From Estonia with love (Round the World awesome ADVenture!!)

[tsiklonaut]

Route:

The crew:

Margus & Kariina

Origin: North-Eastern Europe, Estonia
Race: a mix of everything - Estonian, Polish, Swedish, German, Russian... you name it.


Objective: to see the world with an open mind, explore ourselves and the world instead of looking down on it from the bad-news-makes-the-news viewpoint of the media.

And off the bike.

The bike:

Well used and abused, well tested and offroaded, proven 1998 BMW R1100GS with over 50 000 miles on the clock before the beginning of the expedition - over 150 000 miles when finished the historical expedition - carrying the first Estonian motorbikers around the world.

BMW R1100GS basic specs:

Capacity: 1085 cubic cm
Bore: 99.0 mm
Stroke: 70.5 mm
Compression ratio: 10.3:1
Front suspension: BMW telelever, w/o dive under breaking
Rear suspension: BMW paralever, single sided swingarm with torsional damping
Front suspension travel: 190mm
Rear suspension travel: 200mm
Final drive: shaft (oh yes, ours is proven reliable!)
Final drive teeth pattern: Kingelnberg-Polloid spiral
Final drive ratio: 33:11 or 3.00:1
Top speed: 122mph (never needed it outside European autobahns..., but at least unlike any thumper on the Planet Earth it sings, breathes and is vibey free w/o absolutely any stress @ 85+mph all day long)
ABS: yes.
Alternator output: 700W @ 4000rpm of engine speed
Factory spec dry weight: 224kg
Wet weight with full tank: 243kg
Seats: comfty for both of us.


Measured dyno specs @ crank:

Torque: 103Nm @ 5600rpm (the best low grunt in its age/class of bikes for 2up + full gear)
HP: 60kW (80hp) @ 6900rpm (enough for overtakes and all day long highways with all that weight)
Fuel consumption: average around 5L/100km (47 US MPG), city 5.8L/100km (40 MPG), legal speeds freeway 4.5L/100km (53 MPG).

A preview of what's inside this 150+ page ride report:

Our expedition has seen it's ups and downs, since we really were on a tight budget and had to take certain risks. We're very thankful to our readers who motivated us to continue delivering quality pics and reports on the road. Not many people know this, but it's actually a lot of work to produce text, pictures and videos while on the road to make up all those countless reports.

You can support us (which will go into our future travel fund meanwhile):

We're sincerely thankful for any kind of support that is given to us.

People, without the expedition wouldn't had been possible:

• Aaron G. (OH, USA)
• Abilio T. (Portugal)
• Alexandru B. (Romania)
• Alexandru M. (Romania)
• Alan B. (IL, USA)
• Alan T. (UK)
• Allan K. (VA, USA)
• Andres, Luiz, Ana & Juan Jose (Mexico)
• Andrew H. (CA, USA)
• Andrew T. (UK)
• Andrey V. (Russia)
• Anton R. (Croatia)
• Anthony L. (UK)
• Antonina B. (WI, USA)
• Arnaud S. (France)
• Arunas B. (Lithuania)
• Arvydas B. (IL, USA)
• Ashley D. (UK)
• August & Anita B. (Lesotho)
• Babis (Greece)
• Balaji D. (UAE)
• Basilio (Angola)
• Bjørn J. (Norway)
• Bradley B. (USA)
• Bram & Griska (Indonesia)
• Bridget G. (ON, Canada)
• boycrusher (ON, Canada)
• Charles H. (GA, USA)
• Charles H. F. (UK)
• Chris J. (CA, USA)
• Christopher Z. (NY, USA)
• Conrad K. (South Africa)
• Craig K. (Australia)
• Dana S. (NS, Canada)
• Daniel N. (Croatia)
• Daniel W. (NM, USA)
• Dave H. (UK)
• David A. (TN, USA)
• David G. (UK)
• David J. (ON, Canada)
• David L. (UK)
• David M. (ON, Canada)
• David R. & Francine (NY, USA)
• David Z. (NY, USA)
• Dean L. (Malaysia)
• Dean T. (ID, USA)
• Denis B. (France)
• Denis C. (FL, USA)
• Dennis M. (CA, USA)
• Didier L. (Australia)
• Dietrich S. (NY, USA)
• Dimitris (Greece)
• Dinis G. (Portugal)
• Dominick M. (MI, USA)
• Donald U. (TX, USA)
• Donald W. (South Africa)
• Donnie J. (MS, USA)
• Doug F. (AB, Canada)
• Douglas B. (NC, USA)
• Ed "The Agent" T. (Austria)
• Edward F. (AL, USA)
• Edwin H. (Germany)
• Elsebie & Michnus O. (South Africa)
• Emiliano R. (Australia)
• Esteban R. (NY, USA)
• Fabrice T. (QC, Canada)
• Florin S. (Romania)
• Frants C. (South-Africa)
• Funckmeister (Spain)
• Gary P. (ON, Canada)
• George K. (Greece)
• George V. (NY, USA)
• Georges T. (France)
• Gintaras S. (Lithuania)
• Giuseppe R. (Italy)
• Gonçalo B. (Portugal)
• Gregory W. (IL, USA)
• Guy G. (CA, USA)
• Hannu S. (Finland)
• Hans R. (QC, Canada)
• Harald M. (Germany)
• Heiko B.
• Hidayet G. (FL, USA)
• Ho Seng C. (Singapore)
• Hoang N. (Vietnam)
• Hugh D. (RI, USA)
• Ian Clive G. (South Africa)
• Ildrim V. (BC, Canada)
• Ilhan G. (Turkey)
• Ioannis P. (Greece)
• Ivan K. (Slovakia)
• Ivan T. (Spain)
• J. E. F. (WA, USA)
• Jacques J. (QC, Canada)
• James B. (UK)
• James F. (USA)
• James S. (UK)
• Jamie R.
• Jan K. (BC, Canada)
• Jani L. (Finland)
• Jean-Francois J. (France)
• Jeff H. (MT, USA)
• Jeff K. C. (CA, USA)
• Jeremy G. (BC, Canada)
• Jimmy C. (CA, USA)
• Joe P. (QC, Canada)
• Johan K. (Sweden)
• John S. (AB, Canada)
• John W. (UK)
• Jon Atli E. (Iceland)
• Jorge R.
• Jørgen B. (Denmark)
• Jose Maria G. D. (Spain)
• José N. (Angola)
• Joseph F. (IL, USA)
• Justin P. (UK)
• Kaare A. (WA, USA)
• Kai H. (Norway)
• Karen M. (CO, USA)
• Kari K. (Finland)
• Keith H. (UK)
• Kenneth S. (MT, USA)
• Kim SJ. (South-Korea)
• Kim S. (UK)
• Koen B. (Belgium)
• Konstantin M. (Russia)
• Kristin S. (TX, USA)
• Kurt B. (PA, USA)
• Laurence B. (Saudi Arabia)
• Laurynas S. (Lithuania)
• Leonard V. (Netherlands)
• Leonel S. (Portugal)
• Leopoldo M. (GA, USA)
• Lilio A. (Angola)
• Linas K. (Lithuania)
• Marc S. (France)
• Marcin P. (Poland)
• Marek T. (UK)
• Marinus v. D. (GA, USA)
• Marius W. (Austria)
• Mark S. (CA, USA)
• Martin C. (TX, USA)
• Martin E. (Germany)
• Martin F. (MA, USA)
• Matt F. (AK, USA)
• Matt M. (WA, USA)
• Matthew D. (WA, Australia)
• Matthew D. (KY, USA)
• Michal P. (Poland)
• Michael B. (CO, USA)
• Michael C. (UK)
• Michael K. (VA, USA)
• Michael S. (CO, USA)
• Michael S. (Australia)
• Mike Me. (KY, USA)
• Mike Mu. (NC, USA)
• Nelson S. K. (UAE)
• Nicky v L. (UAE)
• Nicole B. (Switzerland)
• Nigel P. (UK)
• Oleg M. (Russia)
• Oscar R. M.
• Owen L. (CO, USA)
• Ozgun Z. (Turkey)
• Paul DMH (USA)
• Paul B. & Carol (AK, USA)
• Paco S. R. (Spain)
• Panagiotis K. (Greece)
• Paul C. (CA, USA)
• Paul G. (UK)
• Paul K. (UK)
• Pavlos V. (Greece)
• Peter J. (Slovakia)
• Peter W. (UK)
• Petr Samokhvalov (Russia)
• Phattanan A. (CA, USA)
• Philip B. (UK)
• Piotr K. (UK)
• Quoc N. (TX, USA)
• Ramey W. (AK, USA)
• Rashad (Yemen)
• Rene S. (BC, Canada)
• Riyaz N. (UAE)
• Riccardo M. (Italy)
• Richard Ca. (UK)
• Richard Co. (UK)
• Richard O. (OK, USA)
• Richard T. (OR, USA)
• Rob A. (UK)
• Rob R. (AE, USA)
• Robert A. (IL, USA)
• Robert Ca. (UT, USA)
• Robert C. (Poland)
• Robert D. (Germany)
• Robert M. (UK)
• Robert S. (Netherlands)
• Robert V. (CT, USA)
• Roellen W. (UK)
• Roman Z. (NJ, USA)
• Ronald D. (Netherlands)
• Ronald H. (MD, USA)
• Sabin K. (Bulgaria)
• Sained Ltd. (Bulgaria)
• Sandis K. (Latvia)
• Sascha F. (Austria)
• Scott Cl. (NY, USA)
• Scott Co. (AZ, USA)
• Semion S. (Israel)
• Shane C. (WA, USA)
• Shawn & Shelly B. (MI, USA)
• Shawn C. (CO, USA)
• Shridar R. (CA, USA)
• Silviu S. (GA, USA)
• sion (OH, USA)
• Steffen R. (South Pole)
• Steve B. (IL, USA)
• Steve R. (NY, USA)
• Steve W. (South Africa)
• Suzanne F. (UK)
• Tage S-K (Italy/Norway)
• Tamme K. (Netherlands)
• Thierry Q. (France)
• Thomas P. (Macedonia)
• Tim K. (ON, Canada)
• Timo M. (Finland)
• Timo T. (Finland)
• Timothy S. (Oman)
• Tom R. (Belgium)
• Tomas B. (Lithuania)
• Tomas N. (Lithuania)
• Tracy B. (BC, Canada)
• Tsompanis (Greece)
• Tuomas K. (Finland)
• Vaidas G. (Lithuania)
• Vesa L. (Finland)
• Véronique B. (France)
• Vitaly P. (CA, USA)
• Wally K. (CA, USA)
• Walter B. (MI, USA)
• Walton S. (CO, USA)
• Warrick J. (UK)
• Wiktor S. (Belgium)
• William S.
• WMM St. (Netherlands)
• Wojciech D. (Luxembourg)
• Yauhen R. (NY, USA)
• Yuri P. (ON, Canada)
• Zivko M. (Serbia)
• Zoltan K. (Hungary)
• 2 geeks and 1 nerd (NY, USA)

Thank you!


PS: we've done our best to put all of our supporters on the list, but it's grown so long now we may have omitted some, please-please send us a PM if that's the case!


Start browsing...

[Oilybimmer]

Subscribed Margus

Stewart

[DR. Rock]

It's been a pleasure hosting you two at the ADVenture Loft... , and great hearing your stories and seeing photos / audio and video clips.

I wish Google's Estonian-English translator were a little more better, but porting your blog to a RR here should be a snap regardless...

For the rest of you FF's, you're in for a real treat.

Oh, and Estonia is NOT part of Russia!

[damoace]

Subscribed. Any report that the Mobius architect describes as 'a treat' *has* to be worth a look..

And I have a softspot for the R1100gs too. Wish I never sold mine..

[rwpeebles]

I'm excited already!

rw

[Ted Bell]

I'm signed up for this report -- can't wait to see how things unfold.

[Welshman]

See you in africa, we will have a place for you...

[Navel]

Looking at your planned route, looks like you are shipping your bike to America from NW Spain, thats where I live so msg me for any help I could give you...or just for having a (some) beer(s). Good luck!!

[Looksgoodinblack]

Subscribed and waiting for more...

[plumber mike]

Say Hello to my relatives and tell them I will be there soon.Safe travels
from the Vaga's

[Jedi5150]

Great photos! I can't wait to see the rest of it and follow along as your journey unfolds. Stay safe and have fun!

[didzhej]

Looking fwd! I'm in...!
Brother from LT.

[aztec06]

this promises to be really good

[jdaniele]

It was a pleasure to meet you both. I am excited and awaiting the updates. ENJOY

Regards
JD

[vOOdsy]

This will be good.

Look us up when you're in Australia, spare place for you to stay