Türkiye chopper tours, part I – Black Sea’s Istanbul to Trabzon

Welcome to the first installment of Türkiye Chopper Tours, a series dedicated to my adventures while long haul touring via motorcycle across Türkiye. Without further adieu, let’s get into it…

I’ve become known to say time and time again, two of the best decisions I’ve ever made was a) moving to Istanbul and b) buying a motorcycle. I’ve never owned one before until now.

I had only fiddled around with them in my pre-teens back in Canada, riding a friend’s bike. Something told me back then this was something I would always want to have. Two decades later, I got one (two in fact) – it sure took a while.

The British Horse

The fall of 2018, will enter the Murad Hall of Fame as the Year of the Bike. I purchased my first motorcycle on September 2, 2018 for USD $500, a brand new KUBA Cita 180cc. This is essentially a Turkish made bike with a Chinese engine, and one of the most common motorcycles you will see across Türkiye, the Middle East and Asia.

That’s one of the reasons I bought it, parts being cheap and readily available, and no matter where you go, somebody can fix it. That was my starter bike, from there 1 year later, on September 6, 2019 we graduated with full honors to as our fellow journalist Koray Erdogan calls it, “The British Horse.”

Finding a 2017 model, Triumph Bonneville Bobber 1200cc with only 1,000 ‘lady-driven’ kilometers on it, was simply my destiny. I couldn’t care less that it was two years old. To me it was fresh out the factory, brand new – what a glorious purchase!

It’s not a real road trip unless you have a ‘near-death’ experience

I had done quite a few long-haul road trips across Türkiye at this point, but it’s now the Covid-era, and we’re more or less in the middle of it.

It’s the 2nd week of August, 2021 and I’m thinking before it starts getting cold, let’s blast off into another last-minute adventure.

The interesting part about having a ‘big-boy’ bike is that you sometimes wake-up on a Saturday morning, and as you look out the window sipping on your milk tea, you say – hey, let’s get on the bike and ride out of town for a few days!

Next you do a quick scan of your route on Google Maps on your tablet and that my friends are literally how a lot of my adventures start, and this one was no exception. This particular run ended up being just under 3,000 km.

Zonguldak, the Black Sea

Each coastline of Türkiye is totally unique and separate from one another, particularly when it comes to the lay of the land. Each 100 km stretch of road has its own ‘wow-factor.’ The Black Sea region known for its fishing, farming, tea, and tobacco being in the north, gets more rainfall, and is cooler and more humid overall with longer, harsher winters. After Samsun, there are parts that honestly make you feel like you’re in Vietnam or the Philippines, but thats for part II of this series.

With only a backpack and a full tank of gas, I cross Istanbul’s 15 July Martyrs Bridge leaving Europe into Anatolia. First stop, Zonguldak.

My plan is to ride the entire coastline of the Black Sea from tip to tip. Now for every coastline in Türkiye there are two types of roads. There is the one closest, most adjacent to the sea, where you can actually see the water as you pass through small towns and villages, hitting plenty of traffic lights. Then some kilometers away, there are these immaculately paved 3-4 lane highways, where one can test the engineering limits of one’s machine and lay on the gas.

A road trip on a bike is mostly about the trip itself, the ride. Destinations are rest stops, chill zones to juice-up for the next leg of your trip. So, it’s no surprise the back of my motorcycle jacket says in reflective white hand stitching, “Triumph – Fuel & Ride – Since 1902.”     

Now technically that inner coastal road starts around Karasu, but my last-minute plan for a road-trip had me skip up a few coastal districts and I started my tour in Zonguldak, a small coal mining town. Arriving late at night, I found the more affordable hotels already booked and ended up splurging for a 5-star sea front hotel. Built on the edge of a rock cliff that has a drop straight down into the Black Sea, I remember turning off all the room lights looking out into the black abyss from the 4th floor, trying to find a reference point like a passing ship or something. Couldn’t make anything out. I thought wow, what kind of hell are they going through on the other side there in Ukraine, as I said a short prayer for them. I fell asleep to these thoughts and the sounds of waves crashing onshore.

After enjoying the view over a leisurely breakfast, and a cup of Americano, it was time to check-out, saddle up and hit the road. The idea was to end up in Rize, and then turn back by exploring a completely different in-land route. I would have gone up until the Georgian border, but there was no time for that. Next stop, Sinop.

Stop #2, Sinop

My rule on the road is, up to 2 hrs after sunset, you stay the night in whatever town you’re in or getting closest to. Riding at night for me is a no-no, as the reduced visibility and added blind spots make me nervous. I never pre-book hotels. It makes things more interesting, and a bit more pricey at times – but hey, that’s the cost of an unplanned adventure.

Arriving into Sinop, it’s way too early to stay the night, so just a tea-stop. What I like doing is rolling into a town or city, and simply following the “eski-sehir-merkezi” road signs. I like the older, original city centers – there’s so much more mystery and character to wonder about.

My favourite thing to do is find a cosy little tea garden or cafe where the town’s older folk, retirees often hang out. I park my bike, pick a table, take all my gear off, and immediately begin taking a bath in wet wipes, like some kind of overgrown cat. What can I say, being bald has its advantages? As I aggressively finish wiping my head, ears, face and hands, I notice the eyes of half the people in the cafe. Time for a bathroom break, and on my way back I order a large cup of ‘demli’ tea. I always upsize my order as the traditional little hour-glass Turkish tea glasses just ain’t enough for this ‘tough guy.’

By the way, the tea in these old ‘cay bahces’ is always so spectacularly good. Most hotel and restaurant cay is basically dishwater comparably. In the case of Sinop, it was one of the tea gardens in Asiklar Parki, on Gazi Caddesi. What a gorgeous setting with the Sinop Iskelesi, as you look southeast across the sea to essentially the coastline road you will continue on as you head east. This park is just adjacent to the older part of Sinop which is on a tiny peninsula that juts out into the Black Sea. For some reason, for a moment I had a split-second flashback, felt like I was walking around in a Cuban town, or some other Latin country. Sinop just has a different vibe about it. These are very rare, privileged, other dimensional moments, that happen in the blink of an eye, but feel so cool and satisfying afterwards. It’s difficult to explain. Sometimes a place reminds you of a scene of a street you saw in a movie you really enjoyed, and you flashback to that part of the film.

Sipping on my delicious hot, ruby-red tea, I begin to soak in the relaxed atmosphere and begin people and cat-watching, one of my most favorite things to do. You simply drift into a trance analyzing body language from a distance, I highly recommend it, very relaxing. After a second cup of the oh-so-lovely tea, it’s time to hit the road again. Next stop, Samsun.

Stop #3, Samsun

Samsun, is a proper city, one of the largest on the Black Sea. Since it’s after dark, it means time to settle down and stay the night. After finding what I believe to be one of the older parts of town, I choose a cafe, and begin to unwind, as I sip on my tea and slowly browse hotels on Google Maps on my tiny little iPhone 5SE, focusing on ones with high ratings and good reviews closest to where I am. That’s it, I pick one, finish my tea, get geared up and head straight for the hotel, watch some news, cartoons on my tablet, and its nighty-night.   

To me big cities tend to have less character and hence be less memorable, so not much to note here.

In the morning, after sleeping in a bit, and having a hearty breakfast, I make a stop at a fancy cafe in the main square of town, and get a nice strong cup of Americano. After checking the weather app, it’s on the road again, destination – Trabzon, but God has His own plan.

2021 Türkiye floods

Catastrophic flooding and landslides were the result of heavy rain and a series of thunderstorms from August 7 to 14 in parts of the nation’s Black Sea region. 97 people died, and 228 were injured. Certain bridges and infrastructure of some towns were wiped out. I had read the news about this while in Istanbul, knew that the storms and flooding had stopped, did not know the full extent of the damage caused, and as a biker you simply think, “Okay, I’ll just go around it.” It’s the ‘going around it’ part that makes this adventure, one I’ll never forget.

To find out what happens, read onto the next installment of “Türkiye Chopper Tours, Black Sea, Part II.”