Preface

For many years I had the idea or the dream to ride the Pamir Highway one day, whereby I didn't know for a long time, how I would like to do that. At first I had read about cyclists who cycled this route. But then, after I was travelling more and more often by motorbike and more and more off-road, it has become clear that I would like to do this with my BMW - which isn't young any more, same as me.

Last year I read about a Romanian guy who did a similar tour with the motorbike as I did now. He was on the road in September and October and he is also a very experienced tour guide and off-road rider. For the first time, I realized that such a long distance actually only takes two months to ride. Since then I didn't get the idea for my own journey out of my mind and therefore invested a lot of time in research, planning and some preparations.

I am not a very experienced motorcyclist. I may have just spent 150,000 kilometers on motorbikes. I did not even get on bikes until I was 39 years old. I own the driver's license since the age of 18, but in the years between I was on the bike only for two times.

Until 2015 I had no off-road experience. Except for a one-day course in 2015, I did not attend any off-road courses. So in every way, I'm very unexperienced compared to 99.99% of people who are on long-time or long-distance motorcycle trips.

Also, I'm anything else than a gearhead. Although I am not an untalented craftsman, but I have never tinkered much myself on cars or motorcycles.

My only experience in this regard was an evening garage course at BMW here in Hamburg (about 2 hours). Only with regard to my last year's and - of course - this year's trip I changed tires myself for the first time only using simple tools. On my trip I made my first oil change on my machine and also I had the first time to patch a tire. In short: Also in this respect I was quite without experience.

What do I wanna say with this: I would like to show by my example to anyone who dreams of such a journey: you will be able to do that too. I was often intimidated by the reviews that you read on the Internet. There are a lot of bigheads around! Do not let such reports - let alone mine - stop you from your own adventure trip on a motorbike! 

Everything you need in my opinion is actually just a good mood and as much time as possible. The second was often short for me on this trip. That's a warning to anyone who has a similar plan. The more time you have, the less exhausting a trip becomes. This is actually my most important tip that I can give to you.

Of course, I am very happy about feedback on this travelogue, even though I wrote it for myself. You can also bother me with questions. You can find my mail address here.

This travelogue was created on the basis of an audio diary, which I recorded to keep my family up to date. I tried to send the audio files home every day, and my wonderful wife - without her support I would never been able to make this trip - created text files by typing in the audio files. These texts served as a starting point for the daily travel reports.