Kasakhstan (Part 2/2)

Up to now the road is in much better condition than expected, it looks that I might be able to cross Kazakhstan in the 4,5 days registration tolerance and save time for something better than looking a place to register. North of Aral the road go strait for many km but it has it's beauty the only thing really annoying is the strong frontal and now side wind since I left Shymkent, making it difficult to rest even when I stop.

Stopped at a resting area in the middle of nowhere, which had a small restaurant which is not common on this route and ordered a goulash.

Every resting area I drove by in Kazakhstan so far has a platform to take a look at the bottom of your car or truck and do repairs on the go more easily.

After ridding for a while following the stop I noted that there was something wrong with the water temperature. Time for an unplanned stop and check what's going on.

Checked everything vital to continue all seamed OK but the thermometer cable seams to be broken somewhere, nice thing that I brought an oil thermometer I'll keep an eye on that more often from now on.

Earth closet that you can find on every resting area. The road conditions deteriorates gradually as I moved on towards Aktöbe, a typical thing (not only) in Kazakhstan is to have potholes squared out with sharp edges that can put an end to the trip, even with an empty road for miles ahead it's not possible to enjoy the views for to long.

When I arrive in Aktöbe I got hit by yet another sandstorm and I can see a huge thunderstorm coming my way so I cross the city as fast as I can to avoid getting wet or having to put the rain protection on. It's early afternoon but I'm tired I plan to stop in the next town if I can get a room. I sopped in Kobda to fill up the tank and ask if there is a hotel in town and they say in the back. I thought that they misunderstood me and where pointing me to the restroom. I asked again and a guy walks out with me and points to the next house. I went there, asked for the room, arranged to put the bike inside the gates. When I came out a guy in a motorbike drives by and turns around, thinking he was another travel due to his luggage I great and walk to him but then I realize he is from Kazakhstan. He tells me something from 5 brothers, that they will camp and I should come with him. When I ask how far he says 5 km, I thought it could be a nice experience and agree to follow him. We drove out of town and stopped at the gas station where the other guys where filling up. Everyone came to greet me and take a selfie, only one of them speaks a bit of English. Then they drive out and all stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture.

After that we went on I tried to drive last and noted immediately that they don't have a group behavior on the road, some speed for a while and then stop or fall back to far but in average most of them are ridding to fast for what I'm willing to. Time goes by and I begin to realize that the guy didn't gave me the correct distance, I remembered that the guy that spoke some English mentioned Oral and that was over 300 km away and I was not fit enough or willing to cover that distance. I kept my speed with the legal limits 4 of the guys speed ahead and the one that first spoke to me fell so far back that I could't see him anymore. I drive always at a constant speed when I'm traveling, it's much less tiring and I can easily calculate the arrival time. Meanwhile a truck in front of me brakes strongly I pull left to over take it and see that the police had stopped all the guys in front of me, I keep my pace until the next city where I drive to the first guest house, drive to the end of the street where the GPS points me but there's no entrance there, then a guy tells me that I need to go around. When I'm driving around a police car arrives driving fast and stops me. Asks me where I'm from and something else that I didn't understand, then pulls his phone calls someone, asks where I'm going and I say hotel. He then the house I was going to is no hotel, "hotel 300 meters" he says, I don't want any trouble and drive the 300 meters. Got a room, a garage for the bike and a lot o nice things to eat.

The next day I drove all the way to the Russian border, on the way I stopped to take a picture of this graveyard.

Then checked the bike and found this:

The owner of the bike bought a hard tire with the intention that it would last the all trip but did not check how old the tire already was. This tire was produced in 2015 and was most probably since then lying around without protection, making it an expensive peace of garbage. The last 100 km from Oral to the border were a nightmare, mostly no road at all, it was so bad that the cars now drive through the fields besides the road.

Kasakhstan (Part 1/2)

The day started with a beautiful sunrise but as previously mentioned without water.

I had chosen this place because it was near to the M32 and I would not need to cross the city in the morning. I headed to the M32 but shortly before the junction, they'd closed a bridge and I had to turn back to the next bridge and make a 9km detour through the city, nice idea but nothing won after all.

There is no visa requirement for European citizens to enter the country but if you stay longer than 5 days, you'll have to register with the OVIR to avoid being fined and possibly put in jail. Now, Kazakhstan does not have that much interesting things to see on the path I've planed, registering would cost me possibly one day as I don't have the slightest idea where to go. The plan now is to check how bad the roads are and how many km a day are a realistic goal. I've seen some horrifying videos about the roads so let's have a look.

Next turn in 1067 km !!!! The M32 leaving Shymkent is a four lane highway, two in each direction, there some construction going on in some parts and in those places they just direct the traffic to the other side and "let it behave" like on a normal road, nothing like in countries in the EU not to talk about Germany.

I was actually expecting to sweat all the time here but despite the sunshine, it's getting colder and colder instead.

One thing I really like around here is the absence of fences around properties and along the road but that means also that you've to share the road with cows, horses, camels, ... and they to not to calmly walk in front of a truck and make them stop.

The first reason for this route and the start date I've chosen was to possibly watch a racket launching in Baikonur , there where two starts planned for this week but unfortunately both were canceled shortly before my departure. Besides that I found out that visiting Baikonur is quite expensive, over 1.500€ to be more precise and you're only allowed to make pictures when authorized to do so.

The road today was also pretty good, made it up to Аральск, almost enough for the ironbutt :-)

Leaving Sokuluk

Regardless of the problems I've found and still have, the bike was OK yesterday, the fuel pump might not be 100% but it didn't cause any trouble besides the unhealthy noise it was making. I've just checked that I still don't have all papers I might be requested when crossing a border or when stopped by the police but time is running and I don't have much of it. Despite all of this, it's time too move on. Due to the missing papers and the time lost fixing the bike I decided to go strait to the border and leave the Pamir and Kyrgyzstan for another time. In the mean time I had the bike panniers as good as possible welded and straighten out.

I started quite late and had targeted Shymkent as destination in case I was able to cross the border.

It was quite hot and when I arrived at the boarder, there were only a couple of cars waiting but it took ages just to get inside the area to stamp the passport out of Kyrgyzstan, during all this time the fuel pump was working at full speed, even with the engine turned off. After approximately one hour I was out of Kyrgyzstan and waiting to get in at the Kazakhstan barrier. While no one was looking I disconnected the power to try to save the pump. During the time I was waiting a couple of guys came up for pictures and asking about the insurance and one saying he would help. Once I got through I had to fill two small forms, one for me and another (smaller than a credit card) for the bike, the personal one had the fields also named in English but the one for the was all in Cyrillic, that was when the other guy came handy and filled that up for me, after getting my entry stamp on the passport and the immigration card I had to put my jacket for X-ray, I asked about the helmet but they didn't care about it, then walk out back to the bike and get the contents of the panniers partially inspected. That was it, the worse about is the waiting time. I rode out to Kazakhstan looking for banks but there weren't any, turned around to look better and the guy that helped me came shouting, insurance! insurance! I needed one so I went with ihm. Then they asked me for 4.000 Tenge but I only had €, $ and Soms, the guy said well then 2.000 Som. I pulled out my cell phone and checked the exchange rate I had written for each country before I left. And replied, that's only 1.000 Som, clearly he was trying to rip me off but didn't argue about the price and offered to exchange all my Som at 1 to 4, it's around 10% less than the official rate but I didn't knew where or when I would be able to change them so I went for it. The roads after the border were in pretty good shape and I could travel at a good pace until Taras but then I was hit by a sand storm, stopped there shortly to withdraw some money and on the way out to take this picture.

After leaving Taras, I had to fight against a strong tiring wind and besides that I was heading into a huge thunderstorm, I continued ridding until I started to feel the humidity and looking for a place to hide and protect me but there was nothing, I did find a place to stop but it had no protection against the strong wind, putting on the rain suit was a real challenge. Then carried on until Shymkent were I tried the first logging waypoint on my gps. It was a huge building but outside was completely empty of cars and live, only a man in the parking lot. I asked him about the hotel, he smiled and said it was music hall. I then tried the next one, saw the name on the top of the building but no way to get in. Next try was to get something near to my route, got there, parking lot empty and the entrance looking like this.

Hided there while another thunderstorm passed by then got on the bike to look for something open. When I was driving out I saw a guy going to the entrance and decided to turn around and ask about it. He told me that it was open and the reception was on the second floor. While I was preparing to go inside, a group of young people came out and one of them asked where I was from then he said that the receptionist doesn't speak any English laughing and walked away. That's the kind of helpful Kazahk people seam to be.

I managed to get the room and Wi-Fi password, strange place though, in the evening I barely had water to shower but in the morning there was no water at all.

Bike repair take #2

Bike repair take #2: It's quite tricky to weld the engine switch properly, this time besides welding it I'll prepare a plan B (just in case :-)). The problem is that the switch is not original and the Honda cables are too thick for the mounted KTM switch.

Got everything welded and function tested before putting the screws on to fix the switch. Guess what, once the switch was put back into place it stopped working ... all cables where still on place, it looks like the switch has something broken inside and is complete garbage. Good thing I had a plan B in place so, no need to start all over again. Just put everything together and do another test ride with Ricardo who spent the day here with me instead of enjoying Kyrgyzstan. Thanks Ricardo! I really appreciated that.

During this ride I noticed that something was wrong with the fuel pump, even though the tank was full and the engine was only idling, the pump was working at full speed as if the fuel was running out. This bike seams to be a never ending story...

This was end of the road, the soil was covered with thin layer of sticky mud that let us drift all over the place and had almost no traction.

Besides the annoying noise of the fuel pump the test was ok but when I checked the radiator, another 200 ml liquid were missing.

Bike repair take #1

It was already late when I finished my push workout, I was tired and didn't had a clue where the electrical failure could be, a couple of good reasons to postpone the research to the next morning. Trying to avoid having to take off the heavy full tank, I decided to start by checking the connections on the ignition key and go from there. I took the front right fairing off, funny fact, the fairing has 4 screws fixing it but they are all different and I needed a different tool for each of them :-) (note: this is not by design). Once I exposed the ignition switch I immediately saw the culprit.

Now I just to take care of it, I welded it as good as I could, did a pull test on it and it seamed ok, then protected it with gorilla tape, mounted it back and everything looked fine. Allen and Ricardo, who had just arrived the evening before, offered themselves to escort me during the test ride (just in case).

We stopped around 10 kms to talk about where to go next and I switched off the engine, when we agreed everyone left, I turned the key on but nothing happened, tried moving the cable on the engine switch but it didn't help, meanwhile Allen and Ricardo had returned and Allen called for a truck to pick us up.

By the time we're back, another day was gone and the bike was still not working properly. Besides that I saw that the water expansion tank was completely empty and during the short ride I also noted that the steering bearings were not ok, another thing that bothers me is that the bike has no working speedometer or tachometer, that means I'll never know exactly how many kms I've done since the last refill and that's not good.

Finally

It has been a while, since a friend of mine told me, that a good friend of his would drive a bike all the way up to Magadan and drop it there due to time constraints with no intention to hold it. This was back in 2012 and I had already booked a flight to Brasil, so unfortunately I could not be the lucky one but passed the opportunity to a good friend of mine, who was happy to do the job, if you can call it that. Since then I was offered to drive back from Magadan in 2014 but the guy heading there canceled his trip, then this year again from Osh but again at the final moment, nothing. This time however, I thought about being me driving east and let someone else do the back route and while I was starting the plan, a new opportunity came up. After exchanging some information and adjusting expectations we nailed it down.

The first day didn't start so well, two passengers on my first flight dropped their luggage at the check in but didn't show up for boarding, delaying the flight for over an hour. On the second flight wasn't any better, I don't know what happened but we had to wait another hour on the ground, landing in Bishkek shortly after 5:00 am.

Spent the day checking the bike and doing some maintenance, it was supposed to be a turn key, but it soon proved to be different. Placed in a new battery and changed the chain kit. First problem raised when I found out that I had no tool to rivet the chain.

Then tried to start the engine but it didn't work, the tank was empty. Tried again after pooring some fuel in but again no luck. The bike is equipped with a non standard, Facet fuel pump which I know to produce a lot of noise when it runs out of fuel but this one was completely silent, tried connecting it directly to the battery and it worked, checked the battery connection and solved the problem.

All attempts to rivet the chain without a proper tool failed, the host I'm staying with remembered about someone who should have one and was very kind to organize it by the next morning, cannot thank him enough for that.
The panniers are also in pretty bad shape, dented on the corners an with cracks on almost every place it was weld.

This morning I was finally able to rivet the chain and do a first test ride in the backyard, got my helmet and went to the gas station but 500 meters later remembered I had forgotten my papers and turned around to get them. Stopped the engine, went in for the papers and when tried to start it again, nothing, complete blackout. Pushed it in, took of the seat and found the battery cables to be loose, tighten them up, turned the key on, pushed the start button and it run again. Fueled it up and decided to do a short tour to get a feeling for it an check that everything was OK but just after 2 km the engine stalled and all lights went out, took once again the sit off  but all cables were fine, none loose.

With no chance to get the engine started I had to push it 2,5 km back. At least there was a little supermarket on the way to get some water.

This is a typical house in Sokuluk, surrounded by tall walls, preventing any view to the inside.

to be continued ...