Balkans advice
 

Hi all!

New here, 25, living in Surrey, raced enduro for a good few years and only got round to doing my road licence middle of last year!

Anyway, to the point. Myself and a couple of friends are looking at doing a small road trip, only a couple of weeks, from London through central Europe out to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia etc etc then circling round and going back through Czech Rep and so on.

The idea is to blast through France/Belgium/Germany to get out to the Balkans as we only have 2 weeks.

Just looking for bike advice really. Aiming for £1-1.5k bikes and we'd like to ride a few trails and tracks (nothing too bad) as well as roads. Thinking along the lines of older Teneres (but maybe a bit vibey for long distance??) KLR's or Transalps? but then worried a transalp is a bit too road focused?

So any advice would be appreciated. Or just general comments on the area, what to see and so on!

thanks!

also been looking at dr600's and dr650's but a bit concerned they would be too off road focused?

The region is definitely interesting and well worth the visit.
Imho any of the bikes you mention would be fine. The Transalp should be capable enough for the majority of the trails you'll encounter. We came across a few last year on the Tethi loop in Albania and on the Hani Hotit road as well. We did not do any roads on our Husqy's that could not be done on a Transalp. It just depends on what you are expecting. If you adapt your riding style a TA would do fine.
A DR or XT would allow you to go a bit faster on the roughest tracks. Whether they'd be too vibey for you on long stretches of motorway is very personal. I've ridden my share of vibey bikes and I don't particularly mind. Others might feel very different.

If you want some info on what to expect have a read through our Ride Report on ADV.

cheers for the reply! I'm going to set about reading your report now!

hopefully be able to put up with the vibey-ness. Think I'd prefer more offroad capability just to have the option. Just the thought of doing a couple of 500 mile days to actually get out there that's a bit off putting!

My friend thinks he's going to go down the fancy route and get a newish Tenere whereas us 2 are defintely going for the cheaper options!

Found an ok looking dr650 rs that has done 15k miles within budget or wait and get an early 90's Tenere...

Would the DR's need much doing to them? imrpove suspension, strengten frame or anything?

It is a good disance to get there. We rode to the same region in 2013 (myself on a 2008 Tenere btw), but opted for the car train last year on the Husqies. Not so much for the vibes, but simply because it saved us time and we could sleep through the boring parts :thumbup1:
Unfortunately the Dusseldorf-Villach line has been discontinued by DBahn. doh

I've just been looking at the car train after reading your report. There is one from Netherlands to Koper but it's damn expensive so looks like we'll just be riding out!

Looks to be more than enough off road fun to be had as well! and scenery looks amazing. still torn between the more off-road focused bikes and a transalp, feel like a twin would be so much more cimfortable getting out there but then we would be going for the trail riding.... decisions!

Any advice for travelling around?

The Koper line is indeed a lot more expensive than the Villach line used to be.

You really can't go wrong. There's little maps at the end of each day report in my link above, it should give you a pretty good idea of where we went. I can send you the GPS tracks if you want.
For me the most interesting part was Bosnia, the entire region between the main Mostar-Sarajevo road and the border with Montenegro. Montenegro itself is a hidden gem. From the beautiful mountains to a dramatic coastline and party beaches, all in an area less than half the size of Belgium. The Durmitor and Biograd National Parks are amazing, Kotor bay is magnificent and Kotor town is just as idyllic as Dubrovnik.
If you stay out of the obvious tourist areas food and accommodation are very reasonably priced.

not sure whether we'll be taking gps, might just crack on with maps! did you have to work quite hard to find the off road bits? And hadn't olanned on getting to Montenegro but might make the effort now!

And what time of year did you go? looks to be rather wet in some photos!

Don't miss Montenegro, it is the jewel in the crown of the Balkans.:D

I shall definitely put it on the list! wasn't planning on going down that far but can just take a more direct route across Serbia to Romania and skip Bulgaria!

Guessing there are plenty of fuel options? Don't have to worry too much about being miles from anywhere with an open petrol station?

The majority of roads we did were marked (as small white roads) on our Freitag & Berndt 1:500000 maps. So it wasn't that hard.
Have a look at the ride reports from inmate Gliga as well (both here on the HUBB and over at ADV). There's a wealth of info in his reports and he knows the region very well.

We were there for 3 weeks in June and had a lot of rain in 2014. But during that same period in 2013 weather was great. 2014 was exceptionally wet for the region so I would expect you to have better luck.

And if you time it right, you could attend the Horizons meeting in the beautiful mountains of Montenegro. Look for info and pics of last years' meet.

My advice from travelling this similar route is you need another week. It's a good few long day on the bike to get down there through France/Germany and the same going back.

Hi Tom

See the video for some photos of a very similar trip I did last year. Its a fantastic area with stunning countryside and friendly locals. You won't regret it, especially if you get away from the tarmac roads.


http://youtu.be/mC7rmsRCOu4

The mileage to get there really requires something comftable. the condtions when you get there require something better off road focussed.

I travelled to Sarajevo in 2012 on my single Pegaso Trail, which was a little tiring on the motorways, but great just about every where else.

If I did it again, I would go out by train, even if it cost more. no point in killing ht e bike to save a few quid and then find it is knacked to do what you really want to do!

Let others do the travelling you don't want to do is an essentail karma for those of us with smaller, less cylinder or CC abundant machines.

We don't put paddles on our bikes to get them over oceans, we let someone else do that for us..... Make use, it is most likey cheaper anyway:D