*bump*

Purchases from different stores are dropping in every day and (spare parts, GoPro cam, Garmin GPS etcetc.) take-off is getting close. Would be great if anyone with a little experience of general bike travel or the specific path planned could give some input.

200km/day reasonable? Too little/much?
Skip spare light bulb, bearing etc (but bring oil filter, chain, tire tubes etc)?

Thanks

As someone with general bike travel experience, I will tell you the following:

(1) You will not know how much is too little or too much until you know how much you like to ride each day. Some people like to get up early, hit the road at 7am, and ride non stop 12 hours till 7pm. Other people like to wake up at 9am, hit the road about 11:30. Stop for lunch 13:30-15:30, then squeeze in a couple more hours before end of day at 17:30. Thus achieving 4 hours per day in the saddle.

(2) How much is too much or too little depends on how much you like taking detours to see interesting things locals suggest to you

(3) how much you ride per day depends on whether you want to do a fair bit of off road on your trip or not.

Only you can answer those questions and you will PROBABLY only be able to answer them 3-4 weeks into your trip.

- Between Samarkand and Almaty you are taking the least interesting option (the highway) when the glorious mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan beckon.

- take spare bearings. do NOT take spare light bulbs. They are standard sizes and everywhere. And they will smash in your luggage leaving tiny bots of glass everywhere.

- Carring tyres sux and should be avoided at all costs. On top of that its heavy, unbalances your bike, screw your handling and is generally "uncool". Contact Dean (a Russian tyre distributor who is a HUBBER) as per this post http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...strachan-76491 and have tyres waiting for u in Astrakhan.

- Do carry a spare front and rear tube. Do fit heavy duty new tubes (and new bearings and seals and oil and filter and chain) before you go. Do not start with an "OK" chain and sprockets unless you know where you are going to be able to buy new ones en route.

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Hey, thanks a lot for your input, its much appreciated by someone new to this as me. Maybe next year I will continue east from Irkutsk and try something closer to what you did not so long ago

I understand the "it depends". I was just looking for some general guidelines as to where in the scale of "push-bike speed" to "dakar speed" my estimations are with regards to terrain, breakdowns etc. I guess I will just have to assume that the 200km a day is a safe bet for most "normal" people and then adjust from there. I have tried 10hour rides on my enduro bike with standard seat and I can do it but prefer not to.

The route will get more detailed soon. I just got my Garmin Montana and today I was able to download OSM map so I can start setting real waypoints/routes rather than just pointing at cities on google maps. The mountains around Pamir is certainly something Ill try for.

I will look more into bearings. Havent seen much of that even for sale to be honest (for my bike).

Regarding sprockets/chain and tires Im planning to go with new Heidenau Scouts and see if they might last for all 2000 km. If not will try to contact someone on the road, thanks for advice! Sprockets I will go with what I have (medium wear) but also bring a set of JD sprockets (2 front 1 rear) and DID chain. Heavy but I prefer looking for new tires than new sprockets/chain when Im out there and 2000 km seems like a stretch for one set of new sprockets only.

Again, thanks a lot. It means a lot to get some input on my thoughts after reading so much of others' posts, videos of bike breadown after breakdown etc. Next step will be to actually try for myself

Getting close to take-off, just waiting for the bearings I was told to get (thanks) and some other key stuff.

The planned route will always change, but I like to have a starting point that can then be adjusted.

In below route I have tried to get it roughly right with one color per day (mostly 200-300 km per day). No rest days in the map but obviously wont do it all without rest days, breakdowns etc.

Any suggestions to change route would be much appreciated. Current thoughts Im pondering are:

Austria: Go through Vienna and instead miss out on some alps
Albania: Go Albania and northern Greece but miss out on Serbia, Romania etc
Georgia: Take more time and explore more in the N and NW of the country.

Itinerary critera: Nature and beautiful views, not so much cities (but "important" ones yes). Some rough riding is ok but Im just a beginner with a lot of will.

Any input much appreciated!

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What Colebatch said.

Other than that, 200km a day is a perfect planning distance.
This is exactly how I calculate roughly time and distance. There will be days where you'll do 500km because there's nothing else to do or see and other days where you won't touch the bike.

20.000km in 100 days is what we did last year and the year before that, so you'll be fine and since you won't go offroad, you'll have plenty of time to do citytrips and stuff.

Don't plan too much, just count more or less when you think you might need to be at a certain border (after EU) and that's the only thing that matters as you'll need to look at your visas. Deciding now before you even left what you will and won't see is a bad idea in my opinion. Just feel day by day what you want to do. If you're planning on doing X and the weather is exactly the opposite of what you need...?! Just go with the flow, FEEL what you want to do while on the road and all will be fine and you'll enjoy yourself!

People who (over)plan are always stressed out!!!

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Thanks for input, hehe before I made the latest two maps I felt I was a little "behind" on planning since I didnt even know if I wanted Transfagarasan or Greece (or both?) or if I had 1 month or 2 to get from Georgia to Mongolia, while others ride with detailed gps routes which even made them take the same wrong path as the one who created the track log and gave it to them

I both expect and hope that the plan will change but I guess Im the kind of person who likes to have a plan to start with. However I do see your point. Will try to take things as they come, which will happen whether I like it or not

Thanks also for the confirmation of the 200 km/day! Obviously rough but again something to start with. Its not 50 and its not 1000.

Getting close now..!