Dreaming of a motorcycle trip to distant climes? This section will help you to plan your trip, whether it's to the next state, country or all the way around the world! Start here!
The Achievable Dream 5-part series - the definitive video guide for planning your motorcycle adventure. Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
You could just get on a plane with your credit card and passport and buy or rent everything you need when you get there. That includes the bike, riding gear, etc. etc.
Gear Up! is a 2-DVD set, 6 hours! Which bike is right for me? How do I prepare the bike? What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers! "will save you a fortune!"See the trailer here!
So you've done it - got inspired, planned your trip, packed your stuff and you're on the road! This section is about staying healthy, happy and secure on your motorcycle adventure. And crossing borders, war zones or oceans!
On the Road! is 5.5 hours of the tips and advice you need to cross borders, break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Tire Changing!Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
With an HU blog, you'll get a lot more readers than in some obscure corner of the web, it's all set to go, no setup required, and it's free! Start your Travel Story Blog right now!
800+ HU Communities in over 115 countries! People who want to meet travellers - yes that's YOU - and can provide local assistance, and may be your new best friends!
Make a DifferenceTips on fundraising or donating time and energy to a cause.
After the big trip - Was the trip the best - or worst - thing you ever did?
Resources and Links
Horizons Unlimited Presents!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
"It has me all fired up to go out on my own adventure!" See the trailer here!
Meet people who don't think you're crazy for wanting to ride your bike to South America or across Asia! They will encourage you, share their experiences and advice on how to do it!
We're not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown a hobby into a full time job and a labour of love.
When you decide to become a Member, it helps directly support the site. You get additional privileges on the HUBB, access to the Members Private Store, and more. Of course, you get our sincere thanks, good karma and knowing you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. :-)
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World Map Sticker for PanniersShow your route on your panniers. Great conversation starter when you meet people on the road!
Travel BooksMotorcycle and travel books to inspire and inform you!
Videos - Watch and Learn!
Horizons Unlimited presents!
Achievable Dream The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
"The series is 'free' because the tips and advice will save much more than you spend on buying the DVD's."
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As we reach the steep part of the pass, surreal green mountains surround us. And pretty waterfalls too...
The Transfăgărășan is a touristy road. There are a ton of hikers, buses, cars and bicyclists all over the place. The scenery is wondrous - such vast open spaces to appreciate the Făgărășan mountain range around us. We find ourselves a spot to pull over to take in the beauty.
You can't help but look up and all around you
Then back on the bikes to ride further up the pass. The road switches back on itself as it climbs higher and higher to the summit. We don't stay on the bikes very long. Because after every three or four switchbacks, we look over the edge:
"Ooooh... gotta stop and get a picture from this angle!"
So, was the Transfăgărășan a good riding road? It's okay. Like the Stelvio Pass, the switchbacks are sooooo wide. They were built to accommodate tourbuses, so it's really not a very challenging road for motorcyclists. There are much better and tighter switchbacks all over Europe. What makes the Transfăgărășan such a magnificent road is the scenery. The mountains are really quite beautiful and the road twists so often that you get a different view at every turn.
Holy...
I can see why the Top Gear guys and all the car magazines like to film here. It makes for terrific cinematography! Very nice. Neda and I were babbling to each other at every stop, "It's so beautiful here!!!" Definitely, the highlight of our Eastern European leg.
BTW, there are a lot of accents in Transfăgărășan. I don't think I typed Transfăgărășan once in this entire blog entry. Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V to the rescue.... TransfăgărășanTransfăgărășanTransfăgără șanTransfăgărășan
Neda checking out the view from the top. It's chilly up here!
Okay. Back on the bikes, heading back down the other side of Transfăgărășan
On our way down the pass, Neda radios me, "Is your foot resting on the rear brake? Your brake light is on."
"Nope". I tapped the rear brake a few times. "Is it still on?"
"Yeah, your brake light is solid."
Crap. The pedal must have gotten stuck or something. We pull over and I inspect the rear brake. Nothing mechanically wrong with the pedal and the rear pads aren't binding. I can't find anything wrong with it. Then I pump the front brake lever a few times. The brake light goes out. Ah, must just be a sticky lever. I check the actuation and the brake lights seem to be working again.
We climb back on our bikes and proceed a bit further. Not 30 seconds later, Neda radios me again, "It's on again".
I pump the front brakes and the light goes out. But it keeps coming back on again and again. This is not good. Even though I can't feel any drag in the front, I don't want to slowly burn up the pads or warp the rotor. I can't keep riding with the front brakes engaged. We pull over and I inspect the lever and pads. I sniff the air. Is that burnt brake pads I smell...?
Fă*&g%răș*ă^&ă%ăn!!!! Stranded at the top of a mountain pass in Romania with a stuck front brake. We're hundreds of kms away from a city. What are we going to do now...?
We're stranded near the top of the Transfăgărășan and my front brake seems to be seized.
What are our options? Tow the bike? We're pretty far from any town or city and the cost of a tow would be much more expensive than just replacing pads + rotor - if I decide to ride all the way down. What if I disconnect the front brake and only use the rear? Yeah.... we're at the summit of the Carpathian Mountains, making our way down. Probably not a good idea... Just how badly seized is it? There doesn't seem to be any drag at all in the front. I decide to do an experiment.
We ride on for a couple of kms with my brake light burning bright behind me, and then I pull over, using only the rear brake and downshifting to a stop.
I get off and feel the front rotor. Not even warm. Could it be just a switch at the lever tripping the light then? It was getting late in the day and I don't want to spend the time to diagnose it. Especially up here with the sun in a bit of hurry to duck in behind those mountain peaks. So we make a decision. We're going to ride down the mountain to the nearest town, find a place to stay and then look at it in the morning.
The ride down the other side of the Transfăgărășan gave us more twisty roads to negotiate and the sunset was promising to be quite spectacular. But we couldn't really appreciate either the roads or the scenery, I was worried about my front brake the entire time.
At the bottom of the Transfăgărășan, we pull into the first town we see, Victoria
Neda finds a grocery store and goes shopping for our dinner while I stay with the bikes outside. A group of young boys were hanging outside the store. I could sense their curiousity, so I smiled and nodded at them. That was their cue to rush over to me and pepper me with questions, "Where are you from?", "Where are you going?", "How fast does your bike go?" The typical questions we get from everyone.
I'm quite a big hit here in Victoria, Romania!
The guy to the right of me, Horaţiu, spoke really good English. We talked for quite a while outside the store before Neda came out to join us. Really friendly bunch of guys! We said our goodbyes as the light was getting scarce and we still had to find a place to sleep.
Neda found us a little lodge on the map, but it was several kms down a gravel road... and after a while the road didn't really look like it was going anywhere. As if I wasn't already a bit worried... In the dim light of the late evening, it was hard to see anything in front of me, the thick forest already blocking what little sunlight there was glowing from out behind the mountains. Well at least *I* couldn't see anything. Since I was leading, my bright brake light was illuminating the entire way for Neda behind me...
Finally a clearing! And a very decent-looking place. There were a bunch of people having a barbecue and we were invited to join, but we had already bought our groceries for dinner. We met a few people staying at the lodge that evening. I would have liked to have been more social, but my mind was pre-occupied with trying to fix my bike. I excused myself from the party and spent time on the Internet trying to diagnose the problem.
In the bright light of the next morning, I haul my bike out into the middle of the backyard and proceed to dig into the front brake lever.
There's something about a guy working on a motorcycle or car that makes him a magnet for all the other men within eyeshot. Within a few minutes of tinkering, there were a couple of other guys standing around me, offering advice and giving me a helping hand. For women, going to the washroom is a communal event. For guys, breaking out the tools is our clarion call...
So my research on the Internet pointed to a switch at the brake lever. There's a piston that pushes that switch which activates the brake light. It also activates the servo motors that BMW uses for the brakes on this model of my bike. It makes a horrible whining noise and the guys around me ask, "Is that normal?" Yes. It's like when people gather around a Ducati and point out the rattling noise coming out of the dry clutch, "I think your bike is broken..."
A small allen key can be used to adjust the point when the brake light switch gets activated. However, I just can't seem to get it right. I turn it all the way out and then all the way back in but the light is either always on, or always off. So I disassemble the whole lever to see if I can re-seat the switch. No joy. The two other guys take their turn but we all have no luck fixing my bike. We all come to the consensus that the switch is broken.
At least I know now that it's just the switch and not the brakes. I adjust the front brake switch so that the light is always off. I'll just make sure to use my rear brake to trip the brake light when stopping or slowing. I always use both brakes anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
One of the guys helping me out, Dan and his wife Cristina
We spend the rest of the morning talking to Dan and Cristina. They're a great couple from Bucharest. Like most city people, they head up here into the Carpathian mountains for weekend trips to hike and bike out in nature's playgarden. He showed me his green KTM bicycle! Cool!
Before they left to hit the hiking trails for the day, Dan gave me his contact information should we decide to turn backwards to Bucharest to get my brake light switch fixed. I thanked him, but I think we're going to keep forging ahead towards Croatia. We have a date on the calendar to make.
We've burnt pretty much the whole morning and afternoon hanging out at the lodge, so we ride into Sebeș, about 90 minutes away
We're also feeling a bit fatigued from all the constant travel and now all the troubleshooting as well. We're going to take a rest day here. Neda found a really nice apartment (again hitting our target of €20/night).
Neda's favorite part, it has a kitchen! Nice to have something warm and homecooked
Another reason we are staying in. Rain is in the forecast for the day.
Okay, time to play in the mountains again! We hop back on the bikes after our short break. I take the lead because I've disabled my front brake light switch and if I forget to tap the rear brake, at least Neda will know not to run into the back of me.
I hope...
The Transalpina Highway runs parallel to the Transfăgărășan, exactly 100 kms to the west. It's the Transfăgărășan's younger sister, not as popular with the moto-journalists and TV programs, but not without her own charms. If you're in the area to ride the Transfăgărășan, there's absolutely no reason to skip the Transalpina.
Stopping at one of Transalpina's switchback corners for a peek at the road below
Fluffy clouds remain high above us, a remnant from yesterday's rains as we ride up to the summit of the Parâng mountain range. The scenery is like a toned down version of the Făgărăș mountains, not as dramatic, more rolling hills than daunting peaks. Way less traffic as well, which we like.
So... I thought I always use both brakes when stopping or slowing down. Well, now that I'm consciously keeping track of which brake I'm using when riding, I notice that I tend to use the front brake only a lot! I never realized this until I see Neda's bike getting larger and larger in my rear view mirror at every corner of the Transalpina... Ooops, front brake only, no brake light... Sorry, Neda....
Contemplation-time amongst the mountains of the Southern Carpathians: "I wish he'd use his rear brake more..."
The further we get up to the peaks, the foggier it gets, as we ride into the clouds that envelop the summit of the mountaintops. The temperature steadily drops and when we reach the top, we have to don some extra layers to get some heat back into our bones. We also take the opportunity to walk around.
My bike, pretending to be a sheepdog. With a broken front paw...
We can't really see much up here with all the clouds and fog obscuring the landscape below. So we continue back on the Transalpina
The traffic is sparse enough that I let Neda go ahead of me. That way she doesn't have to worry about running into the back of my bike and I can take some riding pictures! This turned out to be a good idea, because the southern section of the Transalpina is where all the fun is at. See the map above for a closeup of the road-reverie!
Some small towns in the background on the Transalpina Highway
That was a great ride! Here's a short video of both the Transfăgărășan and the Transalpina, with a litle bit of mechanical troubleshooting in the beginning:
Riding the Transfăgărășan and Transalpina Highway in Romania
We need to be in Pula in a few days. Rather than take the shortest route to Croatia, we make a little detour up to Hungary and then back down into Croatia to bypass Serbia. That way we don't have to pay for a 14-day vehicle insurance slip when we're just passing through. We definitely want to visit Serbia, but it'll have to wait for another day, when we can properly do it justice instead of just rushing through it.
It's all highway from Hungary to Croatia. So no pictures, except for roadside stops for food, gas and pee breaks
At one of the gas stations, we run into Orhan & Dilya from Turkey
They're on a motorcycle trip on their brand new R1200GS, all the way up to the Nordkapp! We spent quite a while at the gas station exchanging stories. This is their honeymoon vacation! We've met a few folks from Turkey so far on this trip and they've all been such genuine and friendly people. Orhan and Dilya gave us their address in Alanya and told us that we could stay with them if we come to visit Turkey. So generous! I don't know where Alanya is, but I have a feeling that we're going to be seeing it sometime in the future!
Our trip continues. A sleepover stay in Budapest and then back on the road
Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's thelist of Circumnavigators!
Check it out now, and add your information if we didn't find you.
Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
"This site is the BIBLE for international bike travelers." Greg, Australia
"Thank you! The web site, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks." Colin, UK
"My friend and I are planning a trip from Singapore to England... We found (the HU) site invaluable as an aid to planning and have based a lot of our purchases (bikes, riding gear, etc.) on what we have learned from this site." Phil, Australia
"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada
"Your worldwide organisation and events are the Go To places to for all serious touring and aspiring touring bikers." Trevor, South Africa
"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia
"Keep going the excellent work you are doing for Horizons Unlimited - I love it!" Thomas, Germany
Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.
helps answer the question - Why Go? Inspirational stories by veteran travellers Greg Frazier (5 times RTW), Peter and Kay Forwood (193 countries), Tiffany Coates (Mongolia Mayhem) and Rene Cormier (University of Gravel Roads).
Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers!
break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
Cotton or synth sweat-wicking t-shirts with the cool Horizons Unlimited graphic on the front and a snappy slogan (changing every year) on the back.
Show your route on your panniers. Great conversation starter when you meet people on the road!
Motorcycle and travel books to inspire and inform you!
The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
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