Ch 14 Kuanda to Hani: Frightening road and railway bridges and...

After the little shipping story, the RR is back on track.


Apologies if some of the town names are incorrect and the pics in the incorrect chronological order. I had 2 cameras and a helmet cam. Felix also has 2 cameras, so sorting out what goes where, wasn't easy.





Top stuff, not :-( Good fun in a perverse sort of way!




That one's broke, this one doesn't follow the track anymore and the proper one is behind me




This bridge was once for the railway. Now there's a new one next door





Good nick?





Yep, you've guessed it. That white stuff over my left shoulder is ice.





Memorial to a driver who lost his life at the river in the following video. We saw quite a few of these on our trip. Vodka consumption might have played a part in some victims' road traffic incident demise.





TURN UP THE VOLUME! Bridges, what bridges?! Isambard Kingdom Brunel wouldn't have been impressed! At the end, also a speeded up clip of when I got stuck in what appeared to be an innocuous puddle. And trying to free the bike... Unfortunately at some point the battery on the gopro flattened or the memory card was full. The full story and pics in the next chapter...





Even Evel Knievel might have struggled across this one!






The video to go with the pictures above and below. I remember the name Hani, because we stopped there to get some supplies and the (drunk) bloke wouldn't leave us alone and insisted on showing us his mobile phone address book entry under the name of one Walter Colebatch ! :-) Dude, you made quite an impression on this chap! He thought you were the messiah!





We ended up on our first proper railway bridge, not including the Kuanda Bridge. Once you've done one, you get a bit cocky...





One careful lady owner. Never been offroad.





The perfect vehicle and dog for the conditions :-)

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Ch15 Hani(ish) to the hut, with Chara en route

Just a couple of pictures, but they tell a little story

We stayed at the most horrid hotel, bar none, in Chara (arriving in the middle of a rain storm) with no hot water (that you'd expect considering the price we paid) and looking like a building site, where the cafe next door was closed and the restaurant down the road wasn't able to serve up any food either (the favourite word of anyone in the hospitality industry in this godforsaken dump was "niet"). We ended up cooking some noodles on the petrol camping stove in the room. Fire hazard? Health and Safety? Who give a sh!t. We would have done the world a favour if the place had burnt down...

It was still chucking it down the following morning, but we had to leave. Giving the miserable niet-woman on reception any more money wasn't an option. A quick breakfast of (Yorkshire) tea and chocolate and we're off...

After riding 1/2 an hour, it stopped raining a little too

The following video already appears in the previous chapter (14), but the footage from 4 min 18 seconds onwards ties in with the photos below ;-) On the bridge in the background you see a train travelling across from right to left reminds me of a little incident:

We had ridden along the embankment for a little while. There is usually quite a bit of space, because it was built to take 2 sets of parallel tracks, but only one set was ever laid. The railway bridges however are only wide enough for 1 pair of tracks. Felix is up ahead and has crossed already. Where he is, the track curves to the left behind some trees and bushes.

I stop and turn round to see if nothing is coming from behind me. The coast is clear, but I do notice a green signal light that would be seen by any oncoming train driver :-) I'm about a third of the way along riding the bridge-walkway with my right pannier scraping the railing and the left one over the sleepers. Felix is gesticulating wildly! It didn't take a genius to work out why. I think I mouthed to myself "Yeh, I've seen it".

A huge locomotive was heading my way! 5 feet ahead is a little alcove where there's sometimes a life-ring to throw to somebody in the river, or a bucket of salt and grit, if the walkway is icy. I get there with about 2 seconds to spare and lay the bike into the right hand railing, so the handlebars are in mid-air over the river. The train misses my left Adventure Spec Magadan pannier*** by maybe 2 feet. A close shave! The status of my underwear following the incident shall remain undisclosed

I had turned off the gopro 5 minutes before to conserve the battery. So no footage







So we get off the bridge and decide to head down the embankment and back to the main trail. As Adam said in post #74 at Mongolia to Magadan: Any which (the hard) way - Page 5 - ADVrider , "There's no such thing as an innocuous looking puddle in Siberia eh! " He's not wrong! Felix takes the right hand rut and just makes it. I think I'll take the left. Big mistake!




Bollox! I'm well and truly stuck! Get the luggage off and start digging




We had spotted a hut on the other side of the bridge. Felix found an axe in the hut. 3 hours that evening until it got too cold scraping with the axe and a tyre lever to help removing the cement like sludge by hand. This picture is taken the following morning during the next 2 or 3 hour shift. Luckily the air intake, carb and exhaust are so high on this bike! Often the tip of my nose was touching the water as I reached down to get another handful of mud




Are you enjoying this Mr Bright? No, not exactly.

What a great idea to have a good mate along for the ride and to have purchased a tow rope in Severobaykalsk




I was particularly weary of toasting another clutch (we didn't have a spare XC one with us), so made sure the bike was completely free before Felix gave me a tow. He apologises for me flying through the air and falling when the bike launched forwards. I was very happy and really didn't give a toss.




Our boudoir for the night between attempts trying to dig out the MarkII. Felix had some tasty freeze-dried food and kindly cooked. I wasn't in any state to help. We got the wood-burning heater going and learnt that bits of railway sleeper coated in weather preserving kerosene burn really well





*** Am I the first person to ride a bike with Magadan panniers to Magadan?!! Sorry I digress!

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i guess those spins down through france on those shiny metal roads are a thing of the past
very enjoyable reading keep it going

Funny you should mention a spin through France. This summer the XC will be heading south on French slab, in search of Balkan/ Alps/ Pyreneean/ Portugese dirt. Ideally there won't be too much mud, but it won't be phased if there is any.

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Ch16 Jet-skiing, breaking the law and a stay at the hospital...




Again, TURN UP THE VOLUME. Another compilation video. Suggested titles for the different bits:

• Dodging the trains
• Getting the mask and flippers out
• The relentless dodgy road bridges needing to be negotiated
• Brighty breaking the law to get onto the Olyokma River Bridge. Although I did straighten the post afterwards and when we got to the other side the guards were totally cool

Panto season: He's behind you!




I think we'll let him go first…




Sh!te parking job, blocking the whole road!





More compilation. Captions:

• Finally the opportunity for Felix to get stuck, rather than me
• This bridge really gave me the willies!
• Using big words like "perpendicular" and landing on my ar$e!

Will this bridge still be standing next year?




We arrived in Yuktali but could find neither accommodation, nor fuel. People were friendly and helpful, but we seemed on a wild goose chase for both these necessities. A lady in a shop told us to follow a little lad on a pushbike. He led us to the hospital, where we were introduced to the friendly ambulance driver (on the right). We got the gist that we should come back at 6pm. We did and he allowed us to park the bikes in the garage and we slept in a hospital room! Dinner was bread and salami and crisps and from the shop in town. There were neither patients, nor doctors/nurses. Next morning when the admin staff arrived (still no patients…), we paid a nominal amount and I even got a receipt.

The ambulance driver then told us to follow him to the train station to get benzin. While waiting for the big railway station boss to arrive, we took the opportunity to admire the cut of his secretary's miniskirt and take pictures in the corridor:




The Olyokma Bridge before it was repaired




The hazards involved in crossing a railway line on a red signal...




Mr Wright is stuck, rather than me, for once!




Even the rain stopped and the sun came out




I recon this sign says "Trespassers will be prosecuted"





The map of the last western BAM section towards Tynda

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I'm thoroughly enjoying your adventure. Please keep the updates rolling

Snap!

Hi mate
We were in discussion a while ago about one or 2 Transalp spares that might wing their way to me. Do you still have them?

Chris

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Ch 17 The ride into Tynda or... THE CLEAN BOYS MEET THE DIRTY BOYS

Around Lopcha my bike started seriously misbehaving, but I managed to slowly limp into Tynda. We eventually arrived at 11pm. All the downhill bits I free wheeled with no electrics, nor motor and Felix behind me with his lights on high beam and me making sure my shadow didn't ride off the road in the corners!

On the main drag through town, while looking for the hotel, 2 guys flagged us down. THE DIRTY BOYS: A Russian and a Romanian biker who had started off in Magadan and had ridden the New Federal version of the Road of Bones, where apparently their bikes (sheds) were unsuitable, and had considered the BAM, but were now just going to slab it to Moscow.

Why did we christen them the DIRTY BOYS (from now on and for ever in UPPER CASE!!!!). They flatly refused to believe we had ridden the BAM. Why? Because we were too clean! So, apart that it was nearly midnight and they couldn't really verify our cleanliness or not under a dim streetlight and they weren't aware of the effects of rain and standing water on motor vehicles, I must now admit that this entire ride report is a fake and all the images are photoshopped and the videos cgi-ed.



Felix has a puncture. The other thing I was glad I bought in Severobaykalsk, in addition to the tow-rope, was a big mutha of a foot pump, like the one Peter Berry had. It saved our bacon on more than one occasion!




Look and learn, look and learn




Moody mist




More atmospheric stuff




Getting our old tubes repaired at a Tynda tyre wallah. We also ate and (particularly) drank very well.




I desperate needed a new back tyre. The one I was running would definitely not make it to Magadan. We flagged down a biker and he helped us find a jet wash (and oxymoronic concept, considering our bikes weren't dirty ) and then took me tyre hunting…

…Without any luck, so we ended up back at his bike club house. There I spotted a used Chinese MX tyre on about 1/2 life. He called the owner who said yes and I was hugely relieved.

In the clubhouse where were some sport bikes parked. How odd: Do they really have flag holders? “For club pendants at rallies?”, I genuinely thought.




Upon closer inspection: No, for baseball bats... I didn't know baseball was so popular in Far Eastern Siberia Or maybe there were for catching car drivers' attention when they have just cut you up...




I took this at the street sign on the way out of Tynda with a message to remember the great motorcycle traveller Eric Haws of Oregon, USA who passed away just over a year ago. Eric and his lovely wife Gail blazed the trails that other mere mortals followed. In the 1980s, when Siberia was part of the Soviet Union, they were the first to ride the Road of Bones and the western BAM, 2 up, on an airhead Beemer!

Their Tynda website is no longer published. There's more information at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...sed-away-70631

RIP Eric

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Ch 18 The road from Tynda to Yakutsk: DIRTY... Actually just dusty, straight and boring, with some construction thrown in to break the monotony




Just as we're about to ride out of the Tynda hotel gate, my bike won't start. In fact there are no electrics at all when I turn the key. Captain Carpark turns out to be a nice man an allow Felix to use his soldering machine on the connectors on the ignition switch




Aldan is half way between Tynda and Yakutsk (which are about 1000km apart). We're in hysterics when we see the pictures on the wall in the hotel reception. Recognise them? Felix pays homage...




The Sibirsky Extreme Team Sibirsky Extreme | Going where no motorcycle has been before In the middle picture we recognise the chief guru of all things fun in Siberia and Mongolia Mr W Colebatch and the demon dirtbiker Mr Terrance Brown. A local bloke (newspaper journalist?!) took their pictures.




Said man with the camera took our pics the next day too. If anyone passes Aldan, please look in at the hotel if the mugs of Felix and my good self are there too




The ride really was hot, dusty and boring. My mp3 player pumping out the entire back catalogue of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jnr made it vaguely bearable.

Here (DIRTY) Felix takes a break in the shade offered by a (pleasant) trucker fixing puctures. These guys are so hard-working. I remember the help that Yevgeny and Todor gave me when I was in deep dudu on the Transalp on the BAM




Hard at work




DIRTY Bright and the black cat. I used to be the part-owner of 2 black cats in the UK. Both were called Dave! It's impossible to get a name wrong if you give twins (actually not related: you could tell them apart as one was fat from eating the other slim one's food) the same name! Here is their Siberian cousin Sibersky-Dave.




On the car ferry across the Lena river (much wider now than it was at Irkutsk)




The former clean (fake) adventure biker was temporarily real and DIRTY, now he's fake again




Mr V I Lenin shows the way, looking over the main square in downtown Yakutsk

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Ch 19 Leaving Yakutsk, and an involuntary return (For You Herr Wright, zee journey is over!)

Yakutsk is a great place to hang out, but we only had 2 nights here. Our time schedule was very tight, particularly if we were going to attempt the Old Summer Road section of the Road of Bones. Still plenty of time to dope up on pizza, burgers and . I also got myself a haircut. Not a mullet though...




A concert in the main square.





Snoozing on the ferry back across the mighty Lena river





No idea that's going on there. Hare Krishna outing?





A BMW and a Honda Transalp. You can tell by the logo on the fairing...





Nice views on a nice day. It wouldn't last long





Wow, a local biker. Nope! Phil Kirk from Australia on a 1983 Jawa 250 2 smoke. Riding from Magadan to London to attend a conference. His Australian employer was paying his transport to get there. Most use the money to buy an air ticket. He used it on freight from Brisbane to Magadan as well as petrol and 2 stroke oil!





Phil and the bike made it to London, with barely a hitch. Might be worth considering alternative choices of vehicle when planning long distance travel. It doesn't need to be a real (or faux) "adventure" market niche junket with bling out of the catalogue. I bumped into Phil again on the highway near Irkutsk. I had flown from Magadan to Irkutsk and was riding the Mark I to Mongolia to freight/fly it/me home.





Wot the sign sez





The statue to match the sign






For You Herr Wright, zee journey is over! Felix was waiting for me as I'm riding a bit slower. My steering head bearings and fork seals are fuct. Nothing compared to Felix's bike mishap though. He had noticed that his rear auxilliary tank was leaking petrol. After attempting to seal it, we had a closer look at why it was punctured. The chain had hit it. Broken shock? No. Cracked swingarm? Yes.

I'll only say that it wasn't a BMW manufacturing or design issue or caused by any sort of crash when Felix was riding the bike. I know too much about the real reason why it broke, but I think Felix should comment as he sees fit.





Help was at hand to start 200km the journey back to Yakutsk





Loading the bike onto the next truck. Felix putting a brave face on it. He must have been totally gutted.

I started riding back to Yakutsk too, while Felix followed in the truck, but then the rain started and it got really slippery. It got dark too, so we loaded my bike into the back as well. By 1am we manage to get into a hotel near the Yakutsk ferry terminal. What a day and night!

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Nice up date!
The answer to this should be a good one ...
No way to weld that crack up somewhere there? Make it strong enough to finish the ride?

Hello chris,

thanks for the update, good to read about your journey.

As you know I am not a Bmw man, but I would have tried to weld the swingarm.... but I dont know what material it is ....

anyway as a Russian friend said: there are so many little stickers on a Bmw, dont put leaded fuel in, wear your helmet, dont put more then 5kgs on the rack, read the owners manual ... and so on ... but there is no sticker ... dont take your Bmw to Russia.

will be back in Russia next year, on a DR350 !!! yuheee

greetings from Switzerland
mika

Hey Mika

The swingarm is aluminium. I'm not a BMW man either. People tell me the only thing BMW about the bike is the badges (unless you stick gaffer tape with "Honda Transalp" written over them ) on the side and the mapping on the fuel injection unit. It's an Italian Aprilia with a Austrian Rotax motor with Swedish Ohlins (rather than the sh!te original part) suspension.

I liked riding it and I've never had a 650cc single cylinder bike previously, so I bought it. I'm heading your way through Switzerland on said RBA (Rebadged Aprilia) in early July. I'm riding as much dirt as possible between Albania and southern Portugal. Drink a ?

Best wishes
Chris

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Hey Chris,

Yakutsk is a big enough city to find somebody that welds aluminium, I would say, but I only spend a few days in Yakutsk in 2003 and my Honda did not need any welding.

Good to read your ride report and look at the pictures.

Saludos desde Berna
mika