Im planning to ride from Finland to India starting September (on a Jap bike). My most likely route will be Turkey-Iran-Pakistan then India, so hopefully I´ll be able to give you more accurate information in 5-6 months time.

The impressions that I have at the moment (and keep in mind, all based on what Ive read, never been to those countries except India!) are that Iran should be quite ok, maybe some hassle with visas and crossing border with vehicles, but usually not a big headache. Pakistan has some areas that are not safe, but you might get police escorts thru these, and you should/will hear about the current situation whilst your there. Border crossings Iran-Pak and Pak-India could be interesting, but several travellers have reported doing that route succesfully in recent times.

Of course nobody knows how the situation in Iran, for example, will turn out in the coming months/years if they cannot find an agreement with UN about their nuclear program, etc.

I would think Afghanistan is probably way more dangerous than any of the countries mentioned, in fact I´d steer clear of the country at the moment.

China, it seems, could be possible if you have a nearly endless budget, and are prepared to make your way through some serious "red tape", or youre very, very lucky at the border (and in the latter case, you´d be riding there illegally, so you could end up in big trouble later on, if you have an accident or something!) I also remember reading somewhere that maybe travellers who do the Karakoram highway, only ride there from the Chinese side, and usually never the other way round, maybe someone has better info on this?

I would go thru Russia and Kazakhstan, but as China looks like its virtually impossible (on my budget anyway!) then Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India seems like the only realistic option. Im not presuming it´ll be 100% safe, but then if you run into bad luck it could happen anywhere, and I´ll only be passing through these countries. Its much more likely that if there are troubles they will be other than safety-related, but of course you´ll never know.