Constanta, Romania to Istanbul, Turkey: Refurbishing our Bikes where East Meets West
19 October - 9 December 2019
Constanta, Romania to Istanbul, Turkey by Car (19 October 2019, 634 km, 394 mi)
It wasn’t easy deciding how to get from Constanta to Istanbul. We went back-and-forth, and back-and-forth, trying to figure out which mode of transportation would be best for us. Options we considered were:
Cycling - would give us the chance to bicycle through Bulgaria. But all reports suggested that cycling into Istanbul would be very unpleasant, due to the lack of biking infrastructure and crazy traffic. A number of long distance cyclists describe it as the most dangerous city they have cycled into. Furthermore, it would take around nine days, and we wanted to have at least a month in Istanbul, as well as a trip back to the USA before heading to Africa. So timing would be a problem. With more time, we probably would have picked this option.
Public buses - there’s an international bus that runs between the two cities once a day. It’s inexpensive, but the bus drivers can refuse to take bikes even if you have a ticket, especially when the buses are full. The bikes also would have to travel down in the luggage compartment, which seemed risky. We imagined our bicycles bouncing around in the cavernous luggage compartment with all the other luggage, and decided that the possibility of damaging the bikes was too high.
International trains - not cheap, and really slow because we would have to take multiple trains, with a transfer in Bucharest which adds a lot of distance. Trains are also not obligated to take bikes, even if you have a ticket. Reports from other travelers made it sound like it was getting a lot harder to take bikes on Romanian trains, and we didn’t fancy the prospect of arguing with train conductors about our rights in boarding a train.
Air travel - relatively expensive. We’d also have to box the bikes, then re-assemble them in Istanbul for servicing - then box them again for a flight to Africa. It sounded like a lot of work. Plus, it presents the extra challenge of getting the boxed bikes to and from the airports on both ends.
Hired car - for two people, it wasn’t as expensive as we expected. It was about the same price as taking a flight. It had the huge advantage of taking us door-to-door, which would be wonderfully convenient. Also, we wouldn’t have to box the bikes.
In the end we opted for convenience, and hired a car for the nine hour drive from Constanta to Istanbul. A company based in Bulgaria offers reasonable rates for hired cars with drivers. They advertise service throughout the region, including eastern Romania and Istanbul, Turkey.
Our driver met us outside the hotel in Constanta, and loaded our bikes onto a rack on the back of the car. We then headed down the coast, on a misty morning.
All smiles, as we look forward to our ride from Constanta, Romania to Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Our driver didn’t speak more than three words of English, but he was a pro at handling the border crossings. We didn’t need visas to cross Bulgaria, and we had secured our Turkish visas online in advance, which simplified our travel. But the driver still had a big stack of paperwork that he had to present at each border crossing. Luckily everything was in order, and the border crossings went very smoothly. We entered both Bulgaria and Turkey without a hitch.
The ride was quite scenic, with stretches along the ocean, as well as some coastal mountains. The sections of road through the mountains were particularly winding and narrow, with lots of cars passing each other at high speeds. Since we have been on bikes - and not ridden in cars - over the last 10 months, the harrowing ride thought the mountains gave our stomachs a test. But motion sickness was kept at bay (barely). Nonetheless, we were quite happy to be in a car, because those roads weren’t really wide enough to accommodate bikes safely.
It was wonderful to arrive in Istanbul early in the evening, right at the door of our rented apartment. Now we can turn our attention to getting ready for cycling Africa.
Living on the Asian Side
We decided to rent an apartment on the Asian side of Istanbul. That’s the eastern side of the Bosphorus Strait, across from the oldest part of the city. We’re staying in a high-rise building, overlooking the hip neighborhood of Kadiköy. Istanbul is very large. Population estimates vary depending on the source, but range from 14-20 million people. That would make it larger than every city in the United States except for New York City.
Above the clouds in Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
We’ve left behind the churches of Europe, and entered the land of Islam. From our apartment, we can see 35 mosques like this one. Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Turkish flags are the decoration of choice during Republic Day celebrations (October 29). Kadiköy, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Refurbishing Our Bikes
One of our most pressing tasks in Istanbul was to take care of some much-needed bicycle maintenance. We’ve now ridden our Surly Long-haul Trucker bikes for more than 20,000 km, and the components are definitely showing some wear. Given that our plan is to start cycling across Africa in December, we had to find a way to replace some parts so that our bikes would be ready for the rigors of that ride. In Africa, replacement parts could be difficult to find.
The key components that needed to be replaced were the front chainrings, the chains, and the rear cassettes. We had previously changed out the cassettes and chains, but the front chainrings have more than 20K km on them. A close look at the rings showed a number of chipped teeth, as well as the classic “shark’s fin” shape of worn rings. It was time for some new ones.
These chain rings have seen better days. Up close, the teeth look chipped and worn. Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The first trick was finding a good bike mechanic that knew some things about touring bikes and ideally could also speak some English. We pored over past cycling blogs, chat threads and bicycle touring forums looking for ideas about where to go. Lots of older postings referenced a great bike shop that had good experience with touring bikes, which everyone seemed to use. But that shop had closed its doors in Istanbul within the last couple of years and moved to Athens, Greece. So, we were out of luck there. A couple of other ideas that surfaced were either really far away from where we were staying, or it wasn’t clear that the staff would be able to speak English.
Finally we happened upon a reference to a bike shop in a Warm Showers forum, that was relatively recent. A quick check of the website for Gürsel Akay Bisiklet looked very promising. He’s a long time pole-vaulter turned cyclist with a fantastic record of promoting and helping cyclists in Turkey. We paid him a visit at his shop in Kadiköy.
Right away we were impressed with his knowledge of bicycles, excellent English, and especially his generous willingness to work with us. PedalingGuy and Gürsel spent nearly an hour discussing what our bikes needed, searching on the internet for appropriate components, and conferring about what other maintenance might be needed.
We highly recommend Gürsel Akay Bisiklet for any touring cyclists who need a good bike shop in Istanbul, Turkey. That’s Gürsel on the left. He’s a wonderful, trustworthy person who knows his bikes and speaks very good English. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Locating and buying all of the components that we needed turned out to be a major undertaking. Our Surlys have three chain rings on the front. But mountain bikes, which have long been the source of key bike touring parts, are moving away from three rings in the front (they’re now using as few as one ring in the front, with big cassettes in the back). But we really wanted the range of gears that are available with three front rings. It turns out that they are extremely hard to find on the market now.
After more than a week of searching, Gürsel finally located replacement rings, but they required buying a full crank set. In addition, they were only available in Germany. Buying a full crank set meant that we also had to replace the bottom brackets on both bikes. Since bottom brackets can be a point of failure on high mileage bikes, we were ok with replacing them, as well. We had to go through a lot of gyrations, with a delay of another 1.5 weeks before we could get the parts to Istanbul. We never would have been able to do it without Gürsel’s help.
In the end, Gürsel and his mechanics did a great job replacing all the components. They also took care of a bunch of small things, like replacing rusted bolts, lubricating the head tube, replacing a couple of worn cones on the wheel hubs, and checking the bearings in the pedals. I even got a new (used) bike saddle. It’s the same brand (Selle Italia Diva) seat I’ve been using for the past two years, but a lot less worn out.
My beautiful bike with it’s new components, in Gürsel Akay Bisiklet bike shop. Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Once the components were installed, we took our bikes out for a spin along the Kadiköy waterfront bike path. It was a pleasure to ride them. The gears shifted so smoothly, and the drive trains were so quiet it was almost like having new bikes. We were thrilled with the work done at the bike shop, and would definitely recommend them to other touring cyclists passing through Istanbul.
After that, the bikes were boxed up at the shop for our trip to Africa, and we had to figure out how to get them back to our apartment. Nothing’s ever easy in a country where you don’t speak the language. So we asked our Apartment Manager for suggestions on how to rent a large vehicle. She put us in touch with a lady she knew, who put us in touch with another guy she knew, who arranged for us to be picked up by yet another person at the bike shop. Each step along the way, PedalingGuy emphasized how important it was for the vehicle to be big enough. Needless to say, when the car arrived at the bike shop to get us, we all laughed to see that it was actually a mini school bus! I guess the guy who arranged the ride decided not to take any chances on the vehicle being too small. We slid the two bike boxes in between the rows of seats, and headed home.
Two refurbished bikes, safely delivered to our apartment in Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Historic Istanbul (the European Side)
No visit to Istanbul is complete without a trip to see some of the city’s historic treasures. Here are some of the places we visited.
Süleymaniye Mosque, seen from across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey. They’re flying a lighted image of the Turkish flag, in celebration of Republic Day. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Historic Turkish bath. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
We enjoyed strolling through the hallways of the Grand Bazaar. It’s said to be the largest, covered market in he world. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Süleymaniye Mosque and Golden Horn waterfront seen from the Galatea Bridge. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The Hagia Sophia Museum, glowing in the sun. For 900 years this was the main cathedral of the Byzantine Empire. It was converted to a mosque in the 1400s, and is now a museum. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The famous domes of the Hagia Sophia Museum. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Stunning, gold leaf and colored tile mosaics. Hagia Sophia Museum. It’s an image of the Emperor Constantine (left) and his wife (right) offering money and gifts to Jesus (center) as a way to show their faith. Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The Blue Mosque is probably Istanbul’s most famous historic mosque that is still used for prayer. Eleven-hundred years younger than the Hagia Sophia, it’s still 500 years old. We visited the mosque to see it’s gorgeous, colored-tile mosaics. Guests to the mosque are required to dress “modestly,” which included borrowing a head scarf to cover my hair.
