolian border. Well, almost right across: the border had been closed for eight days, and they sat in Russia for four of them before it reopened.
Mongolia: another planet
The rocky landscape of Mongolia looked like another planet. In the most sparsely populated country on earth they were often completely alone, sharing the land with wild camels and horses. Four days in Ulaanbaatar, then the final push straight through the Gobi Desert. And it was there, in the middle of the Gobi, that the donation counter crossed 13,000 euros. Goal reached, two weeks before the finish line.
China: eating their way to Beijing
As much as the raw, untouched landscapes of Mongolia fascinated them, the food did not. So in China they made up for it, daily and thoroughly, starting with the first bowl of beef noodles. After a visit to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, they reached their agreed finish line: Tian'anmen Square, Beijing. August 19th, 2025. Day 111.
The 5% moments
My favorite part of Tommy's trip report is what he and Jakob called their "5% moments". Moments where everything comes together at once: emotion, landscape, music, a sunset, the sheer fact of being exactly there. His words, roughly translated: you cannot manufacture these moments. You have to live them. You have to have suffered a bit to feel them fully. You have to have pedaled thousands of kilometers across continents to truly appreciate them. Even with all the miserable stretches in between, those 5% were the reason to do it at all.
They rode through very humble regions, and both say the trip made brutally clear what a privilege it is to experience an adventure like this. What remains are stories. Stories their grandchildren will get to hear one day. Whether they want to or not.
The numbers
- 111 days (May 1st to August 19th, 2025)
- 12 countries
- 12,000 kilometers ridden
- 61,000 meters of climbing
- Around 600 hours in the saddle
- 2 flat tires. Total. On a self-built tall bike. I am still proud of that one.
- 14,315 euros raised for Deutsche Krebshilfe by the day of arrival
Follow Tommy
View Tallbike Tommy on Instagram
Support the cause
The goal was reached, but Deutsche Krebshilfe's work never stops. If this story moved you, their fundraising page is still the right address.
Journey photos: Tommaso Weller and Jakob Wall. Photos showing Tommy and Jakob by Fiona Tolusso. Show photos: BIKEPACKING.com. Krebshilfe photo: Deutsche Krebshilfe/privat.
Chickens fly short distances. This one went 12,000 kilometers. Welcome home, Tommy.