The Crimson Trail continues next week. As usual, the bike has gone through maintenance and some upgrades, but more about those later.

I’ll start off with a 1200 km slab ride to Cluj-Napoca in Romania and hook up with Calin from the Carpathian 2 Wheels Guide who has a set of fresh tyres stashed for the 500. His guidebook has been a great help in planning the route, and it even comes in a smart phone app for those who prefer not to rock navigators. There’s a lot of tarmac and soft enduro stuff for big bikes, but also over 1000 km of adventure routes which consist mainly of dirt! The guide also lists gas stations, accommodation and restauants etc. and everything can be downloaded directly to BaseCamp or whatever you’re using for route planning.

The Crimson trail continues in the Apuseni Mountains, and pushes generally towards Serbia and across to Montenegro or Bosnia, depending on how things go. The whole ride should be around two to three weeks. Drop me a line if you’re somewhere in the area on a light bike and want to join the ride.