http://www.mtb-bulgaria.com

We’ve been discussing our 2015 plans and this one has come into the discussion.

Anyone have any knowledge at all they can throw out there ?

Apparently there was a recent article in a MTB mag which prompted my mate to point it out, but I’m yet to see the article.

http://bike-bulgaria.com/
Less gravity orientated but I can guarantee you will have a good time….or Ian will shoot you 8)

I can’t help you right now, but a friend has just bought a house out there, so I’m going out later on this year to see what I can find. Looks like there’s plenty of interesting places to explore.

I’ll report back later on.

Thanks mate… Emailed.

I went to Borovets a few years ago, horse riding and MTbing… it’s really good some mental downhills. I stayed in a Spa hotel called The Lodge Collection fantastic food cheep booze wonderful rooms. Iwas on a press trip they where trying to attract people to go there in the off season when there was no snow for sking. I wouldn’t hesitate to recomend it the Rilla mountains are a beautiful place to ride.

Hmm, makes mental note of thread. No summer hols planed as yet.

Rorschach – Member

http://bike-bulgaria.com/

£325 for a single room for a week including a bit of food and picking/dropping from the airport seems VERY good value indeed !

A friend of mine goes to Bansko regularly and loves it 🙂

I can recommend Bike Bulgaria. I was over there with Ian and Dan last month and they really looked after us well. It’s advertised as XC, but it’s basically trail riding. A good mix of double and single track. Not really DH-oriented if that’s your thing. I knew we’d be OK when they picked us up from the airport and had complementary beers in a coolbox in the minibus!

My mate and his brother have holiday lets in Bulgaria. The brother has his in one of the ski resorts, which I should imagine would be fun out of season. The upshot from my mate is that Bulgaria is the dogs dangly bits.

Went to Sofia for a week in May and I am of the opinion it is the best value holiday I have ever been on! Made it to the Rila mountains for hiking (no-one else into mtb 🙁 )but it was tremendously beautiful and the fact you can eat out every night with a 3-course meal and struggle to spend cash just makes the whole experience very memorable. You really can live like kings comparably. Also many people are riding, mainly mountain bikes there, lots about in the streets of Sofia and the trail maps look like you could go for weeks without getting bored. We will most definitely be returning at some point there’s no question.

I took my Covert out to Bansko the other year in the summer. Was out there before the gondela open so was riding up (1X10) with 32T upfront. I was there when IMB mag were out & did some riding with them. A guy called Nigel runs an operation out there & took me out for a days guided riding, was great fun singletrack out there

@scrank32, is the video they have on their website representative of the riding? It looks somewhat ‘meh’, but I’m guessing there’s more interesting riding and trails?

http://www.mtb-bulgaria.com

We’ve been discussing our 2015 plans and this one has come into the discussion.

Anyone have any knowledge at all they can throw out there ?

I am going with them this Saturday with four friends and will report back!
We have been to Morzine three times and enjoyed it but fancy somewhere different and Bulgaria looks promising, hopefully the beer will be cheaper too 😆

The mate who booked it has had very quick replies to any questions we have asked.

I’m just back from a week with Ian and Dan too. Really enjoyed it, and yes definately trail-y rather than downhill. Ian’s obviously spent quite some time developing his routes, very little of it is ridden on roads.

hopefully the beer will be cheaper too

About £1.00 for 1/2 litre.

tthew – Member

I’m just back from a week with Ian and Dan too. Really enjoyed it, and yes definately trail-y rather than downhill. Ian’s obviously spent quite some time developing his routes, very little of it is ridden on roads

Describe in more detail please. Are we talking epic views across mountain ranges ? Views over the sea ? Techie, rooty, rocky trails, or South Downs Way/Ridgeway ?

*adds thread to favourites*

Daily distances were between 20 to 30 miles. Routes are mainly the local tracks and trails used by forestry, farmers, small villages but they aren’t surfaced at all, maintenance appears to be to sending a bolldozer down when they get too erroded for vans and carts to get down, so primarily nice and fast. A few rocky/singletrack sections, all in all probbaly more South Downs than Peak District. Weather was great all week.

It’s a hilly area rather than mountainous and at least a couple of days were spent near the coast, including a couple of beach rest stops at nice bars. Brilliant.

OK, so good for partners (of whichever sex) who may not be so confident on the bike? Beaches good? Hot?

The first linked company appears to be pure Bike Park and the second average xc… really want something in the middle, long singletrack, fast and flowy at times, techy at others etc.

Great value though if either suit.

@saxabar. If you’re looking for all-out thrills, all day, every day, then it might not be for you. However, there are some fun and fast descents, and a few technical sections (some optional). The week started off with a fairly steady introductory ride, and got better each day. It’s a combination of fun trails, beautiful landscapes, fantastic beach bars, great guiding, and a bit of Bulgarian culture. Oh, and food and drink is ridiculously cheap. There are 2 guides – Ian and Dan – so if the group is of mixed ability, I suppose they could split it into two. Beaches and weather were great.

@mbnut check Nigel at mtbbansko.com
It is xc stuff but I met up with the IMB guys Richard & co whilst out there who all ride Surrey Hills & they thought some of the trails similar to Surrey Hills. more fun than BBH or Bedgebury….

Thanks – not trying to be billy-big-balls.. Just wanted a better picture. Do reckon HT over full suss?

got a house, 1 hour from varna.(in the foothills of stara planina mountains) been every summer for the last 6 years. trails are natural and absolute quality. beer even cheaper than the tourist traps at 40p a pint!(zagorka/shumensko the best)
definitely full sus but be prepared to climb.will be very hot too so a camelbak a neccessity
tubeless definitely too(if you can) as plenty of rocks and goat thorns!
i recommend using a guide though if you have never been before as its pretty remote and easy to end up on dead end trails away from the cities.
i’ll be there in two weeks, woohoo!!!

Saxabar, I’ve also been with Ian (last year). I took my 29 hardtail and I thought it was perfect, but I find it pretty good down hill on all but really technical downhill. Friends of mine have also been and used everything from Ian’s hire bikes up to orange 5’s, nobody has come back and said they felt they’d take the wrong bike.

I really enjoyed the week, by the time I got home I was the fittest I’ve ever been. As already mention Ian has put a lot of time I to his routes and each day is a bigger ride than the last. As I recall there are 5 days of riding, ride days 1,2,3 off day 4 and ride 5 and 6. I was knackered by day 3 and really enjoyed the day off, but was then flying days 4 and 5.

Beaches are good and yes it’s hot 🙂

I rode one of Ian’s Orange G3s and never felt under-biked. A short-travel full sus would be OK too.

OK we are back in one piece,
The riding we did in Borovets for 3 days was as good as anything i’ve ridden in the Alps, lots of fast natural feeling singletrack. The trails at Pamporovo are more man made but were still great. We then spent one day on Vitosha Mountain on the outskirts of Sofia, the riding was amazing, again more of a natural feel to it. The trails were all very quiet and never had to queue at all but a word of warning the lifts are quite old and you have to put your bike on as you sit down and hook it onto the chair!
We all took DH bikes but a 160mm travel bike would be fine
Bulgaria itself was a very good experience, the people were very friendly and spoke good English, the food was amazing, we didn’t have one bad meal and the prices are great, approx £5 for a main meal and beer varied between 80p to £2 for 500ml
The hotels that Steve from MTB Bulgaria had chosen were of a high standard and his van was perfect for moving 6 bikes between resorts.
The only downside is that the ski resorts were very quiet, we saw more dogs than people one day 😉

Hi all..

Nigel suggested us to register to ‘singletrack’ to see if we could give any help to those who may consider Bulgaria as an mtb destination. Although Nigels group were primarily park based with uplift, Bulgaria offers huge opportunities for XC.. both in the mountains and also in the valleys between. We are based near to the ski resort of Bansko and our winter business is transport, we have a number of minibuses ferrying guests to and from the airport, but in the summer it is mtb 😀 We can cater for the transport of passengers with bikes to various locations, organise accommodation, recommend restaurants etc etc… I won’t bleat on, if anyone is interested in more info simply contact us… i will end on this note, Bulgaria is 2/3 mountains, we have wolves and bears, 1000m climbing elevations are common, meeting others on trails is not 😉

Steve
mtb.hire@gmail.com