Visiting some of the -stan during summer
 

Hallo everybody,

I'm planning a trip for summer 2022 and have a little bit of an hard time deciding where to go, based on two important aspects: time and my motorbike.

I ride a 1976 Honda CB 400f and would like to visit some of the republics of Central Asia, travelling from North Italy to hopefully Kirgyzstan but one big issue is that I can travel only from end of june to the end of august, so let's say around 10 weeks maximum.

How many countries could I cover in 10 weeks on a '76 Honda Cb400f? I wouldn't want to just do an endless amount of kilometers without visiting anything, so I woud like to choose an itinierary with a good balance between distance/road conditions/temperatures (I will travel during summer)/beauty of the landscape.

I was thinking that my itinerary could be either

Italy ->Balkans -> Turkey-> Armenia -> Georgia -> Azerbaijan

or

Italy -> Austria -> Hungary -> Romania -> Ukraine -> Georgia -> Azerbaijan

then from there eventually taking a ferry to cross the Caspian Sea, I need adivces on if and how further could/should I go and I still have to think how to travel back (on bike or shipping the bike and taking a plane), from what I'm seeing Kirgyzstan is very fascinating but I'm not sure I can reach it in 10 weeks from Italy.

Any advice is welcome, cheers!

Your bike will do what you want, assuming of course you have it well maintained and don't try for any serious off-road. :)
As for kilometers, that's a really tough one to answer. Some people like 2-300km a day, others think 1000 is taking it easy. So, I have to ask, how many km a day are YOU happy with in your normal riding? Then knock a little off for sightseeing, a little more for unfamiliar roads and traffic and driving styles, and a little more for finding accommodation, food etc.

Plan with that, and then decide whether to ride hard to start and get you a fair ways away, and slow back - or vice versa. I prefer to ride hard to get the distance, then, knowing I can get back quickly if I run out of time, take a leisurely run from there. Going out slow and then planning on x days or 10% of the time allotted to return always ends in tears.

Planning with Google maps is a great way to determine driving times on various routes, remembering they are assuming you do not stop, and always drive at the exact speed limit, which is remarkably hard to do over a long distance.

Rome to Kyrgyzstan according to Google Maps is 84 hours, 6,905 km. A reasonable/"pushing it" number of 5 hours per day on average is 16.8 days - each way. And no days off. Reasonable? That's up to you to decide.

And of course the elephant in the room - will you be able to do it at all? With COVID-19, it could be 2022 before you can. We currently recommend not going more than one border crossing from home in case lockdown happens.

Best of luck, and we hope you have a great trip.

Another option is to send your bike to Kyrgyzstan (check http://arlberg-lech.com/en/ for instance), fly there and ride back home.

Everything Grant said, plus note that you can't enter Armenia from Turkey, nor Georgia from Ukraine overland (there are ferries, but they're not necessarily practical when time is limited).

I definitely favor getting there as quickly as possible when I'm just setting out and still have an excess of energy. That gives a clear picture of how much time I've got for dawdling on the return leg. In your case, I'd be looking to ship the bike all or part of one direction, just to leave some time for exploring the Stans, Caucasus, and hopefully Turkey.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

agree with the above. Its do-able in 10 weeks but not if you go via Turkey and Azebadjan. Go straight to Romania-Ukrain-Russia (Astrakahn) Kazahstan(Atyrau) then do a Crazy Push through Kazahstan to Almaty then down into Kyrgyzstan (I did this route in about 2-3 weeks) got all the Visas before I left so it was quite easy to clock the borders.

But Kazahk roads are a pain and from Atyrau to Almaty pretty much track roads ,very bad roads (atleast 11 years ago).

You need atleast 4-5 weeks in Kyrgyzstan its beautiful. I would then shipp the bike back.

God Luck!