Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Tseta

I believe that the info quoted above may not be completely accurate. Some gravel/sand sections do still exist on the Transsib proper. At least during the summer of 2012, the following was seen somewhere around Alzamay:

For the sake of the argument, I will admit that this was the view to the actual construction area of the main M53 highway, but the detour around this was a very bumpy and dusty gravel road as well, far from wide, silky smooth asphalt.

Cheers,

Tseta

OK yes, sure - there are a few 2-3 km stretches and maybe one 20 km stretch where they are replacing the old highway with new stretches through the forest between Alzamai and Tulun, and while they do that they are temporary gravel detours that all Trans Siberian traffic takes.

That is the M53, about 2000 km away from the Zilov Gap. If we are going to list all stretches of the Trans sib where you have to take gravel detours, I recall a few roadworks sections around Ishim as well, about 3000 km further west. There are also a few sections of gravel detours 4000 km further east down the highway from your pic between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok where they are also rebuilding the road.

In any case all detours are small, temporary, being worked on, and are fine for the hundreds / thousands of cheap Korean / Japanese / Russian 2wd sedans and hatches and hundreds / thousands more normal road going 40 ton freight trucks that use them every day.

On this basis we can probably safely say that the 10,000 km long trans sib will never be all asphalt, as there will always be some sections being rebuilt; there will always be some bridges that need replacing etc, where there will be gravel detours.


Getting back to the original point, the Zilov Gap prior to 2004 was 800 km of no road that could only be traversed in 6wd trucks, or 110 kg off road motorcycles. In 2004, once the gravel road was completed, the entire Trans Siberian highway was ridden by a trio of Honda GoldWings.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Dusty1

Amazing story indeed.

Proves that isolation is relative to where you are. Might only be 50 miles or so, but as an old timer who probably now has a kettle, it would be very difficult for her to get to the shops for some more tea bags.

More BAM please.

sure ... impossible for her ... there would not be even a trail or vehicle track within 20 miles (30km ) of her place.

Its the impossibility of access (unless in a helicopter) that creates the remoteness.

[Cloudgazer]

I came across this RR from a link on a local adv riders forum.
I've read all 210 pages in the last 3 days.
Holy Cow!
This is probably one of the best things I've ever read.
I'm a very amateur adv rider and Walther's exploits are the stuff of dreams.

I kid you not when I say this is probably the best thread on the internet.
Bikes, adventure, far flung places, amazing cast of characters, gripping story. Pretty girls (but no where near enough). Its got it all.

When this ride report is done they may as well switch off the internet. Cause it doesn't get better than this.

For someone that lives at the southern tip of Africa the places in this RR are like from another world.

Thank you Walther and crew. Thank you!

[livewire]

I live in SoCal. This is "another world" to me too! 2kewl 4skewl !!! <>

[ROD CURRIE]

Originally Posted by tee bee

Sorry to disappoint, but no... now that rod has cleared off home....

OI Bongo! I'm still watching though!!

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by ROD CURRIE

OI Bongo! I'm still watching though!!

Bongo Brown ... it has a ring to it ...

[Gravel Seeker]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Bongo Brown ... it has a ring to it ...

[Colebatch]

OK ... we do have some video stills from Day 76...

Erik ... taking the rocky roads in stride:


(pic by Steve)

And splashing thru the streamlets:


(pic by Steve)

My helmet cam, going over a nice smooth part of the Severomuisk Range:



And a not so smooth part:

[Colebatch]

I was kinda hoping one of the Norwegians would have some pics of the 5 of us jammed into two rooms in that old wooden shack in Taksimo ... maybe some video stills.? Guys?

Anyway ... while they search videos ... we had two rivers to cross today ... one was the legendary Vitim River ... and the other the much smaller but still inconvenient Kuanda River.

Having got to bed late, we woke late ... and it was 1:15 pm when we all left Taksimo, via the local convenience store.

Terry and Geir stormed ahead, aiming for the Vitim Bridge. After 30 km there is a fork in the road, a turnoff. The road straight ahead to a village on the banks of the Vitim about 30 km downstream form the bridge.

I got to the turnoff, and checked tracks in the dirt to make sure Terry and Geir had taken the turnoff ... tracks indicated they had. I thought I better wait there to make sure Steve and Erik make the turnoff. So I parked my bike poining in the direction of the turnoff and waited. Erik arrived, saw my bike pointed in the direction of the turnoff, and took it. Then I waited for Steve. A few minutes later Steve cam flying down the main road at high speed. Too fast to slow down abd take the corner it seemed, so I waved at him, and pointed in the direction of the turnoff. I saddled up and while I assumed Steve was slowing down and turning around to return to the turnoff, I set out to catch up with Erik.

I caught up with Erik and we rode slowly together for a while which would allow Steve to catch us up. By the time we got to a first tricky bridge, Steve still hadnt caught us up. We decided to go across the little bridge and wait for Steve on the other side.

Geir and Terry should be up ahead at the Vitim River bridge by now.

Even though this was just a short little bridge, just 20 yards across, it was really the first bridge we had come to on the BAM where you could not afford to make a mistake. A mistake here and the trip quite possibly ends.



I rode across ...



But perhaps conscious of the costs of a mistake, Erik decided to play it safe:

[Colebatch]

We waited half an hour for Steve ... but still no sign of him.

In the end, Erik said he would wait 15 minutes more before going back for him. I would ride up to the Vitim, 10-15 km ahead and tell the guys we lost Steve.

It occurred to me that Steve must have kept going straight at that turn off where he blew past me at high speed.

There were a few more funky bridges between here and the Vitim (this one shot on Steves camera)



But I got there and found both guys had taken their bikes over. Geir was waiting at the near end and was asking where we all were. I told him we lost Steve.

I looked at the bridge ... I looked at the river. It looked loads better than 3 years ago when were here on that cold, dark, stormy, windy, frightening day. The river now was lower, and calmer. The sky looked happy and kinda blue. I decided to ride it.

[Colebatch]

As mentioned, Geir and Terry had already crossed.

Here is Geir's crossing - complete with tourist stop in the middle for pics:



Note the energy, excitement and adrenaline Geir shows after crossing, is very similar to Iker's crossing a couple of days earlier

[ROD CURRIE]

All the time watching those clips I'm reciting " look where you want to go....look where you want to go" ....much as maybe you guys were?

Having seen the pics of the swollen angry river 3 years ago, and the slippery, wet, broken bridge nothing would have enticed me to ride it under those conditions -if you survived the fall into the river without the bike hitting you, the weight of your gear and the currents would ensure you never came up again until you were very dead indeed.

Even under these more benign conditions conditions it's not something you do lightly and I take my virtual hat off to you guys. That's one life used up....

[Colebatch]

I thought I would put a small tribute up here to those who have crossed the bridge.

But first, for those who have only seen what the bridge looks like in the videos, I will again highlight the challenge of the bridge. The biggest fear factor in the bridge is its height above the water. Pretty widely estimated at 50 feet / 15 metres. This is not visibile at all on the videos, which show no depth perception. But I can tell you it is totally perceptible to the rider when he is on the bike! You are on a narrow platform of greasy old railway sleepers, 2.5 metres (7.5 feet) wide, with no edge or railing, 15 metres (50 feet) above the water.

So for the sake of clarity, and to offer some perspective of the height of the bridge, here is a pic of the bridge that shows the distance to the water:





I pay tribute here to the other assorted video'd bike crossings of the bridge:

A couple of British guys in 2012 on KTM 690s:


Kudu Expeditions, who became the first company to lead a tour group over the BAM and over the Vitim Bridge (Including the first non russian woman to ride the bridge!) - also in 2012 ... about 10 days earlier than us. On XTZ660s


Another pair of British guys, Ed and Dan, in 2011. On a DR400 and WR250.


Hans-Joerg ... a thrill seeking Austrian in 2011. On an F650 Dakar


Staffan Johansson and Victor Solli (Swedes) in 2011, on an XTZ660

Vitim River 2011 from Staffan Johansson on Vimeo.

And of course, Iker the Spaniard ... just a few days ahead of us ... on a big 990


For some reason, the guys who did it in 2011 all reported it being not a problem. Maybe the water was low then, or weather very benign.

[Colebatch]

To give you an idea how angry the river is when the water level is up, this is a video from an Estonian adventurer in a car, just 3 weeks after us ... (late July 2012)

[davesupreme]

sorry, but that spanish guy splittin' those parallel boards on the last section at that speed is nukkin' futz!......