Vladivostok to Europe in winter
 

My girlfriend and I travelled from Switzerland to Australia. She will ship her bike home from Sydney.

I'm thinking about shipping my F800GS to Korea and then take the ferry to Vladivostok and ride it home.
This will probably be in early January.
I think, I can manage to organise proper winter riding gear and camping gear.

Does anybody know how the road conditions will be?
I can imagine that the road will be cleared after snowfall, so it will probably be hard packed snow / ice all the way.
Also I'm looking for some local contacts in Vladivostok.
Is it common for Russians to ride bikes in the winter? Will it be possible to get studded tyres in Vladivostok?

Look at the Turtle web site. They went through in the middle of winter in a camper so you might be able to judge how you will go without a couple of webasto heaters and heated cabin to keep you warm
https://turtleexpedition.com/adventures/russia/

losduesen - in 2008 I drove a 4x4 from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk and then continued west.

At the time I made contact with a few of the local biker fraternity and got given quite a long list of contacts.

This list is in Russian and is now 9 years old. However, if you think it will be of any use then PM me and I'll forward it to you.

Mark

I think it will be hard to do, to travel in winter through Russia. And no, it is not usual in Russia to travel/ride a bike during winter.I'm pretty sure it will be difficult to find someone who ride bike in winter. You better to watch some videos about Russia (about Russian taiga) in winter. There are lot of peoples dying every year due to low temperatures. If you are not common with winter riding, better to not do it, at least in that area.

Agree with Rinat_kz, its too risky. And you will hardly find studded tyres in Vladivostok. And what is more important, nobody will clean the road after the snowfall, especially in Blagoveschensk - Chita region.

And the temperature can easily go -40 degrees there. Plus there are hotels and petrol station 150-200 km.

Well, from my point of vies is a crazy idea to ride bike in that region in winter.

It is possible. A crazy Swiss guy did it on a Victory solo bike:
https://www.blick.ch/auto/motorrad/t...id2674166.html

But the closer I look at it, the more I realize, that it is unrealistic for me to do it now.
The facts, that I don't have much experience with winter riding and beeing unable to test my gear properly in Australia, makes it too risky..

Good decision. 5,000 miles of packed ice roads and -40 temperatures with 3 hours of daylight and drunk Russian truckers ain't a great ride.

I rode it in summer, and still we had some chilly parts. But -40, or even only -20.
and then imagine the windchill at 20km/h. If you fall down (which is inevetibly), you´ll just fall into small frozen pieces. And what do you mean by "winter riding gear" ?
In Maine they ride snow scooters at that temperature, so it ist possible, but better take a snow scooter :freezing:

Hello

This Guy had to change the rims on his Victory to fit the propre tyres.
He's collecting media attention and records.
Although the newspaper says: "googletranslate: and is the first person to cross the siberian taiga alone on two wheels in winter (original german:und damit als erster Mensch alleine auf zwei Rädern im Winter die sibirische Taiga durchquert).", I have my doubts that he was the first.

A trip like that is all about preparation and determination.
Doable, but nothing you do just to get home.

I recommend to start with scandinavia in winter, no drunk russians on the road and help is closer if something goes wrong.

sushi

Well, in August I met an Italian cyclist, Dino, in Bukhara. He started cycling from Magadan in February. And he was still alive.

if you don't kill yourself, then you will make it. Good luck with planning and doing the trip!

Vladivostok to Croatia
 

Hello

I plan to ride Vladivostock to Moscow then over the Baltic states ending up in Croatia in early June this year 2018 I will ship my bike KTM 1190 from Japan.

Let me know if this might work for you?

Well, I am also planning to do a winter ride to Mongolia in 2019.

And ist is possible, Doris Wiedemann, a german female rider did it some years ago.

Also some people did Alaska ( she too )

It is just a question of the gear.

And I know some Bikers, who meet at lake Baikal.
Some of them with Ural sidecars, some with regular bikes.

You can get proper suit ( Art4Function ) and helmet with heated visier ( HJC, SOL )

I am also interested, how the surface of the streets will be.

Is it ice Snow or just asphalt ?

This information is important for me to prepare the proper tires.

Also in 2013 I met a female pushbike rider, who planned to ride with a bicycle from Irkutsk to Magadan.

And she did it in 2014

Takeonhelen , thats how you find her on the internet. Helen Lloyd

I'm currently in Petropavlovsk, but my truck is in Magadan waiting for my departure westwards next week. I've spent a long time preparing my vehicle for this trip, which takes me on the Kolyma Highway, frozen Lena River, Lake Baikal, the ice roads to the Arctic.

Basically, the worst places are those which are not so cold; where temperatures get close to zero and you get black ice. In these places people drive with studded tyres. I can't imagine it's much fun on a motorcycle.

Inland, where temperatures remain well below zero through the winter, things are slightly easier. Here the roads generally have heavily compacted snow. At some point this becomes ice, but it is nothing like as slippery as the black ice I mention above. People here generally use very soft, unstudded snow tyres. This is what I have put on my truck.

Make sure you aim for the depths of winter when everything stays solid. Once things start to melt it's an awful, slushy mess. I would also recommend that you try to stay away from the main routes where traffic and blown snow will be additional hazards.

I am not a biker, but you will really need some seriously good clothes to stay out for hours on a bike. There are cafes along the way where you can eat and warm up. Also there are heated garages where you can work on the bike in tolerable conditions.

I have done Russia several times now, so I know where to go.

Clothes are not the problem, there is enough for winter riding and it works.

Lot of people do that to Norway in winter.

I will also use studded tires on the way.
And i think I rather stick to the M53, because alone somewhere is not a good idea.

I was giving you some information on the condition of the road surface, as you requested.