The Nurtschweg through the Upper Palatinate Forest is not a newly designed hiking trail, but a route of ancient and hidden paths that warriors, smugglers and pilgrims have used for hundreds of years. It connects the pilgrimage church of Kappl near Waldsassen with Waldmünchen in the Bavarian Forest. The Nurtschweg is 140 kilometres long and winds along the German-Czech border through the Upper Palatinate Forest. It is perfectly signposted (yellow-red-yellow markings) and is easily doable for mountain bikers in 2-3 days. We used the MTB tour on the Nurtschweg for testing purposes and tested lightweight touring full-suspension bikes. So-called "down-country bikes" or "sport tourers". These are upgraded marathon bikes with more suspension travel and wider tyres. With its high proportion of trails and 2700 metres of elevation gain, our minimally adapted MTB version of the classic Nurtschweg trail was ideal as a Test track for our light touring bikes. You can read the test in BIKE 7/20 - in stores from 2 June.
Nurtschweg: details and route of the MTB tour
The Nurtschweg can also be done as a bikepacking tour. The mix of many single trails, secluded forest paths and highlights on the German-Czech border make it a first-class mountain bike tour. The best trails of the two days can be found directly behind the pilgrimage church of Kappl, around the Silberhütte, around the Böhmerwaldturm and just before the destination of Waldmünchen. You can find the GPS data for retracing the tour in the Komoot profile of BIKE:
The perfect bike for the tour
We used the Nurtschweg as a test track to test lightweight touring bikes with 110-120 millimetres of travel. Eight bikes from €4,000 upwards - upgraded race fullys and lightweight trail bikes - from Cannondale, Cube, Rose, Nicolai, Santa Cruz, Rocky Mountain, NS Bikes, Salsa and Yeti were included. In any case, the Nurtschweg can also be ridden on bikes with more or less suspension travel, but it is most fun on bikes from this category. Find out which of the eight test bikes convinced us on the 140 kilometres of the Nurtschweg in BIKE 7/20 - in stores from 2 June.
