From Vanino to Bratsk? Ok, who? Name them. If you claim to know "several people" who have done it, I would like to meet them. Or at least one of them.

We strongly suspected we were the first to attempt the whole road. It was confirmed when we started to reach the remote villages on the eastern half of the road. Villages where people have grown up and lived their entire lives. Villages several days ride from the next village. Places where any traveller through the region would need to stop, and need to replenish fuel and supplies. Talking to people in those villages all gave us consistent answers when we asked about foreigners who had been in those towns. 2 polish motorbikers in 2008 and an australian on a bicycle a few years before that. We knew about the Poles. And we knew they got as far as Isa from Vanino, about a quarter of the full BAM road. After Etyrken, the reports of the Australian on the bicycle died out - assume he jumped on a train.

Every village we passed thru we stopped and asked about foreign travellers and received consistent information each time. Prior to Etyrken, the only foreigners anyone had seen on the road were the Australian and the two Poles.

Since the Poles (Movistar and Izi) were guys I had contact with, and I knew they had only attempted the eastern part of the BAM road, and successfully completed about half of that, and since no-one, in any shop, or any fuelling station or anywhere that foreigners would have to visit, had any recollection of any other foreign motorcyclists on that road ....

Any serious attempt on the BAM road would be able to do what the Poles and we did ... get as far as Etyrken and Isa ... Yet in these towns everyone was singing from the same book. They all said the only foreign motorcycles they had ever seen passing thru were the poles and ours.

I spoke to a lot of people about it in every town. I always took the chance to ask anyone in a shop or petrol station , or a police officer or local business owner, ... because I too wanted to know. Has anyone been here before. Has anyone done this before. If yes, I am dying to know what it was like for them. Because it was damn tough for us.

So unless you think all the people I asked en-route had selective memory loss (mysteriously co-ordinated selective memory loss at that), and in the absence of you or anyone else coming up with more than hollow disparaging words (they seem to be the only words you know) and introducing me to someone I can share a with and discuss what it was like motorcycling the western half and the eastern half of the BAM road while sharing fotos of it, then I think I will stick with my wording thanks.

Seriously ... if you KNOW someone who has attempted the whole road before, then let me know. I want to have a with them (and I will change my wording to "No-one has seriously attempted to ride the full BAM road in the last 15 years, since it deteriorated")

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I have gotten answer on my question.

A few years after two Norwegian guys tried to ride along the world following the polar-circle (1991/2?) there was an article about BAM in an English or German magazine. This must have been around the same time when Helge P and some other Norwegians planned an extensive trip to Russia - maybe he read the article. As I mentioned earlier a lot of people went to Russia after it opened up.
It looks like "something never ridden by motorbike" is reduced to " had any recollection of any other foreign motorcyclists on that road ...."

When I drove lake Chad-route I was told by numerous locals, including the people at border and villages, that I was the first biker that drove the entire route. Off course this was bullshit.

Anyway, hopefully it was a nice trip and personally I don't care who was the first (or fastest or whatever).

I think that if someone says they are the first to do anything they should be able to prove it, that's all. If that's "hollow disparaging words" I'm sorry to have bothered you.

Hi Alibaba

IMHO when somebody (you) claims that somebody else (Walter and Tony) wasn't the first to do something they (you) should be able to give the names of at least one person who went before them. In your reply you mention some random Norwegians who might have written something in a magazine somewhere and Helge Pedersen who was planning a trip to that area. Did Helge ride the full BAM?

If I were travelling down a road and had spoken (I know that Walter and Tony have a very good grasp of the Russian language) to people who hadn't seen a western bike before and had lived there all their lives, then without evidence to the contrary, I would be able to make the claim to be the first.

cheers
Chris

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TBS.com

I dragged out my copy of 10 on 2, and his 1996 trip covered in the book did not cover the full BAM. Looks like just Tynda to Ust-Kut.

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Japan touring information

From Colebatch's BAM thread on ADV a year ago -
"The only other foreigners that I KNOW have ridden the western part of the BAM Road (Bratsk - Tynda) are Helge Pedersen back in about 1995 and Eric & Gail Haws back in 1991 when it was still the Soviet Union (I have invited those guys to join the facebook group). Certainly the road then would have had 15-20 years less deterioration than it has now."

The western part!

What about the eastern part? Only the 2 Poles, Robert.
But I want to hear of others and meet them to share experiences and recollections.

I suppose anyone riding the M56 north/south through Tynda to Yakuysk can claim to have ridden the BAM road - simply because they went across it at right angles!
But can they claim that to be a serious attempt to ride the entire 4,300km from end to end?
Alibaba seems to think so.

Colebatch will no doubt respond to him.

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