The Garden of Eden..as much as we'd all like it to be.

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

No one is claiming Romania is the Garden of Eden rather the criticism of the country as a whole due to the one unfortunate incident experienced by danielsprague was grossly unfair. Every country has problems of crime at the same time the majority of that country's citizens being law abiding and a sizeable minority of those that will also go out of their way to assist and befriend motorcycle travellers.

Hi Guys, I travelled Turkey-Bulgaria-Rumainia-Moldavia-Ukrane-Russia in 2004 and it was a wonderful trip. I did get busted in Rumania for "speeding" for which the police were happy to confiscate US$20. Once was bad enough but three times between the border and Bucharest was just pushing it.
It has happened to me in Africa and Asia but I was supprised that it happened in Europe.

Anyway on with the advise.
I use canoe bags on the m/bike.
I lock the zips to stop little hands.
I then cover with waterproof rucksack covers, out of site out of mind, then use a "Pac Safe" over that with the tail threaded through the bike frame.
I also have a "Lid Safe" that I put my camera and stuff in.
This may be overkill but I don't loose to much gear.
You could cut throught the pac safe but I've found that people see the precautions and just leave it alone.
The only problem I have with the lid safe is the steel wire is between an inner and outer plastic cover. Someone slashed the cover to get at it once (Italy) but nothing was taken. Duc tape repaired it.
These things are not cheap, Lid Safe is about £40 and Pac Safes vary from £35 for small Rucksac size to £55 for 120 litre size.
I got the Pac safe's from "Blacks" camping shop and the Lid Safe from P&H motocycles in Crawley.
I hope this helps someone.

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The Gypsy
Second star on the right.
Then straight on till morning.

I think that the Romanian government has cleaned that problem up since 2004. I found both the police and the customs agents to be very friendly and very courteous when I was there, not the slightest hint of any request for a bribe. I was stopped once by a policeman when I was riding along a little bit above the speed limit - all the cop wanted to tell me was to slow down, because there was road construction everywhere and, as he put it, "sometimes they don't put warning signs up, and there are big drop-offs". He had no interest in even giving me a ticket, let alone asking for a bribe.

Mind you, Ukraine was another story altogether...