Tag: tours
With our classic, week-long tours put on hold by the global COVID pandemic, the summer of 2021 was mainly about short, custom made tours. We had a bunch of mountain bikers eager to have a taste of what mtb in the mountains looks like. And a taste they had, realising that mountain biking is (much) more than biking. Physically, technically, mentally. But also a lot of fun, especially for those who accept that enjoyment comes also with plenty of perspiration. We are looking forward to see them up the mountains…
Ski touring is the winter version of mountain biking, they say. And surely there are a lot of similarities. Like you need to work your way up the hard way (those of you who are already objecting with the e-bike argument, please read our manifesto on the matter), for a descent that is significantly shorter. It actually is more difficult in ski touring, because the fun factor of any descent is very dependent on the quality of the snow (and in the more inclined and exposed areas a good snow…
Autumn offers the most dramatic landscapes, and the October 2019 three days tour with Ofir was no different. If you add the white of the winter's first snow to the myriad of shades of falling trees you get the ingredients of a beautiful, majestic, but also quite eerie world. No better time to relive those days but during the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic - and lock-down. Here's a gallery of images that, in the present-day context, seem terrifyingly close to an end-of-the-world scenario. One thing's for sure: if the end of…
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…
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…
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…
Here we are in 2019, our third year of organising open tours, and the most popular so far is the Transylvanian Alps program. The idea of traversing on mountain bike five different mountains in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains near Brasov, Central Romania, seems to appeal to a good number of mountain bikers. This time around the participants were all German. Among them a family of three: Mum, Dad, and their 14 years old daughter. Initially, only the parents were to come, but after a few email exchanges we decided that…
On his home back to Switzerland from a ten-days mtb trip in Georgia, Manuel thought he me might be able to squeeze in a few more days of mountain biking. The Romanian Carpathian Mountains were among the options, so he wrote us an email. We were quick to answer, he was equally quick in confirming, so August found us riding together the trails of Postavaru, Piatra Craiului and Bucegi Mountains. Here is a video edit of the last two days, sampling the great variety of natural trails our mountains are…
Let's face it, "I am going to Romania for my mtb holidays" is the kind of statement that will raise an eyebrow or two among one's fellow work colleagues, friends or family. People come to our neck of the woods for anything but our notoriety. It's rather the other way around. Precisely because of its lack of appeal Romania gets to be chosen by people who want to stay away from the hordes of tourists that invade the Alps. Or by people searching the adventure of discovering "uncharted" territories. Or by…
