Hi Ya,
Well we're now in Vienna staying with friends we met in Kirkenes (Norway). We'vew been here for a week as the 1100 blew it's clutch and so is now getting some attention.
The great news is we are speaking directly to Touratech (a big thank you to Tina at Touratech for all her help and support) who've agreed to sponsor us (previous TTech help had come from Bracken in London). So this afternoon I became the proud owner of a brand new 'ceramic racing cluth plate', which should mean I don't have to worry about the clutch for a very long time. There are three other units of the clutch which also needed to be repalced and BMW Vienna (after a little persuasion) were kind enough to give us a healthy discount. Tommorow we are off to see another 'friend of a friend' who will fit the clutch...brilliant.
The Russian leg of our journal should go live on our website
http://www.2ridetheworld.com in the next few days I hope it makes some interesting reading.
The roads really are pretty grim with one section being so bad it has us on the pegs for 110km. We were knackered at the end of the day. Fuel was OK with stations (of sorts) being every 200-300 miles apart. Fuel quality wasn't bad with most place having 85-91 Oct, only big cities have 98 Oct and it's all leaded. The most memerable aspect of our Russian adventure was the people, who are amazingly hostpitable and friendly. We manage to get ourselves into a few scrapes and were always resued by the locals. If you fancy a few more details, just click onto our site.
So far in our short journey we've been stopped by Kalashnikov totting guards, been searched by local malitia, had dinner with the Moscow mafia (really), and been chased by Russian police for 4 miles, who eventually pulled us over and demanded 1000 rubels before they would let us go, they didn't get it. Generally we've found ourselves on more than one ocassion way out of our depth...and had a absolutely fantastic time doing all of it!!!
If any of you guys get a chance to ride through Russia or Eastern Europe don't miss it. For those of you that already have, you'll know what I mean.
We've taken things pretty steady so far, but have still managed to ride through:
UK (England, Ireland, Scotland)
Southern Ireland
Norway (up west coast to nordkap, highest point in Europe)
Finland
Russian (Murmansk-Moscow-St Petersburg)
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Hungary
Austria
We're now on our way down through Europe to Spain. we'll spend a little time in spain with friends making sure everything is OK with the bikes before tackling Africa and the Sahara.
In the mean time have fun and maybe see some of you on the road.
All the best
Simon & Lisa T
