I'm very sorry to hear about your wife's diagnosis, all the best going forward for you all.
Regarding the route, I have been watching it for 4 years now as I've had to postpone my trip to Mongolia via the 'Stans 3 times (all 3 times because of covid and borders being closed).
I've pushed my trip back to next summer now but I'm still convinced I'll be able to go. The ferry across the Caspian Sea still appears to be closed to 'tourists' and also the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is mainly closed due to fighting between the two countries over yet another dispute along the border (sometimes it opens but the fighting starts again and they're closed once more). I also need to pop into Russia for a very short time to get from Kazakhstan to Mongolia but can't see that happening for a while either. I never considered China as an option due to the costs involved so can't really help with that.
The route down through Uzbekistan is the same one I would be taking too. Lots of potholes apparently (quite a few stories of damaged rims etc) and a stretch of about 500km without a petrol station. It is available in villages but you have to ask and eventually someone will appear with it canisters and plastic bottles.
Thanks Snowy, I seem to remember a post of yours about Mongolia, good luck with it.
It's a shame that with all the tech out there, there isn't a street view of some of these roads, but then who'd take a Smart car across Uzbekistan?
I remember watching a ride report on Prime TV-Himalaya Calling about two Germans (on Super Teneres funnily enough) going across the Steppe and I assumed that they had taken the dirt road on purpose, as they'd done it before.
It seems that's not the case from what you say, at least partly.
They managed to get a puncture from what looked like a 4" crampet and in the end had to take the wheel off, now I know I'll have to take tools and be a bit handy, but hadn't imagined having to go that far to keep the bike running-one of those sticky rope repairs is what I had in mind.
With regards to China, I thought that we'd probably meet people either at the border or along the way or on internet to share the cost, but ultimately it has to be done as I'm not going through Iran. But as you say, that's not possible anyway.
We now have a more intense want to travel, my wife and I, given events, and it's really frustrating seeing all these ride reports and not being able to go anywhere.
Having said that, I have to be careful what ride reports I watch with my wife as some of them might put her off. we've been watching an entertaining Sydney to London RR channel on You Tube called North and Left a bit, and they eventually get stuck in Kyrgystan and have to abandon their bikes due to multiple punctures and clutch problems on their Suzuki 650's, apart from some of the roads being not just dirt tracks but deeply rutted and precipices to the side (I think that was Wakhan valley).
Regarding repairs at the side of the road, 'll take inner tubes as emergency, but as my S10 is tubeless as I suspect your GS's are, imagined repairing punctures with the rope thing as I had no intention of removing wheels.
If you guys think that's an important skill set, I'll have to buckle down to learning.
