Heavy Enduro's Road to Romaniacs- Prologue

The Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro rallye is an off-road motorcycle race run annually in Sibiu, Romania. It was created in 2004 and year over year is considered one of the most challenging hard enduro races in the world. The race week starts off with a gnarly prolog held on the Bulevardul Coposu, a main street in the city center of Sibiu and moves to nearby mountains and forests. Then competitors are off to a four-day offroad race in enduro trails cut across the Southern Carpathian Mountains.

In case it’s unclear from the description, this is most definitely a dirt bike race. Every winner for the last decade has been on a 300 two-stroke with a certain orange brand being highly favored.

But Heavy Enduro doesn’t follow the predictable path. Heavy Enduro’s Andy Janik will be heading to Romania on a Tenere 700. To be fair, this has been done before, but by a professional racer with factory support. This is the story of Andy’s journey and what it takes to prep your average dirt bike rider both physically and mentally and how an average joe takes a moderately-priced adventure bike and turns it into a machine capable of tackling some of the hardest trails in the world.

Andy won’t be on a stock T7 and last year’s race winner definitely had some primo upgrades, but it’s worth comparing the starting point for these bikes. The winner of the 2023 Iron Class was on a Beta 300 rr, a comparable two-stroke that was similarly upgraded.

2021 YAMAHA TENERE 700
Engine Type 689cc liquid-cooled DOHC 4-stroke
Dry Weight 412 lbs
Wet Weight 452 lbs
Suspension (Front) 43mm inverted fork
Travel (Front) 8.3”
Ground Clearance 9.4”

2023 KTM 300 EXC
293 cc 2-stroke Engine Type
234 lbs Dry Weight
246 lbs Wet Weight
48mm WP Suspension (Front)
11.8” Travel (Front)
13.7” Ground Clearance

Just your average day in the woods on an easy Adventure trail through beautiful Kentucky woods.
2023 US Hard Enduro Race #22 hosted by KXCR