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28 Sep 2011
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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Route planning Mongolia/ Siberia 2012
Hi there,
As part of my planning for a proposed trip to Mongolia and Siberia next summer, I’ve drawn the following sketch.

Sketch is very definitely not to scale. Distances in red are in km and approximate and calculated using Garmin Mapsource and OSM.
My timing: about 6 weeks in July/August 2012, start/finish Ulaan Bataar
Freight bike in and out of Ulaan Bataar from Germany. I will transport bike in my van from England at about Easter 2012. (Space in my van for 1 more small bike… Anyone interested?)
Bike: Suzuki DRZ400e with 27 litre tank and soft luggage and knobbly tyres. Assuming I don’t have any blond moments, I know how to ride it pretty well off-pavement.
My general questions are
1. What are the road conditions/obstacles like away from the paved highways?
2. How long does each dirt route take/ how technical is the riding on a particular route? I appreciate one person’s “mildly interesting” is somebody else’s “hardcore” and some people ride 12 hour days non-stop while others fall out of bed at 10am and are in the bar by 2pm.
3. How much other traffic is there on each dirt route, in case a solo rider (me: if I can’t find any riding buddies…) has a mechanical problem or if an obstacle needs overcoming?
A 6 week itinerary I thought could be:
2 weeks in Mongolia > then Irkutsk > western BAM from Bratsk to Tynda > Yakutsk > into and out of Magadan, one way via the New Federal Road, the other via the Old Summer Road > Yakutsk to Lensk via the Vilyuisky Trakt > barge to Kirensk >Irkutsk > back to UB
Walter of Sibirsky Extreme is the trailblazer for all of us on things Siberia/Mongolia: I’m merely trying to follow in his tyre tracks…
Here’s what I’ve gleaned already. It may be wrong/inaccurate. Please feel free to comment on/correct my information.
Bratsk to Tynda via western BAM: I believe Walter/Tony/Terry rode this east to west in 6 or 7 days. The western part is easy and smooth and gets more challenging heading closer to Tynda(?)
Tynda to Yakutsk: dusty boring truck road.
New Federal Road to Magadan: Dusty, trucks go down there, you can do it on a Harley
Old Summer Road to Magadan: The distinction between the 2 is described by Chief Siberia Guru Walter at ADVrider - View Single Post - Siberian Extreme 2010 - Back for More Sections 7 and 8 should not be ridden solo. I really want ride these. I believe Walter and Tony rode Yakutsk to Magadan via section 7 and 8 in 3 days.
Yakutsk to Lensk via the Vilyuisky Trakt : Don’t know
Lensk to Kirensk by barge: How long is the boat trip and how frequently does the barge run?
Kirensk to BAM turnoff: Don’t know
UB to Ereersav/Solovyevsk border: I believe the first part out of UB is paved and then the bit to the border is smooth sandy twintrack based on a picture Walter showed me.
Tashanta - Tsagaannuur Border to UB: 2100km via Dan and Ed’s route at Mongolia GPS Track | Brighton 2 Siberia took 6 days, based on the date stamp on their start/end waypoints.
So guys, lots of questions, but I’ve made a start. If you’ve ridden some or all of these (Mr C, Tony, Jenabusa, Ed, Dan, Tom, Doug, Rob, Dafne, anyone else…?) have you got any input?
I've read a lot of Walter’s Ride Reports on ADVrider, but they run to 100s of pages and I keep getting distracted by the pictures of fauna and flora (or was it Svetlana and Ivana… ) so struggled to gather a lot of road information.
All tips gratefully received,
Cheers
Chris
Last edited by chris; 29 Sep 2011 at 18:13.
Reason: change font size of text
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