Word: minsk
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...Minh Highway, a $353 million, 1,241-km project scheduled to open any day now. It traces one of the main north-south trunks of the original trail and will also open up dozens of arteries previously off-limits to tourists. We set out on rugged Minsk motorcycles, eager to explore...
...Vietnamese are mystified by the large number of foreigners riding around the capital on the ungainly, smoke-billowing "peasant bike," which offers an unwelcome reminder of Soviet domination. But the foreign devotees don't care. "I may never get a Vietnamese girlfriend riding this bike," says Minsk enthusiast Digby Greenhalgh. "But I can get up any mountain." Armed with a Minsk, a tool kit and a good map, few places are out of reach for the adventurous weekend warrior; those with a week can take in an astonishing array of landscapes and locations of historic and cultural interest. The "Grand...
...might seem a shame to mar such natural splendor with the homely, polluting Minsk, but enthusiasts say the bike's beauty is in its engine's simplicity. Even novice tinkerers can fix a Minsk, and parts are easy to find even when in the countryside. Of course, the fact that the bike is easy to fix is a necessity, given its propensity to break down. Beyond the broken clutch handle, our trip also saw a friend's handlebars come loose and a mysterious power problem in one bike that stumped four mechanics. But enthusiasts say it's all part...
FREE WHEELIN' Hitting the road is the best way to learn about northern Vietnam, but the Minsk Club of Hanoi can probably teach a thing or two about obsession. Its website (dissidentx.com/minsk/network.html) catalogs sightings of the club's favorite bike around the world: Cuba; Turkey; Norway; even Afghanistan, where Taliban leader Mullah Omar is rumored to have escaped a U.S. bombing raid on the back of a Minsk, known locally as the "Kabul tank." When a Minsk Moto-Velo Zavod company director visited Hanoi in 1999, club members welcomed the bemused businessman with banners, cheers, chilled vodka...
...Mostly, though, the Minsk Club is all about the rallies, where aficionados ride out to the countryside to roast pigs and swap stories. It was at a recent gathering that enthusiasts sacrificed a reviled Honda Dream to the god of Minsk. Of course, the Dream thrown into the pig-roast blaze was a miniature paper model used in Vietnamese funeral ceremonies, not a full-size scooter. Then again, with devotion like this, it's hard to put anything past these true believers...