So, as I am due to travel to Almaty, Kazakhstan on Saturday it seems an opportune time to start to record my various mishaps.
The outline plan is for two of us to rent Suzuki DR650s in Almaty (picture below) and ride a circuit of Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and a little of Uzbekistan and return the bikes a month or so later to the ubiquitous Marat of Silk Offroad.
Sadly, this time I travel without Drumacoon Lad, my previous partner in motorcycle misadventures.
However this time I am meeting up with Gary, a Californian I rode the Karakoram highway with in a small group last October.
We are due to meet in Almaty but as I write his Africa Twin motorcycle has broken down in the far west of Uzbekistan en route to (but a looong way from) Almaty and so it's looking a little unpredictable. When I spoke to him this morning he had managed to get his bike into a van - which had subsequently broken its suspension and ripped off its propane tank (due to a combination of horrific roads and immature/incompetent driver). So things are going swimmingly
. (His bike is a new Africa Twin, much better if he'd brought an old 1150
).
However I have managed to order a secondhand front wheel (the offending part) from James Sherlock for the Africa Twin and shall be trying to squeeze that into my luggage and onto the plane from Heathrow
.
I think I have everything I need to bring (for heat and extreme cold!) piled up in my study and the challenge this week is to fit it within the permitted luggage space, once the wheel has arrived. Bringing my Magadan panniers, crash helmet and off road boots just compounds the space pressure.
Apparent chaos...even before the final parts have arrived...
The outline plan is for two of us to rent Suzuki DR650s in Almaty (picture below) and ride a circuit of Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and a little of Uzbekistan and return the bikes a month or so later to the ubiquitous Marat of Silk Offroad.
Sadly, this time I travel without Drumacoon Lad, my previous partner in motorcycle misadventures.
However this time I am meeting up with Gary, a Californian I rode the Karakoram highway with in a small group last October.We are due to meet in Almaty but as I write his Africa Twin motorcycle has broken down in the far west of Uzbekistan en route to (but a looong way from) Almaty and so it's looking a little unpredictable. When I spoke to him this morning he had managed to get his bike into a van - which had subsequently broken its suspension and ripped off its propane tank (due to a combination of horrific roads and immature/incompetent driver). So things are going swimmingly
. (His bike is a new Africa Twin, much better if he'd brought an old 1150).However I have managed to order a secondhand front wheel (the offending part) from James Sherlock for the Africa Twin and shall be trying to squeeze that into my luggage and onto the plane from Heathrow
.I think I have everything I need to bring (for heat and extreme cold!) piled up in my study and the challenge this week is to fit it within the permitted luggage space, once the wheel has arrived. Bringing my Magadan panniers, crash helmet and off road boots just compounds the space pressure.
Apparent chaos...even before the final parts have arrived...
. (Although sitting sweating in my bike gear for the two flights (via Istanbul) does not appeal
.
