Down from the mountains

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Down from the mountains Traveler
Out of Almaty
September 7 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Salam Alaikum, honey bunnies,
We finally hit the road out of Almaty.
Even though we had a lot of fun in Almaty we are happy the wrenching days paid off - Kismet is running so smooth, she starts so easy, she is willing to kick km! After a brief visit at Charyn Canyon we found a beautiful place to camp, light a fire, have a bebe beer. In the morning, our tent is surrounded by cows as we enjoy a coffee and get ready to cross over to Kyrgyzstan.Read more
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Down from the mountains Traveler
Katabraaap Katabraaap
September 5 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Remember, the stuff was at ROMAX, right?
So two days later we are told the parts can be collected. Fresh and shiny they are, and the bill for "the немцы" doesn't even say 50€. Max wants us to pay less, we give a bit more remembering that any solution including shipping anything from Germany would be more time and money consuming. Treat your wife and kids to a nice restaurant ;)

We grab some gorilla energy drinx and snax and pull up at Adlet's workshop where we start the Friday evening wrenching. Carefully, meditational, yet with some old school hip hop and loaded with sugar and caffeine we throw the barrel and the head on, adjust the timing, install the periphery. In the meantime, Adlet's wife and a bunch of bikers come around to check the situation... What are these Germans doing with this tiny old bike? (Yes, neither of us are Germans and yet they refer to us as 'the Germans')

Finally, we put the tank on, click click the kicker, and brrrraaaap she wakes up ❤️
The crowd is cheering, the wrenchers hugging, everybody happy! We notice though it's past midnight now and indeed now the operation is a success, the party is over, everybody leaves, and we go to our shabby apartment room.

We're ready to rumble now!Read more
TravelerNiiice, congratulations and let's go 😁👍🥳
9/6/25Reply
Travelerwell done, let one time an expert done and it's will be running🤭😁👍
9/6/25Reply
Traveler.... we had to trust these guys because you are not here!
9/6/25Reply
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Down from the mountains Traveler
Finding Reasons and Solutions
September 3 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Salam fellows,
A lot is happening in these intense days but eventually we're forced to have a break and slow down a bit.
Grinding the shims down manually turns out to be ridiculous as we removed not even the thickness of a joint paper so we went to a grinding shop where in the end we are handed a fistful of shims from 2.1 to 2.4 mm. With 'em we adjusted a quite conservative/big valve clearance and run around the workshop spreading high fives to the workers as we fire Kismet up. We then get on the bikes and braaap off and we make it to the outskirts of Almaty as - on a very busy road, of course - Kismet again suffers of low pressure and faints. F*CK. Well, what did we expect? With these shims we might have adjusted the clearance somehow, but not solved the cause of its disappearance.

We decide to call Adlet, a chap we just had met 20 mins before leaving Freeriders workshop and exchanged contacts *destiny*. He tells us to get to his private, small yet very well prepared workshop, with even a decent hotel just around the corner. Same evening, with a good soundtrack and chai we do the decapitation and with cylinder and head in hands we go to Adlet's friends Roman and Maxim (ROMAX, Almaty) the next day. They quickly find out the exhaust valve seats are lose, just in place out of convenience, which explains both variable valve clearance as well as lack of compression especially when hot. BAM, explanation found!

Some very clever ex-owner apparently installed a high compression "tuning" piston, creating higher pressure and temperatures in the anyway quite hot running XT 350 combustion chamber. Different thermal expansion of the aluminium head and steel seats over time might have shaken them off their place.
Apart from that, valves, head, piston rings and cylinder seem to be fine.

They then offer us to:
1. Hone the barrel just because they can
2. Install some new valve seats
3. Take 0.5 mm off the piston to decrease the compression (remember: high power is something for your home trail; if you want to get home in the heat with bad juice keep your head and piston relaxed...)

This might take max 3 days they tell us, and although it's an unexpected start of our journey weirdly we are always grateful for the things that happen to us.
We went to the industrial side of Almaty. We met very helpful people, cheers Denis (Ricambi motor) , thanks Adlet (the most badass engineer in Almaty), peace Olzhas, rakhmet to the guys who know somebody, call someone, drive around for us, drive us around, etc. We get to wrench on old bikes in good company, a lovely thing to do. Also, we are forced to keep the revs low for a bit and breathe, didn't really have a break since before we left home.
We're breathing... Breathing the smoggy Almaty air, and IronChris' tissues are blood red when he cleans his nose.
We're fine, life is good, the dust, the wind, they are waiting for us out there!

Kick it always,
RidingKismet and IronChrisRead more
TravelerOh Boy, what a start. I hope you figure it out soon and get going 🤞 But that's already a first travel story for sure 😂
9/4/25Reply
TravelerIt's alright the way it is, no reason to worry or to complain at all ;)
9/4/25Reply
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Down from the mountains Traveler
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Grinding it down
August 30 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
...As the diagnosis brought to light, the valve clearance in both exhaust valves is zero. Boring... This means either valves and valve seats are tremendously worn down (from one second to another?? Remember: she was running, then didn't start any more) OR in best case, a pile up of soot creating bigger clearances in the past that now just cracked and flew out the tube, allowing now the valves to sit in their original seat which means no clearance. If, if ....
Maybe not willing to know the truth and also in lack of new valves, head and pipe gaskets, we leave the head where it is and grind and grind and grind the shims down to allow some clearance. This took the entire day ....The idea of reducing the thickness arose through deep discussions with Luca and Fiore, our Italian friends we met in Bishkek, and telecommunication with their XT350 pope back in Italy as well as our XT-legend Nico back home.
At the same time, severe investigations are performed in order to get a spare head because you never know.

In the end we try to always be grateful: this day allowed us to bite the bullet and do some uncomfortable work that you would not do when you have access to all the spare parts. For some reason, Fiore and Luca stayed all day long with us in the workshop rather to explore the city, helping us with the work, bringing us drinx, being a sunshine. Finally, we go to have the famous one meter mixed grill kebab for dinner.

Guys, thank you, you are awesome!

So back to the same boring hostel, catch some sleep, and back to grind the shims... Let's see where this journey brings us!Read more
Traveler This steel of these shims is nearly as hard as RidingKismet's balls... It takes ages
8/31/25Reply
Traveler Kazakhs on a Saturday night. Arm wrestling in public to show how super masculine they are...
8/31/25Reply
Traveler So much fun with Fiore and Luca 🌞
8/31/25Reply
grindin‘ dem shims [Nico]
9/3/25Reply
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Down from the mountains Traveler
Almaty
August 29 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Day 6
Salam alaikum sweethearts, we're in buzzing Almaty! Not really just for fun though, but because of Kismet's unstartability. After having checked the spark and carbeurator next to the road in Samsy (a random village we stopped in for a drink) together with the local motorcycle hero (all the kids here go crazy on noisy Chinese 250cc motorcycles) we stayed the night at a locals backyard to then get a lift for Kismet to Freeriders Almaty workshop. Some snacks in the closeby park, groceries and an early night (finally) at a quite boring hostel. In the end, we think, we are fortunate since we really needed a rest.
So fingers criss crossed Dimit at Freeriders can fix that thing!Read more
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Down from the mountains Traveler
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Windy roads to Almaty
August 28 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Traveler Having to deal with an unwilling Kismet, we are suddenly invited to Eidens place, where we get a meal and pitch our tent in the backyard. Kismet's sudden unstartingness is a bit boring so we needed a lift to Freeriders Almaty...
8/29/25Reply
Traveler Takeoff in Bishkek!
8/30/25Reply
Traveler Roads are mainly clean and clear (away from border crossings and the big cities), but in Kazakhstan one always has to deal with wind from ahead no matter where you go.
8/30/25Reply
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Down from the mountains Traveler
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Arriving in Bishkek
Aug 26–28 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
After a long day and night of traveling we then arrived at 7 am local time at the airport in Bishkek. Sitting in the taxi on the way to Salut hotel we have a first glance in what the law on the road is like...
Thankfully, we can enter our room and get a late brekky, and then we collapse in the bed.
Later, we stroll out and get SIM cards, cash and calories.
Aiming for an early night we go back to the hotel, and since things apparently always work out well the truck arrives at the same time to make people happy.
F*ck early nights, let's get some drinks and celebrate with a bunch of polish bikers the unloading of the truck!
We remember how lucky we are: people shipped their bikes here for a 3 weeks holiday, to then wait 10 days for them to arrive. We just arrived this morning, and our bikes came just at the right time after a little rest.
Excitement governs RidingKismet's face, she needs to kick it and RIDE NOW in the dark streets of Bishkek, so we did just that.
And now, let's test pack the things and get started!

RidingKismet and IronChrisRead more
Traveler Ténérés (also the 3AJ!) will always be THE BIKE for adventure riding. Although, the T7 has potential to be a legend and apparently the CRF 300 is also one chosen by many.
8/27/25Reply
Traveler Look up left! Kismet was dreaming...
8/27/25Reply
TravelerSo Nice! 😁😁😁 Just in Time 👍
8/27/25Reply
Traveler The condition of the roads towards Bishkek rattled some screws lose, one is missing. Well, we're used to lose screws anyway.
8/27/25Reply
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Down from the mountains Traveler
Plaza Premium Lounge, SAW Istanbul
August 25 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Here we are now, after some intense days of celebration, tired at an airport lounge that pretends to be cozy.
No news about the situation of our bikes which we placed into the hands of a Polish trucker six weeks ago... The unaware employee of the shipping company who promised to bring them to Kyrgyzstan's capital city. Tomorrow we are supposed to arrive there, so let's see how the journey comes into motion!

RidingKismet and IronChris, but without Murghob and KismetRead more
TravelerOh boy, all fingers crossed that your getting your bikes soon 🙏🤞
8/25/25Reply
TravelerCrazy start!!! I can see you’re flying right now… buzzing to follow you both. You’re actually above Caspian Sea where we met!!
8/26/25Reply
TravelerHell yeah!
8/26/25Reply
TravelerIch wünsche euch ein glückliches zusammentreffen mit euren motorrädern
8/27/25ReplyTranslate
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Trip start
August 25, 2025