Chain & Sprockets in Central Asia
 

Hi,

I'm doing a RTW from London to Sydney at the moment. Since I'm trying to see a bit of Italy, I'm accumulating a fair bit of mileage before I'm heading up the Stans/Silk Route.
At the moment I've done 3000 miles on an x-ring DID. If my maths are correct, I'll have around 11000 miles on the chain by the time I enter Tajikistan.

Big question is: What's available in Central Asia (Uzbekistan/Tajikistan/Kyrgyztan)? I'm on a BMW F650 Dakar. Can I score a new chain somewhere? What about sprockets?

Or is it better to have it shipped out? (Though I wouldn't even have an address to ship it to...)
Other alternative is to carry it with me (heavy!) or get a new one somewhere in Turkey (a bit of a waste).

Any suggestions?

Bjorn

you will be able to get chains ok, but finding a BMW sprocket might be tricky as most of the bikes out there are Japanese or Russian. The best place in Central Asia for all bits is probably MyTown Moto in Almaty (KZ).

Maybe take a spare sprocket zip-tied into your bash-plate or similar, this keeps the weight low and the part out of the way.

If you take it easy with the wrist you should be able to get the whole trip (Europe-Cen Asia then back to Europe or up into Russia) done on one chain/sprocket set. A scottoiler will be worth its weight in gold.

I would always favour carrying a spare, that way you can run the old one right to the end of its life, and being a bit tight this suits me down to the ground.

As stated previously to keep weight down you could zip tie a front sprocket low down. You could also get a Renthal alloy rear sprocket, fitted with a new chain, bought on the road, and front it will increase your range without any real increase in weight.

I can provide you with the Renthal part number if you wish, but I don't know if that will be of any use to you. If I remember correctly the rear sprocket is only used by Aprilia and BMW, the earlier ones are the same bike (ish), but I'll see if there is any kind of cross over for use on other machines.

The early F650's and the Aprilia Pegaso and Pegaso 3 use the same chain and sprocket set. Can get exact year cross match if you want. So sprockets should be available in Italy.

Hope this helps.

Hi Skorpion,

Yes a year cross match would be very helpful for me! I've got a 2-spark, 2005 model Dakar.
I like the idea of cable-tieing the sprockets to the bash-plate so might go for that if reasonable quality chains are available in central asia.
Bjorn

You might have to settle for a chain that fits, from what I remember most of the russians were running DID chains but not O or X rings. If you can't find one in central asia or dont need one by then there is a good bike shop in Novosibirsk (NBS Motor)

OK guys, here we go. I'm sure someone that has much better computer skills than me will be able to put this in other usefull places here on the HUBB.

Aprilia;

600 Tuareg '88 - '92 Different front Rear -Renthal 127A-520-43
650 Pegaso '91 - '97 Different front Rear -Renthal 127A-520-47
650 Pegaso '98 - '04 Front -Renthal 305-520-16 Rear -Renthal 127A-520-47

BMW F650 '94 - '05 Front -Renthal 305-520-16 Rear -Renthal 127A-520-47

JT sprockets also do a rear in steel, their part number is 5-47 or 5-43

So, in summary, rear sprockets from a '88 600 Tuareg through to an '04 650 Pegaso will fit the F650 from '94 to '05. But it is Pegaso '98 onwards that has the same front as the BMW.

Renthal fronts are available in 15t, 16t or 17t
Renthal rears are available in 47t or 46t
JT rears are available in 39t, 41t, 43t, 44t, 45t, 47t or 49t

I hope this is of use.

Thanks for that, guys! I'll try to score one here in Italy then :)

If you stop in Almaty, the biker's club there (next to the football stadium) is very helpful. They found us a couple DID chains, not cheap but good enough. For the sprocket, they actually made a new one by copying an original in, as the story goes, an old Soviet torpedo factory..

Where else but from the old Russian empire can you bring back such tales ? Although I agree that it is worth the hassle to carry a spare from Europe.

Have fun!

Laurent
A ride to Asia

We found a chain (for heaps of $$$) in Almaty, but I would agree on the sprockets being difficult. Austin Vince had them machined though. But shouldn't you be able to make them last the whole trip? We didn't because we didn't know how to look after them, so they were covered in mud for days. London - Vladivostok is only around 25k km. Not sure on your route though, but once out of the former Soviet states things should get a bit easier.

Almaty MyTown Moto Address
 

Does anybody have the Address/Phone number or GPS coordinates of My Town Moto (I think that's the name) in Almaty? Or of any other reliable motorcycle service place in Almaty...

Thank you

Probably a bit of a late response, but address and co-ordiantes of My Town Motors is here, along with a couple of other service guys dotted around.

Bike Servicing

Charles