MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Kyrgyzstan

Riding up Taldyk Pass by motorcycle means entering the M41, the historic Pamir Highway, through Kyrgyzstan's own gateway: the second-highest international road in the world after the Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China.

The pass tops out at 3,615 meters above sea level, with a series of switchbacks climbing from Osh up to the Sary-Tash plateau, the last village before the border with Tajikistan.

From the summit, on clear days, the Lenin Peak massif (7,134 m) stands out against the horizon, the postcard view that drives most international motorcycle travelers to cross Central Asia by this route rather than any other.

Crossing Kyrgyzstan end to end by motorcycle on the M41 means climbing Töö-Ashuu Pass by motorcycle, at 3,586 meters, and riding through a Soviet-era tunnel nearly 2.5 km long, built in 1974 with no modern ventilation, a stretch several riders describe as the least pleasant in the whole country, but also the most unavoidable.

On the other side, the Suusamyr valley opens up, a grassland plateau above 2,000 meters where nomadic families still pitch yurts every summer, before the day's second climb, Ala-Bel Pass, at 3,184 meters.

The descent south runs through Chychkan Gorge, a canyon of tight curves alongside the river of the same name flowing down toward the Toktogul reservoir, the stretch most local motorcycle operators point to as the most fun to ride on the entire route.

Reaching Song-Kul Lake by motorcycle means climbing Kalmak-Ashuu Pass, at 3,446 meters, on the dirt track that branches off the Bishkek-Torugart road near Sary-Bulak, the more traveled of the lake's two access points, as opposed to the more technical Moldo-Ashuu Pass on the south side.

The lake sits at 3,016 meters above sea level, with no permanent village on its shores: only yurt camps that Kyrgyz nomadic families set up every summer, between June and September, to graze horses and sheep on the grasslands around the water.

It is the spot most motorcycle-travel guides point to as 'the best place in the country to ride', for the combination of altitude, silence and the real chance to sleep in a yurt after the last climb of the day.

Riding around Lake Issyk-Kul by motorcycle means circling the second-largest alpine lake in the world by volume, after Lake Titicaca, at 1,607 meters of altitude.

Its name means 'hot lake' in Kyrgyz: despite the altitude and the snow-capped Tian Shan mountains surrounding it much of the year, the water never fully freezes, thanks to a combination of salinity and thermal activity on the lakebed.

The north shore, paved and built up with Soviet-era tourist infrastructure (Cholpon-Ata, Bosteri), contrasts with the more sparsely populated south shore, where the road runs through traditional Kyrgyz villages before connecting to the detours toward Jeti-Oguz and Barskoon.

Spending the night by the Tash Rabat caravanserai by motorcycle means sleeping in the best-preserved stone building on the entire Silk Road in Central Asia: a 15th-century caravan lodge, at 3,200 meters of altitude, with a stone dome that still shelters travelers from the wind after 600 years.

From there, the track keeps climbing to Torugart Pass, at 3,752 meters, one of the highest and most tightly controlled border crossings in Central Asia: the border with China only opens Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm, and crossing it with your own vehicle requires permits arranged weeks in advance.

Although almost no one actually crosses over to the Chinese side by motorcycle, given the complexity of the paperwork, riding up to the pass and back is, for many motorcycle travelers, a way to touch the Chinese border without the full bureaucracy of the crossing.

Riding the south shore of Issyk-Kul by motorcycle means stringing together three of Kyrgyzstan's most photographed landscapes in a single day: first the valley of Jeti-Oguz ('Seven Bulls'), where erosion carved seven red sandstone ridges that give the place its name, alongside the formation known as 'Broken Heart'.

Farther east, Barskoon Gorge holds a waterfall and a monument to Yuri Gagarin, who visited the area after his 1961 spaceflight; the valley served for years as a rest retreat for Soviet cosmonauts.

The loop closes with Skazka Canyon by motorcycle ('fairytale'), red sandstone formations carved by wind and rain into shapes resembling castles and creatures, the postcard shot that shows up most often on social media from anywhere around the lake.

Detouring toward Sary-Mogol by motorcycle, just half an hour off the M41 at Sary-Tash, means entering the Alay Valley: a strip of grassland at nearly 3,000 meters separating the Alay Range to the north from the Trans-Alay Range to the south.

From the road to Sary-Mogol, Lenin Peak, at 7,134 meters, stands directly ahead, one of the most accessible 7,000-meter peaks on the planet for technical mountaineering and, for that reason, one of the most photographed summits in all of Central Asia from ground level.

The road ends where the trek to base camp begins, at roughly 3,600 meters: the motorcycle is left in the village or at the last passable stretch, and the rest is on foot or on horseback with local guides.

Climbing to Altyn Arashan by motorcycle is only 12 kilometers from the last village before the valley, but it is considered one of the most demanding, and also most ridden, off-road stretches in the country: the loose stone track crosses the Arashan river several times, forcing riders to read every ford before committing the front wheel.

At the top, at 2,600 meters, the reward is open-air hot springs that give the valley its name ('arashan' refers to a healing spring), already run as a mountain spa in Soviet times.

The loop can be extended by adding Jyrgalan, a former coal-mining village turned adventure-tourism hub, with much friendlier terrain that offers a contrast after the technical demands of the valley.

Dropping down to Kyzyl-Oi by motorcycle means leaving the M41 pavement in the Suusamyr valley to enter a canyon of tight curves along the Kökömeren river, one of the roughest in the country for whitewater rafting.

The village of Kyzyl-Oi ('red hollow' in Kyrgyz) is wedged between red sandstone walls, and is, along with Jyrgalan, one of Kyrgyzstan's most established community-tourism destinations: nearly every house offers family homestay lodging.

It is the detour chosen by motorcycle travelers who have already ridden the main Töö-Ashuu stretch and want an extra day of pure gravel along the river before reconnecting with the route toward Song-Kul or Naryn.

Riding out to Arslanbob by motorcycle leads to the largest wild walnut forest in the world: over 600,000 hectares where, according to Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov, the walnut cultivated across the rest of the planet today originated.

Farther west, the Sary-Chelek reserve by motorcycle ('yellow jar' in Kyrgyz) protects a deep-turquoise lake formed by an ancient mountain landslide, surrounded by mixed forests declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1978.

It is the region of the west that shows up least in specialized motorcycle-travel guides, yet the one most cited in any general Kyrgyzstan guide as the most important natural destination outside the Bishkek-Osh-Issyk-Kul axis.