{"id":204175,"date":"2025-11-13T14:12:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204175"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:12:53","slug":"rescued-by-bikes-from-a-midlife-crisis-a-tale-of-prague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/11\/13\/rescued-by-bikes-from-a-midlife-crisis-a-tale-of-prague\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescued by Bikes from a Midlife Crisis: A Tale of Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, 49-year-old George Pacurar came to a turning point in his life. After decades of working as a journalist, including freelancing for German publications like the Berliner Zeitung<\/em>, he suffered from a serious heart ailment. \u201cIt made me reflect on my work-life mixture once my health was stable again,\u201d he says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He knew he would never return to full-time writing, editing or anything else that required sitting on his backside the entire day. So he asked himself, \u201cWhat can a retired journalist, adopted Praguer, with varying degrees of fluency in eight languages and the urge for a more physically active life do?\u201d The answer he arrived at was guided tourism. He took a qualification course, went on tours with more experienced colleagues to catch a taste of the trade, and later registered as an official tour guide.<\/p>\n

Then he had another idea: bicycles. \u201cThe bikes came in because I love cycling and there was enough room [on the local market] for a rental and touring business like the one I had in mind,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut because I’m rather cautious when entering a completely new territory, I first registered a domain, built a website and did what I could to put it in a reasonable position on Google before buying any bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t have to wait that long. \u201cActually, I bought the first bikes the day the first customer called and asked for bikes for the upcoming weekend,\u201d he recalled with a laugh. \u201cThat’s how it started. I bought exactly two bikes, lovely single-speed folding bikes from the 1980s, and kept them in my room up on the third floor with no lift. I wanted to exercise anyway. My flat soon filled up with bikes. That’s when I started looking for a proper place. I found it a few months later and still have it, ten years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pacurar\u2019s Transphere Bike Rentals and Tours,<\/a> located in the Prague 5 district, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, and it is thriving. His astonishing language skills \u2013 he speaks eight languages, most of them fluently \u2013 are an important asset because many, if not most, of his customers come from abroad. He says that about a third come from the US and Canada; of the Europeans, the majority are Dutch, Spanish, and Scandinavian.<\/p>\n

His linguistic skills come from his childhood. Pacurar was born in Transylvania, into a multiethnic family where Romanian and German were spoken daily, as well as Hungarian with relatives and neighbours. His family emigrated to Germany when he was eight years old, and he grew up in a village in Bavaria before studying Romance languages and sociology in Germany and Spain. He has been living in Prague since 1994.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Pacurar stuck with the use of second-hand bikes, mostly vintage Czech and German, \u201cbecause they were cheaper, easy to fix and maintain, and because of my personal taste,\u201d he explains. \u201cI still ride old bikes exclusively, but don’t use them for the rental business anymore. Instead, I buy trekking bikes from Czech manufacturers, especially Maxbike of Ostrava, which I then customise for bike-packing and multiple-day touring. Starting from March of next year, I will upgrade to e-bikes to offer guided tours in Prague off the beaten paths. The bikes are already paid for and will be delivered in February, when I start preparing for the upcoming season.\u201d<\/p>\n

His most popular day tour, he says, is a self-guided round trip to the Gothic Karl\u0161tejn\u00a0<\/strong>Castle, which mostly follows the Vltava and Berounka rivers on dedicated cycling paths. \u201cAmong the multiple-day tours, Prague-Dresden via Eurovelo 7 is by far the most popular,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there is a growing demand for long-distance tours, to Vienna and Budapest, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also gives guided tours in Prague. \u201cThe most popular tour I give in Prague would be from my service point in Smichov up to the Vy\u0161ehrad fortress, stopping by the unique ensemble of Cubist buildings at the foot of the hill,\u201d he says. \u201cAt Vy\u0161ehrad, I like to give them a tour of the cemetery, where Prague honours some of the most important people this country has given birth to, such as the composers Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Bed\u0159ich\u00a0Smetana, and Josef Suk.\u201d Pacurar says that the tour is fascinating because it eventually passes through more than 1,000 years of Czech history, starting with the Vy\u0161ehrad fort, which some date back to the 10th century.<\/p>\n

Asked about where he likes to ride when he is not working, he says that he has no favourite trip and that he tries different routes when he has the time. \u201cI usually first take a train to get out of Prague and then cycle for 50-60 km, find a nice place to stay over and cycle back the next day,\u201d he says. \u201cPrague is really well located because there are dozens of options for this type of tour.\u201d But he does have a favourite spot to visit, the Koko\u0159\u00edn Valley northeast of the city of M\u011bln\u00edk, some 60 km north of Prague.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a fairy-tale landscape with breathtaking views, small sleepy villages with beautiful traditional architecture, very little car traffic and some nice places for food and drinks,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in the area, I always stop in Lobe\u010d, where they rebuilt a steam-powered brewery from the late 19th century. There is also a craft cidery, where I always go for inspiration.\u201d In addition to running his bike business, Pacurar is also a gourmet cook, a musician, and an amateur cider-maker. He is currently preparing his new batch of cider, just in time for the end of the bike tour season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2014, 49-year-old George Pacurar came to a turning point in his life. After decades of working as a journalist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":204176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[8783,7632,8782,8784],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-204175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-bike-rentals","tag-cycling-in-czechia","tag-george-pacurar","tag-transphere-bike-rentals-and-tours","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nRescued by Bikes from a Midlife Crisis: A Tale of Prague - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2014, 49-year-old George Pacurar came to a turning point in his life. 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