I am riding a 2007 model Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom. It is standard other than a madstad screen, up and back risers, fork brace, kappa K33 panniers and a 52 litre top box. It was bought in the UK with less than 2k miles on the clock. When I started this trip it had 18.5k. As I write this in Romania it is now has 21k odd (tours like this offering a challenge to the Vee's ridiculous 3.5k service interval).

I was (see below) riding with two friends, one with a Kawasaki Er6f and the other with a BMW R1100RT. We mapped a rough route, which we have tweaked as we have gone along.



We needed to put some miles in early so took motorways as far as Cologne (Germany). This exposes the bike's biggest flaw, at least for me. By 6 or 7 hours riding on the trip I get a very painful 'trigger point' at the base of my neck - a sharp pain in a very specific area that burns like a trapped nerve. This is not an issue I had with previous bikes, and I ride two long distance trials on my dirt bike (20 hours with only minimum breaks) each year without this issue so i know it is bike specific. Fitting the madstad screen and up and back risers but this has not resolved the issue.

Next up were the Harz mountains in the east of Germany. There are some great roads but if you can, visit during the week. We found it much better on Monday morning than Sunday afternoon, when it was too busy to find a good riding flow.



From there we headed south east towards Krakow (Poland) via a night in the Czech Republic. We found some nice roads but the route in (and out) of Poland was largely a chore because although the scenery was good, the roads were crammed with processions of trucks.

Krakow itself is a lovely city and well worth visit. I suspect I will return with the wife for a weekend, by air. Krakow was also a quick maintenance stop. My chain is on its way out, having significantly stretched over last 1,000 miles so needed quite a bit of adjustment. I hope to nurse it around the rest of the trip, or at least to Austria or Germany where I can get a replacement easily.

From there we spent a full day riding down through Slovakia and Hungary into Romania. We found some nice roads around the Poland/Slovakia border. The Hungarian plains themselves were very hot.

We spent our first night in Romania in Satu Mare (NW), just over the border to allow us to make an early start for a long following day. Unfortunately one friend had an off leaving town. He locked the front at a pedestrian crossing on a poor road surface, fell off and broken his collar bone. We therefore spent the day between the hospital, the police and vehicle testing (which the police required, along with a breath test, blood test and more paperwork than you could ever conceive as possible for a minor incident!). Whilst this was clearly most unwelcome, adventure trips tend to set their own agendas and it was really interesting seeing how the system worked and spending the day with one of the policemen finding out about his life, family and outlook.

We found a place to store our friend's bike and put him on train the next morning to a friend of his in west Romania, before setting off as planned, but a day behind.

We rode up to and along the northern border with Ukraine to Bukovina, a day characterised by nice mountains, interesting villages and some very dodgy roads. The Vee really came into its own here, allowing me to ride long beautiful mountain pass up on the pegs. This allowed the bike to absorb the terrible surface and gave me more visibility of the potholes. It was well up to a few unsurfaced sections; much more so than my friend on his R1100RT who was lagging behind and well out the bike's comfort zone.

If visiting I would strongly recommend you fit off road pegs (no.2 on my to do list, after finding a fix for my neck). I probably spent 10-20% of the Romanian leg of the trip stood on mine. I was glad of bar risers (I would have higher still for proper off road use) but the narrow pegs became uncomfortable on the soles of my feet during extended standing use. This aside the Vee is very easy to ride standing from long periods (hour plus at a time).

We visited the famous painted monastaries at Moldovita and Voronet in The north east. Aside from being beautiful it also gave us a laugh when we were chased by an irate fat nun. We had inadvertently misread a Romanian sign saying no entry and were heading into the nun's private chapel! The situation was quickly resolved with humble apologies.



Next day we headed SE into Transylvania through beautiful mountain roads. The road surfaces were often appalling and I had a close call. This piece of road was unusually free of patches, potholes and over banding, but the surface was completely worn out and shiny. In one of those weird premonitions I was looking at it and thinking I really don't much fancy an emergency stop on this. Two minutes later in the next village a VW van pulls to right to park. As I start to pass (thankfully slowly as I had slowed right down to see what he was doing) he changes his mind and starts to swing left to a parking space on the other side of road. I brake sharply and the front locks and shimmies, complete with loud tyre squeal. I quickly let off the brake and thankfully the bike recovers to allow me to reapply and bring the bike to a controlled stop. I don't have enough spare pants on the trip for this and reflect that my next bike will have ABS.

We spent later afternoon in Sighisoara (the birth place of Vlad Dracul, and father of Vlad the Impaler) and breakfast in Sibiu. These are two beautiful historic towns. It was Sunday morning in Sibiu so we stood for 15 mins outside the packed Romanian orthodox church. Whatever your views on religion, the music was beautiful to listen to.



Then one of the trip's biking highights; riding the Transalpina through the Carpathian mountains. This runs parrallel to the more famous Transfaragaran pass (which is closed until 1 July). It is an interesting and challenging combination of great, terrible and none existent roads. The Vee the perfect partner.




We followed this up yesterday morning with a stunning ride through the Carpathians on the way to Jimbolia, a town on the hungarian border, to meet our injured friend and to spend a day with an amazing family who run a great charity helping gypsy kids. Out of the mountains it was staggeringly hot. I could feel my concentration falling, even after a break and suspected I was getting close to heat exhaustion. I soaked my tee shirt in cold water in order to get my body temperature down a bit and this got me there intact.

On a full on two week trip it's nice to have a down day and I know if I don't write this up now it won't get done. We head out tomorrow, across Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, home Sunday afternoon.

The verdict so far: for a pure bike riding experience from the UK the alps give more addrenelin for less effort. However for adventure in a wider sense, which includes some great riding, but also seeing history, understanding new cultures and eating new foods (i am now addicted to cream of garlic soup - handy in Transylvia) this has been a great trip.