Belgium to Armenia: what tyres
 

prepraring a little trip from belgium via croatia and turkey to Armenia and Georgia.
Currently our 650GS is equipped with Michelin T66.
Good? Bad? Ugly?
Most likely, the trip will take longer than the tyres will last, can anyone advise on tyre availability in Turkey? Istanbul I reckon?

Thanks
Jan and Brenda
www.effieweg.tk

hi there,

did the same thing but then backwards from kolkutta. from iran into armenia, then georgie and into turkey. its really going to depend on wich route you take and what you wanna do. I was on a trr250 so a lot of offroad and chosing for adventure. and there is a lot of stuff. Turkey is no prob. roads are all the way good. but they dont know anything about roadbuilding in neither armenia nor georgia. last time (april 2005) the dutch were rebuilding all the roads there (georgia). didnt know how far they get by now... putholes sometimes 20 centimeters deep. those huge russian trucks destroy everything. but that was inland and mostly in georgia. if you stick to the major roads in armania amd you will be fine i guess....
you are going to love it.
greetz
niels

Thanks for the info.

(bit weird to hijack a tread i started myself but) can you go a bit into detail on your route? Any highlights we can't miss? Cheers

Tyres are availeble in Istanbul, at least that's what Paolo Volpara from http://www.motoreast.com/ told me. I put on new ones just to be sure.




http://tony-ontheroad.blogspot.com/

mmm,
I will try yo do my best, i am now in loas now and dont have any map or guide to help me remember. But thats what i recommend you. just take a guidebook and just pick out what you like. i had a lonely planet one and altough i dont like them very much, this was a good edition. it covers armenia, georgia and azerbijan.
I spend about 2 weeks in armenia and 2 weeks in georgia. comming up from the beautifull arasvalley was really nice. guess people dont go that far south if you dont come up that way from iran. but if you have the time kapan is worth going (the old monastery hanging over the cliff). a lot of nice old russian style villages around there. all of armenia is quiet mountainous and green. especially that side is nice and the road going up north to georgia is really beautifull. stay a coulpe days in yerevan. its quiet cheap and there is a lot of stuff to do (theatre, nice markets, good food and booze-check out the cognac, best of the world!-pretty woman)its way more oldfashioned than the georgian capital. its also a perfect base to do dayrides. there are a lot of interesting rides wich you can do in combination of cultural visits. from this valley you have a great view on the mount arat. another thing; there are allmost no bikes in armenia. saw only two times the old russian bike. so watch out with the cars (are not bike-aware) and the dogs. they come afther you. but so also do the girls!
You should stop in Sevan. I met somebody who drove around it but for that you will sure need some better tires. from there i went up direction georgia and that too was a nice mountainous ride.
mmm thats about it what i can remember now for armenia.the pretty girl thing is maybe a little bit exagerated, but i was coming from 4months pakistan-iran i gues i lost any sense of objectivity on that subject..
if you need anything on georgia let me know...

greetz
niels