Siberia 2012 story so far
- Thread starter Beamer
- Start date
Losing another tent in Siberia ....
it is beginning to look like, he likes sharing your one !
pg
it is beginning to look like, he likes sharing your one !
pg
pauly, no the tent went off to fast and we were only half way through a really wide river so by the time we got the bikes out the tent would been in China!!!
Bri, i might have laughed a bit under my breath like! you know me!!!!!
Phil as long as it stays long way round and dont turn into broke back mountain i don't mind!
Mrsroynie, yep he did! between us we have list enough kit to do the trip all over again!!!
great trip though and the little hicups are not damping the spirits at all infact we don't stop laughing bout them, as long as our problems stay this small we're laughing!
Bri, i might have laughed a bit under my breath like! you know me!!!!!
Phil as long as it stays long way round and dont turn into broke back mountain i don't mind!
Mrsroynie, yep he did! between us we have list enough kit to do the trip all over again!!!
great trip though and the little hicups are not damping the spirits at all infact we don't stop laughing bout them, as long as our problems stay this small we're laughing!
www.mycharity.ie/event/siberia2012
20th August 2012
We had breakfast and packed up the bikes ready to leave and was chatting to a couple of young lads from Ireland and the Uk, We told them we were going out east to the statue and they asked if we’d wait 10 minutes and we could all go in their car! So an hour and half later we were on the road! It took a good hour and half to cover the 40km to the Ghengis Khan but was well worth the effort, it’s the largest horse mounted statue in the world a and you can go up inside it and walk out on the horses maine which is a long way up! We spent an hour or so at the statue then headed back to Oasis to get our bikes and head off but by the time we got back we had made arrangements to meet the lads in the Irish pub (Grand Khan) that night so stayed in Oasis for one more night! A German guy was supposed to be bringing us to see tires this evening so we waited for him until 9, so by the time we sat in traffic to get to the Grand Khan the boys had left but not without good reason as 2 days a month in Mongolia you cannot buy alcohol and this was one of them days!
Before I go on I have to apologies, I always thought that Mongolian people looked like they’ve been hit in the face with a shovel but I was wrong! There are some beautiful women here(nearly as beautiful as my mrs) I will ask mark bout the men! I should also apologies to the race that do look like they’ve been hit in the face with a shovel, you know who you are!
21st August 2012
We finally left Oasis with a crowd of fellow travellers waving us off and wishing us well, we had to cross the city again in crazy traffic coming from all directions. Heading out of Ulaanbaatar we had good tarmac for the first 400km then it turned to gravel, mud, corrugated or deep rutted sand tracks. They seem to cut a new track every time the old one gets a bit rough so you find 10 tracks spreading out form 1 and all going roughly in the same direction but not necessarily, a couple of times we started our own tracks to get the GPS back on track. Towards the end of the day Mark got a front puncture, He had the tire changed in Germany on the way out but they didn’t put his 4mm heavy duty tube in as he had asked them to so I put it in once we’d set up camp in a beautiful spot next to a river.
22th August 2012
We woke this morning and had a lovely breakfast of pasta in creamy sauce ( the last of our ration packs) while we were eating a herd of wild hoses appeared on the other bank of the river so we sat and drank tea watching them for a while before breaking camp and heading off.
By 7 o’clock this evening we’d had enough so stopped in a town that was showing a hotel on the GPS, Turned out the hotel was attached to yet another Irish pub though it wasn’t like any Irish pub I’ve been in before and I’ve been in a few believe it or not! The hotel was a bit grotty but we are in a third world country after all, we paid extra for the shower in our room and I guess we should have paid a bit more again for one that worked! So a couple of beers and a mutton dinner and we were finished for the night
23rd August 2012
We found a small mound in the middle of a massive plane surrounded by mountains to set up camp it was a beautiful setting and I took about 50 pics though they don’t do it justice, we even found some fire wood which is amazing in a country without trees!
24th August 2012
We broke camp this morning and started heading towards Ulaangom through the Mongolian wilderness, fantastic country side here but no roads only dirt, gravel or sand tracks but a lovely ride never the less. We got to a river crossing in the absolute middle of nowhere at least 60km for the nearest town in any direction, on the other side of the river were 3 guys with push bikes I shouted across where is the best place to cross which I guess they didn’t hear as the bit they pointed to was bloody deep and though we made it through we had wet trousers and boots for the rest of the day.
So we introduced ourselves and they turned out to be 2 French guys been traveling for the last 2 months on their bikes and an Aussie (Benji) who has been travelling for 6 years on an around the world every country bike ride! ( nutts or what ). Benji offered us tea so we sat for an hour listening to some of the crazy stuff he has done so far, He has crossed a frozen sea which took him 4 days camping along the way and he had just crossed the Gobi desert. Nice young lad and will be staying with us when he gets to Ireland
25th August 2012
Ulaangom (Mongolia) to Kosh-Agach , Before we leave Mongolia I’d just like to say that everyone we met that had already travelled here told us to watch out for the people but we found every Mongol person we met to be very nice and we had nothing stolen as we were also warned about. today plan was to get as far past the Russian boarder as possible which was looking good until we came upon our second river crossing of the day and probably the last of the trip, we walked the river for a good hour to find a suitable place to cross but it had been raining and the river was raging. The other problem with the river is that it splits into 5 or 6 rivers so had to find the safest path through each, we were able to ride through a couple though the rocks were very slippery and the current very strong which caught Mark out and he dropped his bike and lost his flip flops and tent in the process the important thing at this stage was to get the bikes across so by the time we tried to retrieve marks tent and shoes they were half way to China. A couple of Mongolians on horses turned up when we were half way across and offered ropes to pull us with their horses, these guys were really nice and kind looking people and afterwards I was sorry we didn’t give them the remainder of our Mongolian money which would be no more good to us after the boarder. From the river It started to hail and turned bitterly cold as we climbed higher into the mountains where the Mongolian frontier is located, the last 100km or so is desolate with a few Ger’s scattered around and a small town 20km from the border but why it’s there I couldn’t hazard a guess. Riding along the road and suddenly the border fencing cut straight through it with no gate we stopped to check the GPS and a young lad pulled up on a motorbike telling us that the border is closed for the night and we could stay with him in his house, he also knew where we could change money, get food or drink, get bike bits or anything else he could possibly sell us so we told him we would check the border and get back to him. Well what do ya know, the border was open but only just.
We arrived at the boarder at 5.15 only to find it closes at 5.30 on Saturday and we were the only travellers there, this was to turn out to be the quickest Mongolian/Russian border crossing ever only 45 minutes which included the 25km run across no mans land.
26th August 2012
Last night we stayed in the worst guest house ever, what a shite hole and it stank to hi heaven but we were cold and tired so needed warm and sleep which we did get.
We’re leaving Kosh-Agach heading for Barnaul today on what turns out to be one of the most beautiful roads I have ever ridden, the m52 runs from the Mongolian boarder to Novosibirsk about 1000km of which the first 500 or so runs through the mountains following rivers with great road surface and plenty of twist and turns its absolutely a bikers dream. We arrived in Barnaul to late to contact André or victor for tires so had a couple of beers and an early night,
27th Augustr 2012
This morning we called André who came to our hotel to give us all the information we needed then left and all we could repay him with for his help was a coffee. We then headed for Victor’s garage to get some mirrors, tires and 2 left hand rear indicators of which mine only lasted 10miles out the road! Victor is a very nice chap (cheap to) and anyone passing this way should give him a visit if they need anything bike related. We did not get finished with Victor until around 5 so another night in Barnaul and we found a biker bar where we sat until 4 am catting to Cherbis a lad that works there, the first proper sore head this trip!
28th August 2012
Today we leave Barnaul for Novosibirsk 300km, the road between the 2 city’s is pretty boring long and straight with very little to see apart from trees, tough on an endure bike. About an hour from Novosibirsk my bike started missing and back firing and generally losing power until it came to a complete stop, I changed the fuel filter which had a thick slurry sludge dripping out of it when I took it off so was hoping this would solve the problem but after putting the bike back together no change.
Whilst I was working on the bike a lorry driver pulled up who was also a biker and although he was working spent an hour and half with us sorted out a recovery truck and garage before he left, yet another great helpful Russian he also knew Cherbis (guy we were drinking with) from the biker bar we were in the night before.
2 hours later Anton pulled up in his Lexus jeep with trailer to collect us and it took a further 1.5 hours to get back to his garage where we met Tanya one of Anton’s co-workers, Tanya gave us coffee and our own office while she arranged for us to stay with one of her friends Yuri. Anton drove us all to Yuri’s flat and on the way picked up Tanya’s friend who spoke good English, When we got to the flat we had showers and the girls went to the shop to buy food to make us a lovely meal and the 6 of us sat eating and drinking vodka till the wee small hours. It was a great night with genuine, generous, nice people but we are going to pay for it tomorrow with our sore heads!
29th September 2012
Woke this morning with a very sore head, Yuri and his sister in law prepared us some breakfast whilst we waited for Anton to pick us up. We got to the garage and Anton set about stripping the bike down to the injection unit so as to flush it out, Tanya made us coffee and I helped Anton. By mid-day the bike was up and running then Anton washed both the bikes, we needed food and needed money to pay for the rescue and the work so by the time all this was sorted it was about 3 o’clock so decided to stay in town another night in a hotel and leave in the morning.
30th August 2012
Novosibirsk to Omsk today just over 600km which is why we didn’t leave yesterday afternoon once the mechanic had run the injection unit cleaner through my bike, would have been to late to arrive in Omsk, find accommodation and avoid the potholes in the dark.
About 100/120km out and my bike started to play up again so we had to strip it down at the side of the road to get the injector out to try clear the blockage, luckily Anton gave us a can of carb cleaner which came in very handy. As we were working on the bike and old Ural complete with sidecar pulled up and off got a lady well into her 60’s to see if she could help us, she introduces herself as Nattily or Natta for short but in her Russian accent it sounded like Nutter! First thing Natta did was give us tea from her flask and then gave us phone numbers and email addresses of people we could stay with and who might be able to help. After an hour or so Natta left narrowly missing Marks bike with her side car standing on the pegs and waving, living up to her name! we headed off about 10 mins after Natta left and soon passed her out waving franticly and a big smile on her face. About an hour down the road we stopped for a bit of lunch in a road side café of which there are many in this part of the world, after lunch as we were getting on our bikes Natta came past (hare and tortoise came to mind) with her camera in her hand filming us and then stopped for another ‘’chat’’ (she has no English and us hardly any Russian) then we all headed off together leaving Natta behind us doing only 70kmh. Another hour down the road and the injector was again blocked so another strip down was necessary, yes you guessed it along came Natta and stopped for another chat whilst I worked on my bike. She is a lovely lady and we have her email to send her on some pics of us all together and our trip.
31st August 2012
We left Omsk for Kurgan this morning and whilst heading out of the city we came across an accident which must have happened only half hour or so before hand, looked like a car had pulled out of a side turning straight in front of a speeding car. The side of the car was cut out but the drive left dead in the seat uncovered whilst the emergency services hosed the road around the car, this was a bad start to the day and quite upsetting to say the least. 2 or 3 miles after this we were pulled up by the police to see our papers and wanting to have us for speeding but after half hour of smiling and saying yani pini myu (I don’t understand) he let us go.
About an hour down the road I was riding behind mark as he was getting himself into position to overtake some cars when all of a sudden without reason warning or brake lights the row of cars slammed on their brakes, I watched as Mark started snaking down the road coming dangerously close to the lorries going in the other direction. Mark was travelling at around 70mph and managed to get the speed right down before the bike high sided, amazingly Mark missed the cars and Lorries in both directions as the bike came to rest in the middle of the road. Broken hand guard and a couple of bruises is all Mark had to show for the incident thankfully. Shortly after this I had to strip my bike down for the third time to clean out the injector, it’s a bit of a pain as you have to take off the side panels, side tanks and airbox to get to it.This time we found a tube from the chain lube can which we hadn’t used so was able to shoot the cleaner right into the injector and blast any muck out instead of possibly just moving it about, after doing this twice previously we decided to leave the front airbox screws out so we could access the injector without a complete strip down should the problem occur again. so an hour on the side of the road and all sorted til the next time.
1st September 2012
Kurgan to Ufa 690km
Was a bright sunny warm day when we left the hotel this morning for the nearest café on the outskirts of town where we could have a bit of breakfast and drop the oil out of Mark’s bike at the same time. We changed the front sprockets on both bikes to 17 tooth which dropped the revs down by 500 rpm in top gear (75mph only 4800rpm) good for the long straight roads.
Since we left Barnaul we have just been mile munching, not a lot to see as the roads are all through forest with the occasional clearing but nothing to write home about (and here am I righting home about it) so was really looking forward to getting to Ural Mountains with hopefully some good views and twisty roads. Wrong! The drive over the Ural’s is pretty boring with a constant stream of back to back Lorries in both directions and deep rutted tarmac which tries to take control of the bike and police every couple of miles, by the time we reached the mountains it was peeing it down which I suppose didn’t help matters. Got pulled by the police again today for a paper check.
We had 690 km to do today between Kurgan and Ufa which took us 9 ½ hours mainly due to the sheer weight of traffic on the roads, not one of the best days but nothing went wrong and we didn’t lose anything so that’s a bonus!
2nd September 2012
Ufa to Samara 470km
Lots of rain today, bitterly cold and a really strong cross wind all day as we carried on across the Urals towards Samara. Again not much to see and mile munching but at least we had no hiccups today apart from getting froze, and again lots of traffic on the road lorry after lorry in continuous lines and deep rutted tarmac that shook you about every time you overtake.
We are sitting in the Ibis hotel in another huge Russian city having a bite to eat and wondering whether to pop down to the Irish pub we passed on our way in, I’ll let you know tomorrow.
www.mycharity.ie/event/siberia2012
3rd August 2012
Samara to Saratov 440km
20th August 2012
We had breakfast and packed up the bikes ready to leave and was chatting to a couple of young lads from Ireland and the Uk, We told them we were going out east to the statue and they asked if we’d wait 10 minutes and we could all go in their car! So an hour and half later we were on the road! It took a good hour and half to cover the 40km to the Ghengis Khan but was well worth the effort, it’s the largest horse mounted statue in the world a and you can go up inside it and walk out on the horses maine which is a long way up! We spent an hour or so at the statue then headed back to Oasis to get our bikes and head off but by the time we got back we had made arrangements to meet the lads in the Irish pub (Grand Khan) that night so stayed in Oasis for one more night! A German guy was supposed to be bringing us to see tires this evening so we waited for him until 9, so by the time we sat in traffic to get to the Grand Khan the boys had left but not without good reason as 2 days a month in Mongolia you cannot buy alcohol and this was one of them days!
Before I go on I have to apologies, I always thought that Mongolian people looked like they’ve been hit in the face with a shovel but I was wrong! There are some beautiful women here(nearly as beautiful as my mrs) I will ask mark bout the men! I should also apologies to the race that do look like they’ve been hit in the face with a shovel, you know who you are!
21st August 2012
We finally left Oasis with a crowd of fellow travellers waving us off and wishing us well, we had to cross the city again in crazy traffic coming from all directions. Heading out of Ulaanbaatar we had good tarmac for the first 400km then it turned to gravel, mud, corrugated or deep rutted sand tracks. They seem to cut a new track every time the old one gets a bit rough so you find 10 tracks spreading out form 1 and all going roughly in the same direction but not necessarily, a couple of times we started our own tracks to get the GPS back on track. Towards the end of the day Mark got a front puncture, He had the tire changed in Germany on the way out but they didn’t put his 4mm heavy duty tube in as he had asked them to so I put it in once we’d set up camp in a beautiful spot next to a river.
22th August 2012
We woke this morning and had a lovely breakfast of pasta in creamy sauce ( the last of our ration packs) while we were eating a herd of wild hoses appeared on the other bank of the river so we sat and drank tea watching them for a while before breaking camp and heading off.
By 7 o’clock this evening we’d had enough so stopped in a town that was showing a hotel on the GPS, Turned out the hotel was attached to yet another Irish pub though it wasn’t like any Irish pub I’ve been in before and I’ve been in a few believe it or not! The hotel was a bit grotty but we are in a third world country after all, we paid extra for the shower in our room and I guess we should have paid a bit more again for one that worked! So a couple of beers and a mutton dinner and we were finished for the night
23rd August 2012
We found a small mound in the middle of a massive plane surrounded by mountains to set up camp it was a beautiful setting and I took about 50 pics though they don’t do it justice, we even found some fire wood which is amazing in a country without trees!
24th August 2012
We broke camp this morning and started heading towards Ulaangom through the Mongolian wilderness, fantastic country side here but no roads only dirt, gravel or sand tracks but a lovely ride never the less. We got to a river crossing in the absolute middle of nowhere at least 60km for the nearest town in any direction, on the other side of the river were 3 guys with push bikes I shouted across where is the best place to cross which I guess they didn’t hear as the bit they pointed to was bloody deep and though we made it through we had wet trousers and boots for the rest of the day.
So we introduced ourselves and they turned out to be 2 French guys been traveling for the last 2 months on their bikes and an Aussie (Benji) who has been travelling for 6 years on an around the world every country bike ride! ( nutts or what ). Benji offered us tea so we sat for an hour listening to some of the crazy stuff he has done so far, He has crossed a frozen sea which took him 4 days camping along the way and he had just crossed the Gobi desert. Nice young lad and will be staying with us when he gets to Ireland
25th August 2012
Ulaangom (Mongolia) to Kosh-Agach , Before we leave Mongolia I’d just like to say that everyone we met that had already travelled here told us to watch out for the people but we found every Mongol person we met to be very nice and we had nothing stolen as we were also warned about. today plan was to get as far past the Russian boarder as possible which was looking good until we came upon our second river crossing of the day and probably the last of the trip, we walked the river for a good hour to find a suitable place to cross but it had been raining and the river was raging. The other problem with the river is that it splits into 5 or 6 rivers so had to find the safest path through each, we were able to ride through a couple though the rocks were very slippery and the current very strong which caught Mark out and he dropped his bike and lost his flip flops and tent in the process the important thing at this stage was to get the bikes across so by the time we tried to retrieve marks tent and shoes they were half way to China. A couple of Mongolians on horses turned up when we were half way across and offered ropes to pull us with their horses, these guys were really nice and kind looking people and afterwards I was sorry we didn’t give them the remainder of our Mongolian money which would be no more good to us after the boarder. From the river It started to hail and turned bitterly cold as we climbed higher into the mountains where the Mongolian frontier is located, the last 100km or so is desolate with a few Ger’s scattered around and a small town 20km from the border but why it’s there I couldn’t hazard a guess. Riding along the road and suddenly the border fencing cut straight through it with no gate we stopped to check the GPS and a young lad pulled up on a motorbike telling us that the border is closed for the night and we could stay with him in his house, he also knew where we could change money, get food or drink, get bike bits or anything else he could possibly sell us so we told him we would check the border and get back to him. Well what do ya know, the border was open but only just.
We arrived at the boarder at 5.15 only to find it closes at 5.30 on Saturday and we were the only travellers there, this was to turn out to be the quickest Mongolian/Russian border crossing ever only 45 minutes which included the 25km run across no mans land.
26th August 2012
Last night we stayed in the worst guest house ever, what a shite hole and it stank to hi heaven but we were cold and tired so needed warm and sleep which we did get.
We’re leaving Kosh-Agach heading for Barnaul today on what turns out to be one of the most beautiful roads I have ever ridden, the m52 runs from the Mongolian boarder to Novosibirsk about 1000km of which the first 500 or so runs through the mountains following rivers with great road surface and plenty of twist and turns its absolutely a bikers dream. We arrived in Barnaul to late to contact André or victor for tires so had a couple of beers and an early night,
27th Augustr 2012
This morning we called André who came to our hotel to give us all the information we needed then left and all we could repay him with for his help was a coffee. We then headed for Victor’s garage to get some mirrors, tires and 2 left hand rear indicators of which mine only lasted 10miles out the road! Victor is a very nice chap (cheap to) and anyone passing this way should give him a visit if they need anything bike related. We did not get finished with Victor until around 5 so another night in Barnaul and we found a biker bar where we sat until 4 am catting to Cherbis a lad that works there, the first proper sore head this trip!
28th August 2012
Today we leave Barnaul for Novosibirsk 300km, the road between the 2 city’s is pretty boring long and straight with very little to see apart from trees, tough on an endure bike. About an hour from Novosibirsk my bike started missing and back firing and generally losing power until it came to a complete stop, I changed the fuel filter which had a thick slurry sludge dripping out of it when I took it off so was hoping this would solve the problem but after putting the bike back together no change.
Whilst I was working on the bike a lorry driver pulled up who was also a biker and although he was working spent an hour and half with us sorted out a recovery truck and garage before he left, yet another great helpful Russian he also knew Cherbis (guy we were drinking with) from the biker bar we were in the night before.
2 hours later Anton pulled up in his Lexus jeep with trailer to collect us and it took a further 1.5 hours to get back to his garage where we met Tanya one of Anton’s co-workers, Tanya gave us coffee and our own office while she arranged for us to stay with one of her friends Yuri. Anton drove us all to Yuri’s flat and on the way picked up Tanya’s friend who spoke good English, When we got to the flat we had showers and the girls went to the shop to buy food to make us a lovely meal and the 6 of us sat eating and drinking vodka till the wee small hours. It was a great night with genuine, generous, nice people but we are going to pay for it tomorrow with our sore heads!
29th September 2012
Woke this morning with a very sore head, Yuri and his sister in law prepared us some breakfast whilst we waited for Anton to pick us up. We got to the garage and Anton set about stripping the bike down to the injection unit so as to flush it out, Tanya made us coffee and I helped Anton. By mid-day the bike was up and running then Anton washed both the bikes, we needed food and needed money to pay for the rescue and the work so by the time all this was sorted it was about 3 o’clock so decided to stay in town another night in a hotel and leave in the morning.
30th August 2012
Novosibirsk to Omsk today just over 600km which is why we didn’t leave yesterday afternoon once the mechanic had run the injection unit cleaner through my bike, would have been to late to arrive in Omsk, find accommodation and avoid the potholes in the dark.
About 100/120km out and my bike started to play up again so we had to strip it down at the side of the road to get the injector out to try clear the blockage, luckily Anton gave us a can of carb cleaner which came in very handy. As we were working on the bike and old Ural complete with sidecar pulled up and off got a lady well into her 60’s to see if she could help us, she introduces herself as Nattily or Natta for short but in her Russian accent it sounded like Nutter! First thing Natta did was give us tea from her flask and then gave us phone numbers and email addresses of people we could stay with and who might be able to help. After an hour or so Natta left narrowly missing Marks bike with her side car standing on the pegs and waving, living up to her name! we headed off about 10 mins after Natta left and soon passed her out waving franticly and a big smile on her face. About an hour down the road we stopped for a bit of lunch in a road side café of which there are many in this part of the world, after lunch as we were getting on our bikes Natta came past (hare and tortoise came to mind) with her camera in her hand filming us and then stopped for another ‘’chat’’ (she has no English and us hardly any Russian) then we all headed off together leaving Natta behind us doing only 70kmh. Another hour down the road and the injector was again blocked so another strip down was necessary, yes you guessed it along came Natta and stopped for another chat whilst I worked on my bike. She is a lovely lady and we have her email to send her on some pics of us all together and our trip.
31st August 2012
We left Omsk for Kurgan this morning and whilst heading out of the city we came across an accident which must have happened only half hour or so before hand, looked like a car had pulled out of a side turning straight in front of a speeding car. The side of the car was cut out but the drive left dead in the seat uncovered whilst the emergency services hosed the road around the car, this was a bad start to the day and quite upsetting to say the least. 2 or 3 miles after this we were pulled up by the police to see our papers and wanting to have us for speeding but after half hour of smiling and saying yani pini myu (I don’t understand) he let us go.
About an hour down the road I was riding behind mark as he was getting himself into position to overtake some cars when all of a sudden without reason warning or brake lights the row of cars slammed on their brakes, I watched as Mark started snaking down the road coming dangerously close to the lorries going in the other direction. Mark was travelling at around 70mph and managed to get the speed right down before the bike high sided, amazingly Mark missed the cars and Lorries in both directions as the bike came to rest in the middle of the road. Broken hand guard and a couple of bruises is all Mark had to show for the incident thankfully. Shortly after this I had to strip my bike down for the third time to clean out the injector, it’s a bit of a pain as you have to take off the side panels, side tanks and airbox to get to it.This time we found a tube from the chain lube can which we hadn’t used so was able to shoot the cleaner right into the injector and blast any muck out instead of possibly just moving it about, after doing this twice previously we decided to leave the front airbox screws out so we could access the injector without a complete strip down should the problem occur again. so an hour on the side of the road and all sorted til the next time.
1st September 2012
Kurgan to Ufa 690km
Was a bright sunny warm day when we left the hotel this morning for the nearest café on the outskirts of town where we could have a bit of breakfast and drop the oil out of Mark’s bike at the same time. We changed the front sprockets on both bikes to 17 tooth which dropped the revs down by 500 rpm in top gear (75mph only 4800rpm) good for the long straight roads.
Since we left Barnaul we have just been mile munching, not a lot to see as the roads are all through forest with the occasional clearing but nothing to write home about (and here am I righting home about it) so was really looking forward to getting to Ural Mountains with hopefully some good views and twisty roads. Wrong! The drive over the Ural’s is pretty boring with a constant stream of back to back Lorries in both directions and deep rutted tarmac which tries to take control of the bike and police every couple of miles, by the time we reached the mountains it was peeing it down which I suppose didn’t help matters. Got pulled by the police again today for a paper check.
We had 690 km to do today between Kurgan and Ufa which took us 9 ½ hours mainly due to the sheer weight of traffic on the roads, not one of the best days but nothing went wrong and we didn’t lose anything so that’s a bonus!
2nd September 2012
Ufa to Samara 470km
Lots of rain today, bitterly cold and a really strong cross wind all day as we carried on across the Urals towards Samara. Again not much to see and mile munching but at least we had no hiccups today apart from getting froze, and again lots of traffic on the road lorry after lorry in continuous lines and deep rutted tarmac that shook you about every time you overtake.
We are sitting in the Ibis hotel in another huge Russian city having a bite to eat and wondering whether to pop down to the Irish pub we passed on our way in, I’ll let you know tomorrow.
www.mycharity.ie/event/siberia2012
3rd August 2012
Samara to Saratov 440km
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(RIP) petcul
Registered user
Another great episode and some cracking shots. Fantastic.
Ravenbyrne
Registered user
Pauly S
Registered user
This is brill
I so look forward to reading these reports..
And i sooooo wish i had joined you both.
keep it coming and ride safe you's two.
regs Liz and pauly
I so look forward to reading these reports..
And i sooooo wish i had joined you both.
keep it coming and ride safe you's two.
regs Liz and pauly
NO !!!!!!!!
IT'S LIKE A RANAZCO SEAT
Well, today's the day!! Me and 5 eyes and smelly are off to Katowice this afternoon
We're picking up our bikes in the morning and heading for L'viv
Hopefully Kev and Mark will arrive into Ukraine tomorrow evening and we'll all be reunited on Thurs
Me?! Excited?! Just a little bit
Enjoy Mide.
Not sure about the company you're travelling with
....and then you're meeting up with the other two nutters. From bad to worse.
Enjoy.
Not sure about the company you're travelling with
....and then you're meeting up with the other two nutters. From bad to worse. Enjoy.
Safe journey Mide and the lads. 
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