[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

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We had to wait our turn to pet the resident puppy.

From the top of the castle walls, we can see our bikes parked at the bottom of the mountain

There are actually two Castle Draculas in Romania. The more famous one is in Transylvania and it's called Castle Bran. There's a bit of a feud going on between these two castles. Poenari likes to advertise itself as the "REAL" Castle Dracula, since Vlad Dracul was actually a real person. However, the castle in Bram Stoker's book was really based on Castle Bran despite the character being named after Vlad.

It would have been nice to visit Castle Bran, as it's much more grander than this one. But we are actually in this area for another reason...

Castle Poenari is located right at the start of a very famous road called the Transfăgărășan

Finally! It's our turn to pet the Poenari Puppy!

I think this puppy lives up here. There's a water bowl just outside the the ticket office. I'm going to call him Vlad. Because he's a bloodhound. And his favorite food is shishkebabs.

 

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Back down at the bikes, father and son herding their goats along the river

We are now going to ride the road made famous by Top Gear, the Transfăgărășan Pass! Everybody raves about it as being the most scenic mountain pass in the world, even better than the Stelvio Pass in Italy. Check out the map above! We've really been looking forward to riding this road ever since we heard about it.

I pulled out my Sena camera so we could capture the run on video. But then over the Bluetooth intercom, the camera admonished me, "Low Battery Warning".

I forgot to charge it! Dammit!

Thankfully, I had a USB battery pack. I juryrigged it and stuck the external battery in my backpack. So ghetto-looking...

 

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As we reach the steep part of the pass, surreal green mountains surround us. And pretty waterfalls too...

The Transfăgărășan is a touristy road. There are a ton of hikers, buses, cars and bicyclists all over the place. The scenery is wondrous - such vast open spaces to appreciate the Făgărășan mountain range around us. We find ourselves a spot to pull over to take in the beauty.

You can't help but look up and all around you

Then back on the bikes to ride further up the pass. The road switches back on itself as it climbs higher and higher to the summit. We don't stay on the bikes very long. Because after every three or four switchbacks, we look over the edge:

"Ooooh... gotta stop and get a picture from this angle!"

 

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My jury-rigged video camera is basically useless. We're stopping and going so often, it's not going to make for a very interesting video...

I don't care. It's so pretty here. It's a photographer's feast!

This picture is for the Expedition Portal guys. I think camping is free out here

Another scenic stop at one of the switchbacks

 

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Just like the Stelvio Pass, at the summit, there's a little village with restaurants, snacks and souvenir shops

Behind the village, there's a hiking trail. That reflection on the lake is gorgeous!

 

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Hop Scotch

View of the Transfăgărășan Pass from the summit

So, was the Transfăgărășan a good riding road? It's okay. Like the Stelvio Pass, the switchbacks are sooooo wide. They were built to accommodate tourbuses, so it's really not a very challenging road for motorcyclists. There are much better and tighter switchbacks all over Europe. What makes the Transfăgărășan such a magnificent road is the scenery. The mountains are really quite beautiful and the road twists so often that you get a different view at every turn.

Holy...

I can see why the Top Gear guys and all the car magazines like to film here. It makes for terrific cinematography! Very nice. Neda and I were babbling to each other at every stop, "It's so beautiful here!!!" Definitely, the highlight of our Eastern European leg.

BTW, there are a lot of accents in Transfăgărășan. I don't think I typed Transfăgărășan once in this entire blog entry. Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V to the rescue.... TransfăgărășanTransfăgărășanTransfăgărășanTransfăgărășan

 

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Neda checking out the view from the top. It's chilly up here!

Okay. Back on the bikes, heading back down the other side of Transfăgărășan

On our way down the pass, Neda radios me, "Is your foot resting on the rear brake? Your brake light is on."

"Nope". I tapped the rear brake a few times. "Is it still on?"

"Yeah, your brake light is solid."

Crap. The pedal must have gotten stuck or something. We pull over and I inspect the rear brake. Nothing mechanically wrong with the pedal and the rear pads aren't binding. I can't find anything wrong with it. Then I pump the front brake lever a few times. The brake light goes out. Ah, must just be a sticky lever. I check the actuation and the brake lights seem to be working again.

We climb back on our bikes and proceed a bit further. Not 30 seconds later, Neda radios me again, "It's on again".

I pump the front brakes and the light goes out. But it keeps coming back on again and again. This is not good. Even though I can't feel any drag in the front, I don't want to slowly burn up the pads or warp the rotor. I can't keep riding with the front brakes engaged. We pull over and I inspect the lever and pads. I sniff the air. Is that burnt brake pads I smell...?

Fă*&g%răș*ă^&ă%ăn!!!! Stranded at the top of a mountain pass in Romania with a stuck front brake. We're hundreds of kms away from a city. What are we going to do now...?

 

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...Stranded at the top of a mountain pass in Romania with a stuck front brake. We're hundreds of kms away from a city. What are we going to do now...?

Holy cliffhanger, Bikeman!

 

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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/339.html

We're stranded near the top of the Transfăgărășan and my front brake seems to be seized.

What are our options? Tow the bike? We're pretty far from any town or city and the cost of a tow would be much more expensive than just replacing pads + rotor - if I decide to ride all the way down. What if I disconnect the front brake and only use the rear? Yeah.... we're at the summit of the Carpathian Mountains, making our way down. Probably not a good idea... Just how badly seized is it? There doesn't seem to be any drag at all in the front. I decide to do an experiment.

We ride on for a couple of kms with my brake light burning bright behind me, and then I pull over, using only the rear brake and downshifting to a stop.

I get off and feel the front rotor. Not even warm. Could it be just a switch at the lever tripping the light then? It was getting late in the day and I don't want to spend the time to diagnose it. Especially up here with the sun in a bit of hurry to duck in behind those mountain peaks. So we make a decision. We're going to ride down the mountain to the nearest town, find a place to stay and then look at it in the morning.

The ride down the other side of the Transfăgărășan gave us more twisty roads to negotiate and the sunset was promising to be quite spectacular. But we couldn't really appreciate either the roads or the scenery, I was worried about my front brake the entire time.

At the bottom of the Transfăgărășan, we pull into the first town we see, Victoria

Neda finds a grocery store and goes shopping for our dinner while I stay with the bikes outside. A group of young boys were hanging outside the store. I could sense their curiousity, so I smiled and nodded at them. That was their cue to rush over to me and pepper me with questions, "Where are you from?", "Where are you going?", "How fast does your bike go?" The typical questions we get from everyone.

I'm quite a big hit here in Victoria, Romania!

The guy to the right of me, Horaţiu, spoke really good English. We talked for quite a while outside the store before Neda came out to join us. Really friendly bunch of guys! We said our goodbyes as the light was getting scarce and we still had to find a place to sleep.

 

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Neda found us a little lodge on the map, but it was several kms down a gravel road... and after a while the road didn't really look like it was going anywhere. As if I wasn't already a bit worried... In the dim light of the late evening, it was hard to see anything in front of me, the thick forest already blocking what little sunlight there was glowing from out behind the mountains. Well at least *I* couldn't see anything. Since I was leading, my bright brake light was illuminating the entire way for Neda behind me...

Finally a clearing! And a very decent-looking place. There were a bunch of people having a barbecue and we were invited to join, but we had already bought our groceries for dinner. We met a few people staying at the lodge that evening. I would have liked to have been more social, but my mind was pre-occupied with trying to fix my bike. I excused myself from the party and spent time on the Internet trying to diagnose the problem.

In the bright light of the next morning, I haul my bike out into the middle of the backyard and proceed to dig into the front brake lever.

There's something about a guy working on a motorcycle or car that makes him a magnet for all the other men within eyeshot. Within a few minutes of tinkering, there were a couple of other guys standing around me, offering advice and giving me a helping hand. For women, going to the washroom is a communal event. For guys, breaking out the tools is our clarion call...

So my research on the Internet pointed to a switch at the brake lever. There's a piston that pushes that switch which activates the brake light. It also activates the servo motors that BMW uses for the brakes on this model of my bike. It makes a horrible whining noise and the guys around me ask, "Is that normal?" Yes. It's like when people gather around a Ducati and point out the rattling noise coming out of the dry clutch, "I think your bike is broken..."

A small allen key can be used to adjust the point when the brake light switch gets activated. However, I just can't seem to get it right. I turn it all the way out and then all the way back in but the light is either always on, or always off. So I disassemble the whole lever to see if I can re-seat the switch. No joy. The two other guys take their turn but we all have no luck fixing my bike. We all come to the consensus that the switch is broken.

At least I know now that it's just the switch and not the brakes. I adjust the front brake switch so that the light is always off. I'll just make sure to use my rear brake to trip the brake light when stopping or slowing. I always use both brakes anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

One of the guys helping me out, Dan and his wife Cristina

We spend the rest of the morning talking to Dan and Cristina. They're a great couple from Bucharest. Like most city people, they head up here into the Carpathian mountains for weekend trips to hike and bike out in nature's playgarden. He showed me his green KTM bicycle! Cool!

Before they left to hit the hiking trails for the day, Dan gave me his contact information should we decide to turn backwards to Bucharest to get my brake light switch fixed. I thanked him, but I think we're going to keep forging ahead towards Croatia. We have a date on the calendar to make.

 

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We've burnt pretty much the whole morning and afternoon hanging out at the lodge, so we ride into Sebeș, about 90 minutes away

We're also feeling a bit fatigued from all the constant travel and now all the troubleshooting as well. We're going to take a rest day here. Neda found a really nice apartment (again hitting our target of €20/night).

Neda's favorite part, it has a kitchen! Nice to have something warm and homecooked

Another reason we are staying in. Rain is in the forecast for the day.

 

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Okay, time to play in the mountains again! We hop back on the bikes after our short break. I take the lead because I've disabled my front brake light switch and if I forget to tap the rear brake, at least Neda will know not to run into the back of me.

I hope...

The Transalpina Highway runs parallel to the Transfăgărășan, exactly 100 kms to the west. It's the Transfăgărășan's younger sister, not as popular with the moto-journalists and TV programs, but not without her own charms. If you're in the area to ride the Transfăgărășan, there's absolutely no reason to skip the Transalpina.

Stopping at one of Transalpina's switchback corners for a peek at the road below

Fluffy clouds remain high above us, a remnant from yesterday's rains as we ride up to the summit of the Parâng mountain range. The scenery is like a toned down version of the Făgărăș mountains, not as dramatic, more rolling hills than daunting peaks. Way less traffic as well, which we like.

So... I thought I always use both brakes when stopping or slowing down. Well, now that I'm consciously keeping track of which brake I'm using when riding, I notice that I tend to use the front brake only a lot! I never realized this until I see Neda's bike getting larger and larger in my rear view mirror at every corner of the Transalpina... Ooops, front brake only, no brake light... Sorry, Neda....

Contemplation-time amongst the mountains of the Southern Carpathians: "I wish he'd use his rear brake more..."

 

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Bikes love being up here. So do we!

The further we get up to the peaks, the foggier it gets, as we ride into the clouds that envelop the summit of the mountaintops. The temperature steadily drops and when we reach the top, we have to don some extra layers to get some heat back into our bones. We also take the opportunity to walk around.

Parking near the summit

Brrrrr!

 

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Sheep crawl all over the fields up here, grazing to their heart's content. We have to dodge the poop all over the ground!

The shepherd sits closeby, his sheepdogs rest with him. Through the cloud cover, the Transalpina lurks in the background

The sheepdogs don't get to rest very long. Not with Neda around... Thankfully Neda's tankbag is full of rocks from Santorini...

 

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My bike, pretending to be a sheepdog. With a broken front paw...

We can't really see much up here with all the clouds and fog obscuring the landscape below. So we continue back on the Transalpina

The traffic is sparse enough that I let Neda go ahead of me. That way she doesn't have to worry about running into the back of my bike and I can take some riding pictures! This turned out to be a good idea, because the southern section of the Transalpina is where all the fun is at. See the map above for a closeup of the road-reverie!

Whohooo! Enjoying the twists and turns!