The trip
Itinerary
To get to the “Stans”, my only option was through China all the way to Kazakhstan. First, because Myanmar is currently closed. Second, because I do not have a Carnet de Passage and India / Pakistan require it (I refuse to spend so much on an antiquated piece of paper!)
This part of the journey was 80% paved / 20% piste/off-road, because in China, especially Tibet and Xin ’Jiang, you cannot move freely. A foreigner going on small trails can get in big trouble very quickly.
Once I got to Kazakhstan, it was the opposite – did almost everything offroad for the whole summer, through Kazakhstan / Kyrgyzstan / Tajikistan. I saw some of the prettiest landscapes I’ve seen in my life, but also a lot of challenging terrain!
After that I went back to Kazakhstan to get the bike on the ferry to Baku, Azerbaijan. From there, the rest of the route was pretty straightforward through Georgia, Turkey and then the EU. I had to rush the end of my trip to attend a wedding so I skipped a lot of countries and nice roads in Europe to get to Paris as soon as possible.
The bike
The bike is a 2022 Honda CRF 300L that I bought in my name (makes things much easier to cross border to have a bike in your name). I had about 2,000km on it when I started the trip. These are the main modifications I did:
• Acerbis 14L tank (around 400km of range)
• Ohlins rear suspension (105nm) and front springs upgrade
• Renthal fatbar with Zeta risers, armor hanguards and mounts
• Custom seat
• Custom rack
• Bash plate, engine guard, frame guards, radiator guard
• USB charger, double take mirrors, progrip 714, zeta short levers
• Motowolf LED spotlights
For luggage, I used a Mosko moto hood tank bag, 2x24L Rhinowalk pannier side bags, 1x40L duffel bag and 1x66L duffel bag (both Motowolf). I also had a 28L no-name top case to carry my drone / laptop / spare lens but ended up getting rid of it mid-trip (way too heavy). I was happy with that system overall, and definitely recommend having more capacity than needed (I could carry all my stuff without the 66L duffel bag, but that extra bag gives more flexibility, and lets you carry extra food / water / fuel / broken parts that you have to fix / coat / etc. for some parts of your journey.
Some stats:
29,793km
18 countries
136 days
1 flat tire (I got lucky, but also did not drop my tire pressure too much off-road)
5 new tires
4 oil changes
1 mechanical failure (melted fan in the Gobi desert)
20+ bike drops
1 light injury (sore back for a few days)
7 broken parts (handlebar clamp, 3 “unbreakable” mirrors, phone mount, chain guard, chain guide, mudguard/toolbox)
2 license plate drops (thankfully I heard it when it happened and got it back)
49 hours spent during border crossings
1 “deportation” (stamped into Turkey and forced to stamp out 1h later by customs)
0 theft
0 fines
Countless memories and amazing people I met along the way