Tag: Bucegi

Short tour 2019 season opener

April is usually one of the best months for riding our local trails. It might sound surprising, so let me explain. The trails are really quiet: not many hikers, not many bikers, as people are still kept indoors by the not-really-gone winter. The temperatures are close to ideal for biking: not too cold, not too warm. The trails are pretty dry, as the trees and the plants are sucking all the moisture from the ground to fuel to soon-to-come explosion of green. Visibility is quite good inside the forest, without…

Ride it like you stole it!

We've been riding our Bucegi Circuit for more than five years now, but we keep getting enthusiastic about each juicy single trail descent we are about to head into. And boy, they are many! Each time we make a promise: "Next time I'll stop and take some proper photos and videos of this descent, but for now I will just enjoy it!" We keep on making the same promise, and who knows, maybe, sometime... Till then you'll rather see photos from uphills, sandwich brakes in scenic places, etc. [ngg src="galleries"…

Special mtb tours for special people

"I don't know how you do it, but your guests are always nice, interesting people!". Maria runs a rural pension close to Bucegi Mountains, her place is listed on airbnb as one of the most popular choices in the area. So she gets to meet special people from all around the world. Still, the people coming with us, over the Bucegi Mountains, riding their bikes and carrying big smiles on their faces, are of a different sort. We stay at Maria's for the last two days of our week-long mtb…

Bucegi Mountains, trails paradise

There is always a gamble when doing a long mtb tour in September. While your chances to get nice, dry, stable weather with mild temperatures in the mountains around Brasov are probably the highest along the whole year, there's always the issue of those few days when things turn wintery, just to announce the coming cold season. The first snow up to 2000 m plus usually comes in September, sometimes at the beginning of the month, sometimes later, towards October. It fades away in a matter of hours, or in…

“Les Français font du VTT en Roumanie”

We started the 2018 mountain biking season with a high-intensity four-days tour in Postavaru, Piatra Craiului and Bucegi mountains with a group of seven French "VTT-istes" (a.k.a. "mountainbikers") from a Lyon club. We get plenty of mountain biking visitors in Romania generally from the Northern half of Europe, (Germany, UK, Austria, Sweden, Nederlands, etc) and less often from places like Italy, Spain, or France. Things are gradually changing, with more and more people discovering Romania as a worthy holiday destination. We hope that the following photo gallery, coupled with Monique's…

Martin’s unexpected days of summer

"Well, I just doubled the number of sunny days for this summer", Martin said after the first day of glorious weather during our Transylvanian Alps Open tour, September 2017. And five similar days followed, with incredible blue sky, and some fluffy clouds for better contrast. As the other three Swedes in the group, when travelling abroad for the summer holidays Martin is looking for something generally warmer and sunnier than what's usually on the menu at home. Or at least less muddy as the trails Charles and Garry (another two…

Transylvanian Alps – Papanași Power

This season we tested extensively the papanași* as a genuine Romanian sports nutrition supplement. They worked wonders before, during and after intense mountain biking riding :). (Hey, some may argue the papanași are a very good substitute for sports itself, but we definitely wouldn't go as far). And what better endurance test than the Transylvanian Alps tour? Intensive climbs, technical descents, single trails riding up and down from 800 to 2500 m altitudes, through forests, pastures, deep into the mountain gorges or on the mountain crests. Plenty of carbohydrates, sugars,…

October mountain biking bliss

October is an ideal time for short rides. Yes, the times of week-long tours are gone, but blitzkrieg type of tours are there for the taking. Like the two days mountain bike tour we enjoyed with Robin, from Iceland. Piatra Craiului and Bucegi Mountains were still a little bit shell-shocked after a short but intensive snow session up on the high pastures, but on the lower slopes the trails were just brilliant. There are still a couple of weeks till we switch for the winter hours, so get your bike…

Transylvanian Alps, Girl Power

Most of the times mountain biking is a man's world. Any stats I stumble upon, be it magazine readers, equipment purchase, website's audience (yes, including this one), they all show that men are an overwhelming majority in anything related to mountain biking. It's true even with topics leg waxing, or what gloves colour would do justice to the newly bought lime-green frame-set (and also accommodate those awesome purple baggy pants). So, a seven persons group of mountain bikers from Germany counting no less than four women was something really out…

Age is just a number

In a day and age where the electric mountain bikes are stealing the front pages, a six days trip around and up the Bucegi Mountains with Mark, Rob, Rod and Paul was as refreshing as a gulp of fresh water from a mountain spring. With just one guy below 60 to balance a little bit the average of the group, the four Brits proved time and again that age is just a number. Long climbs on dirt roads, like going from the old city of Brașov up to the local…