“HILLCHAINS OF TET BULGARIA”
(Part 1)
For this adventure I choose the name “The Breakdown Ride” for one reason: Along this journey Чернотa suffered small, and some bigger breakdowns. Also at this day, which followed the Trans Euro Trail in Bulgaria, a repair was needed for making progress. Besides that, the dual sport ride following TET Bulgaria was superb!
After entering TET Bulgaria the day before, Чернотa and I followed …
the TET route always close the border with Serbia southwards. Especially Bulgarias North-Western-Part of the TET with its spectacular hill-cape was definitely worth the ride!
The daily routine: I went up around 0530 AM. The first view out of the …
tent promised the incoming of another great day of adventure riding. Looking to the west, the …
moon was still visible in the morning sky. After an early potty break, I interrupted the usual morning toilet …
for capturing this awesome shot of dawn. When I was …
ready with bundling my belongings, the sun had already rose to a a level, which made me sweat in my riding gear. So it was time for swapping the view of this beautiful wild camping spot, for …
some forest morning air. With wide open vents/zips of motorcycle jacket, I enjoyed the cool airflow along …
the shady forest trails.
At the main square of a small village, I stopped for cleaning my helmet visor. It collected a lot of spider webs along the first trail riding hour of this morning.
The landscape in Nort-West-Bulgaria is a beauty and remembered me sometimes to parts of Southern France. Also, offside the TET it was providing plenty of such views.
Next the tall flat valley we …
passed a few of such …
very small villages, before ….
the track gained height again. Now, my black beauty Чернотa and I …
reached a …
very steep declension. A few times I was on the verge of dropping Чернотa in the dirt, because hitting both breaks hard wasn’t enough for overcoming the power of gravity. Despite braking, we gained speed along this marble like gravel down the hill.
At the end of this long slope I stopped quite a bit frightened.
I had to relax my arms for a minute, which got sour from ongoing pushing my own weight as far back as possible from the handlebar, for increasing the weight / brake effect on Чернотas back wheel. In hindsight, I’m not sure if a ride in the opposite direction is possible. Perhaps there is a detour? 🤔
Following another overgrown part of the trail through the forest, I found out at this fallen over obstacle, that obviously someone was riding ahead of me. Fresh …
cracked branches and bent blades of grass were the indications for this assumption. The dense vegetation took its toll: It wasn’t even 10 AM when I had to refill …
my water bottles (3,5 liters in total) for the first time this day, at this mossy spring in the woods. Slowly …
Чернотa and I overcame …
the timberline. The view opened up …
again spectacular. Before we decreased height again …
I stopped at this ancient looking bulldozer for drinking some water. Whilst drinking, my nose caught the fine smell of fresh berries in the air. Just a few steps of backtracking later, I found a lot of …
berries just aside the track. I took the chance and picked / ate surely five hands full of this sweet berries for a late breakfast. 🤤
Back in the saddle Чернотa was pulling hard for bringing us forwards in this…
steep terrain. Finally we reached…
the stunning …
top of this hill range.
I recognized plenty of this …
flowers in the meadows. In Austria, this plant is called “Königskerze” or “Verbascum” is very rare and hence protected in most middle European countries. Here in the hills of Bulgaria, it’s growing like a weed. According to the internet, the seeds, thrown in water, are able to sedate nearby fish for easy hand-catching.
On my way back down into the next valley, near the wall of …
an indefinable old building, this interesting …
scene showed up. ⬆
Also a closer look didn’t gave me an explanation, why someone had tied wooden sticks together and …
hanged it into a power line. Maybe a cheap suicide-support-instrument? 😵
Our way continued to a dammed up lake. In front of the dam wall, we passed …
some old run down houses, which were still used for living. I saw three children disappearing in one of them. They were afraid for no reason or just playing. We left this area and underpassed through …
this short tunnel, the main road before we passed another very big lake.
It was time for a civilized rest at one of these benches, standing in the shade of a tree. Besides tons of rubbish lying around, the view was great.
It was already midday and a look at the navigation system told me, that the incoming off road miles will get exiting. So Чернотa and I left the scene, just for stopping …
for making the obligate Eastern-Europe-Vehicle picture.
Next the village …
the vegetation changed for a short distance from grass to …
dense fern plants. After a while, we …
entered again a forest. The track in this forest was like a highway, caused by many …
big lorries, which hauled wood out of it. Regarding the good riding surface, I spurred Чернотa up, and we flew with high speed along the track through the forest.
Following the gravel-highway in stand-up-riding-style, I tried to support Чернотas suspension as much as possible with intense legwork. It wasn’t long before the high speed …
claimed its toll: The …
front tire first went wobbly and was already flat before an adequate place for stopping aside the track was found. But luckely that was no big deal for someone, who is changing around four times a year the tires and tubes himself by hand:
1.: I took the …
spare tube out of the luggage and dismounted the front wheel with my tools stowed the tool tube, bolted on the front of Чернотas bash plate.
2. Next step was getting the tire of the rim. When the tire was off, …
3. I checked it for damage and foreign objects. I found in total …
two about 4 mm long thorns (maybe collected on the day before whilst riding throw the dens thorn bushes) sticking in the tire. But none of them was long enough for damaging the tube inside. Still lacking a foreign object which caused the flat tire, I put an eye on the tube. Finally, I found …
a small rupture in it (right in front of my thumb). So I decided:
4. to put the new spare tube in and mounted the tire again.
I used the chance, after about 1800 km or 1100 mi on this tire, for mounting it now against its normal running direction. This way, the less stressed side of knobbies will produce better grip on the ongoing ride.
I used the pliers for holding the valve stem in position.
Why?:
Because of riding low air pressure I’m no fan of bolt nut fixated valve stems. In my opinion, a little play there is preventing thorn out valves when riding low air pressure without tire locks because the tube is able to move around slightly.
The tire was filled with a small bicycle pump. Yes, a simple small hand powered bicycle bump is doing this job very well.
Despite being in the shade of the forest, the midday heat was intense. So I decided to stay here a few minutes longer for fixing the tube.
Therefore I have a small tire puncture kit stowed under Чернотas saddle. I took it out and roughened up the surface around the hole.
Whilst doing this a man came along the gravel road with his old blue car, went out and first tried to help. I recognized that he was slightly drunk, so I told him clearly with using my hands and feet, that I know what I’m doing and continued under his curious ongoing observation the tube repair.
Next, I put some …
vulcanizing glue on the rough surface and …
spread a thin film of it around the hole. After a minute or two the glue was obviously dry, what means the chemical process of vulcanization has already chemical transformed the rubbers roughened surface of the tube. Now …
it was time for mounting the repair patch. I pressed it hard for about a minute on the glued place and …
finally removed the plastic foil. Job done.
Having the guy still sniffing around me and the bike, I just throw the tube and the repair kit into one of the saddlebags. (what was in hindsight kind of unwisely). I put my clothes on and made a …
picture of the man with his old, TET-approved car, and wished him farewell. Чернотa and I left the woods. The track got …
a bit rocky …
and bumpy now and …
climbed …
again …
enormous heights.
At a source…
in the middle of this plateau, I had another short break, using the provided and well-designed sitting furniture, …
before we continued to one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip … … .
The next part is coming soon. Stay tuned! 😉
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