road of bones advice
 

hi guys im tryin for the road of bones (up to Magadan) or at least parts of it in 2014 and am wondering if anyone can help me with where is unpassable / what times of year places r passabe / places to stay along the route / where im gonan help ect ect

cheers joe

I'm with you there Joe. I hope to head this way in 2013 so I'll be watching this space fervently.

Kindest regards

Nevil

Where to start? Probably with a forum search to find the many threads on this topic, and then come back with more specific questions. There is also tons of info (with more pix) on ADVRider.

I rode to Magadan this summer and would be happy to help once you've done more research.

cheers iv done alot of looking around on several sites including this one but cant find the specifics of what im after.. but the again im probably searching for the wrong things! ill keep looking!

joe

places to try for info
 

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...s-2010-a-42901

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...aypoints-50860

Road of Bones road network map

Road of Bones and the Kolyma Highway - Pure Photos

Some ride reports: (if you read these you get a lot of information including questions asked and answered)

Can a Harley make it to Magadan? (page 138 onwards)

Siberian Extreme 2010 - Back for More (page 14 to page 26)

Donkey and the Mule - The Road of Bones

Dublin to New York (page 19 to page 22)

And others:

Finally, at the risk of a conflict of interest, I recently put out a DVD on motorcycling in Siberia including a series of extra films on specific regions, one of which is the Road of Bones. That also has useful images and information and is available here:

Sibirsky Extreme DVD adventure motorcycling

I think if you go thru all of that lot, you will have a truckload more information and idea about what to expect from that region and therefore a bunch of specific questions.

There are a good 15-20 guys on HUBB that have done the Road of Bones so plenty of info is available.

A suggestion on how to search:

Use Google with the criteria

site:horizonsunlimited.com word1 word2 word3

Here's a useful thread to start you off: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...a-2012-a-59454

cheers
C

PS, I was writing this post while Walter was submitting his, above. You've definitely got lots to read up on. Enjoy!

So if all the sites you found (presumably including this!) and their links provided did not give you the "specifics" you want, you must have pretty finite, precise and narrow specifics.

Why not tell us what they are - then I am sure all the posters already on this thread will be only too wiling to try to answer.

But we need to know the question !

And possibly knowing your proposed mode of transport would help us too.
Truck? 4x4? Car? Moto? Bicycle? Foot? Pogo Stick?

cheers guys the links were helpful and will have a full read through them on my next days off (as im now working 70-80 hr weeks to fund this trip lol)

ohhh and will be on a motorbike forgot to say that bit!

ill let you guys know if i have any stupid questions!

joe

Also, are you riding solo or in a pair/group?

Bryn

be going solo, maybe meeting up with some people along the way but 90% solo

joe

Colebatch nailed the threads; his own threads are gold-mines of information, and his DVD is also definitely recommended.

The info in those various threads should answer most of your questions, and I'm sure everyone here will be happy to answer any other questions that you have.

yep colebatch layed some very very usefull threads down and have been reading everything i can find on the subject,

one thing i cant find tho is roughly how much are people needing to take for these trips? (uk - new york on bike and in a tent 90% of the time i.e, fuel costs, setup costs, food ectectetc) only a very rough figure but needed

cheers joe

how much what? money?

With Colebatch on "SibirskyExtreme 1, The Movie", I spent a total of GBP 5,300. I know this for certain as it was the total amount on my Bank Statements being drawn from ATMs and charged on Credit Cards. This was from London, meeting him as he emerged from Kazakstan in Altai Russia in June until we split after the BAM in late August (when Terry and I went back to UK) and getting back to London.

This included everything door to door including - ferries - bike shipping and my air fare Magadan/Vlad - RUS road insurance - repairs, tyres and other service or consumables bought along the way, prearranged or not (but not equipping or getting the bike ready to go) - accommodation - food - beer. And one contribution to the 'Policemans Ball' - but it was a fair cop, if not a fair copper.

We only camped (or used abandoned buildings) in desperation - less than half a dozen times - finding at least basic accommodation in most places. We informally aimed to spend less than GBP 30 per day while on the move. More in cities, less in the wild.

This was a 4 month period for me. My only saving compared with most others was on Visas, the Channel Tunnel (for which I have a lifetime free pass) and no direct accomodation costs staying at my Moscow home for about a week each way; but this was offset by going out more with family and friends there - not cheap in this city! Those costs were included in the GBP 5,300.

For Russia (other than Moscow) you could budget on GBP 20-30 per night (per room, so solo costs you more than sharing), fuel 60-65 pence/litre, roadside cafe meals GBP 2-3 each.

My biggest tip for you in Russia - familarise yourself with the Cyrillic Alphabet and learn a few basic introduction and politeness phrases.

Good luck and enjoy. Although no doubt we will be communicating more before then.

brilliant bit of info that. thanks alot and the SibirskyExtreme dvd is one of my items to buy when i have been payed!

was thinking of about £15,000 for the lot prob more as im selling everything i can (one bike already gone engagement ring still to go! lol plus lots more)and saving as much as i can every month but im going across Canada and America also so will need alot more for over there im thinking. also is the camping really that bad??!


joe

Useful bike info?
 

It may or may not be of use to you, but when pondering the kind of bike to take into Extreme Siberia, it may be useful to see what others have used, for better or for worse. I have been collecting stats on bike journeys up there (away from the Trans Siberian ... stuff like the Road of Bones or BAM Road journeys) and have the following info from 55 bike journeys over the past 3 years:

40% BMW
25% KTM
15% Yamaha
15% Honda
5% The Rest (2 Suzuki, 1 Harley)

60% fuel injected, 40% carburettored

5% are two cylinder bikes above 1000cc
24% are two cylinder bikes between 750 - 1000cc
60% are single cylinder bikes between 600 and 660 cc
11% are single cylinder bikes below 600 cc (250, 400cc)

Average engine size: 690cc

If you had an interest in doing the Old Summer Road: of the bikes that did the OSR or BAM or similar challenging, remote, unmaintained style roads in Siberia, the percentage of single cylinder bikes used rises from 71% to 90%. 36 of 40 were single cylinder bikes.

Walter, thanks for the interesting data. At least if you stick to the new road, though, I think that a R1200GS would be no problem on the RoB (but probably not on the BAM or and definitely not on the OSR), although I guess it could be a pain if it had been raining alot and was muddy.

Also, people might be interested to know that at least along the new road, this past summer I think there was only one or maybe two unbridged water crossings more than a few inches deep along the whole RoB (and this I think after a fair bit of rain). This seems to change every year, however, as I think that bridges are washed away (and replaced) on a pretty regular basis. In several places, we had to cross temporary (new) or condemned (old) bridges where the "real" bridge was gone or was under construction, but this was easy on a bike. Anybody else's experience different?

AdvRider post to look at.
 

Don't know if you use advrider.com (they are another motorcycle adventure touring website). A friend of mine Doug (rtwdoug) just finished a trip to Magadan. Look for the thread "Can a Harley make it to Magadan?" Lot's of good information there...

We did have it listed in post #5 bier

cheers

Great info gents. Thank you.

I may be reaching one of my dreams in being able to ride the Road of Bones in 2013 2 up. Just seriously starting to make in roads (pardon the pun :cool4:) to see if we can realistically do it.

Road of Bones - Tink Trassa
 

In 2009 it was all good graded dirt. I don't recall any poor bridges - certainly none that needed a moments thought.
So if one has collapsed it would have been a result of gross misuse.

My flat tyres were another thing though.

You could ask Ilya at askmagadan.com

Colebatch told me that the bridge was out in 2011, so we avoided that route, although I would expect that it would have been rebuilt by now. I would certainly recommend taking that route if possible because that stretch of the main road is really unpleasant because of the truck traffic and resulting dust.

I am very interested by this topic as I plan to do this route in 2013, thanks for all this information, will keep an eye on it.

Can anyone tell me if there's any decent maps of the area? If so where can I buy them? Also can anyone inform me of shipping costs from the UK?

Cheers

DG

Hi,

motoreiter, do you know exactly which is the bridge? I'm trying to get more info on this matter.
Thanks, Tony, I wrote an email to askmagadan, waiting for an answer.

Safe ride,
Adrian

I didn't ask Colebatch about which bridge--it didn't matter to me which bridge was out, because its absence made the route impassable.

Hi,

I receive an answer from Ilya Kovyakin.

He said that the damaged bridge is on the river Kulu, near the village of Kulu.
According to google maps is here: 61.885284,147.432404
Seam to be closer to Kadykchan.
If somebody find some news, please post.

Thanks and safe rides,
Adrian

Hi Zimi when are you planning on leaving next year? I'm also planning to go this way next year, perhaps we could share information :thumbup1:

Hi Peak,

I am planning to go in july or august. I want to be there when the rivers are at their lowest. I think I will take 4 weeks holidays, so I definitively need to ship the bike by plane. Still don't know if it's possible to send it directly to Magadan, or if I have to send it to Ulanbataar or Vladivostok.

And yes, would be great to share infos

hi guys,

I'm starting to plan a trip to Siberia too.

Do you know if there is a way to put the bike on a train with me, from Moscow (maybe) to Krasnoyarsk (maybe)? I red that a Russian guy (Pate) did it.

I would like to go to the East by train, ride the west part of BAMand then ride back to Italy. This is my dream.

I will not have many weeks, so I'm looking for Train information.

Thank you
PAolo

Motos, snow scooters, etc, depending on season, are regularly sent across Russia by train in advance of their owners - whether it be Pate or others.

However the process takes time, far longer than passenger trains as the vehicles travel as unaccompanied freight, only on freight trains (unless you can bribe a passenger train crew) and therefore you do not travel with them.

Hi Tony,
thank you very much