Tag: guide
We had a busy year in 2021 with Tom, biking on some jaw dropping Carpathian Peaks in the mountains surrounding Brasov city. For most of the 2022 Tom spent his biking days on easier cross-country rides on the flat lands, plus a good number of days abusing the cable cars while stacking bike-park runs under his belt in Sinaia, Azuga and Poiana Brașov. One of these days, while waiting for the uplift, he realized he missed a good pedaling day up in the mountains. So he gave me a call.…
Helmut works for a car components manufacturer, and in his free time he collects, restores and then drives old cars. He came to Brasov for a short holiday, driving all the way from Germany to Romania. There is no better way to put it than saying he is a motorhead, eager to see what the electric revolution will bring to the table. But not with his mountain biking. Here he likes things done the old way, earning the thrills of the descents with the hard work of pedaling up. And…
It was scheduled to happen in June 2020, but a tiny virus had other plans for the entire planet Earth. More than one year later our Belgian guests finally arrived in Romania for the week-long Transylvanian Alps tour, adding the South East Carpathian Mountains to their impressive list of mountain biking destinations. The menu was, as always, complex: long and demanding climbs, push and carry-bike sessions, epic descents on "Bonanza trails". Zero bears encounters, but a few shepherd dogs (honestly a bigger threat for the unaccustomed traveller). Lots of loughs,…
We started to ride with Tom in September 2020. He brought then with him a newly bought capable XC hardtail and a basic set of skills, the kind most of us get while simply riding a bike while playing as kids, and later on commuting in the urban jungle. But, most importantly, the will to push the limits on the uphills, and plenty of interest in tackling trickier descents. A few walk-the-trails sessions in Păltiniș, but also Piatra Craiului, Bucegi and Poiana Brașov made him realise heavier tools are required…
Starting with the 2021 season we are offering to our guests a new tour concept: Going for the peaks. Be it for a one-day ride, a weekend tour, a full-week program or a comprehensive ten-days adventure, the aim is to get up every day on a peak in the South-Transylvania Carpathian Mountains, and then bike all the way down to a cold beer, a nice meal and a good sleep. After a few good years of exploratory rides we proudly present a list of about 10 carefully selected peaks that…
One of the great things about mountain biking is that, with every new ride, you become a different mountain biker. With each new trail you've ridden, with each day spent on bike, you get better at it. You trust more your balance, you hone your skills a little bit more. You look at the same trail a little bit different. You see new lines, new options on sections of trails you thought were't holding no more secrets. Sometimes you do it on your own, sometimes you do it with your…
This is a bike review that is not a bike review. It is a bike review because it’s about a bike that I’ve been riding almost daily for the last six months: April 2019 to November 2019. You can say we got to be quite intimate. It’s not a bike review, because I am not a bike reviewer, and my experience in riding a vast array of brands, models, takes, etc, is, to put it mildly, rather limited. In other words, this is not about how the COTIC FlareMax 29er…
A tour that was in the planning for quite some time now finally happened on a perfect weather weekend of October 2019: the trails around Cabana Bârcaciu in Făgăraș, The Carpathian Mountains. We are usual guests at Cabana Bârcaciu, we go there often for our hiking, trekking, ski touring trips (more at www.mountainguide.ro). With bikes it is more difficult, as it is located at some distance from our home trails around Brasov city - which are pretty abundant. And it is strategically located at the end of a 5 km…
In a very busy summer schedule we are now and then able to squeeze in a short tour that is part exploration, and part photo and video shooting opportunity. This July we went for a loop in the West side of the Bucegi Mountains for a true joy ride up and down the Strunga Pass. The Strunga Pass descent is one of the highlights of what Romania has to offer in terms of pure, natural trails that can be ridden on a mountain bike. What makes it special is a…
You don't see very often people from New Zealand travelling half the world to visit Romania. Sam had a special reason: his daughter was competing in the NZ team at the Junior World Kayak Championships near the city of Pitești. As a keen mountain biker, he thought he might squeeze in a few days of riding on our local trails before watching the competition. So he wrote us an email. The rest was, as they say, history: we got for Sam a good rental bike, designed a four days route…
