Can a Harley make it to Magadan?

Thanks for sharing!

I'm with you fellas......

Out of an estimated 20,000 threads (40 per line x 500 pages) Yes i see that there are 733 pages, a bunch seem to have been moved.

There are currently only 11 Ride Report threads that can claim the additional fame of being members of the 1 million + views club.

Glen is way closer to his 3 millionth view than the 1 mark.
Doug is here twice...looks like your dirtster is a bit more popular than the panhead.
Clayton appears to engage his readers so much in his stories that they are to mesmerized to reply.

Would be great if the mods could let us know how many subscribers each of them have.

Thread Title - Start Date n Time - Replies - Views
Striking Viking bumming the world (On the road again) 05-12-2004, 01:43 AM 7,022 2,988,422
Quit my job to go on a "little" ride....US Tour '07 02-11-2007, 12:42 AM 5,363 1,837,533
Seattle to Argentina on a KLR650 05-07-2006, 05:01 PM 1,264 1,610,653
The BAM Road - ultimate test of man and machine 12-14-2009, 08:00 AM 1,646 1,538,485
Can a Harley make it to Magadan? 04-27-2011, 03:04 PM 2,490 1,441,766
The Mobius Trip 05-23-2008, 06:33 PM 4,880 1,367,401
From Estonia with love (Round the World awesome ADVenture!!) 06-30-2009, 11:05 AM 2,559 1,318,875
Angola, it's not like they said. 09-23-2007, 03:40 AM 1,175 1,237,584
Sydney to London on a105cc Honda callled Dot 05-04-2009, 07:47 AM 2,878 1,204,865
Siberian Extreme 2010 - Back for More 07-21-2010, 08:27 AM 1,820 1,076,804
The WRONG Way Round.... on a Chopper! 05-07-2009, 07:26 PM 1,583 1,067,433

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Ive been dickin around, and fallen WAY behind on finishing this. But, as Im now in Bulgaria, & taking off next week to ride around the black sea, and then back to the US to do the Cannonball in september, I am gonna TRY to get this finished.

From Vladivostok, we headed north, then west. First stop was Ussurisk, where we had been invited to spend the night with Alexei & his family. They had a banya (sauna) out back with a bedroom in it.

We didn’t try the banya, but it also doubles as a shower/washroom.


The next morning we headed out, 600km to Khabarovsk

Alex & Poly



It’s a pretty boring ride, but there was a slow truck in front of us, and I was fixin to pass it, when I noticed the left rear tire acting funny, so I motioned to Poly & we slowed down. Not long after that, the wheel started wobbling, then shot off to the left. When the frame of the truck hit the ground, it also made a sharp left. Close call!



We got to Khab about midnite, found the ‘harley café’ & called a guy who Sasha had put us in touch with. But, I guess he had something else to do, as he couldn’t make it. I had heard of the HD Café here, but it turned out to be a Russian yuppie bar, decorated in Americana. It pretty much sucked, & was expensive. We did meet some nice people tho, & they were trying to help us find a room, but then we met another biker named Efgheny, who insisted we come to his house. By now, its almost 2am, & poly was beat, & not very happy, so we went with him.
He had a garage for the bikes, & made room for us in his small flat. More Russian hospitality! The next morning, we hit the road early. Its going to be a lot of long days to get to Europe!
After leaving Vladi, I was feeling like a BMW rider, as my final drive was starting to fail (the chain was worn out after the road to magadan) I didn’t realize it when I was in Vladi, & the shops were closed in Khab today, so I thought I’d just get a chain in Chita.
I kept it oiled & loose. It was noisy, but seemed ok for now.

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We stopped at some small town & found a crappy hotel.
We didn’t really WANT a crappy hotel, but it was the only hotel for 200km, so we didn’t have much choice.



The only classy place was the Polina Magazine (store)



And a café next door with Siberian shitza (shitty pizza) it was like dough, with ketchup & some other crap on it.

It really is bad.

Annnnnd we're BACK .

Good to "see" ya Doug.

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The next morning it was cold. The temp had dropped the day before, but dropped a lot overnite. We weren’t really prepared for much cold. Poly wore her backpack as a frontpack to help block the wind



Oh, then it started to rain. Yay!
This is the monument from when they finished the worlds longest road.
Knowing the Russians, they probably built this before the road was started



This guy was set up there selling honey, and gave us a bottle


And a small church there also


Down the road I met this guy



Who was towing one of the coolest boats ever made. It had a wheel problem, he was waiting to get it fixed.



Trying to warm up in a café



We met Jannik, who was heading the other way


There are many of these ‘exits to nowhere’ along the road

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There was a sliver of pavement on the right side, and I had to go in with the end of the handlebar scraping the wall, my left foot over a hole in the broken pavement about 2 feet deep. It was only about 20 feet of this, so it wasn’t too bad, but it did suck, as I was already tired from the riding in the cold/wet all day. We get into the ‘center’, all the streets are mud, any pavement was broken up & full of holes. It was quite a depressing place. We found what passed for the local ‘hotel’ which was a big assed building that had a room for rent. The old lady there wasn’t happy to see us, as she gets paid whether there is a guest or not, so of course she would prefer the option with the least amount of work for her. She did relent & offer us the room, which actually wasn’t as bad as we expected.
We walked down to the café in the center, we did not blend in at all. Everyone staring at us. Obviously they are not used to strangers, and prefer not to be bothered by others coming to their shitty town. The only people interested were a flock of teenage girls, who followed me around asking questions & wanting to have their picture taken with me. Poly was not too thrilled about this, and was givin them the stink eye, but they didn’t seem to mind. Or to be deterred. It was pretty funny. (Poly does not agree)
I couldn’t find a garage to park in, so I locked the bikes to the rail on the hotel steps, & covered mine (Poly didn’t have a cover) plus I have the motion alarm on mine. The next morning as we got up to leave, the old lady informs us theres a problem with the bikes. We go down, & one of her saddlebags was stolen from the bike during the nite, the straps were cut. SHIT! I’ve been all over Russia, & never had a problem until I get to this shitty town in the middle of nowhere, and I was happy to share this info with the 3 old ladies who had gathered outside. Luckily, the only things in that bag were some tools, t-shirts, & worse of all, Poly’s teddy bear. I had gotten it for her several years ago, & she had brought it along, she took it everywhere. (no, I cant explain this, it must be a girl thing) Needless to say, she was PISSED! The old lady wanted to call the cops, but why bother? They would just keep us there for hours filling out some forms that would be shoved in a file cabinet & forgotten, so I just reattached the other bag (the alarm chirping probably kept them from getting to close to that one) and we got the hell out of there. Poly refused the tunnel, so I looked at the map, & saw where the old road headed out, & we went that way. It was about 20km of shit, dirt, mud, holes, etc until we got to the main road, but at least there were no tunnels.

The road to shit town


And the lovely tunnel. It doesn’t look bad, but the concrete is all broken up under the water, and there are huge holes. No, I don’t know why they don’t fill them with gravel or something




My shittown fan club, looking for a way out, Im guessing

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Not a happy camper


Shitty road to leave a shitty town. I don’t suggest anyone else visit.





A couple hours later, we met Stas for lunch, near Skovorodino



This looked familiar. When I was here a month earlier, it was nice & warm. Winter comes fast in Siberia





We stopped at the memorial for the biker that was killed last year. Across the road up the hill is a prison. I hope they put that asshole in there, with a view of this spot. I have since found out that the burned buildings behind it were a café & a tire repair shop, both were torched by some local bikers.
Also, this summer, a bike rider from Japan was killed & robbed, west of here. He was camping, & attacked during the night by a couple lowlifes. They have since been caught.
If you do camp along this road, make sure you cant be seen. I’d suggest a hotel, even if its in a shitty town.

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Maybe the rain will stop soon?



Another long day, and we stopped in Mogachi. We were both a bit worried, as the name is similar to shit town, but we are miles from anywhere. Max had told me of a hotel here, and gave me a guys phone number, but we couldn’t reach him. Then a local stopped to say hi. He knew where the hotel was, & had us follow him. It was a nice small hotel, the lady running it was happy to see us, fixed us dinner, brought it to our room, had a garage for the bikes, in essence, it was the exact opposite of where we stayed the night before. Friendly helpful people, the town was pretty nice, paved roads, no tunnels, etc.
I guess we are back in Russia. Everyone that we talk to, & mention the shit town, they get wide eyed & tell us we were lucky, as it was a very bad place. Stas told me a couple on a bike there last year had their bike stolen. (they found it a couple days later)

So, avoid that place.

The long cold wet days are taking their toll. Poly is sick, we are both pretty miserable, & wore out. We want to make Chita today, & take a break at the lovely Panama City hotel..

Of course, my stupid GPS tells me there is a gas station ahead, but there isn’t. there is nothing. So I run out of gas. Poly’s bike is really low. Some guys stop, & luckily there is a town with gas, but its 10km down a dirt road. Poly needs a break, so I jump on the BMW & head to the town, fill it up & come back. We only lose an hour.

As we get close to Chita, theres a memorial for some people that were brought out here & shot by Stalins flunkies. I think there was about 40 of them. Whole families. I guess the whole ‘freedom of speech’ thing we take for granted wasn’t so popular back on the 30’s here.

We got to Chita, & got the same room I got on my way out. I really love this place. They should make this a chain, & put them about 4-500km apart, all across Russia.



I told Poly I&#8217;d take her to the &#8216;outdoor store&#8217; in Chita to get some warmer clothes. She thought I was talking about a store for outdoor gear, but I took her to the big market.
First, some tall warm socks. These are hand woven from the leg hairs of the babushka.




The Russian &#8216;victorias secret&#8217;



trying on a furry hat


I like this market, as they have a big &#8216;junk&#8217; section. I can usually find something at these to fix most bike problems

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Doug,thanks for taking time to give us the rest of the story.

love it~! Keep it coming.

Thanks for the update Doug...can't wait for the Cannonball

Been reading for quite a while, great RR, thanks!

Hurry up and finish this report, we waiting for the dead sea report and for the Cannonball race report

Thank you for the update. Fascinating as always.

never too late to finish a great story.

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At least it was sunny!

I’ve traveled this stretch of road several times, and theres really nothing exciting about it. We did finally get to see a bear, it ran across the road in front of us.

At a gas station, turn off your stinky Izh before you get to the pump








We found a decent room about 2 hours before Ulan Ude. We wanted to make it there, but it refused to warm up, and we were beat from being cold all day.