Hi guys,
take chanche to thanks all of you gave me some precious info in the past to set up this successful overland journey from Milan to India.
We made it: it was me on a Harley Davidson Roadking '98 and Arrigo on a brand new BMW f850GS.
17 days travel:
ferry from Italy to Turkey,
TURKEY (Cesme, Konya, Malatya, Dogubaizit),
IRAN (Zanjan, Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, Bam, Mirjaveh),
PAKISTAN (Taftan, Quetta, Zhob, somewhere near DeraIsmailKhan, Lahore), INDIA (Amritsar, Pipli, Delhi).

State of roads: Turkey and Iran=excellent, Pakistan = excellent from taftan to Dalbandin, then a nightmare until Multan/Dera Ismail Khan (all mountain part in Paki, is almost terrible). Good again in the Hindo valley, but terribly busy: nightmare again. INDIA= total nightmare either as tarmac and especially for killer traffic.
Only enduro motorbike may do it: my harley is a particular case...

Escorts:
IRAN: from BAM to paki border: escorts on cars will make lose you lotta time. they keep your passports.
Pakistan: taftan - quetta: old soldiers with Kalasnikov will ride with you on the bikes until Nouski. Then on, police cars/pickup will follow you.
Road from Quetta to Zhob - DeraIsmail Khan, and road from Quetta to Multan: only check points (but will stop you all the time, making you loss plenty of time).
From Multan to east, no more escort nor check points.

Nortwestern Province Frontier (Zhob-DeraIsmail Khan): AVOID THIS ROAD. Police will stop you 200km after Zhob, danger of Talibans. Be careful. We convinced police to let us go just because one of our motorcycle (the BMW!!!) was dead and loaded on a pick-up driven by a paki people. We crossed tribal zone very fast (!!!) avoiding any stop....

People/police:
all very very kind and helpful (we slept at paki houses some times, police help us with battery and mechanical problems). Kind athmosphere everywhere. No danger feeling never but the Zhob Dera Ism Khan stretch.

Borders
Turkey-Iran: keep facilitator (suggested). 2 hours +half. Small tip to the man
Iran-Paki: beware, it closes at 14:00 PM !!! Not more than 2 hours.
Paki-India: opens 9.30. Almost desert but took 3 hours due to black out in paki zone (guess it!!).

Motorbike Shipping Agent in Delhi
We used the famous lalli Singh (lalli singh.com).
He seems really professional, but he will need two days of your time to prepare docs and take measures for cases and so on. Yopu have to be present. A nightmare...
We will tell you when bikes will arrive home....

Open to answer to all questions
bye

roberto parodi

good to hear you back, safe and satisfied. so it was a good trial to you as it sounds. it seems india became crowded of Big Twins in the last years...
i'm glad you choose lalli sing to ship the bike back. i had a good deal with him in the past. kindly, fine, cheap as for me. and you? how much did you spent
to manage the whole process? did you already got a deal with an italian shipping agent before leaving, or you'll wait the crate arriving at the harbour, then ring for it?

i'm so curious....

Well done Roberto. A great trip. The people of India are great, but you have my admiration for riding on Indian roads. And surviving.

But on a Roadking - how did the bike fair?? I own one and I can't imagine that it stood up to well on rough roads. I've also ridden in India but I can't image doing it on a FLHR:confused1:

lot of patience and attention to avoid anything is moving on the road. no high speed, just eyes wide open. a bit stressing but it works, as i have done two years ago. concernig riding an harley on rough roads: if you're "fool" enough just like me or peter forwood for example, you can also ride through the himalaya on a big twin, like the srinagar-leh-manali route as i did.

www.lungastrada.it

On most of mountain roads in the subcontinent weight of the motorcycle is a big liability. The roads are not well maintained making heavy bikes prone to slipping and difficult to handle. With my experience I feel light, power packed 2 strokes are the best. My personal favorite is old restored Kawasaki KE175.

Hi, Roberto, and welcome back to Italy. Glad to know you made it safely.

I had the chance to follow your journey on your personal website, it's like to be astride your Road King with you...
Hope you'll write another book as awesome as the one I read last winter.

(We already met once, at the gathering against the f-cking new laws against Euro 0 motorcycles in Milan way back november 2006. But maybe you don't remember me).
We'll have more chances to hook up again in the future.


Ride safe, bro!

Greetings from Mantova.

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

Many thanks!

I agree 100% with you: light is better, but I have a Harley and I ride what I own.
Road King (mine was made a little lighter, by taking away unuseful optionals), is certainly heavy but has big power at a very low RPM, which is good. I have always used this big motorbike for hard performances, also for climbing on the Assekrem, 3000 metres tall mountain, in the center of Sahara, in Algeria, and I have to say that it worked very well.
Obviously I cannot keep high speed average like an enduro, but this is not the way of riding "overland style" is'nt it? I enjoy the view and take my time.
I confess I have dreamed to ride the F800GS BMW of my friend many times in this trip. But at the end, the bike that broke, was not my harley.... )))
Thanks
bye
roberto

Glad to hear you are back home safe and sound and the harley made it.

Nice to hear that you did it in such a short period of time, this bodes well for me trying to get to China to meet up with my fiance who is hoping to visit her sister next year.

Simon

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simonp

I totally agree with you Roberto that we should ride the bike which gives us the most pleasure. There is certainly a very special charm associated with the Big Hog.