Challenges

On the way along the Sea of Marmara, behind the town of Şarköy I noticed a severe failure in the rim of my front wheel and it wasn't possible to fix it on the spot. So I had to be in contact with the manufacturer and then try to get a new rim. With Istanbul being so close already, I decided to get there on a bus and arrange repair services. For that reason I missed out two days of cycling through the sprawling suburban belt of Istanbul. By now, Thursday, everything is fixed (wide tyres on narrow rims apparently are not a good combination, even though manufacturers insist that there shouldn't be a problem) and I had plenty of time to do sightseeing in the city. Finding bicycle repair services here wasn't even all that difficult as bike shops tend to follow the oriental bazaar principle of all the other merchandise on offer, i.e. similar products are concentrated in one or two streets.
After other final arrangements (a.o. emptying and cleaning the car, stockpiling gas cartridges for our cookers) we're ready to go east!

In this street we found probably 90% of all bicycle services of Istanbul

Tourist buzzle in the Hagia Sophia