Europe to China, seeking advice
 

Hi Folks,
Myself and some friends are planning to arrive in Germany in April 2011, buy bikes, travel to China and hopefully on to Australia on the following route:
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan (across the Caspian), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, OZ.
Many of the border crossings, particularly in Europe, will not be a problem, but I am concerned about the Central Asian countries, particularly Uzbekistan (where I understand bikes are banned as the guy running the place is paranoid of assassination), and also crossing into China from Tajikistan.
Have any of you out there done this route or done any of these crossings, and what advice can you offer.

Thanks, Mongo

Uzbekistan is no problem ... just a few roads in the major cities are illegal for motorcycles - the roads the president uses. They are signposted. The rest of the country is fine.

You can not cross from Tajikistan to China , there is no border crossing between those countries. You must cross from Kyrgyzstan. .. As for CHina you should do some searching and reading all over this site. You cant just ride into CHina, you need a guide that costs a few hundred dollars a day.

There may be some obstacles (like visas) in the Stans, but I believe the biggest problem would be the official requirements for crossing the entire width of China from west to southeast. That´s going to cost a huge amount of money on the arrangements alone. It is prohibitively expensive for most people.

It seems that some people have sneaked in without a guide, but those reports are a few years old now, I wouldnt build my plans on that. Especially if/when you want to travel through the whole country.