WHY GO ON A BICYCLE TOUR VACATION IN BULGARIA?
1. OUTDOOR ADVENTURE AND FUN
Biking in Bulgaria is an adventurous experience which gives you the chance to explore the lesser known corners of this Balkan country the best way possible: on two wheels and close to nature in the open air, on the road.
2. PHYSICAL EXERSICE IN HARMONY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
Our fully guided bicycle tours are modelled the best way for most active travellers to see and explore the different natural landmarks, variety of landscape and scenes of country live in different regions of Bulgaria.
3. CLOSE INTERACTION WITH BULGARIAN CULTURE & PEOPLE
Each bicycle tour is offered in a carefully chosen time of year, to allow the best use of the climate conditions, the availability of scheduled local events and the observation of interesting natural scenery of the landscape of magnificent Bulgaria.
4. DOING GOOD
By participating in our biking programmes, you are actually helping the local communities as most of your money go to the people of these underdeveloped regions.
We currently offer 4 bicycle tours:
The Nature & Caves Bicycle Tour
The Rhodope Mountains Bicycle Tour
The Balkan Village Bicycle Tour
Thracian Lowland Bicycle Tour
Of coarse these are not the only options you have. We will be happy to make any changes to these itineraries, or model them to best suit your demands. Choose your tour now and drop us a line! We will do our best to ensure your unforgettable East European biking experience.
GOING ON A BICYCLE TOUR VACATION
INTRODUCTION
Getting on a bike and riding with the wind is easy and fun; but cycling, for our purposes here, is something both more profound and more interesting. Not just out of curiosity, or for convenience, or to go to get the newspaper; but also to keep fit, to combat the stress of daily life, and especially to discover the enchanting new places and towns described in the itineraries.
To get the most out of our pretty little two-wheeled friend, we have to get ready. Getting fit, and staying there, is rather difficult; though our itineraries are partly to blame, too, as their sections on Food and Wine list the delicious produce, dishes and wines found in every region of Bulgaria.
Cycling demands certain fitness, and aids it. What should be done in practice?
The time has come to get to know your body, and you should do it with enthusiasm.
First of all, a good, thorough medical check-up. Ask your doctor for a check-up with special exams designed for the sport, the most important being cardiac and pneumothorax test. A check-up certainly is not obligatory for the itineraries described here, but it is definitely a good time to take advantage of the opportunity.
You could also get a little exercise and training. At first, you should never overdo the exercise, trying to do too much too fast; though training just once a week does not help much either. The discipline of working out 15 minutes a day will strengthen the spirit as well as the body.
EXERCISE
For those who suffer from obesity, or anyone who simply wants to lose some weight, you should know that physical activity raises your body temperature, which in turn causes sweating, i.e. the loss of salt, water and vitamin C. These elements should be replenished, but calories must be limited; in this way, you will quickly reach your desired weight.
Good exercise is that which fully opens your lungs’ alveoli, loosens your muscles and oxygenates them, and raises your total endurance.
Occasionally cycling can uncover back pains that were already in the process of developing, and these should be looked at immediately. People who lead sedentary lives deny their bodies the muscular and cardiovascular development that benefits active sports people.
Thus, a bit of exercise to begin with: a bit, but regular. A little training, too: in the first days, twice a week after your workout, do 3 or 4 laps round the block and quickly climb the stairs in your home twice. The second 15 days: 6 laps round the block and 4 stair climbs. Like this, in about a month you will be ready to mount your bike and just gallop.
The first few times you go out, it is better to go with a friend. It will be easier to get over the minor tough spots and to handle the fatigue. After the first month, if you proceed slowly but surely, these itineraries will quickly become ‘old hat’, and you will feel the desire to see new places, get out in the open air, in contact with nature.
TRAINING
By itself training can achieve a lot; it is enough to see how, after just a week of jogging or light aerobics, you begin to move more easily and flexibly. You also have a better appetite, digest better, have more energy for work and activities. Your diet, too, is another important element in keeping good health.
The itineraries outlined in here describe traditional dishes and cuisine; but also hope to inspire people to improve their physical fitness and keep it at a high level. Eating while on the run or during stretches of more than 50 km demands rules that must be observed if you are to avoid pain and disappointment. One wrong meal can ruin an outing, just as a long outing can ruin a good meal.
DIET
It should be remembered that eating well is greatly helped by sticking to our traditional foods: bread, cheese and milk products, vegetables and greens, wine, olive oil, and citrus fruits. The human body needs fuel made up of sugar, fats, and proteins. The amount of energy used in completing a movement is today measured in calories: it is calculated that a day of rest requires 1500, while a bicycle race needs 8000! Sugars and carbohydrates provide 80% of the energy for muscles, and are found in fruit, as fructose, and in pure sugar as saccharose. Fats (lipids) have a lot of caloric energy and proteins (protides) are useful in rebuilding worn out cells. Thus, eat a hearty breakfast, two or three hours before setting off, including, coffee with milk and honey, or tea with lemon and honey, whole-wheat bread, butter, and cheese. Half an hour before the start, you should drink water with dissolved salts.
When cycling, it is a good idea to bring and snack on small sandwiches of cooked ham or jams, wrapped up in wax paper. Also carry a canteen with water and mineral salts. As well: fresh juices and snacks. Good rules of thumb: avoid too many saturated fats (animal fats) and simple sugar; get lots off fibre, especially from vegetables, and starchy carbohydrates. Light foods will quickly consumed consume during physical exertion. Today, specialty shops sell pre-cooked food products that are easy to eat, give lots of energy, and are commonly used throughout the sports world.
CYCLING
There is something individual, personal, in cycling, in going out for ride when you feel like it. A good bicycle, well-kept, means safety. Good gears let you go across any terrain: three front sprocket wheels for mountain bikes and two for racing bikes let riders today easily improve their performances.
A bicycle ride is an adventure: these itineraries have been carefully chosen to satisfy your curiosity. We will travel across roads that are not the usual ones we use when driving fast in our cars: rediscovering, we hope, time as we would like it, and seeing places that are not exceptional, or paradises, but more often than not new, just behind that tree or bush we thought we had known so well.
After just a few hours spent, just a few kilometers covered, you will get the great desire to go on with that search, perhaps, of our time lost.
LOOKING AFTER YOUR BIKE
Your bike will face stones, bad weather, the daily grind, maybe even the odd obstacle; it should, then, be treated with respect. If you leave it in a trusted mechanic’s hands for a few days, you can rest assured. But if you resort to do-it-yourself, you have to proceed as follows: use special grease to lubricate the front and rear hubs and inside the central works (no easy task…); oil the moving joints and the screw threads; check that the rubber pads are in good condition; check that the tubeless tires or tire casing have their treads, or that the central part is dark, with well-defined grooves; test-ride for a few kilometers with a spanner in your pocket, to adjust and set the saddle (high or low, forward or back) at just the right point for your body.
Changing a spoke or cantering a wheel is not for everyone, so at the first itinerary you should stop to have the bike checking by a mechanic. Cleaning the bike is easy: you need room, a sponge, a brush, water mixed with diesel fuel, and running water. Use the diesel fuel to clean the mechanical parts: the chains, release, brake locks, rear derailer, pedals (avoiding the tires and painted parts). Afterwards, give it a thorough shampooing and rinse with water. The chain should be greased with vaseline or special grease (even transparent). If you do not use your bike for lengthy periods, hang it up, so that the damp, or the weight of the bike itself, will no damage the tires.
BUYING YOUR BIKE
Where can you find a good bike?
You can find a good deal either through a friend (a used bike) or a dealer (used or new). If it is used, you should try it out for at least one full day. You can see whether it looks good or not, and be sure that it was cleaned up on purpose; but keep an eye out for rusted and worn parts, including the saddle.
If you buy the bicycle new, the best thing to do is either to buy directly from manufacturer, who has exactly what you want, or to have one made to order for the same price.
The key thing is to have bicycle fit your body size exactly.
Whatever way you choose, the price will be fairly high, so you should always look for a solid frame; today, most are good quality, even though the range of prices is wide, and usually reflected the materials used in the frame (steel, titanium, graphite).
OUTFITTING YOUR BIKE
There are a few things you should have at home and others you should always carry with you. The former are: spoke nipple spanners, chain-cutters, and pressure gauge pump; the latter include: puncture repair kit , innertubes, pump, brugola, sets of bags, letters pouch, canteen. Naturally, some objects are more or less indispensable, and everyone will decide for himself.
For punctures, the most likely thing to go wrong, you can buy today ready-to-use, pre-packaged pieces, or spray cans of tire vulcanizer. Bags are the current rage, and for good reason, as they are quick-closing and waterproof, and come with reflectors and transparent letter pouch. Never forget your pump and canteen.
How is the mountain bike put together
1-lug 2-derailleur lever 3-gear 4-handelbar 5-front brake cable 6-derailleur cable 7-gear cable 8-rear brake cable 9-rear brake 10-front fork 11-tire rings 12-spoke 13-front wheel hub 14-rim 15-canteen-holder 16-belt 17-pedal 18-pedal crank 19-front sprocket wheel 20-hub crank pin 21-chain 22-fork 23-derailleur 24-derailleur 25-free wheel 26-rear wheel hub 27-rear fork 28-rear brake 29-column 30-saddle support 31-saddle 32-crossbar 33-saddle support governor
RIDING YOUR BIKE
Casual cycling presents no particular problems, and demands, little in the way of training, special diet, or technique. Problems arise, though, when you put greater demands on yourself. 10 km on flat land while eating an ice-cream is fun outing, but speeds of 40 km/h demand much more of you.
Assuming that there is no need to explain how to stay on your bike in the first place…, we should point out a few things about cycling.
Curves, for example, should be tackled a bit slowly, leaning your body towards the inside of the curve, and sticking out the relative knee. You should use the rear brake most of the time, which allows you to break slowly and, should you hit a patch of wet road or ice, it will allow you to control your skidding more easily.
When rounding curves while climbing, it is best to take them at their maximum radius: this way, you avoid some of the incline’s drag. When descending, you should continue pedaling a bit, so as to keep your muscles warm.
As for changing gears, late-model racing bikes now have two small levers, almost always located on the central (45o) crossbar. These allow you, by moving them forward and backward, and changing the resistance that the pedals offer, to set various combinations of different “speeds”; all of which is easy to learn with a few test runs.
One last thing regarding marking: if you plan to travel at dusk, you must be sure to put fluorescent strips or reflectors on the pedals, mud flaps, saddle and spokes.
WHERE, WHEN AND HOW
If these itineraries are suggestions, creative riders can think up any number of others. What should you keep in mind?
First of all, your own strength. It is not at all true that you are never too late to turn back. You can see when you are in areas that have places to rest and get supplies, or help. In any case, you should never overexert yourself. A bicycle can be transported by car, so it can be fun to drive to a town, book a hotel room and, with your home base established, set off on your bike. Where: the mountains are beautiful, but the weather can change in just a few minutes, so you have to be attentive. How: the excitement of the start can lead to a lot of regrets, if you use up your energy right away, or equip yourself inadequately, shunning your cape or cap or a full water bottle. When: taking your physical fitness and level of training into consideration, as well as the chances of bad weather or high temperatures, choose the seasons best suited for you.
EQUIPPING YOURSELF
Until a short time ago, cycling accessories paled in comparison to those of other sports. But then the leap forward: bikes made of graphite (satellite material), and goretex shirts, with incredible designs and wild, fluorescent colours.
How should you dress? As you want. A few things are essential, others optional, some superfluous. A must: shorts, shirts, and shoes. Optional: lined, half-finger gloves, shoes with anti-slip heels, sun-proof and insect-proof glasses, lined and padded shorts. Superfluous: elasticized shorts, shirts made of thermo-regulated material, wrist computer. Important: carry a rainproof jacket, a canteen with mineral salts in summer, a waterproof cap: galoshes and tights in cold weather. Something you never take, but which is very useful, is a pen: to jot down a thought, hold onto a feeling, remember a place or address forever.
If your bike has saddle-bags, a change of shirt for after a climb is always useful, as is that blessed piece of newspaper to put across your chest when flying down a hill (they still have not found anything better, for the price!)
HOW YOU RIDE ON THE ROAD
Times are changing, and that goes for bicycles, too. From a few hundred the numbers have grown to thousands in Bulgaria.
There are no bike paths, and cyclists have long demanded them, but they are also the ones that often do not know the rules of the road. They ride side by side, in twos or threes; they slide left without a second thought; go through red lights; “cling” to lorries.
The few road rules we have should be followed, and those that we should have (but do not) should be energetically called for, if only for the cyclist’s own good. To cut down a curve during a fast descent is almost natural, but if the police have not closed the road to traffic, it is suicidal.
Our little Guide to the marvels that surround the destinations in our itineraries, is accompanied by these brief notes because we believe that every time you leave the house and get on your bike, you take part in an important personal and social process: you put yourself in a position to meet others. The bicycle today can do a lot for the preservation of the earth, both in Bulgaria and throughout the world, as well as for the cyclists themselves, who demand of an itinerary much more than a number of kilometers.
MOUNTAIN BIKES
The racing models are almost transparent, those for mountains or forest - solid and robust. They have been around for a decade now, and have been ridden round the world, in every country on the globe; you see them everywhere, and are often what comes to mind when someone thinks of a bicycle.
The mountain bike has succeeded because it has allowed man to boldly go where he might never have gone by bike otherwise. The mountain bike is an offshoot of the traditional bicycle, but each one has its own “personality”, and its own habitat; though both have in common that fascinating swish of the wheels that keeps us coming back.
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Green Advice for an Active Holiday
Travel in an environmentally friendly way – by train, bicycle, boat or ski. You will be closer to nature; you will be protecting the environment.
When walking through untouched territory, stay in single file so as to leave fewer footprints behind you.
Please remember that a bicycle leaves deep tracks when it goes over fragile ground, and those tracks will not disappear for years. Please use paths, marked routes and roads.
Leave your refuse in places where it is supposed to be disposed. Do not spoil everyone else’s joy.
There are rules concerning specially protected natural territories and they are there for a reason – these areas are “sensitive” to human presence. Please take these rules into account.
To fish, you need a fishing card or license. Please observe this rule – we do not want Bulgaria’s fish stock to run out.
Please do not get too close to animals, especially when they are mating, nesting or wintering. Let the animals remain undisturbed in their habitat – after all, they do not come into our homes.
Please do not collect plants and animals for a collection. The goal does not justify the means.
Cut mushrooms with a knife instead of ripping them out of the ground, do not use machinery to collect wild berries. Then the forest will yield its bounty next year too.
Please do not leave your initials or name on cliff walls, tree trunks or manmade objects, because that is desecration, not decoration. Let’s save the natural monuments for our children and the future generations.
Let’s light fires only in places which are intended for that purpose, and let’s keep fire safety strictly in mind. Forest fire causes incalculable damage.
When you put up your tent, make sure it is in a location that is meant for tenting. You will be more comfortable, because you will have access to at least a minimal infrastructure – water, firewood and tent locations.
Buy local products, do not feel that you have to bring everything with you. You will be helping the local businesses and the local foodstuffs will always be tasty and healthy!
If you respect the traditions and habits of local residents, you will always be able to count on their hospitality. Listen to the locals. They can tell you all about the area’s history and cultural traditions that you will never find in any travel guide.
Please limit your use of substances that are harmful to the environment and to human health – soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents, etc. If we keep the rivers and lakes of our country from growing over, we can save the plants and animals, to say nothing of the people, who depend on those bodies of water.
Let’s save on natural resources even if they are cheap and abundant. Not all that many resources in nature are renewable.
Choose those country tourism facilities which have the Green Certificate. Then you will be sure of the quality of the services that you will receive.
Please do not go swimming in unintended locations. Keep safe!
There are insects in our forests and meadows. Bring along your mosquito repellent and if you are planning to go out into the countryside during the spring, summer or autumn, make sure to get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis.
If you see a pet or a wild animal behaving unusually, keep away and report it to the nearest local government.
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