bleu/blanc/rouge

Red Bull Romaniacs: The most diversified Extreme Enduro track ever in 2014

The 11th edition of the "Red Bull Romaniacs" (RBR) is only two weeks away and the organizing team around Martin “Frein” Freinademetz is on cruise control for final preparations. The team is now growing by a dozen per day and will reach it`s race-mode size of 400 people with the start of the registrations.

The group of track managers around director Klaus Sorensen had finished the race track-routing months ago and is now focussed on preparing a world-class marking of the trails.

With ten years of experience, the track management team of the Red Bull Romaniacs was facing their ultimate challenge during the preparation of the 11th edition: Adding a completely new class to the existing lineup of three classes meant adjusting 600 km of trails to the profile of the new “Iron-Class” (profile = rideable).

The Red Bull Romaniacs is a five-day Extreme Enduro race, that kicks off with an inner city prologue, followed by four extremely demanding offroad days through the Southern Carpathian wilderness.

In 2014, Offroad-Day Two will be the most challenging one: With a very high frequency of uninviting sections for all classes and extremely steep profiles. In 2010, we considered the area still “unrideable”.

Offroad Day Three will be almost as gnarly but it makes up for it with a great mix of landscapes, flowy trails and the biggest altitude deltas. It is track-director Klaus Sorensen`s favorite.

Founder Martin Freinademetz however prefers Offroad Day Four for it`s high paced rallye-style, the beautiful passages through high-mountain areas and the special surprises at the end (overall finish).

Offroad Day Four will be the toughest one for the Iron Class and will bring all classes to their limits. Which leaves Offroad Day One as the day that gently eases competitors into race-mode. At least more gentle than Offroad Day One 2013.

The first half of Offroad-Day 1 is all about getting into race mode: With relative easy riding in open spaces for the Iron- and Bronze-Class. The same could be said for the Gold- and Silver-Class, if there wasn`t the gnarly “Doomed”-section just before the service point.´

The second half of the race day continues with flowy riding for the Iron-Class but already leads the Gold-, Silver- and Bronze-Class into the higher mountains where they get their first taste of Red Bull Romaniacs racing. They will also pass through the sections “Hunter 3”, Hunter 4”, “Bad Shape”, “Sherco River” and deliver some spectator-friendly action in the quarry.

Offroad-Day Two and Three will greet the Iron-Class with a rough awakening in the morning and a few technical challenges to chew on. After the service point, they will face a more relaxed pace on the way home (both days). For all other classes, it will be the opposite on Offroad-Day Two: a set of fun, roller-coaster-like rides will provide them an enjoyable morning until the service point.

Only the Gold-Class gets hit by a surprise with “10A” just before the break. After the service point, it will be altitude crunching: the Bronze-, Silver- and Gold-Class will face climb-ups from 400 m altitude up to the level of 2000m and descents back down. The Silver- and Gold-riders will learn to fear the names “The Beast” and “Tsuika-Line” and for the Gold-Class it will get even worse in “The never ending story”!

Offroad-Day Three greets all classes with gently easing them into the day, except the Iron class, who will have their workout in the morning again. But soon enough, all three other classes will be hit by “1000 Stone Travers” and “SkiDoo River”, while the Gold- and Silver class receive exclusive treatment in the “Expert Killer”.

After the break at the service point, there is no stopping for the Iron-Class, heading straight for the finish on the roof of the factory in Petrosani. The other classes will get to learn why Offroad Day Three is track director Klaus Sorensen`s favorite: in a high-mountain loop, they will experience a great variety of terrain and sections like the “Trial Uphill”, “Heavy Shit”, “Frontflip”, “Armpump River”, and “Switchback Heaven”.

Offroad-Day Four welcomes the riders to their longest and fastest day with a technical, 500m rock-crossing that will be especially tough for the Iron-Class. After that, all classes will crunch some kilometers heading for the service point. Only the Gold- and Silver-Classes get a little workout at “Sigi Zig Zag”.

The second half of the day is all foreplay for the famous Gusterita hill-climb finish in front of thousands of spectators. It will be spiced with river-crossings for all classes, among them a wall-ride, variations of tricky ups & downs for the Bronze-Class and the toughest climb of the race for the Silver-Class. Some of the the Silver riders will push their bike upwards for up to two hours - depending on the weather. They will also face, together with the “Golden Boys”, the “Slimy River”-section.

The Gold-Class itself will of course never run out of interesting challenges and will get hit hard by “Long Walk Junior”, “Congo”, and “Black Mamba” before getting relieved in the finish arena. There will be some nice offroad-riding towards the finish right through Sibiu.

For more informations please visit the official website at [ REDBULLROMANIACS.COM ] 

The 5 Reasons

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AUTO FABRICA TYPE 4 YAMAHA SR250

For the past few weeks, I’ve had a KTM Freeride 350 in my garage—a press bike on loan. The most striking thing about the KTM is its weight, which is a smidge under 100 kg (220 lbs).

My own Moto Guzzi V7 Classic is no heavyweight either, at 182 kg dry, but the KTM feels like a toy in comparison—in the best possible way.

Having been introduced to the delights of riding a superlight bike, I cast my eye over this new build from Auto Fabrica with interest. It’s based on a Yamaha SR250, and almost certainly weighs less than the 130kg of a stock SR250. Which can only mean one thing: it’s easy and fun to ride.

Auto Fabrica are based in the unlikely location of Southend-On-Sea, a resort town sitting on the Thames river, east of London. Shop boss Bujar Muharremi and his crew have a passion for SR250s, with this being their fourth build.

This time, they’ve changed the stance of the bike—ditching their usual 16/19” wheel combo for a pair of 18” rims and matching Mitas trial bike tires. “This enabled us to re-lace a bigger and better front twin leading shoe hub, which was a much-needed upgrade from standard,” says Bujar. “The rear has slightly higher shocks and we’ve lowered the front end to give the correct side profile.”

The focal point of the build is the aluminum tank, which was fabricated in-house.
“We reduced the visual weight by making it shorter than OEM, but with a bit more roundness to match the lines of the engine. It means that the seat can be relatively thick without dominating the tank.” The fabrication is first-class, with scalloped knee indents on the tank and a black suede seat covering, complete with a little orange triangle to give a hint of color.

The engine was dispatched to legendary tuner Bob Farnham for a full rebuild with new piston and rings. It came back with a slightly bigger bore and a gas flowed head, and was promptly hooked up to a custom stainless steel straight-through pipe, also created in-house at Auto Fabrica.

“The bike is extremely fun to ride, due to its light weight and small size,” Bujar reports, and I don’t doubt him for a second. The classy looks are just the icing on the cake.

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via BIKEexif