Monday 16 June 2014

collection of routes

Here is the collection of map-prints.

My biggest blunder: losing the Nexus7 somewhere on Transfagarasan. That made me lose my track of that day. The phone is now doing the tracking, but phone-battery is limited.


Detail of Slovenia: Great little ride: 



The truly boring part: Through Croatia... 
(Croatia has much more interesting routes.. I have to return sometime)


First try on 2-lane roads: taking the slow route to Arandjelovac:


(Forgot to record: route from Belgrade to Poland)

Then on to BBQ near Warsaw:


And on to Augustow

Forgot to record the morning, but here is part of Via Baltica to Riga:


And the return from Talinn to Bialyostok, 
in a hurry to gain time for Romania. 
I was lucky: Brilliant weather.


And another day of "rush" to gain time, again, excellent weather conditions made this possible:



Forgot to record the morning but this is the afternoon: labouring over Transalpina, including an hour lost going west: the south-part of the Transalpina was supposedly closed, but some of us did it anyway:


Detail:


And the next day: the biggie... 


The Bulgaria: details of the route from Ruse to Plovdiv: Really Relaxed and lovely mountain ride:





From Plovdiv to Sandanski: ditto, lovely ride.


few more pictures

various pictures wanted for reasons of links or stories.

Brendan: eaten by mosquitos. Brave man.


Ferry to Talinn: Friendly Lady-Biker (vice-pres of some female-HOG group)


Found this polished bike in the parking of my hotel, Rags and all..




And return at the hotel.. Locked in:
Remember: dont put the bike on the centre stand unless you have to (but in this case the ground wasnt flat, and the centre stand was the better option). 
Luckily, the other car (plate takenb) is a hotel guest (hm..), so reception will inform him to please fw half a meter... )
nb: This confirms it again: BEEMER-DRIVERS - TO BE AVOIDED!


And the outcome... After I laboured the bike 90 Degr on an non-flat surface.. 


I plan to show how I clean the visor of insects at each Fill-Up (soak visor for 5min with wet-paper, then clean carefully and wipe dry). But I forget to complete the fotos of the job. Too much to do and too much craving for Cofee.


View from the room, last night on the road.

This stood in the entrance to the Gasthaus / restaurant. Unbreakable anyone ?
The fuel consumption on the last sprint from Frankfurt to Wittlich... 6.2L/100
 not bad for avg speed of 138km/h.. 


And the "vignettes", they tend to come off if you go too fast.. hehehe.


And this guy, who offered to look after the bike in Plovdiv..


And what a hand looks like after a few weeks on a bike:

Riding game 23jul


Saturday 14 June 2014

to Sandanski

some more pictures, just to link to/from






Tuesday 10 June 2014

Transfagarasan in pictures

Well, it had to be done.

Some Very good memories and a feeling of "Yesss, did it".

There is a lot te be said about the trip, but I hestiate to bore too many ppl with what is essentially a few hrs on a bike.

Suffice to say: Recommended, but Be Very Careful.

Road quality was better then the (north part of the) Transalpine, but road is still bad in many places.
It was officially still closed (signs said so), but too many ppl just went and did it.

Main "risk" I had were the donkeys hidden in a dark part of a tunnel. But there is also: falling debris just around corners, wet (fozen?) patches, and plain mud on the road (slip...).

Here are the pics..

Tankstop before going up, the previous ride over Transalpina was very economical: 4.3l/100 km, shows what you can do going slowly.

Going north from Ramnicu Valcea: Beautiful valley, good road, but a lot of traffic in convoys behind trucks. So when you hit a convoy, you stop and take pictures...:




Beautiful scenery, but this is what it is like, mostly.


Same location, looking away from the road:


About to go up..


Intimidating (due to all the hype around "best driving road in the world?):


Officially still closed ???
Nah, the souvenir vendor said to just go... and plenty ppl did.


First picture stop: Wow..





Above the treeline, see the road going up ??


Acutally: each time a challenge: park the bike, safely and on flat, stable ground (otherwise it will tip over, as it did on me once on the transalpine - different story)


So... This is what the hype is about: Curves! 
however, if you let rip on this road there will be debris, mud, rocks and other fairly dangerous obtacles (slippery cow-flaps even)


At one fotostop, I heard voices... ??
had I gone mad?
nope, these guys were working above my head





Tricky moment: at first I just noticed the riders at the other end..
Why where they standing there  ??
Then the Donkey on the left moved and I noticed donkey-ear-shadow against the light.
I took a precautionary stop and low-n-behold! more donkeys hiding in the shadow !!!
The two riders in front were going down snails pace when I overtook them, they must have had a very close call with the animals.



Later, on road to Pitresti: This was one of those "built-up-areas with a speed limit" 
Stories! 



Arrived into Ruse, parked, looking for hotel.


Found hotel with view of Danube.
Window on 8th floor opens completely, and there is a 1ft wide ledge via which you can go and visit next-door-room (romantic!) or you can just stand and ask for attention (or you can jump):

The bike on the parking, I just had to:


The coffee was in the building where an "enforcement agent" had his offices. 

The route: I lost the tracking-tablet on the way (Stupid!)



 

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