Vladislav

Also note heavy rears and 12.00R24 tube tyres. As I found out later, the most every truck in that country rides on that type of tires! And when I asked the driver of why so few Macks were seen in the streets the answer was "You should go to Tabriz"😀😀

The truck (actually the both of them) was produced by Iran-Kaveh in Tegeran in 1975 (or so). As you can see the cab was of local production, probably the hood too. As I figured the most components of the chassis and drivetrain were made in the US and supplied to Iran. Possibly some engine parts were produced locally too but that matter is not clean to me so far. Interesting point the dog maskote was definitely made in Iran. Its shape slightly differes from the American original and where chrome is worn you can see bare brass casting.

Ok, MB was a good deal but I didn't order all that music for them. Finally passed over a heavy tanker pulled by an R-model. Since I was hungry for any Mack I than drove a few km, found a spot where I could take a pic and shot the 1st bird. Not a really artificial road train but it was what it was. Driving further I noted an R-model parked in a side street near the main highway. I U-turned, went by, saw the driver tinkering with something under the hood and asked for taking photo's. Also showed him pics of my Macks in the phone and our conversation went fine!

Honestly entering the country I was expecting seeing Macks all over the streets from left to right. To my surprize and slight disappointment I saw neither of them for no less than 70-80km. The most of traffic were 90's years European trucks along with modern China marks and a few mastadonts made by Volvo and Scania in 70's and 80's. Also a very common truck is Mercedes-Benz semi-conventional which was produced in 60's in Germany. To my surprize I learned that model is in production in Iran till now! They simplified the cab a little and successfully use 60yo design which can be seen everywhere and do its job. Something to think about a little, right? The same story with cars. 50% of them running down the road are French Peugeot 605 which came into production about 1995 year. As I understood Iranians produce it till now with some minimal mods and people buy them and use. Do we really need a new model of a car/truck every 5 or 7 years? I'm not sure on that.

So... Entered Iran. Crossing the border was not anything exceptional with only point I was asked to come there as early as possible to have time enough for arrangement of paperwork with customs due to importing the bike. So I came about 8AM to Turkish side which I passed in 20 minutes and than later it took nearly 2 hours for the customs deal at the Iranian side. I was told it could take a few hours so all in all it turned well. The nearest interesting city was Tabriz which seemed as Iranian trucking capital. Or at least that looked that way to me since the most drivers I previousely met in Russia and Georgia were from Tabriz. I needed to drive nearly 300km to it. But figured to correct the initial plan becase the guy who helped with customs also offered to stay at his B&B place in a city of Urmie. The distance to there was almost similar and I had that city on my mind also since it was located near a large salt lake with a dam/bridge crossing it. So I though I would take that offer indeed having the first place with a well English-speaking hoist and also having a chance to meet other travelers there.

Thanks for all the comments, folks! I don't answer each one personally to save time. Will do for some later since that makes sence.

Than on the next day I took my ride to the border and saw two F-models going in opposite direction. My phone camera had wrong settings at the moment so the truck with a container was catched only from its back. Not a big deal as it already seemed to me since it was 4th F-model with orange cab I met in 3 days😀 To be continued.

The castle looks the most attractive in the evening on my mind and the weather was perfect for a good picture of it. I bought a magnet for my fridge from a guy and he brang me a tee from that boiler the locals call a "samovar" - absolutely Russian term they catched up from somewhere and use in their language. That same guy made a foto of me too.

Reached a city of Dogubayazid that same day where I was going to have a "day off" since that day wasn't a working day in Iran and I couldn't arrange the paperwork for the bike. Was happy to look that ancient castle of Ishak-Pasha (or Iskhak-Pasha?) once more regardless I well observed it a year ago. There was a hotel just in a couple hundred meters from the castle so I inhabitated a room there and had some relaxing time. The city was in nearly 40 km from Iranian border cross and there was a road off the castle into the mountains which I tracked on a map roaming left to right over the mountains and ending up to the main highway at half a way to the border. I asked the hotel crew and was told that was a dirt road but possible to cruise with my ride. So I tried a fortune and made nearly 25 km of that wild environment which turned out as a real mountain road with really steep hills and beautiful scenaries. It was also about a no men land with exception of two willages were I met 3 or 4 dogs, one man and these turkies. The mountain with a snow on the top is the small Ararat. The big Ararat can be seen to the left but its head was covered by clouds.

Have a bit of time now to share one more portion of the adventure. Came into Turkey from Georgia. So some pics of Turkey are posted. And some pics of turkeys in Turkey too. Since it happened so I saw a turkey in Turkey 😀 Crossed the border and the road already started climbing uphill representing beautiful scenaries and finally a sign of 2200-something meters above the sea level. Didn't even looked like a mountain pass, just an avarage road along slightly hilly but generally flat area. You can see the lake on the picture which looks quite common on that sunny day. But if you look at the background there are mountains with snow heads. And those mountains doesn't look high. The reason is the lake was nearly 1500 meters off the sea already. Absolutely new experience to me. And as I was told sun radiation is much more active at those higths. So I should be care if sunbathing. There was quite cool for such an activity then though. Catched some local mosque along the way. Something ordinar for Muslim part of the world but not typical for me.

Many thanks for all the comments, guys! It's always nice to learn some one has interest in what you do.

Ok, currenty on my way. In a hotel right now, cutting time for making this post. You probably know how you can suprprizingly be short on time while on a holiday😀 Much more to continue.

That same day brang me even more luck. While reaching a city close to the Turkish border I saw a whole lot of trucks parked and sure they took my attention. Made a U-turn, came in, made pics and had some conversation. Yes, I studied Persian to some grade during a couple of last years. Not a perfect talker at the moment but can ask a few basic things. Sure the truck-related ones were in preference.

That day the first evidence of Mack trucks appeared. That F-model was going up my way in the opposit direction. Lucky chain of events was it was going up hill so slow, I recognized it early enough, the were no vehicles behind me, the bike's brakes were fast. So I was able to stop, take a phone from my pocket, switch it on and make a pic. The driver flagged me and continued approaching the hill with smoke and sound. The plates on the truck were Iranian. I also mentioned in my old post that Gulf company has its fuel stations in Georgia. So here's a pic of one I passed by this time.

Ok, hit the road agian and passed the most of Georgia in one day since the distance wasn't large. Saw many scenaric environment and enjoyed riding beautiful mountain roads with very light traffic, smooth pavement and uncount sharp corners. Seeing no police or road cams interested in the speeds I rode 😀😀

Turned out not really bad since it was snowing for a few hundred meters and stopped when I actually passed the highest point. Probably that cloud was stuck at that side of the mountain and didn't go to the other. I wasn't a cloud riding my wheels so went down from the mountain suffering much harder rain though. My clothes were waterproof but some water was sleaking under them anyway and it was coldddd!!! Also I had to have my helmet's screen open being not able to see the road otherwise. Drove nearly 100 km of serpantine that way after which rain stopped its deal and I could achive a city of Mtsheta (a neighbourhood of Gergian capital Tbilisi). There I stayed for a couple of days to slack up and wait for more rains to pass by before continue the ride. The city was quite ancient as many othet places in Georgia so I just enjoyed walking the streets, eating fresh barbequed beef and making pics.

So after long winter months I finally went on a trip to a country I wanted to visit for a long while - Iran. Some prep work was required for. Visa was easy to achieve for a Russian citizen, but I needed to arrange paperwork for temporary import of my motorbike into the country since I planned to use it for my journey. Speaking short I found Iranian guy on the net who helped me with that for some money and the deal turned out smooth. The first stretch of the trip was nearly 1800km of a highway in Russia I could cover in two days ending up in a motel right near the border to Georgia (the country, not the state of the US). Actually I drove exactly that path one year back and posted the most interesting subjects on here. So now I just duplicate a few remarkable points. You need to go over a mountain pass from Russia to Georgia crossing the Main Caucasus ridge, nearly 2500m high above the sea. The weather was cool in that morning and right about the time I started entering the mountains it started raining. Not really hard in the beginning though. But than closer to the highest poing rain started being quite moderate and the temp dropping down. I sure was afraid of ice and looked up a forecast which was "promising". That turned out it was almost +2 Celsias near the top and wet snow started falling from a cloud I was actually in 😀

Thanks for posting that Youtube video. And sure for the original post. Great looking truck! And the sound is well recogizable.

Best B-day wishes!

As said above and welcome to the forum! Pics are always appreciated. Vlad

I would guess if you had cleaned that breather earlier the truck would eat all the organic from the tank even together with algea and alu brightener. But that's of no matter now and doubtly you would like to provide experiments putting the old tank on and putting old dirty gas in it. P.S. The girl worth a half of the thread.