From Andorra to Vladivostok - Summer 2014
 

Dear riders,

As a few others, I have been dreaming in my spare time about this trip for long. Something that comes to my mind every then, leaves me with some hopes that I will release it one day, and forces me to wake up and dust my todo-in-a-lifetime-list. It is a dream, a crazy thought that lacks of sense, that is much arguable, and that might drive me to a plethora of difficulties that I will have to face, especially when encountering the Russian roads on my bike.

The bike, or better said, my bikes. Let's talk about them, I am lucky enough to have a garage with a great furniture. For instance, two names. The first lady, already a veteran since it came the first, is a fantastic Suzuki TL1000R, 1998. She might pardon me for exposing her age publicly. The second, but as great and different from the first one, another japanese, the desired Honda VFR 800 VTEC. Both are wonders of the motorcycling history, and with them comes the first difficulty to overcome.

http://s9.postimg.org/ct04b5lnz/2424...49743996_o.jpg

On one hand we have an hypercaloric, multi-vitaminated, and totally mad V-Twin bi-cylinder, which front and rear dumpers are perfect for a very, very, very flat track and which handling could be compared to a work out session doing push-ups with one of your hands while holding a lion on the other one. Almost dangerous. It seems completely inappropriate for this trip, but, hell, why not ?

Plus remember this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjBrpN9nmZQ

On the other hand, the very technological VFR, big ship of Honda. I like to think that this is a bike that does all the job for you. Easy to ride, very light, low fuel consumption below the range where the vtec kicks in, and so nice looking (although this is subjective). This bike is perfect for travelling. My biggest concern with it is an over 1000€ bill that I will need to pay to get her ready-to-go (engine flaws).

More to come :)

Go for it :wave: looking forward to the tale
Phil

Thanks Philippe !

Yesterday was a big day for me. I took a deep breath, stood up, and walked to my boss desk.

- Hey, gotta 5 minutes ?

I was giving my notice soon after.

Parallel to this, today I got an SMS from the embassy saying that I can pick up my new passport.

More to come :)

... to Vladivostok
 

I know there will be more to come, more comments, more recommendations and so on.

Just in case you are interested, you might want to check out this website:

welt-tour.com - Panamericana

Heidi & Bernd toured the world (well, more or less) and they got lots of info on their site (sorry, it's all in German, but maybe.....?? And even the pics and so on might be helpful).

Just an idea, hope it serves your needs.

Thank you so much klaus, I really appreciate ! For some reason google doesn't want to translate the page to English but I will try to figure out why. The website seems to have a lot of information.

I also found this one Paperwork for my RTW around the world by motorcycle trip, the visas information is great, I already see that this is going to be a major pain in the ass :(