ride report istanbul to kazbeq Russian border

hi all,
I am from Turkey istanbul,i travelled the world on a bicycle back in the 90s now things changed and i want to tour with my motorcycle.So i bought a nc700x its looks like a tourer feels like a tourer but the biggest problem is its no bmw :) so i told to myself why not test it out if it can handle the this tour it can certainly handle the rest of the world.
problem is i got only 6 days to finish so that means some days i need to travel 800 kms which is too much kms for every motorcyclist that got soft ass like me :)
Before the trip i take out all of my gears from my second bike which is a honda cbf,i bought myself a engine protector and the bike is ready.To add confort i killed a sheep and skinned it :) and i putted a airhawk cushion under the sheepskin.But that dos not help much if you riding 800km a day
My wife insisted that she would to come with me,so that i wont be helping the poor georgian girls :) with their studies in english haha.
Here is the brief summery of what i took for this trip,
Camping gadget tents vs vs
camping shower and shovel
clothes
cooking items gas ovens vs vs
Motorcycle repair tools and manuel doesnt use it :)
ipod camera and good old gps
a rambo knife and pepper spray and a dog silencer :)
Bye the way that fake gas tank is awesome i can put everything in it really really cool.

And the ride starts
İ wont be posting istanbul photos cause i did not took any :)) i hate istnbul too crowded and modern.
Next stop 850 kms istanbul to ordu to visit my uncle and take the night out.

After resting we cruised to the border city of artvin but before going there my wife wanted to visit sumela monestry in trabzon.I am not willing to go there but the boss is her :)


Bloddy hell,those medieval builders are crazy



after the monastery we returned to the road and arrived the border city



Battum is 20 kms from this point,we rested in a hotel in batum







the city view from our hotel.

After having our breakfest,sex and shover :) we decided to travel the city to see how the locals live.



These people are english students having a game while learning english cool though



wifey buying flag,while she was busy with that old lady i used this opportunity to get to know the locals much deeper :)



damn



white house i guess



i have seen lots of these guys from mongol rally 2012 they are really cool people






local wild life which i fantasized cooking them :)

statues lots of it







a weird cafe but i like it.



a little church and ladies on front





more statues





The dwarf king george lived in this house once.



I think whole georgia is influenced bye the lord of the rings you will understand me later



alphabet tower

russian motorcyclist that i meet in batum,wife if you can read this that girl is taller than you :)



i love the architecture

So we finished batum and rev up our engines and head to the tiflis the capital.



on the road we stopped to see the old russian factory and while we stopped that bloddy mongol rally guys stopped too :) i think they are following me





road side villages are all like this though out the entire 400 kms

church again,cows,dwars and churches are everywhere in georgia and lots of beautiful ladies





so i am hearing you all saying you are amuslim you dont eat pork hahaha hell yes i eat them and eat them real good :)



wifey loved this bottle i dont know why but she bringed it with her to turkey hell she must have loved the bottle much :)





finally we arrived to tiflis and find a good camping area.

day 3 tiflis to kazbeqi also know as georgia military highway

hair shaved gandalf



hahah sorry my american friends but those georgians are knowing your soft spot :) they gonna take your money haha



in georgia you can find anything on the road side food vs vs



this is the gate of mordor :)



side view of the kazbeq road



yeah that ugly thing is me



annuri church



bus station with cool graphics

under this bridge boys having some fun



live is so simple in georgia damn i missed the old days



a tank i guess or used to be one :)



yeah the famous gandlf and me :)



me drinking naturel water



me having chat with a guy from batum,he is a good motorcyclist and knows english too.



thats his bike love it.

sun burned me



more churces



the road is excellent i love the curves after 5 kms later there will be no road :)





scenery post







snow tunnels which wifey afraid of going in hell



tunnel with a nice view



view from the tunnel

yeah i bought it :)

the animal market









locals selling food




more scenery

nc700x will kick you ass you big ugly thing

And the ride is over more photos on my wifes camera but i am too lazy to uplaod it will upload them tommarow :)

for the bike

people buy this bike this is relly a good tourer

I really am enjoying your photo's and commentary! Need a map to see where you are going. Be safe and have fun!

thanks mate :)

Wonderful adventure. Two up and camping on the 700x may be a first. Your wife is quite the adventurer.

How is the bike behaving?

bike is fine,on the tarmac just like an ordinary ford fiesta can over take trucks and other vehichles which are cruising in 80 km to 140 hour without downshifting.But like i said its a fiesta :) dont expect from it to overtake a ferrari.
Wind shield is small but i bought a bigger one after the trip.Much much better.Riding position is good but my ass hurts still maybe i ride too much on a day.850kma a day sometimes never bwlow 450 km.So my ass hurts big time.
with that weight on bike its fuel consumption is 3.2 3.5 litres per 100km average speed is 90kmh 100 kmh.
its very agile on corners and slow traffic speed thank to the low center of gravitiy.On the offroad with this weight it handles perfectly,Even it stops nicley abs is really cool on offroad.I habe riding many bike from gs 1200 to harley davison sporster.
This bike is the next big step on motorcycling.It can do anything and doing it cheap :).
The biggest drawback of this bike is horse power.Yeah its under powered compariging to the gs or ducati or other bikes.
Think this baby as a adventure harley davidson cause the engine behaves like harleys engine same rpm range same power same chracter and rumble.And better milega and better engine life :) probably this engine can go 300 000 kms with ease

Greetings, man Good Trip you've done....
I want to ask you about the Georgian/Russian Border crossing - is there any problem with that, because I've heard it's closed and you can pass it only on foot or bicycle??? is it a rumor or it's true?
Thank you in advance, ride safe and I wish you many many adventures with this good bike!

Cool trip - you describe the bike perfectly.

Yep its a hard road but i have seen 16 wheelers lada nivas whom driving old ladies and lots of mercedes c 180s passing without a problem :)

Thank you for this report on your bike. It has just been released in Australia. Many of us get into the biggest fastest brightest ego competition.

Sounds like a great trip on a cool new bike.