Devon TRF Group Forum

A couple of weeks ago myself and RichT4 ventured over for some adventurous trail riding in Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.

The trip was organised by some guys from Belgium, which was advertised on the ADV forum back in September 2011. The trip was aptly named 'Wipe Your Own Arse 2012', so the theme being that you were given a start point, a route with a campsite for each night and everything else was down to you and who you rode with i.e. food, fuel, repairs and breakdowns etc.

There were 40 riders from all over Europe signed up for it, of which some knew each other and had small riding groups formed, some were individuals so knew no-one and formed there own riding group once at the basecamp in Villach, Austria. There was also a big range of bikes with the KTM 690 Enduro being very popular(only 135kgs!!) As me and Rich had comparably small bikes, we stuck together as a pair as we knew our bikes could get places that the big bikes couldn't, so pushing a KTM 990 uphill wasn't our idea of fun!

The route was put together by using Google maps and Garmin Adria Route mapping, so some of the route would be a bit hit and miss, but all the more fun 

Below is a rough route of where we rode and the stars being where we camped.

Initially myself and Rich thought the daily mileage would be 90 miles per day, but when the routes got sent to us 4 weeks before the start, we got a bit of shock, we were averaging 260km's per day (160 mile), with day one being 299kms The whole route was 1800 miles in 12 days, so choosing tyres was also a lengthy decision, mainly as we thought we'd be riding dry and wet rocky trails, plus doing that mileage, so a Pirelli MT43 was out because of the mileage. We were advised that not to go for an enduro front tyre due to the mileage, but Rich kept his on and I went for a MT21 on the front (Bad decision I was soon to find out!) In the end we both went for Pirelli MT21's on the rear as well as it had good reviews.

So we set off with the bikes in my van and got to Villach, Austria in 24 hours. We then had just under 24 hours to get over our trip and begin our adventure. It was a bit of a shock mind as the temperature on site was 31C and it was just too humid to sleep.

We also packed 3 days worth of meals as we thought getting food would present a problem as we were quite remote, plus it would keep the cost down of buying meals.

Right enough talking and time for some pics!

This lane was completely covered in about 2 - 3 ft of leaves and got steeper and steeper, so was very slippery but a good laugh(Only at the top of course!)

Strangely all the villages in North and east Croatia had a telegraph pole with a platform on top, which was for Storks to make a nest on, also you found the occasional nest on houses as well and they were bloody massive.

After doing 500 miles my rear pads were shot (They were new only 5 days previously!) Luckily after requesting help on the DTRFG forum and Yammy dealer was located only 6kms away! So after forking out a hefty £3.40 labour to get them replaced we were on our way).

This was my 140 wide MT21 that soon developed into a 200 wide clay filled tyre!

Video of the hill in question, which caught a few out as it was very slippery clay

Video of KTM 990 having issues!

Video evidence of richT4 stating that he's consdiering going orange 

Believe it or not this is a main road in Croatia, lots of this between villages, lots of loose gravel on bends, with the occasional truck/car in the middle of the road coming round it.

A F650GS Dakar BMW being recovered back to a road by a logging tractor after burning his clutch out in some woods, of which we were in for about 4 hours tring to get out of some amazing gloop!

In Slovenia it was very green, steep and muddy trails, with gravel tracks, very similar to East Croatia. When you start heading South it starts changing to white granite rocks and gravel lanes. This all started after about day 5/6, where we camped very near the Bosnian/Croatian border at 2000ft, so cos of that the temp got down to -2C at night.

Next day within 20 minutes we were at 5000ft and riding in 12 - 18 inches of snow with some very steep drop offs if you got it wrong.

At this point the big bikes turned back as the snow was getting deeper with there also being trees being down of which you had to get your bike under

Vid of Rich in the snow

That same day we dropped to sea level and temperatures of 30 degrees

Then we hit the Adriatic sea.

After about 8 days riding we chilled out on an island called Krk and basically ate and got pissed for 2 days!

It was here that i noticed that I'd blown my front fork seals and also had a noisy cam chain, so we called it quits a day early and headed back to Austria via Slovenia again.

The food in Croatian and Slovenia is top notch and dirt cheap, so is the beer and petrol. The beer was about 10 Bing-bongs for a pint (Croatian currency is the Kuna, but we soon nicknamed the currency 'Bing-Bong'!) so about 90p a pint and a meal was about £3 - £5 and this was in the main resorts! In the local bakers you could buy some warm 10" pizza's for brekky for about £1!! petrol os about £1.05 per litre. Me and Rich reckoned that you could easily for £10 per day do 100 miles trail riding, eat and sleep. Bloody bargain 

Some sample food fro the trip 

This was at a truck stop and it was the size of a dinner plate and about 4 - 5 inches thick. A form of Croatian burger for about 80p, bloody huge

Overall I must say that Croatia offer every type of terrain, and can range from easy to very difficult very soon if not careful, so it is wise to take stock now and again, especially look on the ground rather than satnav, to see the best route option.

Definately the best trail riding i have ever done and no-one gives you grief or stops you, all the kids wave at you in the villages. I will definately go back there again with my bike. 

Next year me and Rich are considering running our own 'Wipe Your Own Arse', but will probably be along the Pyrenees.........can't wait