Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[ROD CURRIE]

Originally Posted by Prutser

Hi Phil,


As an example : We met lots of people traveling thru Russia and Mongolia.
They were using big 1200gsa's, super teneré's, afrika twin's, dr650's or the biggest 950/990 KTM's.

We had a chat with two Germans we met that started there trip from UB Mongolia riding back to Germany.
They asked us how the tracks were in the direction we came from and they had to go..........!!!!
Our answer was : Nothing special.. 4 or 5 river crossings a swamp to cross and a few hundred km's of soft sand and mud.
(which was nothing special compared to what we had done all the days before)
Than there eyes almost dropped out of there heads..... looking at each other probably thinking LETS GO BACK !!
When I asked them how fast they were riding they said : 30 to 40 km/h MAX !!!

I'll post a pics of these German guys and their behemoths at the appropriate time in the thread

[Prutser]

Originally Posted by VFR

That was the first thing I thought when I saw the picture of the bike. Earlier Walter & Terry went through some what they called mild river crossings & their bikes were far enough under water that you would need a snorkel for the motor to breathe. I'm thinking the ignition might suffer a bit as well..

Waiting to see how it fared.....

With the WP fork and the longer swing arm the bike was a lot taller than original.
The original air intake is direct on top of the engine.
I did put 2 filters on eachother which made it about 4 cm higher again.
Than the original intake is tight against the tank. So no room for something higher.(with this tank)
But i'm planning to make a filter in, or on top of the tank for next trips......

The ignition has no problem with the crossings. The new starter that was mounted didn't like the swimming.
It started to sound nasty after the first crossing. After the trip I opened it and there was no trace of grease left inside.
Now with a proper amount of good grease it should be fine. Just like other airheads I used to swim with

[_cy_]

hey Prutser... good to see you are taking an Airhead!!!

[Colebatch]

The lady who ran the 3 fishes (along with her husband) was very sweet to us. Driving all 5 of us around town to get some camping equipment, some assorted spare bolts and drill bits etc. Every day she would ask us if we needed anything ... take us shopping, anything we needed.

Then one morning at about 10am (we normally woke up about 11am and had team breakfast down in the main tent / bike workshop) I got a call from Sambor. The van and trailer with the bikes was just an hour away.

I ran around and woke the others. We wanted to get the bikes unloaded as quickly as possible, spend the afternoon getting ready to travel again, and leave early tomorrow morning. We assembled down in the car park and the van arrived:

The van and trailer were loaded with out 10-12 bikes altogether ... bound for one of Sambor's ADVfactory tours through Kyrgyzstan, but the three bikes at the back were a delivery for our group.



First cab off the rank was Rod Currie's KTM ...



Then Prutser's airhead came off ...





And finally Beemster's X-Country

[Colebatch]

Also unloaded from the van were Terry and my new tyres for stage 2 of the ride. While the others spent the afternoon finalising the bike packing and getting their bikes ready for the steppes of Kazakhstan, Terry and I scooted down the road to fit our new tyres.

I was going with Michelin Desert (classic) at the back and was going to run with a less grippy but more asphalt friendly T63 front and Terry again had his Mitas E09s. The front E09 and T63 were very similar in tread pattern. Come to think of it, the Desert rear and E09 rear were also very similar.

Terry's Tyres:


My Tyres:


I was definitely giving up grip with the T63 on the front compared to the more aggressive Desert front I used in the first third of the trip. I thought it wouldnt matter on the hard pack steppe ground ... but actually I did miss the extra grip of the Desert.

It was a really hot day and by the time we returned to the hotel, it was time for evening meal and drinks with the gang of 5 ... now all ready to head off bright and early tomorrow morning.

[trailtosakhalin]

Ride on .............

[dano619]

Let the "Rockin On" begin................

[Teeds]

Originally Posted by trailtosakhalin

Ride on .............

Yup, can't wait to read about part two.

Thank you one and all that are contributing to this thread but of course most importantly Walter! It is not easy to document a trip to the level that y'all are and then to come back and post it for the peanut gallery is GRAND.

There are not enough thanks.

As much as I would enjoy seeing the beautiful country that you are traveling through I don't see it happening except through the eyes and stories of adventurers other than myself.

Thank you for the journey.

Now that the world is lightening up on me economically, I need to get your book and DVD for your 2009 trip and stash some moola back for this one.

I've been enjoying going to Google Earth and trying to trace your route based on the squiggles that you have posted. It is not easy and I cannot imagine how hard it was to make the route in the first place.

I also need to get a Montana as that sounds like the way to go as far as a GPS. My 72CS is long in the tooth although it still works.

Thanks again!

[macblach]

And secondly, an OSCO. Whats an OSCO you ask? A One Second Chain Oiler .... Its a dutch chain oiling system that operates by hand, and lubes the chain for about 10 seconds. This was great for the type of riding we were doing, cause we would ride all day in the dust, then just before evening, as we are pulling into town, we could ride for a few hundred yards on asphalt and operate the Osco ... which would lube the chain, and most of the excess would drop off harmlessly overnight ... leaving just the joints nicely lubed.

[/QUOTE]

---------------

Great RR, enjoying it from start to... well here :)

One quick question regarding the OSCO, what sort of lube were you using?

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by macblach

One quick question regarding the OSCO, what sort of lube were you using?

The OSCO has a special oil ... but cause Prutser and Beemster arrived with just hand luggage, they couldnt bring any ... I shopped around for some chainsaw oil but couldnt find any in Astana (its the steppe .. what would anyone need a chainsaw for there), so ended up using what I had on me .... Motul glow in the dark 300V 15w50 engine oil

[achesley]

When I was using a Lubeman on my KLR , I used ATF . An old zip tie broke and the chain ate the application end. Never did fix it and put it back on. Made quite a mess when Using it on dusty roads. Never though of just giving the chain a few squirts on sealed roads on the way back home.
Phase two >

[macblach]

"The OSCO has a special oil ... but cause Prutser and Beemster arrived with just hand luggage, they couldnt bring any ... I shopped around for some chainsaw oil but couldnt find any in Astana (its the steppe .. what would anyone need a chainsaw for there), so ended up using what I had on me .... Motul glow in the dark 300V 15w50 engine oil"

Originally Posted by achesley

When I was using a Lubeman on my KLR , I used ATF . An old zip tie broke and the chain ate the application end. Never did fix it and put it back on. Made quite a mess when Using it on dusty roads. Never though of just giving the chain a few squirts on sealed roads on the way back home.
Phase two >

Well, I use ATF as well. Any concerns what negative effect engine oil or in fact ATF might possibly have on O-rings?

[ERU]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

I had what turned out to be a decent setup - I used a "14" ah shorai - at about 700 grams, plus the shorai charger at about 500 grams. Still net a third of the weight of a lead acid battery. But I did have the bulk of the charger in my luggage

I was happy with doing that. I did have to charge and balance my battery a few times on the trip due to killing the battery totally first day out of Astana - stand by for story in next few days.

Overall, my experience is that its fine to take a LiFePO4 battery on a 3 month trip out in the boonies ... on the condition that you MUST take the special charger / cell balancer along with you. That decreases the advantages by increasing bulk (and cost), but its still net, a lot lighter than a lead acid battery. Note, if travelling in a group, the addition bulk and cost need only to occur once ... in a group of 5 people all with the same brand LiFePO4 batteries, only one person would need to be carrying a charger. That increases the attractiveness of the proposition.

I understood that you carry a dedicated charger for Shoray batery but if it's dead, isn't it posible to start the bike with some power cables and then let the alternator do the job ?

[ERU]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

The OSCO has a special oil ... but cause Prutser and Beemster arrived with just hand luggage, they couldnt bring any ... I shopped around for some chainsaw oil but couldnt find any in Astana (its the steppe .. what would anyone need a chainsaw for there), so ended up using what I had on me .... Motul glow in the dark 300V 15w50 engine oil

Why do you carry 15 W 50 ? Did you shifh form the standard 10 W 40 to 15W50 ? If yes why ?

Your report is awesome like always.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by ERU

I understood that you carry a dedicated charger for Shoray batery but if it's dead, isn't it posible to start the bike with some power cables and then let the alternator do the job ?

No it isnt. Cy can give more detail. But if a lithium iron phosphate battery gets below about 10 volts at any stage it's not possible to recharge it properly using the alternator. It will only take a tiny charge unless it is properly restored using a special charger and cell balancer

Mine went down to 6 volts after an 'incident'