I arrived in Tynda last night along with Peter Berry (XR400) and the
J.A.B.A MUNDUS | Motorcycling Around The world lads, Jon and Andrew (2 x KTM 690 Rallye)
Lots of talk about how tough the ride is but its all relevant. Relevant to:
- What you're riding (and how well you've prepped it)
- How much gear you're carrying
- What you're riding experience is
- And as Harryg mentioned, the weather. Not just when you're on the BAM but during the days/weeks preceding.
We had blue skies and sunshine on all but the morning of our final day. The water in the puddles was approx 30cm below the high water lines and so I (personally) think we had it easy. (Although a couple of puddles were approx 80cm deep).
Being (very) short in the leg its the rocky and/or murky water crossings that I find most difficult and so thanks to what I presume to be relatively low water levels I didn't find anything too difficult. I just walked my bike across the rocky rivers. (I'm riding a DRZ400 with approx 30kg of gear).
The big river crossing (W20 in the waypoint folder) has been replaced by a new bridge.
Other than that it was like a great trail ride but fully loaded.
We all felt the worst section was Novy Uoyan - Taksimo. Walter; you need to upgrade your description from 'Rough Road' to 'kin Rough Road'! It didn't help that we were all riding with hangovers after stumbling across (Saturday) Girls Night Out in NU...
It's a tiring ride that's hard on machinery. Our tally was:
7 punctures (all rears were nails, all fronts pinched by sidewall collapse)
1 Broken aluminium dash plate
1 leaking fork seal
1 holed radiator
1 snapped chain (that snapped the front sprocket & nut!)
1 engine filled with water (KTM - no names mentioned

)
The oldest, cheapest bike of the four (Peter's £800, '97 XR400) merely lost a seat mounting bolt!
Black_Labb - we saw your tyre tracks but somehow never saw you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by black_labb
The bam past yuktali is far from graded gravel roads. Looks like serious flood damage.expect it to be just as bad.more details wheni can charge electronics.im currently 100+km from yuktali and it might be improveing. We'll see soon
Found out the solo rider I missed before the vitim is an australian. Any idea who he is Walter or anyone else?
|
It doesn't improve until after Lopcha
The bridge across the Chilchi River has collapsed requiring a detour across the unguarded railway bridge. However, someone has gone to reasonable lengths to deter anyone from doing so...
From the west...
From the east...
I'll finish on a lighter note. Here's our 'Porn Star' pose photo from the Golden Spike...