Azerbaijan

Not an enjoyable couple of days riding as most of it was spent listening to the strange noises that ‘Des’ has started to make. He feels very tired too, which is a worry. Because of that, the journey from Tblisi to Baku was made riding just ahead of the support truck. Our excellent mechanic, Werner, finally confirmed that I wasn’t going mad when I rode alongside him and he confirmed hearing the grindey, rattley sound. So, I tip toed the 318km into Baku after entering Azerbaijan the night before at 23:00 after we endured the slowest, least efficient border crossing so far... A small group of us rode into the nearest town, in the pitch black and were immediately mobbed by a crowd wanting to know about the bikes, us, where we’re from etc. Fairly soon the police arrived to escort us out of town to our hotel. Mad. On awakening the first thing that struck me is that although Azerbaijan still has many old buildings, uniforms and cars, they are all perfectly restored. They seem to take a great pride in their belongings and country, which made me realise why they impound all vehicles 72hrs after arrival and they’re keen to move on a bunch of dirty foreigners.
As for Baku, a bit of an odd place but I can’t say for sure as I helped, OK watched, Werna service and pinpoint my bikes faults over four hours up to 23:00. They have been identified as broken engine bars and bash plate (rattling) and a worn chain and sproket (grinding). Werna’s instructed/ordered me to go a little easier from now on, maybe a different riding style from my old four cylinder Fazer is needed. I think I’ll take his advice...