25 August 2011
I saw today over my 300 mile journey the future of motorcycle touring in Turkey.
This country will be the rival of Spain or Germany in 5 years time if they manage to escape the European recession and continue an apparent investment in road infrastructure.
There were some bad roads today but mostly due to incomplete upgrades. The roads that had been fixed were superb. Long sweeping bends with the odd corner that just tightens up a little to keep you on your toes. And spectacular and very non-European scenery. Hardly any long, straight sections.
Out of the distance covered today maybe only 10% was very difficult. At one stage I was even behind a grader spreading loose gravel over a soon to be newly refurbished road. The Truckster fishtailed around a bit in this stuff. It was hard to know what speed was optimal for the conditions but in the end no speed was.
If these roads were all complete, I would recommend todays route to anyone. In particular the D160 from near Murdurnu to Bolu was great fun and so was the D100 right after Bolu until I rejoined the E80, with the road surface as good as you would find anywhere in the world.
Another very scenic route only periodically interrupted by roadworks was the D755 heading towards the steel mill of Karabük although the roads in town were extremely slippery, like they were covered in talcum powder, even though they were bone dry. The back wheel of the Truckster locked up a few times even though the ABS was working hard. Have not had this happen before even on wet roads.
Everywhere I go now the Truckster is drawing attention. People give me the thumbs up when stopped at the lights, truck drivers wave encouragingly as I roar past them.
Not far now to my over night destination of Safranbolu.
I’m so looking forward to the rest of my Turkey motorcycle tour.
