Tag: romania
Cleaning and checking the bike. Sending more delicate components to specialised servicing. Updating programs and tours, fine-tuning coming trips. Reviewing the website, refreshing layouts, messages, logos. Warm-up rides on the trails that are drying up at lower altitudes, while skinning and skiing is still up for grabs higher up the mountain. This is what a regular month of March or April looks like in our shed and in our neck of the woods. Not this year. Together with the rest of you, we got rolled over by a big wave…
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…
“Beware of the mountain bikers coming from flat countries”. That was the advice I got quite early in my mtb guiding experience and I keep mentioning it during our tours, as it always brings out a laugh or two. It obviously is one of those general statements that can easily be cancelled out by specific individual examples, of which we’ve seen many during our very own tours. But there is an obvious element of truth in it: you cannot know what mountain biking is unless you bring your bike to…
Our second instalment of the Carpat MTB Enduro program happened in July 2019, featuring a couple from Sweden enjoying a longer family trip to Romania, and three German friends on their routine mountain biking trip abroad. A great week as always, in spite of some rather tricky weather, unusually wet for mid summer, and a few technical and logistical problems with one of the bikes. Nothing that can't be solved with the appropriate clothing and a good set of toolbox - plus equipment to spare. We biked up on Bucegi…
Mountain biking is one of the fastest growing sports around the world, and it is not a mystery why this is happening. It is accessible for pretty much everyone because the minimum requirements are very simple: a bicycle, the ability to ride it, and access to a trail through some off-road scenery. (Sure, this is just a starting point, and once you jump the wagon you can complicate things endlessly.) It can be practised as a very intense workout, or as a fun, adrenaline inducing activity. Or both at the…
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…
Alex is a student in Cluj, just about to finish his medical studies. A keen mountain biker, he thought of a short bike trip in the Romanian mountains for him, his dad Martin and his cousin Christian, trying to discover what gems lay hidden in this corner of Europe. For the first day of their adventure they went to the Sinaia bike park, concentrating on clearing various jumps and gaps. For the next three days they wanted some wild, natural trails, so they called us to design a suitable program.…
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…
