Bromley to Bucharest: Day 29: Bajina Bašta to Belgrade, 215 km

Day 29 - Bajina Bašta to Belgrade, 215 km

Dramatic day! Started with a long and slightly pointless 40km loop on tarmac (and short sections of might-as-well-be-tarmac gravel) to Makovishte. Improved slightly by a wrong turn I took (I'll submit all changes to Ivan Gligorijevic shortly).

To the top!

Summit of Srednji Povlen

The other way at Srednji Povlen

Great view. Don't miss it!

It quickly got better, with great bits to small summit of Srednji Povlen. Vistas of plains to north. I looped round the back of the hill too which was even more fun. Trail started to get really engaging after that, when brake-gate happened! I reached for a handful when I too-late saw a near invisible electric fence wire across the track, only for the lever to fracture and come off in my hand.

Just starting to get fun!

When... This isn't actually the scene of the crime. The wire I crashed into didn't have any plastic bags or other markers, so was essentially invisible to me.

This is what I wrote on FB at the time: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/856870194468126/).

Stay tuned folks, as I work out how to get myself out of this one!

Saw an unmarked - so practically invisible - electric fence wire taught across the track. Too late. Instinctively pulled on the anchors, hoping the ABS (front only) would make up for the threadbare tyre. It didn't, because the lever came off in my hand! Fortunately the fence was low enough that the bike took the brunt, rather than my neck.

Couldn't find the farmer to tell him about his cows. So limped slowly, with no front brake and only half a rear, over 10km to the nearest road and then another 30km into a town.

Next update shortly...

Oh, and I don't think KTM Belgrade could even help with this one. 701s have brembo brakes and magura clutch; 690 is the other way around!

Limped into Valjevo where Elter Moto rescued me with a welding torch, all for free! Update: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/857012607787218/).

Brake update. Fixed it up well enough to get to Belgrade. Huge thanks to Luka at Elter Moto, and the other mechanics who referred me on to him. He welded it back together and more to the point, did it all for free. Absolutely refused payment, even for the coke he bought me.

Now in Belgrade and KTM have fitted an old 990 lever with the end ground off, which is good as I didn't actually have the gorilla hands necessary for the fixed-span of the Elter lever. Definitely keeping it as my back-up though!

I had the time to double back to the trail, and I was at least one spoke of the radial roads to Belgrade too early to shoot off, but it would have been 25km each way on tarmac so I regretfully headed towards the capital. That did mean I got to KTM Belgrade today though, and managed to patch up everything else that needed tweaking on the bike. Sadly, not free, but much needed.