Vitim Bridge done! Felix and I arrived Charas in rain storm.

Tom: I plan to fly Magadan to Irkutsk on 20 August and ride transalp Irkutsk to UU to UB on 21/ 22 so hopefully we can meet somewhere en our routes.

let's stay in touch; I'm on an Xchallenge with the TT tank. will pm you with my number.

Hope things are going ok for those on the rob. Saw on the Russian TV that there was flooding in Yakultia (thought I had it bad...) no idea where in Yakultia though as I didn't recognise any names.

I'm about to go to sleep at a railway camp in a unmapped town 50km east of Dipkun. I was banyaed, fed and poured plenty of vodka and brandy before retiring to a railway car used for the workers rooms. I need to buy them a bottle or 2 of something.

The eastern bam has been challenging but only because of the hard rain I had a while in tynda and the constant on and off rain since. A couple missing bridges made things a challenge as well. Fortunately the roads are mostly ok aside from the washouts and deep puddles from the recent rain.

Arrived at Tynda with Felix.

Can anyone help with fault diagnosis? About 20 km before Lopcha the bike ( 2008 BMW x challenge) started messing about. Stuttering and spluttering. The only way it ran at all was to rev the nuts off it riding 65 kph in 2nd gear or 75 to 85 in third. The second I went slightly off the throttle it coughs and dies or if lucky I pull the clutch and rev it like hell and re engage gear. The bike idles ok but particularly hates going up hill.

We have replaced the air filter on the side of the road and the bike ran great for 20 km, then the same old tricks. What shall we check in the morning? It's 1.45am here.
Spark plugs
All electronic components
Put in new high octane fuel?

Any tips gratefully received.

I had very similar symptoms with the same engine in the F650GS after revving the nuts off it all day, riding autobahns, in the main, from Switzerland to the UK.

My good news is that it cured itself (and I never did know or understand what caused the symptoms).
My bad news is that it appeared to cure itself after I flung it into the garage and rode other steeds - coming back to it after about a month of standing, neglected, did the trick.

see my comments on the parallel thread

what sim card / phone provider are you guys using for data etc. on the BAM, is the coverage pretty good?

i'm in Moscow, a few weeks from Irkutsk heading for the BAM whats the weather and river crossings like just now?

just arrived in Tynda,

anyone here?

all the Russians say that the road is Impassable heading north from Tynda to Yakustk.
has anyone made it to Yakustk? Magadan?

in the last few days?

is tynda the best place to turn off the BAM for the ROB to magadan?

can someone tell me where the "summer road" is

also where is the middle of the BAM i.e. between what is referred to in this thread as "east" and "west"

I was planning to ride from the northern end of lake Baikal to tyndal and on to magadan... is west of tyndal the "easier" "western" section?

should be at lake Baikal late august...

X-Challenge Fest
 

Ed, I am guessing they left yesterday ... you are probably a day behind 2 other X-challenges. Felix and Chris from the UK. They are heading up to Yakutsk and then Magadan. Hopefully they will read this in Yakutsk and wait for you.

There are two Americans on KTMs near Baikal about to head along the BAM but they wont make Tynda for about a week.

Dajg, BAM is a pretty challenging road ... a bit of research before the trip would be preferable. Doing it solo is not ideal.

Tynda is the middle of the BAM Road. Eastern half is close to unrideable. The Western half of the BAM is what people usually refer to when they talk of riding the BAM road.

Tynda is the only place to ride north from the BAM Road to Yakutsk and the Road of Bones, although its possible to take a boat / barge north from Ust Kut and also get there.

The Old Summer Road is an abandoned section of the Road of Bones between Khandyga and Kyubeme. See link below for map and more detail:

ADVrider - View Single Post - Siberian Extreme 2010 - Back for More

Local SIM cards work in many but not all towns along the BAM and in these remote areas of Siberia. In between the towns there is no coverage

If you are arriving around Baikal in late August you are probably going to be too late to get to Magadan - unless you want to get there in snow. The Road of Bones will start to have sub freezing nights early September

Thank you Walter,
for keeping tabs with who is coming and going from Tynda (and area)....

edd

yakutsk
 

Edd

Tynda to yakutsk road is fine. 2 longish days will get you here. What is your plan? Do you want to try osr?

We plan to leave yakutsk on sunday am. We are quite tight on time so may not be able to wait for you.

Felix

Magadan...at last!!!
 

Here's an extract from an email I just sent to a few friends. I'll post again (with a few photo's) tomorrow when we move into some accomodation.

"...At 2200 yesterday (Thursday 08/08) we (Pete, Ivan, Yevgenny and I) finally rolled into Magadan after 9 days bushcamping from Yakutsk and promptly camped again.
We encountered the M56 Kolyma Highway closed in seven different places, camped at three of them and waited three days for the Aldan River ferry after crossings were suspended due to the road closures. At the he final closure (25km east of Aldan) we met young Yevgenny, Old Yevgenny and Ivan; all riding to Magadan.
Whilst we waited for 30 trucks to be dispatched from a quarry 200km away to fill the hole in the road and for a bulldozer to work through the night to repair the road, Pete and I were interviewed for the Russian TV channel News 24 who'd sent a crew to the area to cover the unprecedented rain/flooding/road closures.

From approx 50km west of Khandyga the land on either side of the road ranges from waterlogged to flooded. The road is acting as a dam that in places has failed. At the second washout a Nissan 4x4 had been abandoned in water up to the windscreen. Three of the closures were unfordable by Kamaz/Ural trucks.

Ust-Kut issued a flood warning to its population for August 2-4th in which the people were told to keep their documents and children safe. It was clear that the road had been a real mess shortly before our arrival.

Old Summer Road - Unless water levels reduce significantly over the next two weeks I'd be presently surprised if anyone rides it this year. In Khandyga we met two Russians who'd ridden from Magadan and told us the OSR was impossible. In Ust-Kut we met a Spanish cyclist who told us the same. I had a look at the track behind the gas station at the west end of the OSR and found the water began approx 400m from the GPS marked crossing point (I'll post the photo on the HUBB thread asap)..."

For me the Old Summer Road IS the 'Road of Bones'. After 6 years of dreaming about it and 2 years of planning it was a major disappointment to pass it by.

More tomorrow...

yakutsk
 

Edd

Tynda to yakutsk road is fine. 2 longish days will get you here. What is your plan? Do you want to try osr?

We plan to leave yakutsk on sunday am. We are quite tight on time so may not be able to wait for you.

Felix