Hello guys,

i have contacted the responsible ADAC-employee and he told me the following:

- the iranian trafficpolice has banned the use of motorcycles with more than 250ccm. Therefore you can probably enter Iran with your bike, but you arent allowed to use it. So if you gonna push your bike to Tehran you will probably be fine^^
- ADAC is in direct and intensive contact with its iranian counterpart on this matter. They are trying to get an explanation for this new regulation and are slightly optimistic that this new rule will be lifted in a short amount of time. He told me that there was a comparable regulation earlier ("entry with vehicles with more than 2500cc forbidden") that got revoked some weeks later.
- Furthermore ADAC told me that contacting the iranian embassy on that matter should be useless, because the embassies dont interfer/bother with customs/traffic-topics.
- "fun fact": According to ADAC this new regulation hast nothing to do with our beloved Trumpinator and his sensible politics. Sarcasm off


I will wait until and watch the ADAC site closely. If there is noch change i will probably have to cancel my Iran-Tour for this year and book the 350€ i have already paid for Visa under "i love international politics"

Greetings from Germany

Hi, guys

Planning a trip from Russia, Moscow to Iran in the middle of September, stumbled upon this topic. Could anyone please post here any link in English? I can't find anything!

Thank you in advance

Sure, here you go: https://www.adac.de/reise_freizeit/r...ssages_en.aspx

Scroll down the center section, select the tab "News" and click on "Iran".

Druzhba! :-)

See you there in September my friend.

Cheers
Chris

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Out of interest I was told about this ban when I crossed Iran in 1994 but then it either did not apply to foreign registered bikes or was ignored. The reason I was given was that several acts of terrorism had been carried out by people on larger bikes and the police could not catch them, I have no idea if this is correct or not.

I have been told exactly the same, that the Iranian authorities ban the sale and import of bigger bikes for this reason.

And my hunch is that the situation is basically unchanged from what you describe and this will turn out to be nothing.

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

They were not so on it in those days obviously .

Me thinks this will pass when the temperature between twitty and Iran cools down.

As of now 10 day transit it is.

regards
Dooby

I might be a bit dense, but what exactly is this statement based on?

I am watching the situation closely and have not found any first-hand report that anyone with a bike >250cc, a valid CDP and 30 day tourist visa has been admitted for a mere 10 days and limited to a transit route only.

Can you please direct me to the source of the statement and possibly describe the nationality of that individual and the country / countries of manufacture(r) and registration of that bike? Thanks
Chris


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Given that there are reliable reports from other travellers in some other forums which have successfully entered Iran in the last few days with big bikes, I myself consider the 10 day transit-only statement to be without substance.

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Thank you!

I've got Yamaha XVS1100A, does it mean I'm able to go to Iran?

I know about the ban on riding big motorcycles, but I thought it doesn't concern tourists as Farhad says here

Дружба! :-)

What we know so far:

-This is an old rule which comes up every few years and scares people. It has never been applied to foreigners, and in years of travelling to Iran I cannot recall hearing any first-hand accounts of large motorcycles being refused (though that doesn't mean it hasn't happened).

-We have heard no first-hand, or direct second-hand reports (e.g. 'I met xx who was refused') of people being refused. Only rumours (e.g. ' xx told me that he/she heard that someone was refused')

-An Iranian citizen (on the FB Group 'Overland in Iran' has personally called the three border crossings with Turkey (Bazargan, Razi, Sero) who confirmed there is no such rule being applied.

-According to a poster here, who contacted the ADAC personally, an earlier rule about cars with engines over 2500cc being banned, has been reversed (or rather clarified as being an error, I suspect).

-This is not the EU. 'Rules' may exist, whilst not being enforced, one border may have a different interpretation of the 'rules' from another (I have personally experienced this with things such as diesel tax, transit documents, insurance requirements etc etc). A lot of Europeans have trouble accepting the fact that rules can be ignored by those that are there to uphold the law (e.g. border officials, traffic police).

-There seems to be a lot of BS regarding entering Iran with a vehicle (e.g. 'you need a carnet to enter Iran' which is wrong).

In summary, the balance of evidence suggests that there is no problem to enter Iran with any size of motorbike. And surely, this is meant to be adventure travel? If you cannot deal with uncertainty, there are great places like Europe or North America to travel in where you can plan every single day and have virtually no uncertainty with your plans.

I have no idea about the American-made motorcycle rule. I have seen plenty of American-made cars in Iran (permanently imported, though mostly before 1979). I have little interest whether Harleys are banned. If it were up to me, I would ban them from any built-up area for making such a f***ing irritating noise. It makes some sense though, with increasing US pressure and sanctions that all American-made vehicles may now be banned. Perhaps it was this change in the rules which dredged up the other other 'rules'.

So, no need to change travel plans, I feel. But the only way to be sure is to be patient and wait for reports from travellers in Iran. Remember that FB is blocked in Iran so it can take some time for people to make contact.

EO (planning to go to Iran later this year in a >2500 cc car)

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Today we crossed the boarder at Bajgiran from Turkmenistan with our BMW 1200 GS. Everything fine, everybody nice. Took us about 1 hour for the Iran part, no special checks. We had our CDP issued in may (ADAC Germany), same for our 30 day tourist visa (Vienna).

Lovely greetings from Mashhad!

Hi Euroasiaoverland! thank you for this recap that will surely cool down a lot of anxiety!

I'm still saving and planning for a RTW for 2020 or so and was actually planning to get a Carnet de Passage juste because I really want to go to Iran and maybe Australia... I read all over the internet that there is no way you can enter Iran without a Carnet, and the deposit you have to make for the carnet is even bigger if you want to travel to this specific country (if the carnet is issued in France, at least.) That's pretty much the only country that require a Carnet on the route I'm planning... So I'd be very interested to know more about that! Do you have any first hand experience on this subject ?

There's a long, arguing thread on the Facebook page 'Overland Sphere', but I can't find a way to direct-link to it, so you'll need to join the page if you have not already done so, and search. The question was titled (rather prophetically) 'Q. US vehicle in Iran?'.

No, I have not done this myself, but I know a guy who has done it, and was in Iran with him and his car, for which he did not have a carnet. You can also search this site yourself and find a few stories of people who have done it. There is / was eve a guy offering to guide you through the process as it's not easy. You end up paying anything from $300 to $600 I think.

It should be said that it's better to have a carnet, makes things at the border much easier and quicker, but it is not necessary.

P.S. If you're not planning to visit Pakistan, I suggest to go (you will need a carnet though), definitely my favourite country.

Good luck,

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Thank you for the summary! I absolutly agree to let things calm down and wait for more information before cancelling your long awaited travel. Furthermore i do agree on the "its an adventure, you wont have absolute certainty"-thing.

But i am planning to enter Iran via Turkmenistan and not via Turkey. Because of rather big difficulties in obtaining a touris visa for this country, i went with the 5 days transit Visa. And sitting at the iranian/turkmenian border while possibly being refused to enter Iran because of this 250ccm regulation and having no time to go back to Kazakhstan makes me feel quite uncomfortable. Even if i manage to get back to Kazakhstan in time, i only got a single entry visa for russia (which i used on my way to kazakhstan). So how to get my bike back home^^? Of course this is only an "if" scenario, but i should atleast think about it beforehand (in my opinion)...

On a sidenote: Are you serious about the Carnet not being needed for entry in Iran? Evey homepage i have been reading on and of course the ADAC himself is stating that a carnet is mandatory?

Greetings!

Some more good reports:

An italian guy I know, on a Kawasaki KLR, just exited Iran to Pakistan: he left Italy july 25th, so he definitely entered after july 23rd.
I just chatted with him: he told me nobody told him anything about his bike being >250cc

Another group of italians on big bikes were in Doğubeyazıt on august 7th: I'm pretty sure they are in Iran now. If they had any problem, they would have wrote on FB for sure.