Hi

I've just started to plan the summer adventure :-)

I've decided to travel from Sweden to russia/mongolia and back. I only have 5-6 weeks starting end of june, so it would be nice if I could find a way to reduce the miles on the road.

Efter reading some posts I think that perhaps the easiest way would be to ride to moscow where I could take the train to irkutsk. There i'd get off with my bike. Travel around Mongolia and then ride back to europe.

Anyone experience with putting the bike on the train as cargo/baggage? Do I have to book place for the bike in advance or can i just show up with my bike and expect to get it with me? I guess I'll have to book the train ticket a few days in advande, witch I guess I could do when passing St Petersburg. Any idea what the cost would be?

Another option would be to ride to magadan and then ship the bike back to stockholm. Any ideas of a company that would ship from magadan to Stockholm/Europe?

See you on the road :-)

/spakur

You can ride to Irkutsk from Moscow in a week easily. How long will the train ride take from Moscow to Irkutsk? [rhetorical question]

That is of course the alternative, but I was hoping to save my but ;-). I usually find it boring to ride one way and returning the same way , but perhaps I could find an alternative northern route back or something. We'll see.

I think the train is about 3 days from moscow to Irkutsk.

Thanks for the reply anyhow!

/spakur

I suffered mechanical problems in Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan that needed a new part (a part I should have taken with me but was feeling tight fisted - big mistake, along with taking an italian bike).

I then looked into my options, getting a bike shipped into/out of Russia is a bad bad idea if you are not with/on the bike. I was sent into siberia to 'the best bike place in siberia' which spent two days working on the bike and then announced 'we don't do Italian bikes.....'

They did have another shop in Moscow though, and shipped my bike with theirs for 100 US dollars - bargain. The train was another 80 for me (4 days, great fun crammed in with the army regs (don't bother with your own cabin if you're on your own, people are dead friendly and love bikers).

I would recommend going to Moscow, getting the bike shipped (might take a while depending on when they are shipping, they normally send bikes to and fro every fortnight) and then killing time in St Petersburg before you have to get the trans siberian express to Irkutsk (if you want to enter Mongolia from the west get the bike sent to Novosibirsk, then its only a day ride to Barnaul)

The bike people you want are NBC Motor (spelt more like NBC MOTOP) www.nbcmtor.ru

If you want any more details send me a message before I lock the BB up ranting about how ace mother Russia is.....

Thanks for the info Henry!

That could be a good option (depending on how long it takes of course)

The link to the shop doesn't work...spelling?

/Spakur

you're right, it doesn't work!

I have a russian bike mag somewhere, will try and find an ad for them

Great!

/spakur

Hi, you can just show up with your bike put it on the train and get on the same train. It's like this: They put only your bike on the train with you. When you need help with the Mongolian customs then contact me in UB 99762614. The costs was per kg and it is in UB ca. 25 cent in Russia I would say a little more. The train ticket will cost you 263 Euro and book in advance the trains are full in summer. The border in the west is open and no problem at all. The roads are bumpy but you can buy basic food and petrol on the way. The Northern route is very stony.......

Hi all

I got a new job and has to move this summer, so I have to cancel the trip :-(

Perhaps I'll do it the next summer instead :-)

Gursed:
So what you are saying is that I can book any train on the trans siberian railway and just show up with the bike and that they will load it on the train?

I talked to a swedish travel agency that specialize in trans siberian railway tours and they said that it wasn't possible to do that...

/spakur