Uly Italy to Romania and back July 2022

[dolomoto]

2022 July Italy to Romania on a Uly

I've scarcely had enough time to scrape together a few riding days but I did make time to plan for a trip from Italy to Romania this summer. I started with ordering some planning materials:

https://www.carpathian2wheelsguide.com/

The Transalpina Highway and the Transfagarasan were at the top of the list:

https://draculafanclub.com/the-transalpina-highway/

https://www.dangerousroads.org/eastern-europe/romania/862-transalpina-road-romania.html

https://www.transfagarasan.net/

https://dailytravelpill.com/transfagarasan-highway-romania/

A couple of my friends showed some interest; my friend Joe is retired and has all the time in the world. The other rider, Tim is a coworker and had never taken a multi-night trip. I got right after some planning, getting routes together and making initial contact with some hotels.

Tim and I planned a few days of riding in the Alp before meeting Joe on Monday, 4 July. I routed us up from Vicenza to Val Gardena and up the Staller Sattel and then onto our weekend lodging in Oberdraugburg, Austria.

The ride got right down to business with a nice climb up Passo Manghen with a rest stop at the mountaintop rifugio at 6000'.




https://www.rifugiopassomanghen.com/

Then it was back down into the next valley and a transit route to Val Gardena. Tim had never ridding in the Alps and most of the folks we work with scarcely ride more than an hour or two out of town...unbelievable!

Val Gardena doesn't disappoint:




We had a stop for lunch, I had speck, eggs and taters...mighty fine:



https://www.montipallidi.it/

After getting some grub, it was on to more riding!




The road was full of other two wheelers as it was the weekend of Maratona della Dolomiti:

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/european-event-related-pass-closures-2022.1566897/

We pressed on to the Staller Sattel; it's a one way road that requires folks to wait at the top and bottom for their turn to go up or down.

The view at the top was nice and we crossed into Austria.

 

[dolomoto]

Onward we went to the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse...a fantastic feat of engineering, just for scenery. Everyone who's been in the are has taken a photo like this in Heiligenblut, the town just south of the GG. https://www.grossglockner.at/gg/en/index

*

As we climbed toward the GG, the scenery just got better and mo' bettah.



Glacier on the GG.



A few years back in May 2018, a good riding buddy did something really stupid...he passed a line of cars behind a tractor and just as he pulled even with the tractor, it turned in front of him. Instant...game over. We had some stickers made and I leave a bit of Fritz on roads I think he would have liked to ride. Fritz eschewed tech, no GPS, no cell phone, no internet..hell, he only had a 4 wheel vehicle for a few years before he passed. A lifelong bachelor, he lived the moto life many of us dream. I left Fritz on the Grossglockner.



GG never disappoints, this day the clouds were below the highest road level...nice.



The view from the highest point at the Edelweiss ParkPlatz is a nice view.




Lunch was a grilled ham and cheese with a nice view.



One last farewell view, a prossima!


Back at the hotel, it was time for more route planning.



The next day, I routed us thru Lake Sorapis near Cortina d'Ampezzo (IT).



We found a nice place for lunch; I had raviolini (aka ravioli) stuffed with fresh herbs and topped with smoked local cheese.



The above lunch and our riding was around the Italian town of Forni di Sopra, well off the beaten track but a great little town with fantastic riding in every direction.



We rode over Passo di Pura, a two way, single lane road over a low pass. Other than summer, it's rare to see another car. The north ramp has an old tunnel that is unlit and in the off season, is unregulated. Luckily, this was high season so they had lights controlling the traffic. It's a neat place to visit.



We ended up in the Valle di Sauris which is well known to the dual sport crowd as the home of Forcella Lavardet...sadly, the Forcella is permanently closed to motorized traffic. The valley is very scenic though.



We stopped for fuel just before the Plocken Pass turn off. This gas station was also a bar with nice craft beer and an outside keg/table. We just got fuel and some water..this time. LOL.



I took a detour for a local pass and caught up with the above groups on the Plocken Pass. I cut thru them alright but a couple of 2-up riders on GS gave me fits and I was only able to shake them when the road got really terrible on near the peak on the Italian side. Good times.

Next day was on to Slovenia.

 

[dolomoto]

Departing Oberdrauburg, Austria we headed east and took Nassfeld Pass into Italy. It's a nice road but the pavement is a bit broken but there is nice scenery; there's a ski resort at the peak and a nice lake on the south ramp in Italy.



We went directly into Slovenia via Tarvisio, Italy and made a lunch stop just east of Kranskja Gora. You can get what you want in this area, as for me, I always get Cevapcici (or Mici as it's known in some parts). Minced meat with spices and a Radler (half grapefruit juice, half beer) to wash it down.



Racing the rain, we made it to our destination: Pension Kanonir in Jezersko, Slovenia. This is a great place; Marie runs it which means all the cooking and check-in. Simple rooms with a babbling brook to lull you to sleep; around $35 with breakfast included. https://www.kanonir.si/aindex.html



Tim and I had a beer and plotted the next day's ride while we waited for Joe to arrive.



Soon, the sky turned darker and some light rain started...the road from the highway is very windy and riders should be extra cautious at the end of the riding day...goes double for rain...but what about Hail?



Pea and marble sized hail came down...I kept thinking: "I hope Joe found some shelter".

Nope and well, yes. When it started hailing, Joe pulled into the first place he could get some shelter...turns out, it was his destination! Serendipity!




Joe changed out of his wet clothes (no time to don rain gear since the storm came up quickly). Once in dry clothes, the three of us tucked into dinner. I opted for the mixed grill, about $15usd.





Note: most places in Europe have wine by the glass, half liter or full liter for around $2/$5/$8-$9 respectively. Cheaper than water most times.

I'm an early riser and met Marie at 0700 and did some route planning while drinking coffee and watching her set the table. It was quite a spread with all local stuff including smoked bacon that her papa made. You can't get more real food than this.




And, off we went: Slovenia>Croatia>Serbia.

 

[Pushr0d]

Wow! Just...Wow!

Great photography!

 

[c3powil]

Wow, that is so awesome. Thank for taking the time to post your pictures and writeup.

 

[dolomoto]

Northern Slovenia looks a lot like my home area in Appalachia, very much like the Blue Ridge Mountains.






We got on the road and it was a highway slog across Slovenia and to Novi Sad, Serbia. I wish I could say it was super scenic and I had lots of great photos but the truth is the highways look a lot alike the other dull highways across Europe. A few hours into the trip, Tim had second thoughts about continuing on into Romania and he split for BudaPest>Italy (home). The original plan had Tim with us until Romania and riding with us along the Danube and stay with us our first night in Romania. As I explained to him, "you do you" and off he went.

We had a bit of a slog thru the traffic, looks like traffic everywhere else:



I feel like Serbia (the part between the highway from Zagreb>Novi Sad) is like a neighbor down the street; they are nice enough but their house could use a coat of paint, the fence needs mending and every so often, they have a waste management issue. We had high hopes to take a short taxi ride into the old part of Novi Sad but the day had pretty much smoked us with the heat and highway droning so we walked to dinner. Breakfast was decent enough and gave us fuel until we could get to the Danube.



Leaving Novi Sad, the TomTom GPS routed us east to the Danube. There was lots of agriculture, mostly corn and sunflowers with long stretches of road with very little traffic.



I wrongly thought we would cross into Romania directly but there are very few bridges in that area and we took the Serbian coast road. Restaurants were few and far between but soon enough we spotted a few bikes parked at a place with an a nice spot right on the river.




3 guesses about what I got? Easy, Cevapcici prolit pomfrit and a Serbian beer. Nice.




Serbia is making a go for Danube tourism with some nice billboard maps along the road. Unfortunately, some of the tunnels are unlit and quite dark, mind the potholes and cyclists! There is major work being done on the road so the pavements should be much improved in 2023.





There are still hard borders in Europe. Croatia>Serbia is a hard border with passport and document (ex. vehicle registration) checks. My paperwork is non-standard since I work in Italy under the Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA); unfortunately, my registrations documents look absolutely forged but the numbers match. I got grilled entering Serbia (from Croatia) but was allowed to enter.

First view of border leaving Serbia to enter Romania:



This check was 30 minutes as the guy just couldn't believe these were official documents. After 30 minutes, he let me go onto the Romania checkpoint. That guy, oh boy...it was an hour wait and they would not let any other cars pass. When they finally let me enter Romania, the tail end of the line was across the Danube dam and had backed up the Serbian exit check. Sheesh.

Joe and I had a nice ride on the Romanian side of the Danube as we made our way to that night's accommodation in Eselnita.





We made our way to our hotel, the Pensiuna Septebrie. http://www.pensiunea-septembrie.ro/wp/?page_id=1689&lang=en

Nice view of the Danube from my room.






Dinner had some serious route planning to take advantage of the good weather and balance it with our goal to be at the next place by 1800L.




Next: into Romania.

 

[34nineteen]

This is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing the great pics and experience. It looks like an amazing time!!!

You sir, are nominated for BuellXB.com member of the year!

 

[dolomoto]

a few bonus pics:

the visitors center at the Franz Joseph glacier visitor center ( https://www.grossglockner.at/gg/en/grossglockner/kaiserfranzjosefshoehe )



the highway tracking north thru the valley; i've been there several times, nary a cop in sight. as long as you can stay in your lane, moto's mostly can ride as fast as they want.



moto only parking at the top.




a pic from 2021 trip, the whole road is like this. lol





Joe is 82 and still getting after it on his GSA (and 2 x Wings, CB500X and several other moto's).



You don't stop riding 'cause you get old; you get old 'cause you stop riding.

 

[Endopotential]

Phenomenal trip report!!! Those views and good German beer alone would make the trip worthwhile.

You live in Appalachia? Did you and your friends ship the bikes over?
What kind of tail rack did you use? Mosko Moto bags worked well?

Wondering if I can repurpose my XB9SX for some light touring duty...

 

[Cooter]

B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T!!!!!

Ya, to what Endo asked, and thats really close to the route I'm planning that intersects with Oktotefest:angel: Been awhile since we had a really epic thread like this, thanks so much for sharing!

 

[dolomoto]

Phenomenal trip report!!! Those views and good German beer alone would make the trip worthwhile.

You live in Appalachia? Did you and your friends ship the bikes over?
What kind of tail rack did you use? Mosko Moto bags worked well?

Wondering if I can repurpose my XB9SX for some light touring duty...

I'm originally from southwest Virginia but have lived all over the US (gov't civilian employee). I'm fortunate enough to live here in Italy; been here for 4 years, hoping to get extended for a few more years.

The tail bag is an excellent Chase Harper 1560 "tank bag" that's ginormous enough to be a darn good tail bag.
https://chaseharperusa.com/collections/tank-bags/products/sport-tour-tank-bag

Yes, the MM BC35 bags are working out well, lots of nice features. I just ordered some more accessories for them including 2 more "pods" to go on the outside to carry fuel bottles. The current pod setup is right side has my tools (tire kit, small compressor, misc sockets, torx, allen etc, a headlamp, duct tape); left side has my rain gear. I'm expanding the tool kit ( https://www.buellxb.com/forum/showthread.php?33549-Lets-put-together-a-tool-kit ) and MM makes an excellent tool carrier.

XB9X, any bike can be a touring bike!

 

[dolomoto]

B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T!!!!!

Ya, to what Endo asked, and thats really close to the route I'm planning that intersects with Oktotefest:angel: Been awhile since we had a really epic thread like this, thanks so much for sharing!

Hit me up ([email protected]) if you get over this way. At the least, I can help with some route suggestions and may be able to ride at least part of the trip.

 

[dolomoto]

First day in Romania...

The morning route planning started early over some coffee on the Danube river.







We took a detour for some LOTR vibes at the rock sculpture of Decebalus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_sculpture_of_Decebalus




We had some really good riding from SW Romania towards Sibiu but I didn't take many photos because: -sometimes it's better to just ride, -my riding buddy doesn't like to stop on the road, -life is for living (not photos).

Still, we got hungry. there was a dearth of restaurants on our path but we came across this spanish themed food truck. Odd, but great food. https://los-menendez.ro/



Good food, reasonable prices and a covered picnic area to eat. way cool




After a few hours of good riding, we made our way to Moto Camp Sibiu. https://www.moto-camp.ro/en/index.html



A fella named Doru runs the place and he was inspired by Moto Camp Bulgaria: http://www.motosapiens.org/motocamp/Info

Doru's place is very nice. Includes several bedrooms in the lodge with a couple full bathrooms, full kitchen, wood stove and outside kitchen. There's also a newly added tent area with two huts (2 persons each) with their own shower/toilet and washing machine (several clotheslines on the property). Nice place, reasonable price.

Also, Doru keeps the fridge stocked with beer and visitors keep their own tab and settle up and the conclusion of their stay. What's not on the tab is the local wine and Doru's schnapps and brandy. I think we drank our stay in his hooch with some bikers from Poland and Germany. Lies were told.





The next day, Joe and I got onto the Transfagarasan highway, our "raison d'etre".

 

[dolomoto]

Getting on the Transfagarsan highway is straightforward and not much chance to get lost; once near the top, the scenery is a bit stark with the road similar to Passo Stelvio (Italy's highest paved road) but more water, less traffic, fewer hikers, very little development...ok, maybe only the general road design is similar to Stelvio.






For the last year, I've been chasing a handling issue that seems to occur randomly. I had the forks and shock rebuilt and check the wheel bearings at every tire change. I recently had the steering head bearings also changed and the bike was nearly unrideable at times; the front end would feel quite loose on random corners which made me ride very cautiously all the time. Over some bumps, there was an audible "thunk"...almost like a metal on metal sound. Heading up the Transfagarasan, it was so bad I stopped and checked the whole front end including heaving the bike on the sidestand while Joe tugged, turned, pushed and pulled...all normal. So, I resigned myself to ride quite prudently and would seek help in the afternoon.

There's a lot of flowing water around and most of it is nicely managed with culverts, ditches and, in this case, a small bridge.




I think every article about this road had this picture...who am I to pass it up?



At the top, it's 5 euro to park for an hour. There's also a small amount of free parking just prior to the summit on the north ramp; we passed by the paid parking but I made time for a few photos.



At the summit, there's a tunnel for vehicles but it's possible to hike over it for the adventurous types. Once on the south side, the weather threatened rain but the scenery was quite spectacular.




Very Alpine-y.






Joe had a tough time handling the pig ('21 GSA) at slow speed so once we got turned around on the south ramp, he went on ahead while I did some shopping.



^ there are stands like this all over the area, you certainly don't need to wait until the Transfagarasan to buy something. They mostly have the same stuff: local cheeses, salami, jams, etc. I picked up some smoked cheese and wild boar bacon.

There's also a nice waterfall right along the road.



Although bears are seen quite frequently in the area, we didn't see any of them; plenty of sheep though.




Overall, the road is in very good shape. The cautions I got about the condition of Romanian roads were not what I encountered. Generally, the roads were well maintained to a euro standard.

Dodging the rain clouds, I headed back towards the top.



You can see the tunnel entrance here; there's a bit of parking here and there for cars, just be mindful of the folks who park poorly. The road was just cleared in mid-June and there was some snow left around the tunnel (temp was around 45 degrees on this day).

 

[dolomoto]

Two overlanding rigs took up some prime real estate.



The tunnel is around 1 km long and well lit. The Buell with a Drummer sounded mighty fine at WOT!




Once back on the north ramp, the storm clouds gave way to clear weather clouds and the sun was out.




On the way down, a few of the corners made me feel like the whole front end was washing away. I called Doru at the moto camp and he sent me to a local mechanic. Going down the dirt road, it was an inauspicious place.



The mechanic spoke excellent english and said he would work on anything, including Buell's. In fact, he spent 10 years working on HD and Buell in France and knew all about Buell quirks. His projects backed up his claim:




The mechanic had to go to a meeting for the upcoming Red Bull Romaniacs meet https://www.redbullromaniacs.com/

He said he would take a look at the moto that evening. So, Joe and I departed 2-up back to the Moto Camp. We walked to the village convenience store where they also had fresh corn on the cob. Let me tell you, that's a rare treat in Italy since most corn is grown for Polenta. This fine yellow specimen made me feel like I was back in jawja.



We got some grilled pork and fries. Including the corn above, the tab was about $14usd...not too shabby.




The next morning, we returned to the shop of the genius. He had taken the front end completely apart and put it all back together and found nothing. So, he looked elsewhere. As he used a hoist to lift the bike, he saw the motor move around 2 inches! Holy smokes, the front motor mount/isolator was shot. Visually, it looked okay but the inside was rotted. He fixed me up with some hard rubber material which effectively hard mounted the engine to the frame.




"it may vibrate more"...lol. That's an understatement! During the 1000+ miles back, anything under 3500 rpm made the mirrors unusable and gave me a terrible headache. Solution: keep it above 3500 rpm!

Here's the mechanic (I'm ashamed to say I did not note his name or have a proper photo of him) showing another customer how my previous mechanic installed a new clutch cable without adjusting it according to the Buell procedure.



A 92 GSXR pulled up...nice. I had a '01 Bandit 1200S with mostly the same engine as the 90's GSXR...what a monster engine.



Lots of folks in Romania are just getting by, like this farmer passing by with his 1 hp.



Finding my handling woes banished, it was on to the Transalpina...damned the rainy forecast!

 

[Cooter]

Hit me up ([email protected]) if you get over this way. At the least, I can help with some route suggestions and may be able to ride at least part of the trip.

Expect a contact, we travel exactly the same way:eagerness: Route planning the morning of, damn the weather, close (but not too close) to the tourist traps, and of course the local food and beer! I can't believe the stellar road pics:cheerful: I've been up and down the Amalfi coast and have friends in Maori (just south of Positano) but always wanted to go North through the Alps into Germany (sometime in September of course:very_drunk.

Please post every pic you got

 

[dolomoto]

... I've been up and down the Amalfi coast and have friends in Maori (just south of Positano) but always wanted to go North through the Alps into Germany (sometime in September of course:very_drunk. Please post every pic you got

I just finished a trip to Liguria (betwixt La Spezia/Cinque Terre and Genoa)...fantastic riding. Will post in another ride report.

 

[Endopotential]

Expect a contact, we travel exactly the same way:eagerness:

Hey Cooter, are you planning on shipping your bike (and the El Camino??) to Europe for the ride? Or just renting something there?

LMK if you ever swing by SF on another one of your road trips. Would be fun to meet at last one fellow forum inmate in person

 

[Cooter]

I just finished a trip to Liguria (betwixt La Spezia/Cinque Terre and Genoa)...fantastic riding. Will post in another ride report.

Please do!:angel:

Hey Cooter, are you planning on shipping your bike (and the El Camino??) to Europe for the ride? Or just renting something there?

LMK if you ever swing by SF on another one of your road trips. Would be fun to meet at last one fellow forum inmate in person

It would be fun to ride my own, but really would depends on cost. Euro shipping/insurance/reg isn't cheap, but neither is renting. It would be cool to hook up with a local like ride share thing to get something unique instead of the same ol' 900lb GS (no offense to the Bimmer faithful:black_eyed

Would love to meet ya in person Endo Been up a few times for work in a rental car, and with the FULL race schedule, planning a Sturgis run in August, and the next road trip will be FAR NE (Maine and Canadia) hard to say when the next West coast run to Mumzys house will be!

 

[Endopotential]

@Cooter I need to get back to the track in the coming year. LMK if you ever do Laguna Seca / Sonoma / Thunderhill. I could definitely learn a thing or two