Unleaded fuel in Central Asia in 2011

[wanderer78]

Hi all,

we're in the final stage of our Central Asia trip planning. We'll start out from Belgium on an f800gs and f650gs(twin) and hope to depart in the next two weeks. Although this is my first post, the HUBB has been an *incredible* source of information during our research, so thanks for that!

Okay, I thought we had most things sorted out, but now I'm getting a bit nervous about the fuel we might be forced to tank in some places in the stans. We'll cross Kazachstan, Takjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and possibly Turkmenistan.

Both our bikes have catalytic converters and getting it out seems to involve either cutting and welding the stock pipes (sounds scary to me!), or installing an aftermarket Remus header which is incompatible with our crashbars and bash plate (quite costly). Also, I do care about the environment so I prefer to keep the cat in!

So,

• does anyone have up-to-date information on unleaded fuel availability in the stans? Is it only available in cities/big villages and would that be enough if we carry a jerrycan in places like the Pamirs? According to some sources (eg. Countries where Leaded Petrol is Possibly Still Sold for Road Use, As at 22nd June 2009 and http://www.un.org/esa/gite/cleanfuel...aloverview.pdf) these countries have or are currently banning leaded fuel.
• if we do need to fill up on leaded fuel, will the cat die immediately? According to my BMW dealer it will and the bikes will be immobilised. However, reports on the HUBB suggest that the bikes will be fine although the cat will stop cleaning emissions after prolonged use of leaded fuel (how long?). Did anyone try with these particular bikes?

Thanks for any info!