enduro

PLACES WE RIDE, DRONE SHOOTS.

Started to edit video, some drone shoots, but then I decided that for this time could be more interesting just to show you how does the place we ride Enduro look like.

Our friend and partner is pro and he uses 3 different drones for different actions. Take a look at it and then come back for more in a few days 🙂

 

WEST SERBIA OFF ROAD ADVENTURE 2022

In June we start new offer – West Serbia Off Road Adventure. Initially it was supposed to be a route for big adventure bikes like GS1200, 800, T7, KTM 790 or so, but after a year of planning and exploring, we finally made decision in favor of KTM Enduro bikes. There are many reasons for that but here are few most considerable:

  • Easier for handling for less off road experienced riders
  • Larger riding geography compared to big bikes
  • Tougher terrains become accessible
  • Enduro bikes are heavy duty things and less exposed to damage
  • Usual damages are cheap and negligible
  • More exciting for riding
  • Riding techniques are learnt faster on them

All this means that riding is safer, more exciting and much, much more places are easier to access and see. Of course, with significantly less worries.

Who are the riders and adventurers that we see on this tour?

  • Adventure bike riders, beginners or experienced
  • Road bike riders ready to expand their sight
  • Enduro riders who prefer off road exploring and travelling to Hard Enduro activities
  • Riders generally ready to challenge their selves

What kind of routes and terrains are there?

  • Good and bad gravel roads
  • Fire and forest roads and trails
  • Rocky mountain trails
  • Mountain roads, highlands, ridges, canyons

What places we offer to visit and where are we going to stay?

  • Mountains Tara, Zlatibor, Zlatar and Golija
  • Lakes Zaovine, Uvac, canyons of river Uvac, Rzav and lot more
  • Accommodation at Ethno villages or hotels in small town

What if somebody doesn’t have enough off road skill?

Well, for all riders first day is skill level checking and off road school for getting used to bikes or learning basics needed for completing the trip. We’re going to real context and intensively train things like:

  • Proper position on the bike
  • Accelerating, braking, cornering and handling bike in different situations
  • Basic uphill and downhill riding

More about riding school you can find in the blog or in the tours offer

What should riders bring and how the luggage transfer is organized?

  • Riding license and sport insurance
  • Personal belongings at own discretion
  • Off road or adventure riding gear including back packs preferably with camel bags
  • Luggage is transferred by support vehicle to meet us at accommodation every day
  • Everything else is on our concern

So, here come highlights:

  • Riding most beautiful nature of West Serbia
  • Originally created tracks with challenging sections, 95% off road
  • New KTM EXC bikes fully prepared for duty
  • Riding school before start
  • Excellent accommodation and delicious Serbian cuisine
  • Professional guidance and support
  • Off road riding gear on request
  • Lot of great and beautiful places to see
  • All-inclusive tour packs
  • Prices from 1190 EUR/rider

Offer starts on June 2021. For more info please contact us.

ABOUT BEING ENDURO GUIDE #3

In previous two articles we shared our experience on how to:

  • get know the group you guide
  • properly set the order of riders in it
  • properly roll them in riding new destination
  • establish leadership for making their tour safe, exciting and quite educational.

So, suppose we have more than 5 riders in group which means, by our rules, that two guides are engaged. We know every rider’s skill level, fitness and personality.

Sometimes all riders are approximately at the same level, so the waiting after hard and challenging sections is minor. The more notable the skill differences are, the longer is the time needed for less skilled to accomplish section.

In that case, guide usually chose between two options:

  • to either continue with same tracks difficulty (remember that no rider will ever confess that he doesn’t catch up)
  • or to reduce hardness because of less skilled

First option means that less skilled riders will most likely suffer and struggle instead of ride and have a fun. The edge between learning and gaining experience through hard work and struggling along with suffering is blur. Rider doesn’t gain skills or has a fun if he is at the edge of exhaustion after every technical section. As all we know, in Enduro, lack of riding techniques can’t be compensated by larger amount of muscles and fitness. So as the day goes, the more frustrated the rider will be. We don’t want that.

Second option (reducing the tracks difficulty) may look like compromising solution, but just temporary, because skilled riders will soon get bored. No doubts that friends understand it all and were initially prepared for waiting or excessive suffering of certain members, but still perfect ride is the one where everyone ride a bit over his (her) abilities every day.

Therefore, engage Task 4 – group splitting.

Splitting group into two (usually) or even tree (rarely) allows you to get rid of excessive stress among slower riders caused by constant chasing and struggling. Even that factor alone makes riding more exciting and fun for both groups. Not to mention the fact that smaller groups are easier to handle.

In slower group riders finally focus on riding techniques and fun, they finally stop thinking about their faster friends waiting at the top of the hill “15 minutes already”, suddenly they fall not so often and somehow manage to absorb tips and proper riding techniques.

Faster group can ride their own pace and tracks, and can finally load themselves as much as they want.

Riders want to make breaks from time to time, exchange excitement and stories. Usually there is a tracks plan for every day and If the group has to be split, then the way that both routes will follow same general direction meeting each other at some points and riding jointly some sections together.

So, splitting the group allows:

  • handling large group easier (and safer)
  • fairly group similar skill level
  • making riding more fluently for all groups
  • making slower riders focus on riding and riding techniques instead on surviving
  • seeing more places, reaching higher mountains peaks 🙂

Will continue.

ABOUT BEING ENDURO GUIDE #2

Here comes another one about who’s chief in the woods 🙂

So, now we know few crucial things about every rider in the group we guide:

  • Riding skills
  • Fitness level
  • Personality

As mentioned above, all this allow us to correctly choose warm up, riders order in a group, tracks and pace.

Next one sounds provocative some way, but still helps riders to focus on riding and stop doing stupid things (yes, it happens) like heroic attempts to conquer uphill that exceeds their skills, jump over some river or so.

Task N3 is to make it clear who is guide, whose instructions are the only to be listened. With all due respect, riders often had never ridden mountains like ours before and for that reason, they haven’t get it seriously enough. I mean, we don’t require non-smiling faces, of course not, but basic understanding of where we are and what we’re doing is minimum.

What are the so-called instructions and rules that should be followed:

  • Signs given by hand
  • Going off bike if requested (very steep and dangerous downhills)
  • Riding some obstacles around if rider is consider as not enough skilled or too tired for that
  • Allowing help even if rider doesn’t want to get help
  • Helping another rider in difficult situation
  • Riding always with helmet and googles on
  • Strictly following guides trail if requested
  • NOT riding some section at all

Allowing everything just to please client is actually a disservice because at some moment mistake is inevitable. If you don’t pay attention to stupid and dangerous acting and riding performed by just one rider, believe me, very soon you’ll have a bunch of wild and naughty riders of apocalypse. And that can result not only as a problem with locals (people and animals) but as injuries as well.

So, we never hesitate to kindly ask one or two riders to slightly change behavior and riding. We usually explain what difficulties may occur if something happens – fixing the bike (the least of our problems), problems with authorities (if speeding through villages), evacuation in case of injury.

I have to say that we’ve had only few problematic riders but, thanks God, we’ve never had any accident or injury which required evacuation.

OK, now the group warmed up, got used to the bikes and understood that rules are just to make all riding days safe, fun and with increasing difficulty. Challenging every minute.

Task4 is to give riding tips to less skilled riders discreetly. There are always sections that are challenging and require slightly more experience that we have. In front of these, I see thrill in the eyes very often. Caused not only by awareness of lack of skill as much as by being not good enough in front of the friends. Of course, that’s ridiculous, but it’s expected. In that case, you got to explain some specific facts about that section, give some tips about particular techniques needed. However, the main thing is to encourage less skilled by explaining briefly what should be done and what is the goal for that particular place.

  • Riding next to rider through difficult parts also helps with confidence.
  • Waiting for him at some place where he will need help for sure.
  • Walking next to rider while telling him what to do. Calming him because it helps to focus.
  • Giving him another try
  • Emphasizing what’s good
  • Fixing the bad

What do you actually get by this?

You’ll have really happy rider who has just probably won, overcome some fears and learnt new things. Therefore, we always pay attention to giving tips and helping when someone it really needs. We do it all day long, we don’t help as much as we encourage and teach.

ABOUT BEING ENDURO GUIDE #1

What it’s like to be an Enduro Guide? That’s the question I’m asked by riders on almost every tour.

Usually Enduro companies are small teams doing what they like the most – ride. But not only riding means guiding, there is much more. There are some listed:

  • Marketing
  • Talking and writing to riders from whole world
  • Lot of talking and writing
  • Arranging and synchronizing tour dates
  • Bike preparations
  • Van, trailer and tools preparations
  • Organizing the guests arrivals
  • Arranging special requests for accommodation and food
  • Shooting photos and videos
  • Checking the bikes after rides, maintenance
  • Paper work
  • Preparing and exploring new tracks

I’ll write about some of them in next articles, but there is one that I consider as most important – that’s the relations between you as a guide and the riders. I always say, and that’s my rule N1, that riding is fun as long as all riders are safe and no injuries occur. Which means establishing mutual trust between guide and riders.

It starts long before you meet the guys – while arranging tour over mail or phone. You got to be responsive, flexible to satisfy all reasonable requests, honest to say if something you’re not able to fulfill and respectful towards other companies who might be your competitors.

Let’s suppose that job was perfectly done, guests arrived, they’re all on the bikes, engines started, I’m waving for takeoff. Let’s roll 🙂

We’ve had more than 350 riders from all around the world, all ages, all fitness and skill level and still we get something different every time.

First task that have to be done accurately in first 30 minutes of first riding day is skill level proper evaluation of each rider in a group. It allows you to correctly choose warm up, order of riders in the group and tracks. We always remember that people sometimes arrived from very distant places, Australia and Canada for example, and that they had been preparing for a long time before actually all happened which means you just HAVE TO help them to get used to bikes and terrains and to roll them in very smoothly. We also remember ourselves years ago when we got excited while trying to catch after more experienced riders in a group which sometimes caused disappointment, damages and injuries. We don’t want that (remember rule N1).

The more experienced you are, the less time you need for that first task. Ok, we did it. What’s next?

Then, after we find out their skills, we have to know their fitness and what kind of persons they are. That’s task N2. In order to do that, we rise a difficulty a bit, mostly by using some particular uphill. Some of them have to push and struggle, some would ride it without a problem. There you see who asks for help after being exhausted, who will never ask, who helps without asking, who just ride up, turn off engine and start to look in telephone, who gets pissed off and so on. The picture started to piece together.

Now we know who do we have to pay attention to, who to wait at some particular places which are usually uphills, who would need just a technical tip and who on contrary wouldn’t listen even in nuclear war.

Knowing fitness level, for example, allows you to make breaks without asking no one. Why it is so important? Because no rider will ever confess that he needs a 3 minutes rest and will continue until armpump causes accident. So you got to look after all group but especially the less fit one, and when you notice that he is exhausted, just say that we make a brake without asking it. You saved his pride and what’s even more important – his health.

Will continue.

OFF ROAD OBUKA U BEOGRADU

OFF ROAD OBUKA

Kao sto je prethodno bilo najavljeno, nasa obuka se sa planina spusta u Beograd.

Pocinjemo sa rezervacijama od danas a sa SVAKODNEVNIM treninzima od 23.11.2020.

Metodologiju smo koncipirali tako da ne samo da pocetnika nauci osnovama OFF ROAD VOZNJE, nego i da mu znacajno poboljsa motoriku a samim tim i kvalitet u svakodnevnoj voznji.

Nema bolje alatke od ENDURO motora kad je u pitanju trening. Kao sto sam ovde vac par puta naglasio, ovi motori se odlikuju sportskim karakterom, sto znaci neuporedivo osetljivije komande i reakcije. A to znaci, i neobhodnost da se shodno tome na motoru i ponasate. Naprimer, ovde je kraci spisak onoga sto cete nauciti:

  • Kako se kretati na motoru pri ubrzanju i kocenju
  • Kako prebacivati tezinu sa jedne na drugu stranu
  • Kako se skrece na ovim motorima
  • Kako se vozi stojeci
  • Kako se savladavaju prepreke

Ne samo da cemo vas nauciti kako se to radi, nego i zasto, jer kako je poznato, ljudi mnogo bolje savladaju znanje ako znaju i njegovu prirodu, odnosno fiziku.

Uglavnom nas pre treninga pitaju kakva ce biti realna poboljsanja njihove voznje. I mi kazemo sledece:

  1. Komande vasih gradjanskih motora ce vam postati mnogo lakse za kontrolu jer ce enduro motor da vas natera da se koristite njima mnogo pazljivije i osetljivije
  2. Manevrisanje u gradu i guzvama ce prestati da vam bude noca mora jer cete da naucite da se krecete na motoru, da kontrolisete gas, kvacilo i kocnice istovremeno, sto vas opet cini mnogo opustenijim jer motor ide tamo gde hocete vi
  3. Lakse prepreke ce te savladjivati bez ustezanja jer cemo da vas naucimo da rasterecujete prednji tocak a da vam ruke pritom budu opustene
  4. Polukruzno cete raditi kao od sale u okviru dimenzija telefonske govornice zato sto cete gledati gde treba bez straha da ce motor pasti jer cete opet umeti da kontrolisete gas, kvacilo i kocnicu sto ne dozvoljava motoru da padne
  5. Smanjicete sve radijuse manevara zato sto cete smeti da spustite motor mnogo nize nego sto ste do tog momenta znali
  6. Pocecete drugacije da gledate na prirodu

Pakete koje predlazemo i cene:

  1. Jedan trening – 70 Eura
  2. Paket od 3 treninga za 2 nedelje – 190 eura
  3. Kompletan pocetni kurs od 6 treninga za mesec dana – 350 eura
  4. Kopletan napredni kurs od dodatnih 5 treninga za mesec dana – 350 Eura
  5. Komplet grupni kursevi imaju popuste

Sta ulazi u ponudu:

  1. Motor
  2. Benzin
  3. Oprema (za detalje pozvati)
  4. Trener

Treninzi traju oko 2,5 sati i odrzavaju se SVAKODNEVNO i moraju se najaviti barem nekoliko dana unapred. Prioritet u rezervacijama imaju oni koji uzimaju pakete.

Uplate se vrse unapred na racun kluba.

Spisak vezbi i akcije cu objaviti u sledecem tekstu za koji dan.

Za detalje nas kontaktirajte na sectorenduro@gmail.com ili na telefon 063232488

Nebojsa i Dusan

OCTOBER IN SERBIA VIDEO

October is most likely best time for Enduro in Serbia. Very rare and short rains, temperature keeps between 15 and 25 degrees, grass lays down and everything around become yellow and red.

Grip is perfect, rivers still low enough, everything contributes to great riding. Put MItas EF07(one green line is enough) over the semi soft mousse and enjoy. Or rise up a bit your abilities with MItas EF07 Super Soft.

Take a great semi hard trip over whole mountain with amazing sceneries or don’t go too far by riding Extreme Enduro around.

Here are 8 minutes of how it usually looks like 😉

AUGUST RIDE VIDEO

Finally found time to seat down and edit huge pile of GoPro enduro material. Rides were mostly expert leveled, and shots were from the helmet. If we consider the fact that August is always green and with the sun high all the day, we get the videos where everything around is green like in the jungle, enduro uphills, downhills and single trails all look like similar to each other. Which is pretty boring no matter how actually riding was exciting and fun. And that’s the reason why I collected only 4 minutes of action out of large amount of videos.

However, guys were all good riders, we had great weather and hard tracks. Exactly the way we like the most 🙂

Cought in Action:

  • Vlada
  • Todor
  • Zile
  • Dusan
  • Dragan
  • Nebojsa

And only one four stroke!

 

End on August summary

Since air transport has been unavailable so far, all our guests from abroad traveled by cars or vans all the way from their countries:
– two groups from Poland
– one from Belgium
– one from Czech
– one from Holland
– one from Russia
– one from Bosnia

They not only rode here and had a good time, but also took a part in helping our little and loved company to survive these hard times
Here are some photos from those rides.
Thank you all💪

2020 Season so far

It’s been long time since I wrote something here.

In the beginning of 2020, we had already more than 20 tours booked and dozen in process of negotiation. New TPI 2020 bikes were ordered, few school ones were fully dismantled and in preparation for season, in a word, we were expecting great season.

But then, Corona totally changed everything. We needed a time to get used to new circumstances. Since any plans seemed that wouldn’t work, we just decided to load few bikes and move to mountain. The good thing was that I took my kids with me, and as it turned out, it was great idea.

As usual we were posting riding photos and offering off road riding lessons for local riders. Surprisingly, response was great, incomparably better than on previous years.

For example, since the end of 2016 till end of 2019, we had only 11 local riders, mostly one-day school tours.

This year, since 10.04, we’ve already had 21 riders and 35 days of riding, also off-road school. Less than half of them came for one day, the rest for 2 or more. It seems like Corona changed the way we spend to our time and lives.

All weekends till the mid July are already booked for coaching, our guests who had riding with us scheduled for April, May and June have recently started to check flights availability and dates.

Of course that season and plans are totally different that we expected, but still, we’re alive and in a good shape. With a great help and support, we had from local KTM dealer KTM Promoto Centar , our garage is full of new EXC 300 TPI bikes ready for summer and autumn.

Hope to see some of you here riding with us J

Check some 2020 spring photos 🙂

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