London2Tbilisi - and Tashkent

Hi all,

A few of you have been asking about this year’s London2Tbilisi ride, and maybe even joining us.

KTMmartin has been putting together a nice website with some details, so please take a look. He’s done some nice things with some of the photos I snapped too :smiley:

http://bigben.to/

We’ll probably get the original website updated soon too - http://www.london2tbilisi.com/

The essentials are :-

  • Leave London early morning 3rd September
  • Route being worked on, but essentially cross Europe to Bulgaria then down through Turkey. Get to Tbilisi (Georgia, 3,000 miles) after about 10 days for an awesome welcome, see photos - http://www.london2tbilisi.com/?p=MzYuLjY=
  • (Its quite possible for people to just stop here, and do half the trip)
  • Leave Georgia and cross the Caspian Sea. I gather the main challenge here is an unreliable ferry
  • Arrive Tashkent within 3 weeks (total about 5,000 miles)
  • Mix of camping and hotels. Nothing booked - just see where we end up! All part of the fun. Travel as light as you can.
  • DHL bikes back home and arrange flights back (need to pay your own way)

We’re doing this for fun and charity - Capital FM’s Help a Capital Child. Donations will be much appreciated, and if we do a send-off party I’ll try to invite you :smiley:

There is an entry fee, to cover admin etc - though there’s a bit more to explain too.

3 of us did this last year, and I was on a borrowed BMW GS Adventure, with little experience. Much of the ride can be done on a road bike, though some of the roads east of Istanbul do turn to gravel / dirt / mud or a nasty mix of all. Some are just bad condition, some being built. Some of the roads in Georgia are worse, but great fun / beautiful. So need some “off-road” capability. This year I’m thinking of getting a Triumph 800XC, and Martin’s got a new KTM 990.

Please let us know if you’re interested, and we’ll pass on your details and get you involved in the audio conferences etc.

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sounds great, I shall donate you some pennies for sure. One point, thats you on the left? telling people to travel light? everything i own is less than you have on the back of that bike :stuck_out_tongue:

I learned the hard way! :stuck_out_tongue: And you should have seen the load at the start of the trip :smiley:

The bike wasn’t too bad by then actually, mostly clothes in those bags … and still a good many big, metal badges for the kids in Bahrain :hehe:

PS - heard about this chaps trip, he’s currently in China, but wow his bike looks loaded!! http://london-bangkok-by-motorcycle.com/

PS - One of the big bits will hopefully be to meet Rixxy and Cat in Turkey. They’re hoping to join us for the leg up to Tbilisi :smiley:

does this happen every year? love to do this:)

Hi - they’ve done it every year for the past 5 years, but sometimes say “this is the last”, so not guaranteed to carry on.