Monkey Bike Adventure 1300km across Romania

Can 50cc Monkey Bikes get 1350km across Romania?

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50cc Monkey Bike ride 1350km / 835 miles across Romania in July 2018!

Trying to keep off main roads as much as possible on fairly rubbish 50cc (Skyteam) Monkey Bikes, we make a journey to test ourselves and these bikes to their limits.

We set off from Sighetu Marmației, North Romania on the boarder of Ukraine, over the Carpathians, down and across to the South Eastern boarder in Vama Veche.

Most days were 12 hours waking at 5AM and going by 6AM, finishing when it got dark at about 6/PM.

Short Music Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F8Ox6U7CjQ&t=2s

www.theadventurists.com

Music: https://www.bensound.com

This adventure through beautiful Romania starts at the northern border near Ukraine in Sighetu Marmatei, accross and down, over the carpathians to the South Eastern Boarder near Bulgaria in Vama Veche. the forced fun happens and then the fun fun fun fun happens hard-pressed to find anything more than a spark plug reasons

Why this sort system to fail is if you fight with it that’s your key don’t lose it we do have a spare, but we’re not going to come find you in Romania although this would have been easier and safer in a car or a decent motorcycle

Our chosen mode of transport was a 50cc monkey bike covering 1,350 KS or 800 miles in a week was no easy feat especially since the bikes are limited to just 44 kilometers per hour or 30 miles an hour before we even started Tommy started reacting badly to an insect bite what’s up

Disease after being led through town by the local biker gang their real bikes we broke off from the main group of 32 monkeys in Sigetu Manrmatei and headed southeast towards lake Bicaz and a bit of road known as the “neck of hell” Tommy: “don’t know he’s getting any better.” Freddie: “yeah it’s growing”

Tommy: “it’s because I’m squishing it up here” Has anyone ever watched “Big Train”? “What a fat handed tw….” We go up there Right ok, down and come back in (His hand is really fat isnt it?) if we’ve got enough time We’ll just see how we go! Common horse!

Don’t film and drive! not great if you use your throttle hand. I was trying to, like, do that. Pat: Yeah dont cross your arms. Tommy: have you got any spray. Fred: yeah Chris has some With Tommy patched up we head towards Carlibaba where we heard that it rains a fair bit

Rain finally stopped long enough for us to find the next hotel on the road then we call our first day only making around 140 kilometers or 87 miles Day 2 looked drier so we got up at 5 a.m. to catch up with that plan to make

Progress to Bicaz still using as many back roads and trails as we could even though we’re all going the same slow pace Chris and I managed to lose Pat, Finn and Tommy for over two hours while I was trying to figure out what the burning rubber smell coming form my engine was.

I’m just going to turn it (the air filter) sideways Freddie: it’s stuck onto the engine Chris: you not going to be able to Freddie:yeah just turn it sideways Freddie: you just parking it there? Chris: Yeah Freddie: that didn’t sound safe OMG, that was …. Tommy: errrrrr, it’s only 3 kilometres

Reunited and only getting lost a few more times we still had enough daylight to make your “Hells Neck”. A tight passage with 300 meter high limestone cliffs which made us on a tiny bike somehow feel even smaller It’s worse when you know how much it’s gonna hurt

Freddie: is it fizzing? ooh it is fizzing! Tommy: uuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrhghghghgghhhhh In the morning the bikes had ( what was left of) their running in oil replaced Tommy: there’s F**k all left in it *woooooooos* *beeping* Tommy: there’s not much of this road left

Tommy: F**k me, let me check the map again! Freddie: it looks like a road Fin! Fin’s dug himself in there! Chris: is this a road? quite far off the beaten path we managed to bump into a very unexpected hapy couple happy couple yeah Chris: was it a road?

Photographer: it was a river or something? Yeah we had to drive up a river to get here That! that, is the best thing that’s happened to me all day. *airing his soggy boxers* Tommy: it’s just whether we, or we just keep going and we F**k it off and go to Sighisoara

Finn: I dont really want to go to a big place. Tommy: errrmmm we’ll drive through that then. to avoid the busy city and its main roads we skirted under Sighisoara Southwest through Transylvania towards Fagaras where we aim to stay the night

Before attempting to get our 50 cc bikes over the Carpathians the next day here we ended up on a web of small logging trucks that threaten to turn into streams Pat: ok clear out you air vent Finn: It’s going to get very f……..

One day four, we tightened everything up and headed straight for the Transfăgărășan highway Heading up the Transfăgărășan was slow. sometimes the bikes needed pushing just to keep going. The bikes also needed regular breaks to cool down. Our average speed was around 15 kmh or 9 mph Chris: *singing* I like pina coloadaa….. oooohhh!

Tommy: I’m at one with the mountain Tommy: that is a brave man Fred: ooh he’s gonna stack it Tommy: ahhh he’s f’ed it Chris: F me well played sir well played Sheep: baaaaaaahhh *incessant beeping* *more beeping* once over the top the descent on the famous road felt well earned, but it wouldn’t

Be the hardest ride of the day for a group, as we got used to the nice tarmac and sought something else to challenge ourselves and the bikes with. Tommy: there’s another road… up there there’s another road, I’ve got it on the map Oh Faak

Tommy: mate you might have to move back, I’m gonna slide! Tommy: Do you need help? That ends up at Bunesti too doesn’t it? Fred: Hope so Tommy: I was praying to god you were filming that! Tommy: but then watch this! Fin: your kickstand was down then Pat: Like the whole way

* we all did this multiple times a day, never learned* Tommy: I’m going to carry it off Chris: niiiceee Fred: yes now carry it over the bog! Tommy: uurgghhh Fin: beast! Chris: ahh your facing the wrong way but we can do it Fin: who put this F***ing wall here

Tommy: Im not going to be able to reverse through that am I? *revving* Tommy: *grunting* Tommy: *more grunting* Chris: *laughs* *everyone grunting* Chris: ahh I can smell clutch Chris: *laughs* Chris: Yeah man! *Wooooo!* Tommy: it’s a slow worm…. Fred: it’s very slow *because we accidentally ran it over* Fin: wooooooaaaaw *laughing* *more laughing*

Pat: yeah build a road! Pat: going doooowwwwnn! after all that mud we felt the bikes needed a good wash by a local in daisy dukes… this is for the wasnt what we had in mind Chris: giggles With clean bikes we set offon day 5 from Bascov, just outside of Pitesti

Tommy had come up with an amazing route that avoided all proper roads as much as possible and with that he had to fix his bike when the spark plug cap kept falling off and making his engine cut out Tommy: lets fire up the hog! ahhhhhhhww haaarrrk (my bruise) *laughing* Tommy: yeeeaahhh

Tommy: wooah Fred: yeah that’s definitely not a road Fred: it’s not a road *Fin runs over Tommy leg* Chris: .. and I’ll just turned it off Tommy: it’s so dirty after that fun Chris had a small fall his bike refused to start again but we couldn’t figure out why

Tommy: somebody do it Fin: what are you trying to do? Fred: test weather there’s a spark Fin: you’ve got to put it in the thing Tommy: has anything fallen out, melted, fallen off Pat: one break spring’s fallen off Fred: wait you’ve got the spark plug in the wrong way round

Tommy: where is the thing? Fin: no no on it earths itself Fin: the thing that causes the spark is a little metal *mechanical speak* *distracted by goats* Fin: because the engine isn’t turning over …… *realises company* *whistling* Fred: haha this is the weirdest breakdown ever Tommy: I am genuinely in shock *sad music*

Pat: a little gas this time Fin: I dont think it’s a good idea Pat: in fact it’s probably the worst idea Pat: you may want to let it sit for a second now after trying to get the bike running in the hot sun until we run out of water

We towed the bike for two hours north to the nearest City at (Pitesti) which was going back on all the progress we made that day so far. another hour just trying to find a mechanic it didn’t look hopeful. When it got around to 5:00 p.m.

Chris and I said goodbye to Pat Fin and Tommy and hope we catch up with them later and when the only bike garage in the city we found worked on the bike until he told us we’d be better off lighting on a fire and buying a car they gave us

A ride to the nearest train station. Just as we thought we were going to try and get the bikes to Bucharest by train we were stopped by security guards who actually had a friend who fixed bikes. and through the kindness of the Romanian

People at around 11 p.m. that night we managed to get the best bike mechanic in Romania to fix Chris’s bike and amazingly we were back in the game Chris: so what was the problem? when you crashed, some dirt came into the fuel injection air/fuel ratio was off!… because theirs too much air

Fred: how did you fix that? Clean, blow the injector, clean the hole Chris: wow In Romania we have a saying Spark Fuel but doesn’t start! Chris and I woke before sunrise set off on a shortcut route which skimmed under

Bucharest, steadily gaining on the rest of the group. Riding for a hour, resting the bikes for five minutes then riding again for eight hours straight and somehow Chris’s motor managed to fix itself Chris: watch this Fred *barking* *barking* *snap* *lots of barking*

Meanwhile with more offroading Pat, Fin and Tommy were dealing with flat tires Pat: alright, ready? Tommy: go go go go Pat: try to watch out for glass when you’re driving Tommy: yeah I just wheeled over loads … so much round here Who comes out and has beers here?

We reunited with Pat, Fin and Tommy in Oltenita, a city on the bank of the river arges which borders Bulgaria Chris and I had enough of tarmac roads so we road along the riverbank, did away with our maps and just pointed ourselves east Fred: has the road gone?

Fred: that’s really disgusting Chris: yeah it’s not great is it? Fred: you’ve got trench foot…. oh no don’t peel stuff off Chris: there’s just skin everywhere Tommy: yeah you need to leave your socks off all night you don’t wanna put shoes back on now.

You just need to dry those out. Yeah it hurts! Tommy: that’ll sting while it dries out but if you leave that out all night now you’ll be fine dry out. Chris: holy Sheeshkebabs Tommy: mine looked like that and now you get all these like white lines

The last day to get to the finish line in Vama Veche a helpful local told us it was impossible to get the ferry over the river without going to Bulgaria so we ignored her and caught one just about to leave hoping it was gonna stay Romania *Spanish?*

This man thoroughly f***ed his bike, literally to tow him for three hours, in in the mud as well because we broke down in the middle of field Gregor: yeah that’s logical you never broke down in the main road

Yeah and then this goat farmer comes along with 300 goats surrounding us, while we try to fix it with a fair distance to make on the final day we should have been more hurried and kept to the roads, but the idea of leaving Romania’s beautiful trails

Wasn’t when we liked much so we gave it our best Fred: oh my god…… amazing!! Satnav: in one hundred meters… turn right…. turn right Fin: we’re close to breaking, and it’s just like… LETS DO THIS! Tommy: Fecking hell, this is so shizzlesticks Pat: Flipping made it!

Fred: you struggling a bit? Pat: look at his back tyre! Chris: looks like we’ve got more of the same Tommy: how long does this go on for because this is unsustainable. Fred: another 2km Tommy: I love my Monkey Bike Biaattchhh *laughing* *laughing*

Getting stuck in the mud and caught out in rainstorms, we took the road for the last few kms into Vama Veche and finally made the finish line Fred: we made it? is this it? Tommy: I dont know Satnav: in 150 meters turn right Satnav: in 150 meters turn left *laughs maniacally*

*crashes into 2 bikes parked and knocks them over* so after three flat tires few breakdowns a lot of stray dogs a much mud and rain we completed the 1,350 kilometer or 838 mile journey border-to-border from north Romania in Sighetu Marmației to Vama Veche in southeastern Romania

All on a 2.6 horsepower Monkey Bike According to the service manual you’re supposed to go quite easy on these for the first 1,000 kilometres Mr Tom: consistently so shiz at riding a motorcycle! Mike! Mr Tom: So who’s done the best photo so Freddie! Tommy: drone wanker Tommy: it’s going to get real later!

Presenting Tommy with the “most wayward Monkey “award *funky fork drying machine*