Last year i rode my motorcycle from the UK to Magadan, in the far east of russia.
I went through turkey, georgia, azerbaijan across the caspian sea, up through the stans via the pamir highway, through the altai mountains and into mongolia, across mongolia and up into russia where i took the road of bones through eastern siberia to magadan. Then i rode home across the length of russia.
AMA
also any other overlanders here?
>>1221073
Very cool. I'd love to take that trip.
I'm also a Brit, been thinking of getting a motorcycle, realised I'd be able to these kind of road trips
How difficult is adjusting to driving on the right in all these different countries? Do you need a lot of riding experience?
>>1221073
Also, how long did it take? How much did you plan?
>>1221073
How did you made it through the sea? What the cost was?
>>1221073
Did you feel in harm's way at any point of the trip? Did you have prior experience with motorcycles?
How necessary was having prior knowledge or experience with motorcycles?
Thinking of doing something like this but have never ridden one
Not as extreme as you, but last year the gf and I rode a 110cc honda win throughout northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia for 9 months. It was the first traveling trip either of us had been on, and it was the best time of my life. We bought and sold 3 different honda win's while we were there and rode a total of 3500 miles.
Pic was taken in Laos, and the second bike belonged my friend who joined us for a month
>>1221113
>>1221118
You'll be in harm's way basically at all times while riding. People in other vehicles will do very stupid things without care. Road and weather conditions will vary from ideal to nightmarish. So, when riding you must never let your guard down. It's easy to daydream while riding, and when you least expect it you might have a bus cut you off or a cow walk into the road. Always be on edge and assume that everyone else on the road isn't aware of you and might do something stupid.
I'm
>>1221136
by the way
Prior knowledge of riding motorcycles is obviously highly preferred. In order to stay safe you need to be confident in your ability to ride the bike and be able to maneuver it well. You want to get a good feel for riding on 2 wheels and be able to make split second decisions without hesitation. As an example, I was riding along a small vietnam country road at ~45mph when the back tire of our bike blew out. I had my girlfriend on the backseat, 2 large backpacks strapped on the side, and a decent amount of gear tied on the back. The bike was skidding side to side and I barely managed to save us from crashing. luckily, I grew up riding dirtbikes my whole life and I knew exactly how to wrestle the bike back under control. But for someone with little to no experience, they would have crashed for sure and been injured. Knowing how to drive in traffic is another thing that I see beginner riders struggle with. You have to drive defensively and anticipate the cars moving around you.
I would be best to practice at home before you attempt a riding trip. Bikes can be had really cheap on craigslist, so maybe even buy a small one to practice on.
>pic is the load we would carry on that little 110 lol
Learned how to ride a couple years back in India and done a bit of riding in Turkey and Nicaragua as well. Have a bike here in the United States and planning to buy a Suzuki V-Strom 650 to take a trip form Alaska to Argentina either after I finish my Bachelors or after I finish my MBA.
I've traveled a lot already and know I can make it happen.
Would love to do a RTW trip (UK through Russia sounds like a beautiful ride), but I dunno if I'll ever have the time and money.
>>1221073
Overlanded from Senegal to Ghana with another anon last year - he just got on the road again, and is now in Mali, the thread is still up. I do consider a trip similar to yours at some point in the future. Would probably skip Azerbaijan in favour of Iran, every traveller/overlander I met complained about Azeri corruption. How long did it take, and what bike did you ride? How did you time it visa-, weather- and seasonwise? I presume you shipped the bike back - and what company?
Also, most beautiful region along the road? I'm quite close to the Altai now - in Irkutsk - but I probably won't make it there now, as we'll be doing a 10-day ice skating expedition.
>Then i rode home across the length of russia.
Where are you from that you can get a visa for Russia long enough that lets you stay in Russia for long enough to do that? You certainly can't be from the UK or you're just lying. Not to mention the fact that to get from Kazakhstan into Mongolia you have to go through Russia so you'd have to enter it twice adding even more complications.
OP
How was the language barrier?
How was getting through borders/customs?
Any problem bringing your bike through different countries?
>>1221259
You can get a 30-day double entry visa.
Pretty sure you could cover 10,000 miles in 30 days, it was probably less than 10,000
>>1221321
>Pretty sure you could cover 10,000 miles in 30 days
Maybe if the roads were absolutely perfect and he never stopped anywhere at all and did nothing but literally drive all day, sleep and repeat. But the roads in large parts of Mongolia would be awful, and from quick look at google earth the ones the other side of the border in Russia don't seem to be much better. Doing this myself I'd probably be feeling I was pushing it very hard to even get from Mongolia to Russia and back in 30 days if I actually wanted to stop and check out of the country. Let alone cross all of russia, part of it twice and mongolia on top of that.
>>1221335
>the roads in large parts of Mongolia would be awful
you have clearly never been to Mongolia, my friend
>>1221337
The red here is what's paved, those gaps are not insignificant. Shitty gravel tracks can quadruple or more the amount of time it takes to get from a to b when touring on a bike.
>>1221340
there is no gravel, tho. Only steppe. And riding on it is absolutely fine.
>>1221342
You've done it? I've not been to Mongolia but I lived in XInjiang and the potholes in the dirt roads there made by trucks and the like mean you have to be quite a bit more cautious than on paved.
Even if the ones in Mongolia are miraulously perfect it's still not possible in 30 days. Take this guy for example, he did a very similar trip and it takes him 3 and a half weeks to just get from the first part of Russia to Magadan, let alone getting all the way back across Russia from there afterwards.
http://www.maxadventure.co.uk/london-to-magadan/
I'm assuming he must be either Russian, able to get a far better visa than 30 days or is just lying. He hasn't responded to anything and that picture in the OP isn't his.
>>1221363
no he's definitely not lying.
Why would he anyway?
I've hitchhiked alle the way from EU through Russia to Mongolia and then through China. My travel speed through Russia was 500km/day on average, (So I made it to Baykal lake in two weeks) but this was only travelling in the daytime, sleeping until 2PM or so and going with trucks mostly. The roads further in Syberia get quite shitty, yes, but before it it's fine and having your own vehicle means you can easily do 2000km/day.
That some guy did it so super slowly does not prove he couldn't go faster.
The Mongolian ground is fine to ride, unless you must cross a river or something. But for this you have your maps. And anyway majority of things worth doing there are cultural experiances and views. And you get more than plenty of views from just going via paved roads.
Man, you should not jump to screaming somebody's lying right at your first thought.
>>1221370
Well congratulations for outing yourself for having absolutely no idea what you're talking about lmao, to drive 2000km in a day you'd have to be doing 70kmh more than the national speed limit in my country for 10 hours straight without ever slowing down for any reason.
800km on absolutely perfect roads is normal, but he won't be for large parts of his trip. When I've done sections of road on my bike in shitty rural areas with potholes everywhere, twisty mountain roads where you can never get your speed up and border crossing taking forever managing to do 100km in a day is a success. Even if i'm very kind and say he manage to do the whole thing averaging 500km/day for his 16,000 km trip that's already 32 days. Even if you're miraculously somehow faster and manage to do it 4 or 5 days quicker than that you'd still need to spend literally every day you had off crashed out because you'd be exhausted from driving all day every day and staring at the road.
This is all of course assuming his bike never ever has a problem in the entire length of the journey which is also unlikely.
>>1221380
>500km/day
>miraculously somehow faster
>comparing China to Russia and Mongolia for whatever reason
>twisty montain roads in Mongolia
>monutain
>in Mongolia
you sir are plainly stupid
>>1221382
>>miraculously somehow faster
Yes. Driving on a bike all day every day is a very different thing to hitchhikling on vehicles that are far better for the landscape.
>comparing China to Russia and Mongolia for whatever reason
Because it's all steppeland?
>twisty montain roads in Mongolia
No but there are in Russia, are you deliberately being dense?
>>1221387
> vehicles that are far better for the landscape
yeah, mostly trucks that do not dare riding after the nightfall nor too fast. Totally faster than a bike.
>but there are in Russia
but maybe not on the very biggest roads available?
Besides, he could have entered China instead of Russia. This would save him a lot of time.
>>1221073
OP, this is a dream of mine. What would a budget for this type of trip be like? I have experience riding motorcycle, but I have never ridden very far from my home.
How difficult was the paperwork with getting visas and everything? And the language barrier? Did you have to interact a lot with the locals?
I really want to do this but I'm just a broke 19 year old
>>1221391
You wouldn't ride at night on a bike either in bad roads, nor be going fast because you have to be cautious of anything imperfect in the road. Even gravel is bad because you can drop the bike at any time if you break too hard, and with enough stuff to live on you'll have a very hard time picking it back up on your own.
>he could have entered China instead of Russia
The only way to do that is to pay quite a bit of money and jump through a million hoops with local authorities to have an authorised tour guide accompany you for your entire journey along a pre-agreed itinerary. Or just be a Chinese resident, have a Chinese license and pay massive amounts of money to import the car fully.
Sorry lads, forgot i even made this thread.
>How difficult is adjusting to driving on the right in all these different countries? Do you need a lot of riding experience?
not difficult.
More experience is obviously preferable but it's not necessary as long as you are sensible. You'll learn as you go. I done some fairly arduous off road riding without much prior offroad experience and survived.
>Also, how long did it take? How much did you plan?
6 months, i planned for 5.
You could do it quicker.
>How did you made it through the sea? What the cost was?
Ferry from Baku to Turkmenbashi. About $250 all in. Not worth it. It's horrendous. Customs are a nightmare on both sides. Would have rather gone through Iran but couldn't because of visa restrictions on UK nationals.
>>1221136
would love to ride that part of the world
>>1221259
1 year multi-entry business visa
It's expensive but relatively easy to obtain
>>1221273
>How was the language barrier?
You always find ways to communicate, be it hand gestures, drawings in the sand, google translate. People, especially in remote areas are very accommodating in this regard.
>How was getting through borders/customs?
>Any problem bringing your bike through different countries?
The worst part of the trip. It was never smooth. Always some kind of bureaucratic problem, but you learn to deal with it and just go with the flow. Turkmenistan was the worst, 12 hours to clear customs when entering. You've never seen anything like it, disorganised chaos, and nobody wants to help you.
>>1221337
Vast majority of mongolia has no roads.
Even the things marked as roads, aren't roads.
Nobody goes to mongolia to ride on tarmac.
I relied entirely on GPS tracks from other motorcyclists whilst in mongolia.
Mongolian truck drivers navigate using the stars (im not even joking).
>>1221392
You can do it relatively cheap, if you want.
Do it on a cheap, reliable bike, wild camp most nights, live on boiled rice and cheap meat.
People have ridden around the world on c90s.
Though rule out going doing the pamir highway, mongolia or magadan unless you have a serious offroad bike.
I honestly never kept a track of exactly what i spent. I was spending about £15-30 a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. Staying in hotels/homestays about 60% of the trip, Costs of Visas vary from country to country but usually around about £100 all in.
>How difficult was the paperwork with getting visas and everything?
This is a rabbit hole. You need to do the legwork yourself. It's obviously not impossible though. A few countries are visa on arrival, some have to be sorted out whilst you are still in the UK, some you sort on the road at the country's consulate, in another country.
>>1223166
>People have ridden around the world on c90s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
>>1223158
>Mongolian truck drivers navigate using the stars
that's cool. is it a greentext material perhaps?
But why would they? I mean, the tarmac roads connect every bigger city. Why would anyone send a truck to any smaller place there?
>>1221073
So fucking original OP, next time do something there isn't already a series starring Ewan McGregor about.
>>1223217
>Why would anyone send a truck to any smaller place there?
why wouldn't they? these small towns need supplies like rice, flour, fuel and other essentials. Most of the nomadic people sell animal product, such as cashmere. This has to be transported by truck.
This is not me in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSvkUhGXEjg
Guys bike broke down, had to ride in a truck across mongolia. Amazing video, will give you an idea what life is like for the majority of mongolians on the steppe.
Gooood
>>1221073
hey OP, i was in the stans back in june/july i probably met you desu, just wanted to say i found everyone there especially in the pamirs/wakhan valley to be great people, have you met the south african guy who travelled by land with a land rover from south africa to kazakhstan?
>>1223244
maybe i met you, not sure. i met a lot of people at the hostel in khorog. on the road, mostly cyclists and a few other motorcyclists.
Wakhan was one of the highlights of my trip, in fact the entire GBAO was great. I agree about the locals, really nice. Though the prices of the homestays are a bit steep, in my opinion. I suppose that's because it's saturated with overlanders and the locals have realised they can command those prices.
I wanted to go into the Afghan part of Wakhan but when i spoke to people in khorog i was told ISIS have been fighting with Afghan Police not far from the border, and it's not safe, which is sad. It used to be safe, as the taliban never bothered establishing themselves in that area of afghanistan but i guess ISIS have different ideas.
Did you get laid at all?
>>1223237
Well I have decided I am selling my things and becoming a mogol nomad. Don't try to stop me /trv/.
>>1223310
Almost. At a hostel near ephesus. She was a dutch girl who was out of my league, 18 years old. I wooed her with hyperbolic tales of my motorcycle adventures, we kissed a couple of times, a bit of heavy petting, then i passed out drunk. Hostel owner, an australian bloke, woke me up in the morning. I was laying on the ground behind the bar. He thought it was fucking hilarious.
>>1221073
How did you carry your gear?
What did you pack?
Doing something like this is a dream of mine
>>1223477
I packed light. Weight is important on motorcycles, especially when riding offroad. I packed similar to how an ultralight/light hiker would, i suppose, plus tools and spares for the bike, a casual outfit, extra underwear, extra toiletries. Luggage was two 30 litre panniers a 30 litre roll top tail bag, a kriega r15 with a water bladder and and a folded up kriega us10 (incase i needed extra space for anything), and a tool roll attached to the front mudguard, that's it.
All waterproof and all soft. Metal panniers and big top boxes are best avoided unless you are riding exclusively on tarmac.
A common mistake people make with motorcycle touring is they take far too much stuff, half of which you wont even use. It just ends up getting in your way.
Cover the bare essentials, limit yourself to a couple of luxury items (i took a helinox chair and a little coffee press pump thing).
>>1223158
Its a dream to do that route OP, have looked into it before but its far too expensive.
What did you do about the river crossings on the road of bones?
I thought the road was impassable on a motorbike because the river crossings are too deep...
>>1221073
Bumping for information
How much did you spend?
How long did it take?
Anything youd consider a must see/avoid at all costs?
>>1221073
Did you have a chance to visit Oymyakon? What kind of temperatures did you encounter around Magadan? I'm surprised your motorcycle even worked in the far east, id be scared of it freezing up and breaking down
>>1223547
>I thought the road was impassable on a motorbike because the river crossings are too deep...
Very occasionally they are too deep, if there has been a lot of rain. You just have to wait it out. I personally never had any issues, river levels were low. There is an alternative section of the Road of bones called The Old Summer road, this is now nearly impassable. Nobody has successfully done that route in a couple of years. These guys were the last https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON26m_Mq2DI
I would have liked to have tried, but it's not something you can do solo. Same for the BAM road further west, i really wanted to do it but couldn't find anyone going that way the same time i was.
>>1223583
>Anything youd consider a must see/avoid at all costs?
My highlights were Northern Georgia, Altai Republic, Wakhan Corridor and Mongolia. All worth visiting if you are into the outdoors.
Ulaanbaatar is fucking horrible. Spend as little time there as you possibly can when visiting Mongolia. Don't get the ferry across the Caspian Sea. Go around.
>Did you have a chance to visit Oymyakon?
I never went that far north. I believe Walter Colebatch (SibirskyExtreme) has done a ride up that way. Check his ride reports on advrider.com, all of them are worth reading if you are into this sort of thing. His first BAM ride report and 'Toughest ride of them all' report were a big inspiration for me, along with some other ride reports.>>1223585
>What kind of temperatures did you encounter around Magadan?
It's mild up there from June to September.
I was there early July. It was like 12c~ .
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/sibirsky-extreme-2012-the-toughest-ride-of-them-all.834987/
>>1223226
shut up you stupid twat, go back to pol
>>1221101
As someone that drives on the right side of the road, and has had to switch to the left when in Ireland, it's not that bad. The few times I've gotten into trouble is when I've been doing stuff on instinct instead of thinking about it. As long as you don't let your brain drift off too much, you're fine, particularly when there's traffic to follow.
>>1221136
Isn't it horribly uncomfortable riding for long stretches on a bike like that? I've done long trips on my bike that's actually set up for it and after about 6-7 hours in a day I'm pretty done with riding.
>>1223753
>Isn't it horribly uncomfortable riding for long stretches on a bike like that?
OP Here
You rest. On proper roads i could easily get in 10 hours of proper riding, with regular breaks.
On poor roads or offroad i rarely did more than 7 hours, less than 5 on some off the worst parts, before i was spent. Always slept like a baby.
>>1223753
>Isn't it horribly uncomfortable riding for long stretches on a bike like that?
It wasn't as bad as you might think. The first couple days were rough, but we got used to it quick. One of our bikes had a really thin and uncomfortable seat, so we bought two cheap pillows and strapped them on the seat. It sounds really silly, but those pillows were comfy as fuck. We rode a couple 10 hour days no problem
>>1221073
Was the motorcycle chosen from personal preferences, or is it in some way superior to a car in terms of long-distance travel?
>>1223936
Both.
A car is more practical method of transportation, but a bike is a far superior way to experience your surroundings, which is very relevant when traveling. In a car you are, to an extent, in your own little bubble, secluded from the outside world. On a bike you are exposed to everything- the sounds, the smells, the weather and most importantly the people. Without the physical barrier of a car, you become more approachable. You are also instantly recognisable as a traveler, as opposed to just another car on the road, and once you get out of europe this will lead to encounters which will be the highlights of your trip.
How many books have been written about overland travel in cars? None that i know of.
How many books have been written about overland motorcycle journeys? I can think of several just off the top of my head. It's anecdotal, i know, but it's also true.
Motorcycle is the optimum method of travel, if you are traveling for the sake of traveling. If you are just looking to reach a destination, take a car, or better yet just catch a fucking flight.
>>1221073
Wow, that's amazing OP, can you tell me how much it did cost you in total ? (bike excluded)
You did that in how many weeks/months ?
What's your next project ?
>>1221192
jim ?
>>1223262
I know an italian guy who got the visa from the consulate in khoroug and went to the afghan side.
Told me it was a nice experience but you're really limited on where you can go there, it's expensive to get a visa and the scenery remains the same only the other side of the river, so it's worth it to sample the afghani culture in there and apparently there are some tough kyrgyz nomads there as well but i'm not sure how far you can go with that