UK and Kyrgyzstan

[Desert Boy]

I'm about to start a trip to both the UK and to Kyrgyzstan. :biggrin: I'll be doing bike trips in both countries but they'll be very different.

The first part of the trip will be to the UK where I'll team up with my brother (who lives there) and we'll be heading out for a few days around Southern England on a pair of Honda CB 750 Fours. My brother's is a 1969 K1 and mine is a 1973 K3. My brother owns and runs a "Classic Bike" restoration business in Guildford and both bikes came from the business. https://www.2wheelsmiklos.com/

I'll be importing mine back to Namibia after the trips and should have it home before Christmas.

The bike is in wonderful condition and has been expertly restored.

After riding in the UK I'll be heading to Kyrgyzstan to spend 10 days riding in the mountains from the city of Osh in the west of the country.

I'll be landing in the UK on the 3rd of September so not long to go. I shall certainly post updates as and when I have access to the internet.

 

[Pumbaa]

Kyrgystan is awesome. See if you can get into Tajik and the Pamir highway too. You will need another permit for some parts of the Pamir.
A company called Stantours sorted ours out when we went a few years ago.

 

[Clockwork Orange]

I am living about 3 miles from Guildford in Woking. I would love to see your brothers work if at all possible. Would be good to meet a fellow WD this side.

 

[Desert Boy]

Kyrgystan is awesome. See if you can get into Tajik and the Pamir highway too. You will need another permit for some parts of the Pamir.
A company called Stantours sorted ours out when we went a few years ago.

I'm going with a Swiss Company based in Osh - Muz Too. They have quite a number of tours and trips in and around the "Stans".

 

[Desert Boy]

I am living about 3 miles from Guildford in Woking. I would love to see your brothers work if at all possible. Would be good to meet a fellow WD this side.

My brother's business is called "2 Wheels Miklos". Its contact details and address are accessible through the website (link above). They are next to the A3 just South West of Guildford. I'm sure they would be very pleased to see bikers from Southern Africa even though their focus is mainly classic bikes and not adventure riding. My brother did have a KTM 990 Adv though that he kept with me in Windhoek. We used to go on a Namibian "outing" once a year until he sold the bike a few years ago. Unfortunately he "bought a farm" between Uis and Henties Bay and left Namibia with a few broken ribs and a bruised ego.

I'll be there between the 3rd and 6th September and we'll be doing rides from the business over a few days.

 

[Pumbaa]

Kyrgystan is awesome. See if you can get into Tajik and the Pamir highway too. You will need another permit for some parts of the Pamir.
A company called Stantours sorted ours out when we went a few years ago.

I'm going with a Swiss Company based in Osh - Muz Too. They have quite a number of tours and trips in and around the "Stans".

Cool, we only used stantours for visas. We went through there on our own on our overland trip from oz to Sa. You will have a ball.

 

[Wayne]

That bike looks fantastic

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[COLES]

beautiful bike 

 

[Desert Boy]

In the departure lounge at OR Tambo. Ride starts tomorrow. Bring on the 750 Four.

 

[Desert Boy]

I am staying with my brother's family in Surrey and we're doing daily rides from his business premises in Guildford. After two days of riding the 1973 K3 750 Four is running without skipping a beat. It's in great shape for bike that's more than 40 years old.

We're sticking to minor roads through the Southern English countryside. We are about 50 miles (80 km) from the coast and it is a natural destination. So far, the English weather is co-operating.

The two 750s before the first ride

The closest this KTM guy got to a BMW

The business restores classic bikes but my brother has a private collection of classics and "customs" that is really impressive:

They have a workshop too where there are a number of "projects" on the go

At the English coast at Bosham. Day 2 had my nephew join us on a 500 Honda and my brother took a Honda CX 1000 - 6 cylinder

We're about to start day 3. Tomorrow I'm off to Hungary for a week with my daughter. We won't do any riding there and I'll be off to Kyrgyzstan on the 12th via Istanbul

 

[Kraizee]

Keep it coming....thanks for sharing  :sip:

 

[wooly bugger]

some nice bikes there!

 

[Desert Boy]

I have arrived back in Namibia, safe and sound after a wonderful trip.

Our original plan, after the English leg, was to spend a week in Turkey, SCUBA diving with my daughter at a small Mediterranean town called Bodrum. Most of you will well know that Bodrum has featured recently as a MAJOR kick off point for Syrian (and other) migrants to begin their quest to reach Europe. It lies close to the Greek island of Kos and is the temporary home of thousands of would be migrants. Unfortunately, it is also the town that gained fame for being the place where tragically, a young Syrian boy drowned and was washed up on the beach during a failed crossing attempt.

Given that Bodrum was probably not the greatest place to spend a week at the sea during September, we re-scheduled the week so as to spend it in our "old favourite", Hungary. Of course we didn't know at the time that Hungary would leap onto the world stage during the week that we were there because of its behavior towards the very same migrants that we were trying to avoid in Turkey.

However, we did avoid the Keleti Train station in Budapest where thousands of migrants were attempting to reach Western Europe by rail. The Hungarian authorities' response and behavior towards the migrants was not generally well received in the rest of the world. This is obviously not the forum to debate about the pros and cons of the current migrant issue in Europe, but what we clearly saw during our stay, is that the issue is "not going away" soon.

One can never tire of this view of Budapest, Hungary

 

[Desert Boy]

The week in Hungary was sandwiched between the UK Honda ride and the Asian ride in Kyrgyzstan. There were no bikes involved in this part of the trip, only "sensible" touring with a hired car and a friendly daughter. We went to the extreme West of the country, on the border with Austria and Slovenia. Many green hills, forests, quaint villages and towns - idyllic.

The wheels

Public notices are in three languages; Hungarian, German and Slovenian.

A few shots of the Hungarian town of Koszeg, on the Austrian border

After a short break in Szeksard, a wine producing region in Southern Hungary where we loaded up with some fantastic bottles of the local product, we headed back to Budapest to prepare for the next leg - me to Asia, daughter back to London.

 

[woody1]

I am touring with...  :ricky:

 

[Desert Boy]

My route from Budapest to Osh, Kyrgyzstan was via a very wet Istanbul. My flight landed at the Istanbul Sabiha airport, which is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. I had to transfer by taxi to the Istanbul International airport, on the European side for a late night flight to Osh. Due to the torrential rainfall on that Sunday in Istanbul, it took 2.5 hours to make the 35km journey. Traffic was terrible. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of Istanbul other than the motorways, so it will definitely have to be part of a future plan.

A 20h30 departure from Istanbul, together with a 4.5 hour flight and a 3 hour time difference had us landing severely jet lagged in Osh at 5:00 in the morning, local time. Welcome to Central Asia. A quick taxi ride had us at the hotel in no time.

A map showing Kyrgyzstan's relative position.

Kyrgyzstan - Osh (the second largest city) is on the Western border with Tajikistan

The "fanciest" hotel in Osh. We would stay in a variety of different types of accommodation on the trip but this was the most "Western".

 

[Desert Boy]

Kyrgyzstan is one of the republics of the former USSR that gained its independence in 1990 with the demise of the Soviet Union. Together with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan it makes up what is referred to as "Central Asia". Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia and depends on agriculture and tourism as the major drivers of its economy. Unlike Kazakhstan, it does not have vast oils and gas reserves to boost the economy. During the Soviet years, Kyrgyzstan supplied mainly dairy products and honey to the Soviets. It also had (and still has) gold and coal mines. During Stalin's time many ethnic Russians were settled in present Kyrgyzstan. Today the Russian language is the lingua franca and is taught in all schools. After independence the majority of the Russian population moved back to Russia but a reasonable number still remain.

 

[Desert Boy]

After a brief sleep at the hotel we headed over to the premises of the Muz Too company to choose our bikes. They operate with Yamaha XT 600s and argue that they are "bullet proof" and are easily maintained having neither fancy electronics or fuel injection. No computer analysis is needed to diagnose faults. I made a choice and headed off for an introductory test drive. Driving is on the right of the road so that took some getting used to.

 

[Splash]

Great writeup - keep it up, please.

 

[HotKlou]

:thumleft: