Tag: cross-country
Our second instalment of Lithuanian mountain bikers came to visit Romania in September 2016, enjoying four days of summer-like weather and riding in the mountains near Brașov. The Postavaru Mountain, The Piatra Craiului National Park and The Bucegi Natural Park have a few common traits. They are close to Brasov, surrounding an area filled with magic and charm: The Bran Country. They all have a wide network of superb trails, from deep forest to high alpine pastures, ideal for first class single track mountain biking. But there is another thing, kind of obvious…
Our Transylvanian Alps program is always a challenging tour. We go up (a lot of up) and down (plenty of down) through five different mountains, at altitudes ranging from 700-800m to 2300m and higher, on technical, enduro-like trails, but also on smooth, flowy forest trails. Weather can also provide some challenges, throwing in the odd rain or icy-snow crust on the high trails. The Transylvanian Alps tour we organised in October 2016 for a Belgian gang started with a different challenge: trying to remember which one of the brave bikers…
We return with a video production after quite a long pause. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did while riding the trails of Piatra Craiului, filming and editing the piece. There is a quite simple reason why we lagged behind on the video production front: when you go filming, that's pretty much all you do. The fun factor of the biking is significantly limited, as riding is always interrupted. There is no flow. The backpack is heavier. Getting that big camera out for another shot, attaching the…
My German language skills are quite limited, especially if the Austrian accent is also involved. However, sometimes translation is simply not needed. “Brutal” and “total” were the most used words by our four guests during our seven-day mountain biking tour across the Carpathians. Day one – warm up in Ciucaș Mountains [singlepic id=1468 w= h= float=none]Due to a very late (early?) flight, the first day was more of a warm-up mission. We started in Cheia and went on some nice trails around Cabana Muntele Roșu. We were lucky enough to…
Eva and Christian are travelling to Transylvania quite often, tracing back family roots in and around Sibiu (Hermannstadt) area. This summer they wanted to try something different so they opted for a guided mtb tour, exploring trails in the Fortified Churches area, near Viscri, and then on the foothills of Piatra Craiului and Bucegi mountains. It was a thrilling experience: the already familiar Transylvanian landscape gained new dimensions while biking every day around 30 km of forest, pasture and alpine single tracks, covering vasts areas of unspoiled teritory. [singlepic id=1446 w=728] The mountain…
Santa came early this year for mtbtours.ro. It was mid-October when we had the joy and the privilege to organize a tour for a select group of French bikers. A fair deal: I showed them the wonderful trails around Brașov, they showed me what one can do with a bike. All in all a cross-country, all-mountain and enduro experience in the very pleasant company of five joyful mountain bikers. I saw what Pierre Geo Plantet was able to do during some XC competition during the summer, when he finished second…
No matter how you look at it, a maximal altitude of 300 m makes Lithuania a flat country. A type of terrain that is suitable for cross-country mountain biking, with relatively short and frequent ups and downs. No place for long, consistent, technical uphills or downhills. Nothing "epic", speaking in mountain biking terms. Was Tadas, from Vilnius, aware of what he was asking when inquring about an expert level mtb tour in the Carpathian mountains surrounding Brașov city? Most likely not. But the group seemed quite determined, a bunch of…
It doesn't happen very often to have French guests in Romania, be it for hiking or mountain biking. We might share a common cultural background (the Latin heritage, the strong French cultural influences in last two centuries) but France seems to be a little too far away from Romania when travelling is the issue. We get significantly more calls from Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, UK, Sweden than from France. Therefor we were pleasantly surprised when Jean sent us an email from Toulouse, inquiring about an advanced level mtb tour in…
You know you've been blessed when... you live in a place like Brașov, a mountain biking paradise with great scenery, great mountains and plenty of trails, you have the chance to go biking with a group of Swedes which are both great company and a source of inspiration, you get ideal photo opportunities with bikers showing (off) their amazing skills, you are called to organize a seven-days mtb trip for these guys for the third year in a row. For all these reasons (and more) we do feel blessed. The…
Pat, Ryan and Martin came to Romania late May for a medium mtb-tour in the Bran County. The rainiest spring we had in many years didn't provide the best of premisses - there was water and there was mud everywhere. The kind of weather that isn't really inviting you to get out, on your bike and ride. But once you've got over that hateful first minute, you realize that some wet dirt cannot and should not stop you from having a great time. With plenty experience of riding in the…
