Advice for trip. UK > Russia > Mongolia

[Baron Bolton]

Hi, this is my first post, so please forgive me for any errors, idiot questions, spelling mistakes etc. Love the site, amazing wealth of information and top bikers.

I'm in the early stages of planning my first really big (relatively) bike trip, and could really do with some help with quite a bit of it.
My plan is to bike across Europe to Russia and then on to Mongolia. I have read quite a bit on this site and others about similar trips, so hopefully I've got some of the basic information covered, but we'll see.

My first question is about choice of steed. I've currently got an Africa twin '91 and a couple of elderly XR250's (all Honda's).
I'm wondering if the questionable road/terrain quality in Russia and particularly Mongolia, warrants using a more off-road machine? (I'd love to take an XR400 or similar for playing once in Mongolia)
..Or if the fact that most of the trip would be road work means a road bike would be best? I'm also interested in the (unlikely) possibility of hiring an off-road bike in Mongolia to have the best of both worlds, anyone have any experience/knowledge of this?

I’m planning to leave in June next year, and it would be great to meet up with anyone on the route, or in Mongolia, so please contact me.

If anyone has any advice or opinions that may be of help to me, then I could really do with some help. Thanks in advance! Email – baronbolton(at)gmail.com

[Alex Rubtsov]

Hi.
As for me I prefer Honda Africa Twin. I was going with this bike across Mongolia in September-October 2005. It`s a really heavy bike for sand or mud, but It can carry all your luggage incl. spare parts and tires. There are paved roads all over the Russia, but in Mongolia you can forget about tarmac. Do you have any off-road driving experience? There are two roads from west towards eastern mongolia. I took the southern road, through Gobi. If you will choose this way, I can give you the information.

Alex

[sue]

www.adventure.gs tells of our story crossing from Europe to Mongolia, on F650gs's. Tsaganuur to Ulan Bataar, no roads other than sand/gravel/rutted tracks. South through the Gobi from UB to the Chinese border the tracks are firmer sand because there is little rain.
Try and get a map of Mongolia, it shows all the petrol stations, we found it invaluable.
Fantastic trip - good luck, the people are exceptionally friendly.

[scottw]

Hi Baron: I live in Ulaanbaatar, so if you have Mongolia-specific questions please let me know. I will be here until July, 2006.

Bigger dual-sport bikes are definitely better for the long rides. As Alex says, they will be tough in mud and sand, but for 95% of the riding the Africa Twin will serve you better than a 250 or 400. More comfort, longer fuel range, higher cruising speeds, etc. I ride a BMW R100GS here and it's a great bike for Mongolia. I also have an XR400 that I use for playing in the hills outside the city, but it is uncomfortable to ride for more than 3-4 hours. If I'm still here when you arrive you are welcome to borrow it.

Do not get a pure road bike if you want to ride much in Mongolia, because 98% of the riding here is off-road.

The best single page resource for info on Russia/Mongolia traveling is Geoff Kingsmill's page: http://dreamers1.com/russia/Practica...ticalities.htm

He packed a LOT of detail into it.

Regards,

Scott

[Baron Bolton]

Firstly thanks for the response, all very useful information. In particular, thank you Scott for the web-address; what an amazing collation of information about traveling in the Russia/Mongolia region.

Alex Rubtsov, I do have some off-road driving experience and try to get more whenever I can. I recently did my first off-road event (“Moore to sea”), an 80 mile off road trial, with observed sections. This was far harder than I had anticipated, although I thoroughly enjoyed it, and gave everything a good go.
I hate using such a ‘mainstream’ reference among such seasoned overlanders, but I’m confident I could ride everything I saw in “The long way round” series. River crossings seem a bit daunting, but not too much of a concern.

Sue, I’d be very interested in getting hold of the map you recommended, is it possible to get this in the UK, or is it just available in Mongolia?


Scott, I’m coming round to the idea that a dual-sport machine in the wisest choice for this sort of trip, but if your offer to lend the XR400 was a serious one, then I’d be more than interested in borrowing it.
The only remaining questions I can think of are as follows:

I’m still interested in the possibility of hiring bikes in Mongolia, primarily because there are people interested in joining me over there. Can you shed any light on if/where this is possible, and the choice of machine available?

Are you due to leave Mongolia in July 2006? It would be great to meet up for a bit if you can spare the time. I’ve not really looked into a time frame for the trip, but I should be leaving the UK in early June.

Thanks again for all your help.

[4wheels]

Stanfords in London may have something, though it might be out of date. Stanfords = Travel Book / Map shop in Covent Garden area. They list a Mongolian "road"! map at 1;2,000,000 but that's not a very good scale.
www.stanfords.co.uk - maybe give them a ring.
Also, stanfords may have a fairly recent russian road atlas - which may include much of what you want. See some of my other posts on russian maps in this forum.
Regards
Les

[Alex Rubtsov]

Hi Baron.
About map of Mongolia . I had a mongolian map from "International travel maps" printed in canada. In one small village between Hovd and Altai-Gobi I met natives and showed them the map. Nobody could find the village in the map. Because the names written in map and real names is not coincide. About choosing a bike. If you will go alone, you have to carry a lot of luggage on one bike. And it will be too hard for 250-400 cc. Remember, the distance in Mongolia is not measured by km, it is measured by time, and 1000 km there may seem 10000 km somewhere else.

[tucan]

gday baron
i have just finished a 4 month ride from london across the stans to vladivostok.
all 4 of us were on honda transalps ,which handled everything very well .
aside from mongolia and a little of kazakhstan everything else was bitumen ,so you need a bigger bike thats happy on the long distances .
if you can familarise yourself with a G.P.S and use that ,we had no maps at all for mongolia , just the lonely planet guidebook .
for a little more info check out our website at www.thelaststans.com
have a great ride , you will love it
cheers
mick

[Baron Bolton]

Thanks again for the advice and support people, much appreciated.

Alex, thanks for the info about Mongolian maps. I'd imagine that if the local people can't point out where you are on a map, then it wouldn't be of much use..?
I'm coming round to the idea that a GPS would be sensible, especially as it seems quite easy to get waypoint/route information from other travellers.

Tucan, I had a good read through the website, and was very impressed with the trip, write-up and website.
The machine gun incident sounds pretty hairy, and not the sort of thing I relish coming across when travelling alone.
I've taken on board everyones advice to use a bigger bike, and the decision now is between my old Africa Twin and a newer, lighter F650GS.

As I said, I'll be leaving in June 2006, so if anyone is doing a similar trip at the same time, I'd appreciate company for some of the trip.

[Alex Rubtsov]

Hi Baron.
If your trip will be pass through Togliatti(it`s a city at the Volga river 1000 km from Moscow towards east) let me know, I will meet you. Some my mongolian trip pictures you can see here: www.mototravel.photofile.ru password: travel.
A little bit Russian reading will be useful for you

[sverrirt]

Hi Baron,
I am planing a RTW trip from Iceland, - Britain-Europe-Ukrania-Slovakia-Russia-Mongolia-Magadan(Russia)-Alaska-Canada-Usa-Iceland. I plan to go in June 2006.

[Neo]

Hello Baron,

we will be there as well and we leave june 29 from Moskow to Irkutzk by train ( Trans Siberia express)


We ride the bikes from the Netherlands to Moskow and there we spent a night june 28 at Peking hotel.

Has anyone heard from Scott???

[scottw]

Hi Neo, and Baron. Sorry for the silence, I just got back from a few weeks of vacation. When it's -40 it's a good time to be out of Ulaanbaatar.

Baron, it now looks like I'll be leaving Mongolia in early July, so I'll have to sell or ship my XR400 by early June. Sorry! But if you make it here before I leave we should definitely meet up.

As for maps, the best ones are only available in Mongolia (as far as I know). If you want/need them before you get here I could buy them here and then mail them to you.

On the other hand, if you are coming in the main route, from Ulan Ude, then the route is very easy, and paved, from there to Ulaanbaatar. And then once in UB you can buy the maps before you head off into the countryside for real Mongolia riding.

A GPS is VERY useful in Mongolia. Garmin has by far the best GPS basemap for Mongolia, on the Garmin WorldMap CD-ROM. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. You can make it with just a map and compass, but it's much slower and you'll spend much more time asking directions (using sign language) and backtracking.

I've lived here almost 4 years and speak decent Mongolian and I still use my GPS all the time, even when I am within 50 KM of Ulaanbaatar.

-Scott

[flashy_cj]

Scott, sorry to hear you are leaving Mongolia in early July. My wife and I will ride from Beijing north to UB in late July and then on to Irkutsk so I guess we will miss see you. (BTW pls contact me at flashy_cj@yahoo.com, have lost your e-mail address). Baron, we will be riding a Chang Jiang modified with a BMW engine across Russia to Moscow. Hope to meet up with you some where along the way.
Jack and Janet.

[Phil Flanagan]

Hi Scott
I have a 4x4 iveco ex raf vehicle which i am just finishing off converting for overland travel.
My plan is to leave UK, via Turkey into 'Stans' and then visit Mongolia. Probably hitting Mongolian border end June beginning July.
Intention then is to go via Russia thru to Canada.
Bit vague on your part of the world, most of my travelling has been Honda 250xl around Europe and West Africa.
Any information, tips, advice would be very much appreciated. And hey if I get to Ulan before you leave perhaps we could meet up for a ?
What is it you are doing there ?
Reagrds.
Phil.