Kyrgyzstan is one of Central Asia’s most rugged countries. It’s covered in mountains, peppered with thousands of horses and sprinkled with white yurts filled with nomadic families. Riding a motorcycle here is special and incredibly easy. Here’s everything you need to know about exploring and renting a motorcycle in Kyrgyzstan.
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Motorcycle Rental in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is probably the least known about country in Central Asia, but ironically it’s the easiest to get into and ride a motorbike around! If you don’t fancy riding all the way there, this guide explains everything you need to know about renting a motorcycle or joining a tour in Kyrgyzstan instead.
It’s also incredibly easy to rent a car as well as a motorcycle in Kyrgyzstan. If you’re interested in renting a 4×4 or car then most of the details listed below are still applicable, and most motorcycle rental companies will also rent cars and scooters too.
Which company should I go with?
We visited a number of rental agencies and shops in Kyrgyzstan and found a great selection of companies, professional staff and people who knew what they were talking about.
Choosing the right company will depend on where you fly into (Osh or Bishkek), where you want to travel to, the type of bike you want to ride, if you’re after a rental or organised tour and the type of riding you want to do – whether it’s off-road focused or adventure riding. There’s a lot to choose from, but don’t worry. We’ve narrowed it down and reckon we have selected some of the very best motorcycle rental companies in Kyrgyzstan. You can find our list with their info and details and what they offer on our recommended rental companies page here:
READ MORE: Recommended Kyrgyzstan Motorcycle Rental Companies
Do I need a visa?
Motorcycle rental in Kyrgyzstan couldn’t be easier. The country operates a visa free system for a bunch of countries, including the UK, European Union and the USA for up to 60 days. Meaning you just fly in or enter at a land border and they’ll stamp your passport and you’re good to go. No paperwork and no fuss. To see if your country is on the visa free programme check out this link.
READ MORE: Central Asia Visa guide for Overlanders in Central Asia
Personal travel insurance
Just buy your own personal motorcycle specific travel insurance in your home country (not motorcycle insurance, but personal travel insurance) Make sure the travel insurance covers you to ride a motorcycle over 125cc and for longer than a day. Plenty of insurance companies stipulate in the small print that the bike must be 125cc and can’t be used as your main form of transport.
READ MORE: Motorcycle Travel Insurance Guide
Paperwork
Take your passport, driver’s licence, a copy of personal insurance and an International Driver’s Permit. Note – You don’t need an IDP, but they’re handy as they have licence details in a bunch of languages and it means you can just hand that over instead of your valuable licence. An IDP is about £5 and can be purchased from the Post Office, you just need to take your driver’s licence, passport and a passport photograph and they’ll do it in about 2 minutes.
READ MORE: Motorcycle Travel Paperwork Explained
Motorcycle insurance
All the bikes are insured fully comprehensive. However –and this bit’s important – if someone hits you, or even if you crash your bike and nobody else is involved, you must get a police report. Any sort of scribbling from the police will do, just to say what happened. Even if it says ‘Timmy hit a rock and broke the bike’. That way the company can claim on their insurance and you don’t get charged.
What bikes can I rent in Kyrgyzstan?
A lot of companies in Kyrgyzstan will rent the Yamaha XT600E motorcycles. They’re tough, bullet proof, tried and tested bikes with solid engines. They’re easily repaired and good long-distance overlanding machines.
For an XT660E you’re looking at between £60-£70 a day. With any company, the longer you rent, the more the price comes down. Consider the time of year you rent as well, peak season means less flexibility in price, rental duration and negotiations.
You’ll also find a selection of off-road focused bikes and even BMW GS models. The different bikes on offer can be found in our recommended companies page.
Can I rent riding kit?
You can either rent kit or take your own. Most companies have a decent selection of kit and the rental prices are very fair, but if you can take your own it’s always better because then you’ll know it fits and is comfortable and protective on long rides. Here’s our gear guides and reviews for more info.
READ ORE:
What if I break down in the middle of nowhere?
If you break down you’ll need to call your retnal company. The bikes are supplied with tools and the mechanics will guide you over the phone on how to fix the problem. If that’s not something you’re comfortable with then they will send someone to recover you. If you have an engine failure then you’ll most likely be refunded, but will of course need to check this as each company differs.
The police
The Kyrgyz police force are 100% on the ball with catching speeders. They lurk around every bend with camera guns, watching, waiting for you to nip a couple of kilometres per hour over the limit and bang – you’ve made their day.
One friend was walloped with a (20kph over the limit) 200USD speeding fine– which is ridiculous. You should never, ever pay this sort of fine… never. All fines are negotiable. But remember, there is a difference between paying a speeding (if you were actually speeding) and an obvious bribe.
If you’re caught speeding then you need to pay a fine – how much depends on how good and comfortable you are with negotiating with authority to bring it down to around 10USD. If you’re stopped for no reason, told you’re speeding when you weren’t, or the colour of your bike is wrong and you need to pay then this is an unnecessary bribe and you should not pay. Hold your ground and refuse. Paying these sorts of bribes only ruins it for the next traveller.
We’ve never seen police on gravel roads. If you plan your route well and avoid the major highways you shouldn’t see them either. They do hide on entrances to little towns and villages though so be wary. Fellow drivers should help by flashing you if police are waiting up ahead. It’s easier to just not speed though!
How do I cross borders?
You will be able to cross borders into Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and even Mongolia. Note, as of early 2023 there are still problems between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and the border between the two countries is inaccessible. This may change any day. If you’d like to cross from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan you will need to enter via Uzbekistan. Check out our Kyrgyzstan Motorcycle Travel Guide for more up to date info.
Some Kyrgyzstan motorcycle rental and tour companies charge for this service and others don’t. You’ll need to check with them individually, and of course, you need to have your visas and personal paperwork arranged for the countries you want to visit, but there is no Carnet De Passage required and the rental company will give you all the motorcycle paperwork you need.
So, you just rock up, present your passport and visa (dependent on where you’re from and if you even need a visa) show them the bike paperwork and off you go. Crossing borders in Central Asia is surprisingly easy and straight forward (so long as you have the right paperwork), long-gone are the days of border bribes.
READ MORE:
Your route through Kyrgyzstan
Head north from Osh up to Lake Song Kol. You’ll find a real nomadic experience here surrounding the icy lake. After, take the south east road to Bishkek for the mountain passes. Head to Issyk Kul lake and then back down to Osh. It’s about 1000 miles and plenty of off-roading. The route below should take around 8 days. Here are the marker points for towns along the way: Osh, Kazarman, Song-Kul, Kochkor, Tosor, Naryn, Tash-Rabat, Kazarman, Osh.
Top tips
- If you’re stopped by police, just smile! Don’t give them any money, if you feel you must then negotiate and if you’re stuck pay a maximum of 10USD. Click here for our guide to dealing with bribes on the road.
- Don’t be put off by police and bribes, it’s a lot less than an on-the-spot fine in Europe!
- Watch out for drivers, they’re not used to bikes whizzing past. But don’t worry about them, we’ve found the driving in Kyrgyzstan to be better than quite a few Western countries.
- Don’t take any photographs of official places or borders. Be super relaxed at borders, smile and it’ll all work out.
- Plan your route and pack food and water, there are long stretches with no shops – make sure you install the Maps.Me app on your phone and download the country map you are going to (it’s all free). This will work offline and show you where petrol stations and towns are as well as act as a sat-nav and GPS.
- If you’re heading to Kyrgyzstan, you should also plan a trip to Tajikistan too. MuzToo allow cross border riding and the Pamir mountains should not be missed!
- Be respectful of Kyrgyz customs. Two things Kyrgyz people mention that peeves them about tourists are walking around half naked in hotels and farting in public.
More on Kyrgyzstan
It’s a small, landlocked country in Central Asia bordering China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was once part of the USSR and became fully independent in 1991. It’s one of the ‘least known’ about countries in the world and many of its people still live a nomadic way of life, living in yurts in the high mountain pastures during summer and the plains in winter. It’s a phenomenal place to explore and you’re going to love it!
Read more on Motorcycle Travel in Kyrgyzstan
Thanks for checking out our How to rent a motorcycle in Kyrgyzstan guide. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on motorcycling in Kyrgyzstan that we recommend you read next.
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Are you planning a motorcycle trip to Kyrgyzstan and renting a motorcycle there? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
Great article, helped a lot. Thank you. Planning a self paced tour with my wife in 2021. What would be the best season to visit Kyrgyzstan ? Looking for gravel road tour.
Cheers
Roland
Hi Roland! Thanks very much for your comment and I’m glad it helped!
Awesome to hear that you and your wife are planning a ride there in 2021. It’s an incredible country to motorcycle through and you’re both going to love it.
I would say the best time to go is mid to late July. There are fewer tourists in the mountain areas than visiting in hot August. That’s when we visited and found it perfect.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this page yet or not, but we have a Kyrgyzstan Destination page with links to a number of guides that you may find useful. For example, there’s the ‘Motorcycle Travel Guide: Kyrgyzstan’ which lists routes and important info for riding. And also there’s a ‘Rental Companies in Kyrgyzstan page’ full of our recommended businesses. https://www.madornomad.com/guides/asia/kyrgyzstan/
Hope this all helps, please feel free to shoot back any more questions!
Andy
Wow Andy, thanks for the quick reply, awesome content. So it will be July then, we are flexible, kids grown up 🙂 Already found the rental companies link and visited the page of Iron horse nomads, but could not find any motorcycle offering on their site. Would like to rent BMW’s. Sent them an email yesterday, waiting for a reply. Muztoo seems to be another good option. They have their offices in my country, will check with them also.
Once this has been sorted, will start to plan a 2-3 weeks Tour maybe with an extension to Tajikistan or Kazakhstan. As already mentioned preferable on gravel roads. I guess Mongolia is too far for a 2-3 weeks tour starting from Bishkek?
We don’t want to ride in a group. We like to be freeriders on our own pace 🙂 Will check your links for accomadation etc.
Thanks again !
Hi Roland, no problem at all! Always more than happy to help out fellow travellers 🙂
Yes, you’re right, Iron Horse Nomads don’t display their rental bikes on their site, but they definitely rent them out (i’ve visited their shop in Bishkek), let them know Andy from Mad or Nomad sent you.
MuzToo are a popular option, based in Osh, but only have Yam XT600Es, which might not be as comfortable if you’re riding two-up.
I definitely 100% recommend you travel from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan instead of Mongolia. Riding to Mongolia would be a lot more difficult because you will need a Russian visa (very expensive) or two Russian Transit visas (one to get from Kaz to Mon and then another one back from Mon to Kaz. This will eat up a lot of your time, it’s not guaranteed you’ll be granted either visa and your trip would be a huge rush. You would also need to cover a great distance through Kazakhstan to the Russian border, which is a very monotonous route. I would avoid this option. If you do decide to go to Mongolia, then these guides on the Russian transit visa will help: https://www.madornomad.com/guides/asia/russia/
And this is the page for all our Mongolia guides: https://www.madornomad.com/guides/asia/mongolia/
Entering Tajikistan from Kyrgyzstan is very simple and straightforward. And the riding is spectacular. Tajikistan is both mine and my partner’s favourite riding country in the world. The Pamirs are the highlight of our round-the-world trip and I would advise you to go there. You don’t need to venture down into the Wakhan, you could take the Pamir Highway M41 road and perform a loop. If you’re a quicker rider, you could always swing by the east of Uzbekistan and then loop back up into Kyrgyzstan.
Here’s the page with all of our Tajikistan guides, visa, border and route information: https://www.madornomad.com/guides/asia/tajikistan/
Let me know if you need any more specific info, happy to help!
Cheers!
Great article! I am planning a motorbike trip through the Pamir Highway with a friend of mine upcoming September. He has a motorbike driving license, however, I only have a car and scooter driving license (despite the fact of having experience in driving motorbikes). I was wondering if this would be a problem to rent a motorbike in Kyrgyzstan. Thank you very much in advance for the help!
Hi Carlos, thanks for your question and for your kind words on this article!
Your upcoming trip sounds brilliant! The Pamirs in Tajikistan and the riding in Kyrgyzstan are both incredible.
Good question, it depends on who you are going to be renting with.
My suggestion is to contact the rental companies you are interested in and ask them what the situation is. Then you have up to date and exact info from your bike provider.
We have an entire section on this website dedicated to recommending excellent rental companies and we have many recommended motorcycle rental companies for Kyrgyzstan. You can find them all by following this link: https://www.madornomad.com/kyrgyzstan-motorcycle-rental/
And don’t forget, we have loads of dedicated guides for riding in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on great routes, paperwork requirements and much more in the Asia Destinations section. You can find those guides using this link: https://www.madornomad.com/guides/asia/
Best of luck and if you need anything else please just give us a shout anytime,
Cheers,
Andy
Hello,
In the itinerary posted in the article, do you mean Tash Rabat or Tash Bashat? Both makes sense however I guess Tash Rabat would be more scenic since its closer to the mountains?
Regards,
Aamir
Hi Amir, thanks for your comment,
Tash Rabat is what I meant – it’s marked as Tash Rabat on my route map on this page, but I used Tash Bashat in the text, thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the text now. Much appreciated 🙂
Are you planning a trip there?
Cheers,
Andy