I would definitely stop in a couple of the old cities east of Moscow e.g. Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma. Kazan is worth a look, then maybe a diversion to one of the nicer parts of the Urals, for example Turgoyak Lake in Miass (near Chelyabinsk). Then it's a pretty long and dull stretch to the nice parts of southern Siberia, Altai / Tuva / Khakassia. Lake Baikal is stunning, especially away from the main resort towns in the south. I would stop in the Amur city of Blagoveshchensk to get a sense of how close Russia is to China and that you are really in Asia, then make a detour towards the coast south of Khabarovsk and enter Vladivostok via backroads from Nakhodka.
Mongolia is awesome, but not for just blasting across.
Timing is important. I think for most people September is probably the best month to do it (I assume you're moving quickly).
Winter, Dec - Mar is great for adventure, probably not really practical on a bike. late March and April are really bad times to go. May can be nice. June is peak tick season. You'll have lots of mosquitoes until August. I like September for nice daytime temperatures, cool nights but very few mosquitoes.
EO
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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.
Last edited by eurasiaoverland; 9 Sep 2018 at 13:37.
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