[KSM-Vtec]

Hey Farooq..... this is serious stuff!!

You have taken biking/touring/road tripping to the next level.

Congrats! We are waiting for more details on the costs/visas/permits/challenges front.

I am sure its not as simple as you have made it look.

[Steeroid]

Well done, Farooq. Beats riding to Kalba every Friday morning!

[TJ06]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Well done, Farooq. Beats riding to Kalba every Friday morning!

True dat Santosh!

I haven't done a kalba run for a month now since I returned. Just seems soo boring all of a sudden...lol!

[selfdrive]

Great trip and I am amazed at the part of the journey that you undertook between Iran and Bulgaria.

Riding in Europe is a different story; usually very effective due to biker enthusiasm levels. Hats off to you for planning and actually implementing it effectively.

By the way, I note you were in France on 14th July, you could have taken a diversion to Paris for their national day parade. Next time

Well done sir, I hope you have more pics to share.

[TJ06]

Hey Selfdrive

I missed the BMW meet in black forest at the same time too. However with a deadline in front of me, the best I could do was the diversion in Romania to the Transfagarasan pass. It was an awesome experience. it was important to be back home before Ramadan and on a trip like this, every day means more money spent! So u have to stick to the plan, no matter how many tempting opportunities come your way 😊

I will post details about visa and route planning shortly.

Cheers
Farooq

[getsurya]

Hi TJ06,

Superb achievement and passion! Awesome and mind boggling!

Anybody after reading through your travelogue should not have any questions about how passion can make things happen!

Kudos to you! Happy motoring!

[ferrariKSA]

Mashallah Farooq Great achievement.
You have done what i have been dreaming to do.
Hats off to you.

I have been planning to do a trip to the holy city makkah for umrah from capital city riyadh on my VFR-800 with my better half since a year now. everytime some or the other issues comes up and it is been postponed.

Do you have plans for any other trips in future.
Some more picture of yours with tiger will do justice to the thread.

Allah Hafiz and Ramdan Mubarak
Md.Farooq

[idofsuresh]

I wanted to drive across India and thought that is adventurous. Sir, you changed the game! Hats off to you. I am now dreaming bikes!

[samarth.bhatia]

Beautiful TL there! Congratulations for completing the intercontinental bike ride in such a smooth manner.
Brilliant. Congratulations, Farooq bhai.
I will look forward to the further details.

And now, to check out the websites you mentioned ..
Cheers!
Sam

[TJ06]

Originally Posted by ferrariKSA

Mashallah Farooq Great achievement.
You have done what i have been dreaming to do.
Hats off to you.

I have been planning to do a trip to the holy city makkah for umrah from capital city riyadh on my VFR-800 with my better half since a year now. everytime some or the other issues comes up and it is been postponed.

Do you have plans for any other trips in future.
Some more picture of yours with tiger will do justice to the thread.

Allah Hafiz and Ramdan Mubarak
Md.Farooq

Hey there FerrariKSA

I am planning a ride early next year, which is currently at planning stage.

Will surely post more pictures soon.

I am confused at the thought of your riding to Umrah - how do u plan to ride wearing an"Ahram"!

Cheers
Farooq

[TJ06]

For all those who wanted to know what really goes behind such a trip, here are a few details

So what you see here is pure execution, and trust me if you've planned each day, route, fuel stops, overnight stops, border crossings, insurances, road safety, backups,and multiple other factors, the trip is surely going to be stress free and lots of fun. However even before you start, ask yourself, why are you doing this. Do you want to explore a country or a region or ride from point A to B.

With a deadline to come back and limited vacation days, my options were limited. So the intention was to cover as much distance as possible within the given timeline. The original plan was to cross from UAE Into saudi, ride until Jordan and then airlift the bike to Istanbul, since Syria is a no go in the current situation. However the over all cost for air shipping the bike from Amman to Jordan and no of days lost in this transit, plus Saudi issuing a 72hours visa (to cross 2000 kms aprox),was the reason IRAN was considered. And this I believe is the best decision I took at the planning stage coz Iran is one of the best places to ride in apart from Romania and Bulgaria.

First step was to read, research and meet people who've done this in the reason past. And all the bikers I met, we're very helpful and shared lot of information on most of these countries and the expected conditions. This gives you an idea whether what you are planning on a google map, can be physically achieved or not. For example, the roads at certain stretches in turkey were horrible and I struggled to meet my daily target. Whereas certain parts of the route in Iran was much better than expected and allowed me to ride a hundred or so kms more than planned.

Visas were the most time consuming part of this preparation. Being in Dubai was definitely an advantage,however you have to figure out which visa you are applying for else you might land yourself at a border crossing without a U turn. For example, Romanian embassy in Dubai told me that if you have a Schengen visa then Romania will give you a transit visa on arrival. However based on the advise of a fellow biker,I got a tourist visa for Romania to avoid taking a risk. And to confirm my doubt, the border post at romania informed me that without a tourist visas i wouldn't have been allowed to enter the country on the basis of a valid Schengen visa. Each embassy have thrive own set of documentation requirements. Another point to note here is the date on which you are expected to arrive in each country. And this should match the date the visa is valid from and up-to. A days delay can cost you the trip itself. This is tricky since you cannot always predict this completely correct. Best way is to keep a buffer and get longer duration visa than what you need based on your plan. Visa cost is also different for every country with UK and Schengen being the most costly stamps.

A key decision which saved me money was NOT to book any hotel in advanced. I was hosted by friends at a few places and some others I used hotels. However the flexibility of changing your destination during the days ride is very critical here. Imagine being stuck on a highway and then being forced to cancel a hotel booking, plus the fear of being charged since you couldn't cancel within the timelines. So at no point in time did I book any accommodation in advance.

The flip side here is that after a 10 hour ride, you have to go around the town when you arrive, and look for a decent place go crash,however I think it was worth the effort.

A mandatory document when you cross Iran, is the Carnet. This is issued by the Automobile and Touring Club in UAE. they are the most helpful bunch of people I've come across while preparing for the trip. The cost involves a deposit for the value of the bike which is refundable.

The bike - you can save money in whatever you do, but never try to save when you prepare your ride. While everything is a factor of cost here, however you need to rationally decide based on the terrain, weather and distances amongst others - which bike do you need. The Tiger 1050 was a choice for more than one reason - I was not doing any off reading, comfortable, three cylinder makes it more fun compared to others in the same class,riding to the UK I would find triumph dealerships at most places past Iran, cost. The preparation involved installation of - crash guards, radiator grill, center stand, touring screen, panniers (must have for a trip like this), gps (garmin zumo 660) with Europe maps, gel seat (must have), fresh pair of tires. I serviced the bike before the ride and filled fully synthetic oil which would last me 10k kms, which would be sufficient for the 8k kms I was intending to ride. Every thing including brakes,chain, oil levels, electronics, connections,etc must be thoroughly checked and rechecked.

The gear - another aspect of the ride which will make the biggest impact on your ride is what you wear. I used a revit tornado suit,, dianese gore tex boots, triumph goretex gloves with carbon fibre inserts, the suit is all weather and it was amazingly effective in the 48C with 70% humidity in Iran to 8c with pouring rains in France. The boots were rock solid. The helmet was a Schubert c3. One of the lightest modular with the lowest noise levels. I was also using sena Bluetooth, lovely for long distance rides where your iPod is your only friend all day. It's a must have equipment.
I also used a Spot gps locator,this allows your friends and family to track you real time and send them messages or get rescued by a chopper if in a situation. This was the best investment made on the trip.

A puncture kit, tool kit,medical kit, medicines, emergency contacts, Indian embassy nos for each country visited, local emergency nos, triumph dealership contacts for each country were also sourced.

I bought insurance At all borders except for UK which I bot on the net from a chap based on Germany. You need a green card which covers Europe and uk.

I was also using, GoPro HD 2 and a canon 7d. Packing all the stuff In panniers is another learning and this is something you can only learn when you go through it. Coz everyone's needs and methods are different. However keep in mind, anything that you doubt you will use, is definitely not worth carryIng. Remember that every extra kg will impact your mileage,the way the bikes handles and saves times at border crossings.

So here is what I Think I must share at this point. Am free to answer any questions that come up. Enjoy the read!

Cheers
Farooq

[supertinu]

Congrats Farooq. Amazing travelogue and journey. Please do post some more pictures from the trip. Also I might have missed this, but are you based in UK or Dubai? If in Dubai did you airlift the bike back?

[ferrariKSA]

Originally Posted by TJ06

Hey there FerrariKSA

I am planning a ride early next year, which is currently at planning stage.

Will surely post more pictures soon.

I am confused at the thought of your riding to Umrah - how do u plan to ride wearing an"Ahram"!

Cheers
Farooq

Thats exactly i was also worried about,

Riyadh to Meqat will be around 800Kms from where we have to wear Ahram and from meqat to Makkah is around 100Kms. So i have to travel in ahram 100 kms which i dont think will be difficult considering the excitiment i will be carring after completing the 800kms run till meqat and ofcourse i will need expert adivices like you to complete the trip.

Thanks
Farooq

[RaiderZ]

Indeed, that's a very well executed trip with the smallest preparations handled in the smartest and well planned way.
Never had I thought that such a route could be covered on a 2 wheeler too.
Salute to you TJ06!!
And please Sir, such a travelogue demands more pictures

[highway_star]

Amazing ride!

Other than Iran, is there no legal procedure required to be done in advance to take the bike across borders?

I wish it was possible to get permission to ride across Pakistan, then such rides could be done starting from India too.