🇭🇷 Emergency stop in Croatia

On my way from Slovenia I thought I’d quickly stop by the coast and watch one sunset over the sea, spend the night in Croatia and continue to Bosnia next morning.

But to be very honest, I did not want to leave Slovenia. At all.

I think my 🐝 felt that and decided to give me a good reason not to go any further. All of a sudden I felt pretty intense vibration on the handlebar. I almost thought I was hallucinating. I released the grip on the handlebar and it started wobbling like crazy. I pulled over, checked the front wheel (as if I had any idea of what I was doing), didn’t find anything unusual and decided to continue and look for a moto service on the way. Everything was closed.

I made it to Krk island and stopped for half an hour to stare at the water, rest and gather the courage for one more hour of riding to Senj.

We made it just before the sunset.

The plan was to just spend one night there and go to Bosnia the next morning but I had a feeling it wouldn’t happen until I can get the 🐝 checked and fixed.

And just like that I got stuck in Croatia for 5 nights, spending hours in the moto service and doing daily test rides to see if we were getting any closer to solving the problem. The wheels got rebalanced, the suspension tightened, everything checked. But it seemed like nothing was really helping. Last option was to try replacing the front wheel bearings. They should arrive next morning.

5th day, I spent the morning looking at the sea and waiting for the new front wheel bearings to arrive. Around 2pm I get a call from Cvajko moto service. The bearings have arrived!

Replaced the bearings and once again checked everything possible. I did a short test ride, it seemed better (although not completely solved but manageable).

Then the owner of the moto service did a test ride. Same story, the issue is still there but nothing that would prevent me from continuing the trip.

We agreed that I would do a longer test ride, now with full luggage, and come back next morning if the issue is still critical.

So I went for a longer test ride. I thought I would ride towards Bosnia for 1-2 hours and find a place for the night somewhere along the way or come back to Senj. I had all my luggage with me anyway.

I started riding, said goodbye to the sea, and hello to the mountains and curvy roads. And before I knew it I was so close to Bosnia that I could just as well cross the border and spend the night there. And that’s exactly what I did!