Well I think that now, when we are back home, it is a polite thing to say thank you to everyone that was kind enough to share their experience.

We came back from the trip last week. A series of unfortunate events costed us a lot of time, so we did not go into Mongolia. We toured the Altai, and went to the Lake Baikal. We could have done that on R1200R.

Two days before our planned departure I broke my pinky toe, so we had to postpone the start for a few days, untill I could put my boots on. Then we had rain for every day from home untill Barnaul, so we needed seventeen days, instead of fourteen as planned. In Barnaul I have noticed a leak in the radiator. One radiator was avalable in Moscow, so we lost another week waiting in Barnaul untill it came.

We had to return home as scheduled, so we decided not to take a risk of losing additional time in Mongolia. Even this way we needed 48 days for the trip instead of 40-45 that we planned

Except the hole in the radiator, bike did not like the Russian fuel, and it started to surge and "hick-up" after Irkutsk. Changing all the filters and cleaning the injector did help, but it is still not 100% ok, so I have to drain and clean the fuel tank. Also, the chain shield broke, the front tyre was damaged, and had to be changed. Some bolts and nuts loosened from the vibrations, the most serious one was the one holding the engine to the frame at the rear/bottom. I guess not so bad for a 19000 km trip with a seriously overloaded bike.

I guess that after many years of problem-free travelling, one trip with some problems is not so bad.

Thanks again to everyone who gave us advice, and special Hi to Carol and Ken who were our eyes and ears in Mongolia.