This is a short story about becoming a biker and starting travelling by motorcycle within 5 months.
Part 1. Choosing a horse. [March 2016]
Buying a motorcycle requires some bravery. Choosing the motorcycle is a really hard deal. Everything started a long before the Event. Thousands of forums, videos and websites… Engine volume? Motorcycle type? Make? Model? How should I choose? Millions of questions with no answers.
My height is 193 cm, my weight was 140 kg at that time. I was really concerned by the thing that a small motorcycle will hardly move with two people on top of it.
I tried different vehicles. Among those sold in our location (Antalya, Turkey) were:
– BMW R1200RT
– Yamaha FJR1300
– BMW GS-series
– Yamaha Tenere
BMW costs twice as more then Yamaha here. So the price helped me to choose the make. Then I decided on a class and a model. Turkish roads are perfect, so I did choose FJR1300.
Part 2. First glance. [April 2016]
Though I had “A” category in my driving license, I did not actually have any good experience in driving. The experience included: an old Russian IZH motorcycle with a sidecar that I did drive in forests in my childhood, 1 month of 120-cc scooter in Thailand and lots of bicycling. Driving school in Turkish language also didn’t seem to be something suitable. So I started with reading books and watching videos about riding a motorbike.
Here am I, the happy owner of the 300 kg motorcycle. Now I should get home at least without falling right in front of the sales office. Evening rush hour, traffic jams… My first 14 kilometres of ride were not bad, they were awful! I did stall on every road crossing… …but could finally reach my home!
In order to avoid interrupting the city life, I started learning motorcycle driving on a big asphalted square near my home. Simple moves, simple manoeuvres first, and city driving after. Step-by-step. Counter-steering was the hardest thing to learn.
Part 3. What a twist! [May 2016]
After some riding as a passenger, my wife decided that she wants to be a driver too. And here we are… Choosing the second motorcycle!
It is quite hard to find a first motorcycle for the 156-cm tall women. While sitting on most of the models, my wife hardly reaches the floor…
So we did find the Kawasaki Vulcan S. It is a bit heavy, but ideal for wife’s height.
So we are learning motorcycle driving step-by-step again…
Part 4. Preparing for travelling.[June-July 2016]
“Why don’t we go to Europe?” – we thought. Sure! Why not?
Touring screen for FJR. Medium windscreen, fog lights and side bags for Vulcan S. Scala Packtalk for communication. Waterproof bags, raincoats, portable compressor, tyre repairing kit and some simple tools just in case.
Bought France – Ireland ferry tickets, applied for visas.
And started riding miles as a training before a longer run.
Part 5. Here we go. [August 2016]
We didn’t have a strict route. We did change it day by day. At first we were going to do 300-500 km per day and leave Turkey through Bulgaria. But at the first day of our travelling, we did 950 km from Antalya to Edirne, so we decided to change our route:
Turkey – Greece – Albania – Montenegro – Croatia – Slovenia – Austria – Germany – France – Ireland
Day 1
Antalya [Turkey] – Edirne [Turkey] – 950 km.
My wife started loosing some parts: lost her glove and a screw from her number plate.
The number plate was fixed by a steel wire. As for wife’s glove, we decided to buy her new gloves somewhere.
Day 2
Edirne [Turkey] – Thessaloniki [Greece] – Pogradec [Albania] – about 750 kilometres.
We couldn’t find gloves in Edirne and Thessaloniki. But did find a screw for the number plate.
We caught Lada Niva in Greece. Those old Soviet Union cars can be found in many countries. Though I didn’t see it in Ireland, I believe there should be at least one 🙂
It was funny that on one of the gas stations, we were speaking Turkish, on another we could agree about everything in Russian. Others were speaking English.
Day 3
Pogradec [Albania] – Tirana [Albania] – Podgorica [Montenegro] – Budva [Montenegro] – 350 km
Narrow mountain roads did slow us down significantly. But in Tirana we could find new gloves.
Day 4
Budva [Montenegro] – Split [Croatia] – 750 km
We did honestly try to reach official Kawasaki dealer for 6000 km service. But we couldn’t. We simply didn’t find the official service in Split. We had coordinates on Google Maps and our GPS navigator, we had coordinates on service’s website, but we didn’t find it. Probably we should have been searching better, or probably the dealer is not working anymore.
On this part of our route, we had a really bad story, that almost turned into an international conflict!
We always try to drive like locals do (at least not worse). Long traffic jams on two-lane roads. Each truck collects tens of cars behind. Even if all cars stop, motorcycles are overtaking cars. Usually I go first and then I use radio to comment on the road for my wife, so she can overtake even in blind turns.
We did notice a strange Audi with Austrian number plates in front of us. He was driving really aggressively, passing by cars, breaking car queue in the middle, driving into a heading on traffic. At some moment he stopped at the end of the queue and I decided to pass. My wife was going right behind me, but he did cut her off. In order to give him a way, I had to speed up significantly. He was going closely behind. I do not like racing, so as soon as I did pass all cars, I did take to the right and let him go.
Very soon we reached him again. And again at the end of the queue. As soon as I tried to overtake, he did cut me off and rushed away. Wife told me that we would probably see him in the next queue.
So we met Audi again. This time the road is almost empty. He started showering me by the windscreen washer. At first I didn’t think that he was doing this intentionally. I tried to overtake him, but he started speeding up. FJR has no troubles with speeding up, so I did overtake him and the car going a bit farther.
Couple moments after, my wife told me that he is also pouring water on her. It is much harder to overtake a sports car on 650cc Kawasaki. She tried several times, but he didn’t let her do it by manoeuvring and speeding up.
Now I understand that I had to stop and let this dumb guy go, but at that moment I couldn’t find anything better then slowing down all cars going behind me, so that Audi slows down as well. I did this and ordered my wife to overtake. This time she did it easily.
The idea was not really brilliant. We did run away of that queue of cars, but Audi started chasing us. As my wife is not a racer, he did reach us quite quickly. When he started passing us, I decided to make some troubles to him as well. I speeded up, not letting him to go back. As I didn’t wish to go into turns on a high speed with a dumb driver aside, I did slow down and let him go.
Half an hour later we reached a new queue of cars. Passing everyone, going in the centre of the road together with other motorcyclists. That Audi was somewhere in the middle of the queue and I didn’t even notice him. He did let me go, but as soon as my wife tried to pass him, he blocked her way. She did hit the brake and stopped. Though she didn’t fall, I got really angry and decided to talk with that guy.
Standing on a road shoulder and waiting for him. I did start couple cars in front of him. He tried to rush away, tried to smash me into the hedge several times. I did hit his car with my leg. He became more aggressive, I was also crazy at him. I didn’t let him go back into our lane and he stuck between ongoing car, car behind (its driver did help me to fix that idiot) and me.
I did tell everything I think about him in Russian, then in English. Many people jumped out of their cars. Some of those people were Austrian, so they came to say couple words in German to him.
– Come out, asshole!
– I don’t need troubles.
– You already did create troubles for me and my wife. Get out and be a man.
– My wife is recording everything on camera! She will be calling police.
– Are you an idiot? Call them! The police will take your driver license for dangerous driving forever.
Ten minutes more of dirty words in Russian and English. He didn’t explain if he hates all motorcyclists or only Turkish motorcyclists. But I at least tried to explain that anyone can drive motorcycle with any number plates. English, French or even Russian guy that will beat the shit out of him.
The Austrian guy apologised to me, promised to be nice, was cursed one more time by his Austrian colleagues and went away. Other conflict participants continued their way too after shaking hands.
What did I learn from this? I will never be conflicting with idiots on the road. The best thing is to seat a little and wait for the aggressor to go somewhere far. To say the truth, I didn’t expect to see people behaving like this in Europe.
Day 5
Split [Croatia] – Munich [Germany] – 1000 km
The time is running away, we need to be on our ferry in time. During this day, we did almost 1000 km. Croatia is trying to impress us with its heavy traffic consisting of Hungarian, Polish and Czech cars. Everyone wants to spend their vacations on sunny beaches.
This was a “falling day”. Af first I did make my wife fall down while towing my motorcycle back. I didn’t notice that she didn’t give me a way. A little after this I did fall down while trying to put toll-highway ticket into my pocket.
Traffic stuck on the borders of Austria. Paid tunnel created a 50-km traffic jam. Motorcycle was the only vehicle that could at least move slowly.
Day 6
Munich [Germany] – Versailles [France] – 850 km
Our morning started with my wife being hit by an automatic barrier. Actually it was my fault. While parking at the hotel parking in the evening, I guessed that in order to pass the barrier we should ride together. In the morning I did forget about it and decided to go one by one. So right after me, the barrier was closed automatically and did hit my wife. She did fall down together with bike. Happily she didn’t get any injuries (at least physical).
650cc Kawasaki consumes too much gasoline at the speed of 150 km/h. We have to stop for refilling tank once in half an hour.
From time to time we pass long traffic jams. Summer. Vacations. You shouldn’t go to Europe by car in summer!
Overnight in Versailles. Searching for hotel with a private parking. It feels too dangerous to leave motorbike on public parkings.
Day 7
Versailles [France] – Cherbourg [France] – 350 km
We did arrive to our ferry in time. After these 350 km of roads, we will have 20 hours of the sea.
I did fall down right before boarding to the ferry. It was a very stupid fall. I was scared by a minivan while entering roundabout. Probably I shouldn’t have been laughing at my wife when she was hit by the barrier…
Day 7 – 16
Riding around Ireland.
Ireland is strongly associated with an Irish Breakfast for me! Right after the breakfast, we found out that my motorcycle did fall down from side side stand in the night. The interesting moment is that the side stand did break a huge hole in asphalt. Two girls from the reception couldn’t put it back on wheels, so they had to ask five men from the hotel 😀
Viewing some sights and neighbourhoods.
And here I fall again. There are funny tracks in Ireland. The road is asphalted, but there is a grass in the middle. During a rain, this grass becomes very slippery.
A small dog ran out and started barking at me. I pulled gas to get away from the beast… …and almost immediately started riding a butt instead of riding a bike. Irish grass didn’t harm motorcycle in any way, but plastic screws from the windscreen didn’t like my fall. So I had to replace them with new steel screws.
Glengowla Mines.
Feeding ducks.
Watching young Irish girls swimming at +18 degrees (it feels too cold after Antalya).
Staying in Clontarf Castle Hotel.
We could hardly find Kawasaki Service for our Vulcan S. You should plan your service and book it in advance. Otherwise it will be almost impossible to find it. We didn’t find our planned service in Slovenia, so decided to do it in Dublin with a significant overdue… No one did want to do the service in Dublin as all services were heavily booked for a month forward.
And it’s ferry time again!
Day 17
Cherbourg [France] – Munich [Germany] – 1250 km
This is a new record!
We are in a hurry again (as usually). Our friends are coming to Antalya. And we should meet them in time.
You should be careful in France and check that French customs officer stamped your passport. Some of them do not simply know that Ireland is not a part of Schengen Area.
We didn’t reach the “iron butt” title that day. Butt appeared to be not iron. We did only 1250 km.
Good thing is that France has special lanes for motorcycles on toll roads. This lane is right on the road shoulder.
Day 18
Munich [Germany] – Nis [Serbia] – 1175 km
We are still in a good shape. Crossed Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. It is not the longest distance, but the largest number of crossed borders.
Funny McDonalds in Serbia. The first advertisement invited us to visit McDonalds in 200km. We laughed and kept on going.
Right before Nis town in Serbia, we understood that we can’t go any more. So we stopped in that one McDonalds for a cup of coffee 😀
Day 19
Nis [Serbia] – Some town in 350 km from Antalya [Turkey] – 1050 km
It is quite easy to cross borders while riding a motorcycle. We tried to queue with cars several times, but car drivers and custom officers always wave us to go without queuing. Pass all the cars, show passports and keep moving. No checks, no questions. It’s a pleasure 🙂
We did reach Istanbul at 10pm. It was a bad idea. Trucks are not allowed to enter Istanbul before 10pm. So they are waiting in 50km area around the city. And then they start moving. All highways are heavily loaded by trucks. The only way to keep moving is to use the road shoulder. Police cameras are taking pictures of cars, but motorcycles cannot be caught as the number plate is on the back side.
We left Istanbul, but things got even worse. It was a hell on the Earth. Crowds of trucks were racing each other on highway and were going with 130 km/h speed, taking all lanes and horning to each other…
I decided to leave this highway and use toll-free road going in parallel. It was a miracle! This road was empty. Same speed and much more comfort!
We kept driving until we started falling asleep. We stopped in a small town after riding 1050 kilometres.
Eugh… It is too fast. Pain in the back and the butt… 3550 kilometres for three days is a way too much!
My motorcycle’s brother was staying in the same hotel!
Day 20
We are in Antalya – 350 km
This part of road was easy. Arrived home, parked motorcycles, took our pickup and went out to meet our friends in airport…
10300 kilometres are behind us. I thought that 3000 km sprint will make me hate motorcycle, but it didn’t happen. While driving a car, I was jealously looking on other bikers with an automatic waving to all motorcyclists I see.
Summary
I am an experienced auto-traveller. Some of my car trips were even 23000 km long. What can I say about motorcycling? It is a really new world, new reality. It is much less about pictures, it is much more about life. Will we go in a motorcycle trip again? For sure. But we will certainly avoid 1000-km sprints.
Probably I won’t get “iron butt” – my butt doesn’t have enough iron inside… 😀
Flights to Dublin:
Hotel prices in Dublin:
