My bike in Germany last year, the sexy Suzuki Bandit 600. It was crucial in my understanding of the naked street bikes followed by my purchase of Honda CBF.
There was a lot of rain those days, but my rides on the perfect tarmac of the german roads as well as the A2 Autobahn, travels through Gütersloh, Bielefeld, Melle and Dortmund were unforgettable! I miss Germany a lot these days.
Here’s a Honda Rebel CA125 (my first motorcycle) in Gütersloh:
A retro BMW:
A nice custom Honda in Bielefeld that belonged to the owner of the Polo motorcycle apparel store, an old woman of non-traditional sexual orientation who has generously shown me around the city:
And finally, an ubercool custom Harley in Dortmund:
Riding in Germany was a shit load of fun and I miss it badly. If you happen to visit it, don’t forget to rent a motorbike — it’s only about 200 euros a week!
I always thought that I rarely travel north of Armenia. I somehow always perceived “north” to be cold and unfriendly, preferring the dusty Artashat highway that is so plain it makes you yawn and sing to yourself, pondering about the eternity. Oh well.
So we hit the road last weekend on Saturday, riding a nice and tidy Yerevan-Vanadzor-Alaverdi-Odzun-Dilijan-Sevan-Yerevan trip with camping.
Now, anyone who has read Tumanyan probably has this perception of Lori as some sort of a fantasy place. And I was so surprised to find out that Lori is in fact a much bigger fantasy than I expected it to be! Now I don’t know if it was the lucky weather or the adrenaline from the exciting curves of the narrow road, but the whole experience was so beautiful and rich in colors that I couldn’t help my jaw being dropped! Continue reading “Trip: Odzun – Dilijan. First Part.”
Yerevan – Sisian – Shushi – Stepanakert – Gandzasar – Yeghegnadzor – Selim – Martuni – Sevan – Yerevan: more than 900km in only two days on the Armenian roads and in the Armenian weather! A terriblefic journey, I officially dub it the ‘Quest of the Dragon Reaper’ (Վիշապաքաղ) for myself, as a tribute to the old Armenian deity Vahagn and an acknowledgement of the draconic toughness of the ride. Sure Vishapaqagh is no 50cc, but the Armenian roads are no USA!
I never had a more special ride in my life (maybe except the first ride ever) and I will happily post about this challenge in a great detail with following posts.
Last Friday we took the road to Tsakhkadzor. The weather was good all along, and there were certain things to discuss, so we thought – why the hell not do this in a changed environment and some fresh air?
The planned trip was overall a little longer than 150km, thus also being a nice starting ride to see how my bike feels ‘out in the close wild’. I was eager to take a ride to Geghard first, however Tsakhkadzor seemed to make more sense on that particular day.
We took the standard ‘Sevan highway’ to Hrazdan upon departing Yerevan and since the official run-in period was passed, I have done some minor ‘performance tests’. The results were encouraging — about 160km/h stable with revs and space still left for some extra speed. But speed was not really what I was interested in.
In Tsakhkadzor we visited Kecharis and went to eat some Ishkhan (the trout did not have that magical melting taste my mom objectively delivers). The weather was fantastic; while there were some ‘I’ll rain if I want to’ clouds up above it was actually pretty warm and no rain ever came down.
Most of the fun came on the way back, as Anna suggested we take an alternate route through Bjni. This was a worse road with gravel, dirt and mud instead of tarmac and huge potholes on certain sections. Hett is always happy to drive his Pajero through this kind of terrain and I was more than excited to try my bike out, especially since I’ve heard a lot of criticism lately about the ‘offroad capabilities’ of my new motorcycle. And guess what!
I have not once had a problem with the bike’s ground clearance. Not once.
It was agile enough at slow speeds to handle through every single stone.
I did not ever lack rapid acceleration to maintain speed through the gravel or dirt.
And everyone who doubts my bike’s suitability for the wonderful Armenian terrain conditions can, well, suck it.
After this we arrived to Abovyan where I saw an absolutely genius invention of the local municipality — ‘laying policemen’ (speed bumps) in front of every single pedestrian crossing in the town. Cars never yield to the pedestrians in Armenia, so this was a bullet-proof way to make them do that, unless they wanted to damage the cars. The pedestrians in Abovyan were crossing the street like in Europe, and I thought it was absolutely necessary to build the same speed bumps in Yerevan as well.
Then there was Yerevan as it always is at the end of the trips and I was very happy to have the motorcycle that I had.
My motorcycle – the awesome Honda CBF500 on the road from Tsakhkadzor to Bjni.
The short trip to Tsakhkadzor on the free Friday was amazing, and an extensive post will follow, but here is something for those who can’t wait to see stuff.
The official 500km run-in period specified in the manual is complete. Next destination is 1000km. But before that, let’s examine how did we do in the most important period of any motorcycle’s life.
So most importantly, overrevving is strictly forbidden. I tried to always shift my gears between 3,500 and 5,000 and have never went above 5,500. Note that max revs for CBF500 is 14,000.
Secondly, the engine should never be overloaded. This means rapid acceleration, heavy weight load (including a heavy pillion), and early gear switching should not be practiced.
Finally, the engine should always be properly warmed up and responsive before riding, especially after a garage night. 30 seconds of choke when starting the engine are enough to do the job if the air temperature is above 10° C.
Easy rules to follow and you have a solid machine that will serve for long.
The one difference that I notice between 3km mileage and now is that the engine sounds much smoother. This is a sound I like much better.
After the 1000th km the oil and its filter should be changed. In the meantime, I can allow myself a little bit more revs.
