Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[Ridesolo]

I think is the michellin desert, he mentioned that a few pages back.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by baboon

Hello!

Please tell me, what tyre is this?

Yep - its my beloved Michelin Desert. I took two changes of tyres but I took a funny mix. I wanted to try the new Michelin Desert Race and compare it with the classic Michelin Desert at the back. The tyre in the pic above is a Desert Race rear. Up front I took a Desert and a T63. I figured the T63 with its less aggressive tread ( it was very close to the Mitas E09 in tread) would be better for the harder terrain in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, while the more grippy Desert front would be good in the sandy ground of the Ukraine and softer earth in European Russia. I was wrong. I should have had the deserts all the time. I missed some of the grip and confidence that comes with it when I switched to the T63 up front.

As for a comparison between the Desert Race and the classic Desert - the Race is a bit grippier, a bit more flexible, its 4ply instead of 5 ply so thats where the extra grip comes from. I was surprised that they lasted just as long too.

[RoninMoto]

Looking forward to the rest of this. The whole time you were on this trip, I was watching the update photos on Facebook waiting for the RR on ADV and dreaming of Russia. Good stuff.

[Colebatch]

We left one set of tyres with Dutch riders Prutser and Beemster, who would join us in Astana (they were shipping their bikes out - now with our spare tyres) in a months time. Rick and I already decided we had too much stuff and ditched a bunch. It was a morning of repacking in Holland:




(note Beemsters X-Country in the background)



Then we set off across Holland and Germany, now with just one set of knobblies being ferried on each bike, trying to get to Wroclaw in Poland for the night, where we would stay with Robert "Movistar" ... a veteran of the Eastern BAM. It was a long day, and in the rain for most of the way, but in the early evening, we pulled into Roberts, and were greeted with traditional Polish hospitality!



Unfortunately, Rick realised he had tied his front knobbly a little too close to the exhaust ... it was now useless. We would have to find a replacement the next morning.

[Dekatria]

That's not the way you want to burn some rubber, I imagine

[yety61]

I just found this thread.

I'm ssooooo in for this.

Colebach's ride reports inspired me to do a London to Magadan ride completed 6 weeks ago.

Absolutely incredible part of the world.

[cvcaelen]

reading and subscribed

[FlyingPickel]

Thanks for link. Reading and Subscribed.

[BordenBmw]

Can't wait!

This should be good!

[pelvis_98]

[EtronX]

Hoy mate :-)

Thanks for helping a two year dream come through :-)


Don't look back, you are not going in that direction :-)

[Tony P]

Ah - Ah!

Now I am begining to see what caused the regular stream of visits this summer from 'retirees' passing home, 'participants' on recuperation visits, others limping back to W Europe and 'recoverers' coming back to RUS for the remains of their motos that had been shipped here - all passing through Moscow.

Nice to know what I missed!!

[Deadly99]

[hardwaregrrl]

Dammit Walter.....I took the rest of the week off just for this!! Wait......that's a lie. But get on with it anyway!

Originally Posted by Deadly99

Hey Ted, wait till you see Prutser's R80ST in action

[bens109]

MORE! Bring it on