FUDOO 2016 (FUDOOSTAN II)

FUDOOSTAN Tracker (well it will be soon...)

UPDATE - 10th May

We've had a slight change of plan!

The shipping costs for the 90's started to get out of hand, with costs for import taxes, handling charges and all manner of other costs coming out the woodwork, and I'm not even going to go into the return shipping costs. The result of this was that it became almost impossible to work out exactly how much it would cost to ship 3 90s out and 2 back, one thing was for sure though, it was certainly way more than our budgets would allow.

So, FUDOO Fans, we came close to binning the FUDOOSTAN and going somewhere that would not need freight shipment, Spain, Artic Circle .... the options were there. Then we found a nice man in Almaty called Marat. Marat runs http://www.silkoffroad.kz/, a Central Asian motorcycle, quad and 4x4 tour company, who (rather handily for us) also rents out bikes. To cut a not so long story short, after a few emails back and forth and the transfer of a few dollars deposit, we have secured these bad boys.

Suzuki DR650's, with long range tanks and load space for all our crap (hopefully!)

Not sure if these are the exact bikes we will be getting but the two above look brand new.
So FUDOOSTAN is Go Go GoPro, it would have been rude not to, we've already got the tshirts.
It's a shame the 90s will not be going now, it would have given it something different and with our extensive prep & pre-trip testing (a single 2 day ride-out on Salisbury Plain), what could possibly have gone wrong!

We never did manage to secure a 4th man to take over from Kev but that's not so much of an issue now, given that Marat has sorted Kev a one-way hire from Almaty to Dushanbe.

The counter is in days now and the lists are all checked (nearly) and the bags are packed (I can just about lift mine one handed, excess baggage will be required I'm sure). We all fly out this Saturday 16th May from Gatwick to Almaty in Kazakhstan, via Istanbul. Kev flys back from Dushanbe on 1st June and Woody and I come back from Almaty on the 20th June, a whole 5 weeks after arrival. The SPOT Sat Tracker will be on everyday and available on this page. If we get WiFi or data access we will be posting updates on this site, Facebook or YouTube. We have the usual GoPro camera's to capture the action but this time we also have a HighDef Quadcopter, which is going to bring a whole new perspective to the trip, here's an example of the kind of thing we will be able to produce, which is funnily enough also one of the places we are going.

Team

Proposed Routes

Frosty 2 day test ride on Salisbury Plain

The 90s were almost fully loaded and still probably the best fun any of us has had off-road. Pulling well and easily nipping along at 30mph+ on the dirt tracks of the Plain.

Chilly night out on the Plain but a good test of all the camp kit, especially if it's cold when we are at +4,000m on some of the proposed routes.

We are going to try and post to the blog much more regularly this year, comms allowing!