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 🙂

It’s become a tradition to write down thoughts and wishes every December just before it knocks New Year. Lots from the 2019 list written here https://sectorenduro.com/2019/01/ we actually put in life. Some we outdid.

Few things changed along with strategy initially planned:

• We adjourned start of our new project Adventure bike tours just for one reason – we were too engaged in Enduro Tours this year
• After all, we decided to go to KTM 790 Adventure instead of BMW GS models.

There are reasons for switching to KTM Adventure but I’ll leave it for some next time.

I’ve been thinking and waiting for right moment to get in Adventure bike tours project for few years already. If Sector Enduro tours project could be referred to my passion for Hard Enduro and intensive physical activities, this Adventure project has grown more like conscious decision after years of riding different bikes all over the world. Riding and teaching Enduro within Sector Enduro just assured me that Adventure bike tours are great idea. Here are my facts in favor:

PLACES

• All those ex-Yugoslavia republics like Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia are still unexplored for riders who usually pick up just well-known roads in order to get to some other place like Greece, Italy and even Turkey missing really lot here
• This places are full of hidden roads – both paved and unpaved, going over most beautiful mountains on Balkans, still untouched but enough hospitable for good riding and nature enjoying.
• Serbia, which is our start point for all tours we offer is quite easy accessible from any European country either by roads or airlines which means that short 3 days tour can be done within slightly stretched weekend.
• Being in Europe but still out of EU, Serbia and surroundings still have very affordable prices for everything while service exceeds expectations
• Distant villages and households which still continue way of life like it was even century ago
• We want to show our country and best way to do this is to ride it

RIDERS

• Number of Adventure and road bike riders are significantly bigger then number of skilled Enduro maniacs
• Number of riders who attended our Enduro School in 2018 and 2019 has been steadily and constantly growing and most of them wanted to either learn or improve their skills just to gain some level of confidence when going off road or far from home
• We learnt what to give to make riders happy – new knowledge and challenge. Been doing our Enduro school for two years already, we always teach and show something new from our skills arsenal. And always give an option of applying it in a ride
• Finally, people just want adventure and we know how to bring it

And for 2020 Adventure season we prepared good and interesting stuff.

First of all we have 3 tours to offer for KTM 790 Adventure:

1. 3 days of riding named MIND BLOW which actually fully describes what it is supposed to be. Planned to be relatively short with start point next to airport, this one leads over most beautiful mountains through west Serbia and East Bosnia. Mountains, scenic roads, lakes, ancient forests, hidden villages are keep coming one after another. Small restaurants with best cuisine as well as the family households are the places where we plan to taste famous Balkans dishes.
2. BIG ONE is a 6 days tour all over the western Serbia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. Creating this one we used same strategy as for the previous – only most interesting, only distant roads both gravel and tarmac, most exciting canyons, mountain lakes and forests, best places to stay and taste original cuisine.
3. The one we strongly recommend to off-road beginners and those who have big Adventure plans – ORANGE PLUM SCHOOL. Really original formula for intensive learning off-road riding developed here means using KTM sport ENDURO and 790 Adventure bikes. Both exciting and highly useful exercises on real deal territory high in the mountains will kick you to another level of riding.

So we used all our experience and passion to think over every detail and every meter of our routes prepared for 2020. And we got:

• Fully equipped 5 new 2020 KTM 790 Adventure bikes ready to roll in 2020
• Fully equipped 8 new 2020 KTM EXC 250 & 300 + 2 x 2016 EXC 350 school bikes
• 3000 km of Adventure tracks over 4 mountains
• 5 full sets of enduro riding gear ready for newbies
• New accommodation place with restaurant and garage at same place
• New guide and partner super experienced adventure rider

As for the new Adventure season plans I think this would perfectly fit:

• Bike arrival according plans which is mid of March
• All preparations done in week – checking, testing, equipment mounting
• First 1000 km promo and test ride done till the end of March
• 10 Adventure tours successfully done
• One race done

That’s it by now, see you on bike arrival 🙂

Detailed description of all tours you can easily find here https://sectorenduro.com/product-category/adv-bike/.

I’ve been thinking and cooking for a few years the thoughts about showing Serbia even more – not only rocky creeks, vertical uphills and other Hard loved Enduro stuff but the other places as well which are more than worth to see and experience.

So, my friends accepted invitation to escape city and catch October sun in Serbian Mountains, share a ride with us and talk about doing new offers together.

Without going into details – it’s going to be mind blow offer which will include few days of intensive Enduro school on Enduro bikes + days of riding distant places on and off road. Idea is to reach different and little nooks of Serbian country and life.

And of curse that happened – we rode together!

Few shots from ride, more news to come.

Today I’ll share with you experience on what you should have already got before jumping into all this Enduro stuff and what are the basic exercises we recommend regardless of beginner or intermediate rider you are.

It’s always funny to watch all those crazy Enduro and Hard Enduro fails videos on Youtube, but don’t forget that it’s funny until nobody gets hurt, or at least until somebody else does. But those fails are fails, and we want to ride not to fail. We don’t want to screw our knees or necks, we don’t want to launch or sink the bikes, because it costs a lot of money and time.

So:

• Don’t watch Enduro fails vids on Youtube, watch Enduro riding educational vids instead
• Quit smoking, quit alcohol (beer is ok after good riding day), quit fast food – you don’t need extra weight on the knees and bike, you need the money saved from bad habits
• It’s better to be in good physical condition because if you want to learn something, you’ll have to train and ride a lot. You’ll have to work hardly on the bike
• Purchase all riding gear – boots, knee protection, body armor, helmet, neck protection, googles, gloves, pants.. If it’s all new, spend some time to get used – walk, jump, squat..
• While choosing the trainer or school, pay attention to place they use, type of bikes, who is the coach, what is the reputation. Maybe you will have to change few of them until find the one that fits you most.
• Things to pay attention at coach:
  • he checks all the riding gear you use;
  • he has to watch your riding and training process all the time;
  • if he often stops you after few laps on some exercise and tell you what should be corrected – that’s good;
  • he has to show you proper way of doing every exercise, every move and position by himself;
  • first few training sessions he’ll not force to open throttle more;
  • he is persistent in teaching you some technique;
  • he rides next to you, he rides in front of you showing the proper way of doing something;
  • he gives you enough time to rest;
  • he is not upset if you brake some plastics
  • if you fell down he lets you to picks up bike by yourself
  • if you feel that you are winner at least once per training – that’s it.
• Try to manage your time the way to have at least two trainings per week. Firstly, riding is best way to release stress; second, you will not forget the knowledge obtained on previous training.
• If you’re going to be taught on rented/school bikes, it is important that they are in good condition, we recommend that they are sport Enduro, not motocross bikes, that they have electric starter, tires are 70% and better. This generally means – no Chinese bikes, no old CRs, RMZs, KXFs or similar.
• As for the engines – no big difference between new models of 2 and 4 strokes for the beginner. The whiskey throttle is more likely to happen on, for example, 350 4 stroke, instead of 250 2 stroke. New Enduro 2 strokes do not response on throttle (in the first half of revs) such immediately and explosively like 4 strokes. Beginners or intermediate riders who have never tried 2 strokes before usually think quite the opposite.
• The goal of beginners course is to teach you
  • Proper position on bike
  • Moving on the bike while accelerating, braking and turning
  • Proper hands position and moving
  • Using rear brake
  • Cornering
  • Why you got to lean the bike if you want to turn
  • Where to look while ride
• Beginners course is usually been held at some flat place without uphills, downhills, logs, rocks and everything that actually makes Enduro. So, if you are slower that classmates, it doesn’t mean anything. Enduro is all about clever using bike and men’s power J

Already written an article about what influence has Enduro riding on road and especially Adv riding and maybe it’s useful to read it somehow https://sectorenduro.com/big-adventure-bikes-skill-improvement/

It was few years ago, and now we got more experience in coaching and teaching people off road and Hard Enduro riding. Things I’m sure stayed same are:

• Off road riding hardly can be taught on one’s own
• Enduro and especially Hard Enduro significantly extends riding geography
• Learning it properly means safe and enjoyable riding
• Off road riding improves your riding generally – adv and road
• It’s fun, and even more than any other kind of riding

So, as I promised, here is short list of “must know” things when coming to Enduro riding:

• No matter how good you are, there is always something you’ll learn
• Finding a good Enduro coach sometimes can be whole project and you got to be patient – chose the one you like more even if he is farther than the one next to home
• Be sure that good one is going to start from beginning – position on the bike..
• Few first sets of exercises can be boring but they gonna make you get used to bike
• Intensive training means 1,5 to 2 hours of riding for the group of 3 to 6 riders
• Even if you were bad in physics and still don’t like it, some things you’ll have to learn and remember – it will help you to trust bike more J
• Best places for beginners Enduro Training ground are fields, ravines, clear places in the woods without extraneous thing like concrete blocks, metal stuff, holes..
• Easy start means few lessons on low speed but with lots of explanations and “how tos” by the coach
• Easy start means you more relaxed, more got used to bike and class mates and hence – safe learning process
• Those trainings will be the only place where you will feel and understand what balancing on the bike really means and how important it is
• Same for clutch work, rear brake, moving on the bike and lot more (equally applicable for any kind of riding)
• As long as you’re riding wrong technique you’ll suffer arm pump or pain in lower back
• Coach will rise tracks difficulty gradually to make you confident by applying the knowledge and having a good time
• Good coach is worth every cent you pay – believe, it’s much, much cheaper than any injury or damage you may suffer somewhere far from home
• Basic knowledge can be learnt on almost any kind of off road bikes, but if you want to grow up you’ll have to switch to real sport Enduro bikes like KTM EXC, Betta RR, Sherco, Husqvarna..

99% of beginner level riders coming to ride with us understand lot of things listed above and they like the schedule we offer – every day trainings and every day learning something new.

So if you’re entering this exciting and tough world, just take a look at all this. Most interesting thing to come J

Week ago we successfully finished this year’s most demanding Enduro tour. Exactly a week,  that’s the time we needed to recover 🙂

Ten (10) riders from Norway were our guests for seven amazing days. This tour was different from it’s beginning – our negotiations started more then year and a half ago. Probably we were not ready for something like that back then. And I was honest with with them telling so. We stayed in contact and they had been carefully following us on social media – our growth, our new tracks, bikes news and how our experience was growing. So at some moment they decided that we’re ready 🙂

Tour, which could be easily named as Project, had formula

– 2 days of technical #HardEnduro – split in two groups with different skill level

– one day off with some hanging around

– 3 days Enduro Round Trip.

To be honest, before D-day, we had been running through schedule over and over again just not to miss every single detail…and there were lot of them – transfer from and to airport, day-off

– bike preparations – we had to check all our bikes and do usual stuff on bikes like changing oil, washing air filters, change tires, maintain forks on 2 older bikes, repair starter on one EXC 350, put new muffler protection, repair few wires and killer switches.. Lots of job 🙂

– spare parts – purchase few clutch and front brake levers, chain locks, batteries, radiators, grips, one throttle set, magnet and clutch covers and stuff like wire, liquid metal, tools..and of course duct tape

– meals at accommodations and in mountains (especially those on Round Trip) – not a easy one 🙂 as it was touristic season, we had to book everything more or less without mistakes in timing, otherwise we could have continued riding without lunch at some places.

– other stuff like single room accommodations, luggage transfers on round trip, everyday refueling, spare bike, trailer…beer 😄🍾

– Tracks were special challenge – we had to prepare  alternative Enduro routes for extreme details, reconcile riding few places where the only way was over some small sections of private property, check em few times..

Hard Enduro riding first two days was just amazing. We split in two groups and rode only hard and extreme tracks. Riders were just excellent – they strictly followed our recommendations and rode absolutely everything without causing any damage to both – themselves and bikes 🙂

On day-off I surprisingly recognized that they didn’t like brandy as they liked beer 🙂 We visited one of the oldest distilleries in Serbia and stayed sober 🙂

In spite of checking all this few times, all preparations , we had one unexpected (I knew that I had to expect something unexpected) issue – beginning of hunting season on Tara mountain was actually adjourned because of heavy rains that had preceded and was scheduled exactly for first day of Round Trip. That meant that we had to exclude part of first’s day Enduro Round Trip track and to leave Tara mountain as soon as possible.

So, we had to extend Enduro tracks and riding on Zlatibor. Exploring and riding, especially Hard Enduro tracks always needs time, but we didn’t have it that time and we used our experience to lay the new sections. At some places we had to wait until Dushan checked it, at some places we hit the shepherd wires.. But generally, route was quite difficult and interesting 😉

Second day of our Enduro was according to plan except the one thing – one of our quests decided that had it enough for that day and asked us to pick him up at lunch and drive to our next accommodation. Actually, I thought that he was going to ride around one pretty extreme Enduro section, but he didn’t and that sucked all his energy. On the other hand, he rode one of highest and most beautiful ridges in Serbia and that was worth of it! 🙂

The rest of the day was great, full of rocky sections and beautiful views….and hospitable locals who offered us traditional bandy and overnight stay 🙂 I have always been telling our guests that it’s just impossible to be hungry and left alone in Serbia 🙂

And we had a really great adventure, the best so far. No such a successful trip without such a good riders and people.

Thx to great crew from Norway and Serbia.😎