Draw a line east from Shahroud along the old road to Khorasan and Mayamey is where the country starts to change its mind. To the north the Alborz mountains lean down, dark with forest on their far side, and to the south the land flattens and dries towards the great central deserts of Iran. Mayamey sits in that seam, in Semnan province, a modest agricultural town with a long history of being passed through.
That history is the point. For centuries this was the way from the capital region towards Nishapur, Mashhad and Central Asia, a branch of what we now loosely call the Silk Road, and the Safavid shahs, Shah Abbas above all, spent real money on caravanserais and bridges so that trade and pilgrims could keep moving. Several of those brick travellers' halls survive across this part of Iran, and the name Abbas Abad on the ride tells you which period of building we are in. They were laid out as a square courtyard with arcaded rooms on all sides, a well in the middle and a gate big enough for loaded camels, and standing in one you can feel exactly how the day ended for a caravan: unload, water the animals, eat, sleep behind a locked door.
For a rider the logic is similar. The roads here are long and open, the kind where you can see a lorry six kilometres away, and the main hazard is not corners but distance and sun. Carry water, wear more sunscreen than you think sensible, and watch for crosswinds where the road crosses open ground. The best months are April, May and October, when the plains are green or golden and not yet anvil-hot. In midsummer the air shimmers and the early start becomes essential.
The villages are tidy mud-brick and concrete places with walnut and pomegranate trees, and nearer the mountains you reach cooler air, orchards and the beginnings of forest. Abr, the forest village on the ride, is the green counterweight to all this dryness, and the contrast is the best reason to ride up there.
Shahroud is the larger town for fuel, supplies and a proper meal before or after, and in a place this size you can usually find tea, flatbread, eggs and yoghurt without trouble if you ask.