Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

That is one properly fooked rim!

In Yakutsk there are two places you can go to if you want to have a nice night on the town. The Chicago Bar and the Europa Club. There are probably more places, but trust me on this, these two will do

As part of our great "Motivate Terry Scheme", Steve, Adrian and I figured that a cosy night out with the lads would be just what the Doctor would prescribe for young Terry. Lets go and have a couple of beers, relax and talk quietly about the road ahead. Maybe this would get Mr. Brown on better thoughts Erik and Walter decided to stay at the hotel that night :huh but the rest of the crew took responsibility

At about 1800 hours we trotted over to the Chicago Bar. It was only a 10 - 15 minutes walk from the hotel. The weather was nice and the temperature required no more than a shirt and maybe a thin sweater. We enjoyed looking at all the people smiling. It was a nice evening

We got to the Chicago and quickly noticed that this was a more upper class bar. Perfect, this suited us fine. We just wanted some food and a beer. And maybe a small Vodka in order to celebrate our friendship and the fact that we had gotten all the way to Yakutsk.

There were quite a few people there. Mostly tables with 4 to 6 girls. We got a table and ordered a beer. Everyone smiled and said hello to us. Russians are very friendly and nice The beer came, but the food took some time. So we ordered another beer. And a small Vodka. People came over and chatted. Some brought Vodka and everything was A OK.

At around 1930 I got some problems with my eyes. The focusing and stereo mechanism didn't quite work as good as it was supposed to. I didn't worry to much about that though. I just had to close one eye and the two Terry's were reduced to one again. Problem solved

Now, I know that Terry is a bit older than me, but I still blame some on my age. At around 2000 hours my alzheimer light seems to have kicked in. Things start to get a bit vague from that time. I know we had a very good time at the Chicago Bar. Talked to lots of nice people with very long legs that never seemed to end :huh

At what time we left the Chicago Bar I have no idea. I think we emptied the bar and they had to close the joint They are not used to us there. Last time the Vikings went shopping they didn't get that far East. They did get to the UK though. Thats why we have all the blond long legged girls in Norway and not in Aberdeen

Sorry about that last digression

Somehow we continued this spectacular night and got ourselves over to the Europa Club. "Huston we had liftoff"

Photo wise we don't have much documentation from this night and my recollection of the Europa Club is next to none. I only have one picture and one video clip. I'll let them speak for them selves



<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/59804094" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/59804094">Trans Sibir eXpedition 2012 Europa Club Yakutsk</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/etronx">EtronX</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Amazing! Just simply Amazing! Thank you O so much for this.

WOW what a great story (trip) this is turning out to be and it just keeps coming. Has to be some kind of joint book deal, all you need is a good catchy name....

Sorry to see the two guys leaving and can fully understand why. I have never been on the road for that long and can see it finally wearing you out.
Thanks for the great read everyone please keep it coming

ooooh nooooo, i,ll never live it down :eek1.

I blame the Vikings !!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't know you had it in you mate

Terry old mate You've e got the moooves And sorry for taking you out that night and leading you down that alley. Every hope we had of you going with us to Magadan perished that night

moves like McJagger

Now thats what i call adventure riding, after such a long way, this was the best place to celebrate!!!!!

Walter could the rim from your XC fit in the F 800? they are both BMW. And then you could take a new one in Moscow. Steve could pay for that if you wanted.

Now, let me get this straight. You built a wheel just by setting the spokes, without a rig? You are a damn magician! That is something I would never attempt - and I did work on bicycle and motorcycle spoke wheels.

Apparently, it's true: necessity is a mother of brilliance!


On another note: I thought you guys were riding in the middle of nowhere. Far away. Yet, anywhere you go, you meet fellow travelers. What's the matter. is the place totally overrun by moto adventurers? Is it like New York City, where the only pedestrians on a weekend are tourists?

jep, just like new york, but with only one street that is a few 1000 miles long

Walter, having read this far through the thread, and also after browsing quite a bit through your bike build thread as well, I felt the need to ask your opinion - do you think a g650 Sertao is a viable platform for adventurization similar in spirit to what you have done with XC? Naturally, the more why's you could list, either way, the better

Walter and Terry

I want to thank you both for taking us along on your travels, You have taken a trip most of us can only dream of.

THANK YOU AGAIN

A fork or swing arm with a bit of cardboard taped to it works almost as well has a fancy stand.

I thought that guy (Bolot) looked familiar...see the first couple mins of this video:

<object width="640" height="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7vx3XEIVTsQ?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7vx3XEIVTsQ?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Hi guys,

Great trip you had and an awesome ride report. I wont start mine until this one is ready

So, I was in Yakutsk now with Sibirsky Extreme ,Trans Sibir eXpedition 2012 and Kudu Expeditions. What better company could I have asked for.

I was on my own solo trip which took me from Romania to Bulgaria - Turkey - Georgia - Armenia - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Tajikistan - Kirghistan - Kazakhstan - Russia - Mongolia - Russia to Vladivostok and then by boat north to Magadan where my trip back would start.

I was getting to Yakutsk after I have finished the Roads of Bones via the new road (Magadan, Susuman, Ust-Nera, Kyubuyme, Khadinga, Yakutsk). Did not manage to do the all of the Old Summer Road since I fried my clutch ..... Great experience and a huge thank to Russian Emergency Services for coming after my and my bike.
Piece of advise: get a Spot Tracker.

There is always a next time, and now I have a serious reason to go back :)

I had a great time with the above mentioned guys. Was good to see Terry again, which I knew for Doug's Motocamp in Bulgaria in the previous year.



I finally meet Walter, since we knew each other only from the online.
It has been said before, but Walter, we were there because of you. Thanks for all the work done to provide adventure motorcyclists with a huge amount of information about the area and for inspiration. Was great meeting you.



And it was great to know the crazy norvegians Geir, Erik and Steve. Great guys and we had a lot a fun in the city. Day and night

Also there were Jeff and Neil from Kudu Expedition which I met 2 weeks ago in Magadan after finishing their London to Magadan Tour. Very nice people, very friendly and we had lots of beers together. Also very helpful a and give me some of their stuff and spares for the way back. Thanks guys!



When they left Magadan 5 days before me we said good bye and hope will not meet again in this trip, because if we did, some of us will be in trouble. We did meet, in Yakutsk and later in Moscow



Back to Yakutsk. We had a long ride by taxi in and around the city to look for spares, oil and other bits we needed. A huge thanks to Bolot for coming with us and help sort things out. Great guy. Check his website: www.askyakutia.com, he has a lot of useful information about the area.



In the evening we had some beers at Lena Hotel


The things in Chicago Bar started well, and continued even better. My memory is also fuzzy... especially after vodka shot number x...







The next day we went to see the ice cave from Planet Yakutia. Great experience, and safe since I was with the Jedi's and Dark Lord Terry (a bit of hangover he got, but so did we).









Packing and preparing to leave




After a few days of fun, repairs and rest it was time to get back on the road again. I will go towards Myrni, Lensk then down the Lena River to Lake Baikal, the TransSiberian and home to Romania. At least that was the plan.....



The norvegians prepare to take to Roads of Bones to Magadan via the Old Summer Road.

Great year, amazing people and a hell of a ride. Thank you all!

I might be changing my sig line.. With credit to you Rod, of course.. This captures my thoughts very well...

Hey.... she's wearing a musician skirt.... or musikant-skjørt (les: mus-i-kant) as it's known in Norwegian.... and only the Norwegians will get that reference

Any 21 inch rim would fit. The main question is one of practicality.

We could not change wheels as Terry and I were both running KTM spec wheels despite the fact they were on BMWs. The wheels would not have fitted Steve's bike. The only solution was to pull the wheel apart to get a rim.

We had planned to get in touch with off road bikers in Yakutsk and see if they had any rims they could sell Steve. Then we saw kudu with spare wheels. The simplest solution was to use one of those. Terry and I had to ride our bikes back from Moscow to western Europe in 4 weeks, just 1 week after the bikes were due to arrive. So there would be very little time to effect a solution. Terry and I were not waiting around in Moscow for the bikes - we were going to fly in and ride them out the next day. Also we both had top quality excel rims. There is no stock of those in Moscow to replace our rims with. It would potentially have been very expensive for Steve to arrange for an A60 rim to be imported to Moscow, pay import duty and then get it laced to my hub.

The solution with kudu was the most logical on every count.

If you start on the BAM road and plan to end up in Magadan, there is only one road. And everyone passing thru is in touch with Bolot - our man in Yakutsk. When you email him and tell him you will be in town in 3 days time he tells you who else will be around - cyclists, motorcyclists, 4wd expeditioners - Bolot knows all.

There is only a 6 week season up there anyway - almost everyone to go up there goes betweenm mid july and end august. Probably 20-30 a season and most stay in Yakutsk a few days to prepare for road of bones. So you always have a chance to meet people there.