Germany to Vladivostok- “Back in the USSR"

We love biking and are passionate about the business. For folk that know us personally we go to great lengths to ensure that the products we supply have been thoroughly tested to ensure their quality and suitability.

Our last testing trip started in Germany via the "Stans"

More details can be found at: www.pikipiki2.co.za

Pikipiki is Swahili for motorcycle which we feel is an appropriate title!

(the first Pikipiki was in 2011 from SA to Germany : http://pikipiki2.co.za/?p=95 )

Germany via the Stans- “Back in the USSR"

South Africa has had a somewhat chequered relationship with the USSR. In the days of apartheid it was perceived by many SA citizens as the arch enemy while at the same time many of our countrymen where also in exile in the USSR.

For us it remains an anomaly and have often dreamed of exploring it further.

We call it “back in the USSR” as our route took us via the “Stans” , today independent countries but at the time part of the USSR.

“Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a 1968 song by the Beatles. During the 1960s the Beatles were officially derided in the USSR as the “belch of Western culture” and in the 1980s McCartney was refused permission to play there. According to The Moscow Times, when McCartney finally got to play this song at his concert in Moscow’s Red Square in May 2003, at the age of 60, the crowd went wild. When asked about the song before the concert McCartney said he had known little about the Soviet Union when he wrote it. It was a mystical land then, he said. It’s nice to see the reality. I always suspected that people had big hearts. Now I know that’s true.

And it was true for us as well. The renowned big hearts of the folk we met along this journey will remain with us forever.

Our route will started from our friends at SW-Motech in Germany and took us via Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan ,Siberia finishing in Mongolia just before the snow and sheet ice set in.