A Montague bike isn’t built to spend its life collecting dust in a garage. Designed to deliver decades of adventure, it’s a bike meant to be ridden, explored on, and passed from one chapter of life to the next. Steve from Scotland is living proof. After giving a first-generation Paratrooper Pro a second chance, he’s transformed it into a globe-trotting adventure bike, taking it across some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes.
Over the last two and a half years, Steve has biked across the Scottish Highlands, along the Nile River in Egypt, through the mountains of the Balkans, and over rugged landscapes of Turkey. In that relatively short time, Steve has put an impressive 8,000 kilometres on the bike, a testament to both the enduring design of the Paratrooper Pro and just how central it has become to his adventurous lifestyle.
Steve grew up in the Highlands of Scotland, where exploring the outdoors is part of life from an early age. Long before he owned a Montague, he had a passion for hiking and camping, so by the time he got his hands on the Paratrooper Pro, he had the skills and experience to hit the ground running with ambitious biking adventures. The bike, in turn, was ready to handle anything he put in front of it, no matter how rocky or steep the path before him.
The only real damage the bike ever suffered, Steve notes, came from airline baggage handlers, not the terrain.
By day, Steve works remotely, which means he and his wife Maria regularly find themselves travelling through different countries for extended periods. For most people, that kind of lifestyle would mean leaving the bike at home, but for Steve, the Paratrooper Pro’s ability to fold down and check onto a flight as luggage changed everything. The ability to pack the bike, board a plane, and spend weeks exploring a new country on two wheels has opened up a range of adventures that simply wouldn’t have been possible with any other bike.
In addition to exploring the Scottish Highlands, Steve and Maria have also trekked across Albania, where they spent extended periods exploring the country’s varied regions and camping well off the beaten track. They’ve also bikepacked through Montenegro, Croatia, Turkey, and Egypt, where long rides along quiet farmland roads and dusty gravel tracks became a natural part of daily life. Each destination brought new landscapes, new challenges, and new roads to explore, all covered by the same faithful first-generation Paratrooper Pro.
Steve recently turned 40, and by his own account he has never been fitter or stronger than he is right now. Cycling has evolved from something he just enjoyed into a genuine daily discipline, with the Paratrooper Pro as his go-to fitness companion. Almost every morning he is out on the bike as part of his training routine, steadily building the strength and endurance he will need to tow a heavily loaded trailer across rough terrain on even longer future expeditions he is planning. It is the kind of committed, consistent training that reflects just how seriously he takes both his fitness and his future adventures.
His long-term goal is to take the Paratrooper Pro on multi-country and eventually cross-continental journeys, travelling completely independently of cars and carrying everything he and Maria need along the way.
Most riders would have expected a bike with that kind of history to show its age fairly quickly under the conditions Steve puts it through. Instead, the first-gen Paratrooper Pro has continued to perform reliably across multiple countries, diverse climates, and thousands of kilometres of unpredictable terrain.
The fact that Steve’s Paratrooper Pro is still going strong is a testament to what Montague bikes are designed and built to do; travel farther, last longer, and keep riders exploring for years to come. As Steve puts it, he genuinely feels the Paratrooper Pro has made him healthier, more active, and more adventurous than he’s ever been. In his own words, he feels it has added years to his life. It’s hard to imagine a better compliment than that.
Be sure to take a look at Steve’s photo album below to see the Paratrooper Pro in its natural habitat.
If you would like your story to be featured next, please contact us or DM us @montaguebikes on social media.
