Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[Prutser]

I knew the crossings would be a challenge with the boxer. I was the first one to ride my bike in.
Most of my trip's I'll end in the water with my bike's so I thought I knew the limit. But this was the first time with this one.
And it did surprise me that the bike started to stutter when the carbs submerged. (normally the bikes have no problem this deep). So I jumped of the bike and started to grab my tools.(that is what I was doing on this picture).
When I found water in the float chambers I tightened all the hose clamps.(Which I allready did before).
There are brass tubes in the float chambers that could let water get in to the carb. I squeezed them tight
and mounted them again.The bike fired up again.
I the meantime Walter started trying to make it across.... to the place were he stopped the bike.
When his bike didn't want to keep running Terry and me helped to push his bike across.

After that the other bikes were brought to the other side. I helped Walter and Terry with there bikes.
Than I walked Beem(ster)'s bike over with Terry's help (Thanks Mate )
Walked back again for my lightweight bike . In the mean time Terry helped Rod with the KTM.
The first few meters were no problem.Until the water reached the air intake ! Before it went under the bike started to stall again. The carbs are 50cm from the ground, the intake 75cm.

Now Terry helped me to push my bike. It was tough with the current and the bike sinking into the soft soil.

When all the bikes were across I took out the spark plugs, drained the bike. By the time everyone was done wringing their socks......my bike was running and ready to go.(took about 10 min)

Originally Posted by ac72

Just wondering about the float chambers in this pic - Prutser seems to have them open and with handy wires to hold them hanging in place. Something to do with water and fuel?

[ROD CURRIE]

Pruster got in this far before the airhead stopped



We hopped in to help him haul it back to the shore.

These pics don't show how deep it was. Off the sandbanks it was chest deep and trying to find the route between one sandbank and the next was the challenge.

The KTM was fine even in the deepest bits so when we got towards the far side I tried to hop on and ride it out. My boots were so heavy and trousers so full of water that I could barely lift my leg over the saddle.

[Francesco2]

First off all: Great RR! The detailed info and backgrounds from Walter supplemented with the experiences of the other riders makes this a clifhanger

Originally Posted by Prutser

...When all the bikes were across I took out the spark plugs, drained the bike. By the time everyone was done wringing their socks......my bike was running and ready to go.(took about 10 min)

Just wondering as a beginning offroad rider, with no real watercrossing experience, how bad are these water intrusions for your engine? I mean, the water will flow along the ports/valves into the cilinderheads right? Your engine oil will mix up with some water which can't be doing any good to the engine lifespan...

This brings up the next question, maybe Walter can answer this, how many (hard-) offraod miles can a 650cc thumper withstand before needing a revision? Walter must have done several miles with his beemer isn't it? Did you guys take along spare oil on this trip?

[MrPulldown]

Originally Posted by Francesco2

Just wondering as a beginning offroad rider, with no real watercrossing experience, how bad are these water intrusions for your engine? I mean, the water will flow along the ports/valves into the cilinderheads right? Your engine oil will mix up with some water which can't be doing any good to the engine lifespan...

Bad. If your cylinder is full of water it will not compress. I have seen bent and broken rods from the piston trying to compress the water many times.
The fuel/oil/water mixing part is the least of your concerns. Your electircals can also short, frying everything.

Not a bike but you get the idea.

[allroadtoine]

After a watercrossing the engine stopped and I was stupid enough to try to start the engine. Fortenately only the starter broke. Showed in my case the weakest part of the system and lukely not a hole in the piston..

Be carefull

Greetings

Toine

[dashmoto]

Originally Posted by Francesco2

Just wondering as a beginning offroad rider, with no real watercrossing experience, how bad are these water intrusions for your engine? I mean, the water will flow along the ports/valves into the cilinderheads right? Your engine oil will mix up with some water which can't be doing any good to the engine lifespan...

There's a few things that can happen.

If the engine's still running when it sucks in water, you potentially have the sort of damage in the photo above.

If you turn it off as you fall in, or push it through deep water with the engine off, you'll get water in the airbox and probably exhaust, and unless the engine happens to have stopped with all the valves completely closed, it will end up in the cylinders. Even if you try and start it you won't bend conrods, etc, because the starter won't get it spinning hard enough, but you won't be able to get it running until you take the spark plug out and turn the engine over to pump it out.

If your bike has a crankcase breather which runs into the airbox (as a lot of bikes do), then the water in your airbox will inevitably flow downhill into the crankcase, and ruin the oil. This is A Bad Thing. I've done it twice to my XT660Z, so was utterly unsurprised on reading one of Colebatch's previous reports to find that Terry had done the same to the XT660R he had on that trip. I have a simple mod in mind to prevent it happening a third time (of course I thought of doing it after the first time I went swimming, then didn't actually manage to do it before the second time ).

[Prutser]

Originally Posted by Francesco2

First off all: Great RR! The detailed info and backgrounds from Walter supplemented with the experiences of the other riders makes this a clifhanger



Just wondering as a beginning offroad rider, with no real watercrossing experience, how bad are these water intrusions for your engine? I mean, the water will flow along the ports/valves into the cilinderheads right? Your engine oil will mix up with some water which can't be doing any good to the engine lifespan...

This brings up the next question, maybe Walter can answer this, how many (hard-) offraod miles can a 650cc thumper withstand before needing a revision? Walter must have done several miles with his beemer isn't it? Did you guys take along spare oil on this trip?

When I checked the boxer didn't have water in the engine oil after this crossing. After draining the carbs and cilinders the bike was fine.

[_cy_]

yikes... sounds like some deep crossings...

[hardwaregrrl]

I often thought about some sort of compression/rubber sock we could put over our float bowls to keep the H2O out. Ah, the mighty airhead!!!!!!!! Thanks for taking us along Prutser!!!

[Colebatch]

Unfortunately my bike wasnt fine. Still with water in my fuel. I kept turning the bike over trying to pump the water out of the tank via the engine.

After an incredible amount of cranking, my battery finally died. We had no choice but to try and jump start it. Prutser had the most torque so offered to tow me up the top of a nearby hill.

Unfortunately we were lazy and connected the bikes up incorrectly.



So when we got to the crest of the hill, and slowed down, slack came into the rope, and it caught on my front wheel knobblies, got sucked into the front wheel and jammed it up solid. With the front wheel locked up, there was only one place for me to go ... down!

With the bike and myself back on our feet, and the bike still not wanting to start, We decided to tow it properly. Footpeg to footpeg. There was a gravel road 2km away, and a village about 10 km (6 miles) away. We can try and tow it there while occasionally trying to clutch start it along the way. Terry stepped up to be the tow bike. The others followed sedately as we towed at 40 km/h

[hardwaregrrl]

Loving it Walter. No jumper cables?

[Prutser]

Originally Posted by hardwaregrrl

I often thought about some sort of compression/rubber sock we could put over our float bowls to keep the H2O out. Ah, the mighty airhead!!!!!!!! Thanks for taking us along Prutser!!!

The R100GS I had before this bike had no problem with H2O ( up to a certain level ) could keep it running as long as I liked with the water just under the intake.

I'm afraid it wasn't "the mighty Airhead" at this point

[igormortis]

Originally Posted by Prutser

The R100GS I had before this bike had no problem with H2O...

So did you diagnose the problem - where was the water getting in?

Great RR, as usual - love the towing pic, Prutser!

[xuare]

Originally Posted by Prutser

The R100GS I had before this bike had no problem with H2O ( up to a certain level ) could keep it running as long as I liked with the water just under the intake.

I'm afraid it wasn't "the mighty Airhead" at this point

It was my belief that a carb bowl also has a vent, and that vent needs to be to atmosphere (i.e. not the airbox) so the pressure differential between the intake manifold and outside can be used to help meter the gas correctly. If water covers the vent the bike dies.

Is this what was stopping bikes?

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by hardwaregrrl

Loving it Walter. No jumper cables?

Don't need them. Terry and I were experienced in the art of jump starting without cables. You hold a good battery against the dead one - making sure negative terminals touch - then connect the positives via a screwdriver Jen.

But we still had to get the water out of my fuel. By now we had decided to head for the village and think about it there. Terry towed me there