I know that I don't post much on here but I have been busy. I was brave (or stupid) enough to decide to ride from Zurich towards Mongolia this summer. I ended the trip in Almaty and returned to Europe - this was due to fatigue and hearing that road conditions on the Northern Route were bad following very heavy rain.
I created a blog to record the trip for myself and friends - it was a pain as I found it clunky and not easy to update via my mobile phone. So it's basic but hopefully it gives a flavour of what happened on the trip.
In total I covered about 8,500km from Zurich to Almaty. A quick summary of the route - Zurich to Austria (via Italy), train to Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Russia and Mongolia were also on the list but not completed (maybe next year).
Faults with the bike on the trip;
1) Snapped one screw from the windscreen from the road vibrations.
2) Lost one bolt on the left side fairing panel.
3) Cut out a couple of times in heavy traffic on a very hot day using poor fuel. Blip the throttle and engine would cut out, do similar when pulling away in gear and no issue.
Otherwise the bike ran without any issues. I had no problems in Uzbekistan running on 80 octane.
I swapped my tyres to K60's and I've no idea what pressures I was running (possibly maximum) until I met an Australian who had them on his 1200 GSA (2-up and fully loaded) and he told me not to run them with at high pressure (he managed more than 20,000km on the rear)
If you have any questions on the trip please don't hesitate to ask - no matter how trivial.
For those who would like to have a read.
www.rideeast.blogspot.com
27-08-15, 07:48
Hybrid Mode
