the gods are with the idiots - or : a long winter 2-Stroke ride

[Richard-NL]

Great report Andi. Nice to have seen you again and meeting Mehmet, which I would like to thank for trying his sweet Turkish tobacco.

Some epic ride you both did!!

You already linked to the official report of the TT. I also made a small sidecar related report in the hack section. Maybe some people are interested in it. Hope you don´t mind. Linked this report over there too.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=656821

Maybe we see you again on “the Henneburg” this summer. BTW the “Scots” are Welsh.

Richard-NL

[asphaltmueller]

Originally Posted by Richard-NL

BTW the “Scots” are Welsh.

Richard-NL

Heavens ! I'm asume i will have to sacrifice some beers to deflect rightfully hurt emotions.

Loved to see you again, too, and I will make a serious try to be at the Henneburg

[moderen]

Originally Posted by Richard-NL

Great report Andi. Nice to have seen you again and meeting Mehmet, which I would like to thank for trying his sweet Turkish tobacco.

Richard-NL

Next time when we meet, i will bring more tobaccos from Turkey, or maybe you can visit Turkey sometime and we can go to tobacco bazar i am sure we can find a good one for you
not sweet one


cheers

[altf4]

^^

next time, the ride there will be a bit farther: 1200kms ;)
already looking forward to it!1!! and especially to meet andi again, and of course you, moderen!

:)





g max ~:)

[asphaltmueller]

hi max - all the best for your relocation & that world ain't big enough not to meet again.

let's continue :

And again no good photo;



We topped up the gas before heading to the border which was just 2kms away, as we had some hungarian money left.
payed, dressed, rode of - and the bike died on me.
I assumed that it was bad petrol, as the carbureator had acted up before. I checked the petrol cock including emptying the water divider, emptied the chamber, which was a bit dicey without loosening the carb. This after having checked the spark - which gave Özge a nice shock, because he held it - so plenty of spark.
As you will have realized by now, it was of course the spark, resp. the plug - after half an hour fiddling around and kicking I tried a new plug - and there she was.
So off we go to the border, a quiet little place in the countryside.
Them croatian cops where friendly, but scrutinized our bike documents very carefully and disappeared into an office with all our docs for a while. Did we look nuts enough to steal a Jawa or MZ Hack ? Maybe.


We rode a while on croatian federal roads down south to join the highway, direction Serbia. Nice ridding, but time consuming.



real a croatian public toilet ?



We entered the highway some time before noon and tried to make miles on that cold and exeptionally boring stretch of road which is the highway through the Slavonian plain.




Had some good lunch and fun with waiters at a rest station, but the photo the head waiter made turned out unusable.
Nothing much to say about the border, but that I fell dry again just after it. But we had a jerrycan, so what.
We just kept trying to press on, tired and cold. The lenght of the trip made itself more and more aware - we were quite spent.
As I said it was cold -the guys in a petrol station south of Beograd just shaked theyr heads when they saw us - "minus ten" one said to me - yeah sure felt that way.
It was maybe 9pm when we arrived in Klicevacz at Slavisas house again.
I don't even have a photo of this evening or remember what we ate (it definitely was much, though). It had been a long day in the saddle and we were spent.
After a good night's sleep we were better and this time pressing for an early depart, which was succesful.




RTW-Doug had written, that we could stay at his place in Bulgaria, but we had checked it with the route-planners, and theyr was basically no change to make it, though the ride through northern Serbia and then down to Dougs place would have really interested me. I will definitely try to do that this year, preferably on a Solo.


riding through the serbian countryside




this time less fog - the Danube river behind the treeline




open pit coal mine



passing Pozarevac, near the highway

It was a cold day on the highway again;

the bikes ran, once in a while we made a break for petrol and coffee to just to warm up a bit and lost some time due to the number of breakes.




We rode the river canyon to the border. It will be nearly impossible to make a highway in this narrow valley, so I think this will stay the main transit axis for a while.







a mechanic and tyre repair shop

We stopped at the same restaurant like when we came for a late lunch, but only had some soup this time; delicious again.




Lamp soup - delicious - I simply love serbian food

Again nothing to report on the border but that the bulgarian cop was a really lovely girl, and that it was dark when we left there.
We were looking for a hotel on the road to Sofia and didn't find one. Özge had asked some turkish drivers about a cheap and safe place, and hadn't got specific information, but that maybe we should try the truck-parking places, which were usually safe.
So when we rolled into Sofia, I stopped at the first truck parking compound, realized that no rooms would be available, but went inside nevertheless.
In the office, a 2 mts guy looking a bit like you would imagine some Mafia muscle explained nicely with hand and feet, that in about ten kilometers there would be a cheap and safe motel, behind the Metro dept. store.
We took the guys advice, good for us.The Motel YUBIM cost us 20€ per person, the bikes were stored in a Bus-repairing facility behind the Motel. Complete with watchman and Pit Bull, and well - just fine.

next morning

the watchman had joked, that solo bikes could have been parked in the engine bays of the buses
Anyway, the evening before: some of that


and a plate of that






resulted in that


the room was lovely and warm, and we were both sound asleep at 9pm

remember ? - last time I mentioned my rear sprocket was about 1.000 kms ago.

tomorrow I'l have to mention it

[chazz]

Excellent thanks

[therion]

You guys rock !
This journey is a real inspiration to me.
Hope do see you again.
Greetz
Therion

[asphaltmueller]

In the morning the motel restaurant wasn't up to the task as it was the evening before, or maybe omlets are not common breakfeast fare in Bulgaria.
Anyway, it took some time and we had a long way to go to Istanbul.



It was still cold but sunny, and when we had crossed the mountains and decended on Plovdiv, suddenly it became warmer and the whole surrondings changed. Definitely lifted our morals.


But the chain had started warning me again; once or twice, when twisting the throttle there was a beating like from a loose chain.
I tightened it once more, this time to the very last threads of the tightening screws.





But later it would thrash again, whilst the tightening was quite short - sprocket gone at least was my diagnosis.
So I sent an SMS to Birdal ( inmate "Venturer"), who is residing in western Turkey, if he could organise me an MZ sprocket.


On the next rest I found the answer on my phone, asking for which MZ - at the next break it read "all set up"

nice MIG 23 to the left



So we wouldn't make Istanbul today, so what - we were aproaching the turkish border. Whilst the idea of a breakdown here in eastern Bulgaria already didn't make me shiver anymore, anywhere in pushing or even towing (by bike) distance from the border, it was much less of an affair - cross the border, park her safe, hitch a bus, some truck would bring her for small money. This made me feel distinctly better.







I had learned to ride with a bike glove on the right had, supporting my throttle hand, and a thin jogger's glove on the left. With heated grips and the handlebar sleeves this worked even in quite cold weather. One of the benefits was that taking photos while riding became much easier.




still some snow on the shadowy side


a few of those are still around


no credit cards here






decending on Haskovo

approaching the border

Kapetan Andreevo - southeastern outpost of the EU......


No problems again at the border, just a bit of queing. And a long chat with some of the older customs agents, on Jawas, MZs and frozen riders
BTW - they built quite a Mosque there, to great the travellers (background)





Welcome home, and 700 kms to go !
Now a brakedown wouldn't mean much more than hurt pride.


felt more welcomed by this !


it was cold nevertheless after sundown; those guys had asked us at a petrol station if they could ride with us, because theyr 160 cc TVS Apache had a headlight failure, electronic, not bulb problem. We told them, that we would ride to a mechanic 25 kms from the highway, 100 kms from Istanbul, but they prefered to press on; I bet they had some girls waiting




and here is the man with the tea; the rest of todays installment will be a Photo documentation about a rear sprocket change on a sidewalk that night in the small industrial town of Cerkezköy, 100 kms west of Istanbul.


the man with the sprocket


the workshop - Kanuni and Kymco; sidecar won't enter
(Kanuni was the licence producer of the MZ)


Birdal in the background; 2 SMS and a mechanics team stands by at 10pm; thanks, again, mate

the old disk, ähh sprocket


the master at work



as a test ride we went to theyr new shop







quite a workshop they have there; the master himself rides some sort of Fireblade



As Birdal had family visitors in his flat, he and the mechanic organized us a good, cheap hotel with safe parking, where we were even served some dinner - at now nearly midnight



After having been served what the proprietor could heat from the leftovers of the day (was much better than that sounds) we went to bed in a tiny but clean room soon.
The next day would see us home



stay tuned, there's still something to report

[the venturer]

Hightime for me to get in with some shots
Andreas contacted me for some help and we managed to do all the repairs. Thank you guys Murat and Şahin. Friendly and helpful mechanics ever.

[the venturer]

Next time, don't forget your swimming gear as we are gonna stay in the villa for a swim in winter, promise me Andi

[the venturer]

Sorry for the hijack.
Back to topic...

Lifting the bike and removing rear wheel


Şahin inspecting and removing the screws on the rear sprocket

[the venturer]

Meanwhile Andi drinking his tea with a Serb cigar between fingers and posing


Same applies for Özge, he looks comfy and a bitter hotter but believe me they still had fogs on their glasses. You rock, guys

[the venturer]

Can you see any teeth on the rear? Wondering how this old bike got here with a sidecar


But the owner is happy now as he has some new teeth, just look at his face

[the venturer]

This head protector once used as a grill


Getting the hotel, cosy and silent atmosphere, we chatted as we ate

[the venturer]

I left them in their room and said nighty till next morning.
From next morning...
They were early birds as usual, I bet. So should they be as still more than 500km to go.
Andi inspecting his bike and circumambulating and pilgriming around it as a morning ritual.