Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

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AND........GO..........NOW..........PLEASE........

Mr. Colebatch I presume

"Im going to upgrade my GPS from a GPSMAP76CSx and was thinking ZUMO until I read what you said about the montana. Would you mind telling me why the Montana is so much better? Any chance you know if it would have the same power wire as a GPSMAP76CSx?




That's a great question Clay, I also would love to hear Walter's opinion on the Zumo vs the Montana.
I have the Zumo 550 and I can't even upload the complete CDR from Big Dog onto it without it breaking it into 9 separate routes, but how long I have no idea. From what I gather from Walters earlier post the Montana can handle the longer routes. Do I understand that correctly Walter?

Part of the advantage of the Montana is memory. It'll handle any size SD card you care to put in it. The maps available from Garmin come on 4GB cards. The Montana will take a 32G so it should handle 8 consecutive 4GB Topo Maps.

And that's just the tip of the iceburg. I have a 660 and a Montana. There is no comparison.

Standing O!

I did... I was wondering if you needed a bongo ride for the rail crossings?

Sorry Rod, can you elaborate, my good man - is this signature because you are no longer on the trip or is it now your signature perpetually post "BongoGate"?

You forgot to mention that I said that he's not only got a huge frame, but has the big heart to go with it and it's probably completely fabricated of candy

Thanks for the compliment on my age, but I must admit it was an odd 40 years back
You're always welcome for some more singing whilst devouring a soft drink mate

Beer is now considered as a soft drink?

Another point -

The Norwegians 'brush' with Mafia.

Russian folk are naturally curious and enquiring. Something that 'wary' foreigners may find disconcerting at first.

In small towns across Russia there are always young local 'Jack the Lads' wanting to appear cool. This includes acting sinister and influential for the benefit of everyone. Being seen talking with foreigners adds to their 'street cred'.

Generally, apart from questions of where are we come from/going and why, a common question is what did the moto cost. Knowing we come from a vastly different economic environment I always avoid a direct answer with "When new about the same as a small Lada - but my moto is not new".
About correct, and an achievably modest level for their comprehension. It always satisfied the question and I did not give an unpalatable reply that could produce envy and avarice.

The plot thickens.....:eek1

This is a very nice response to that age old question.

David

David, do you really care? or would you still consider buying a KTM?

Can we please quit the crap talking about LWR and focus on Sibirsky

Well I woke up the next morning and spoke to Terry. He was OK with the guys coming along.

Geir had spoken with his boys, and while they were a bit worried about the speed, they were prepared to start a couple of hours earlier in the morning if they had to. It looked like we had ourselves a new posse.

Way back on Page 8, when I had introduced the initial three riders, Terry, Rick and myself, I also offered this pic ... of riders still to come into the story...



Well you know Prutser, Beamster and Rod pretty well by now ... so I guess I better introduce the three Norwegians, who were now part of the team.

First up ... Geir ... aka EtronX. A mountain of a man, Geir is the guy behind the Norwegian project. As mentioned earlier, I had been in contact with him for about 12 months prior to our meeting here in Irkutsk. A helicopter rescue pilot by trade, like most Norwegians is into life threatening thrill seeking kinda hobbies. He used to ride a 1200 GSA, but wisely chose a much lighter bike specially for this project - an X-Challenge. His bike was kitted out very similarly to mine, except its black, has a TT bashplate instead of my Scheffelmeier product and he had OEM forks, that had been given new springs and a change of oil by the good folks at Hyperpro. Adventure-Spec were out of stock of the Magadan panniers when he departed so he had to make do with a crazy assortment of bags on the back.



Second up was Geirs close friend and Riding buddy Erik. Erik is a daredevil skydiving instructor. Erik's bike was the same as Geir's except his had a high fender, while Geir had a low fender. Both guys had the luxury of some pre project training with Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Scandinavia's top Dakar rider.



Here are the boys together in previews from some pics to come:





And last but definitely not least ... the guy who in my book is up there with Beamster as probably the most remarkable of all the riders we rode with this year ... Steve. As EtronX mentioned earlier, he and Erik met a third Norwegian guy, Steve, riding around the world on an F800GS, just a few days before arriving in Irkutsk. In April 2012, Steve quit his job as an advertising exec in Norway, quit his girlfriend, and decided he wanted to ride a motorcycle around the world. Steve had never ridden a bike before. He bought an F800GS and set of into the former USSR, exploring Iran and the assorted Stans before he bumped into the Trans Sibir Expedition guys in the form of Geir and Erik, in Krasnoyarsk, just 1100 km before Irkutsk. This wasnt what he planned for. Like most long distance adventure rides on heavy bikes, Steve was just envisaging bad asphalt roads and the occasional graded gravel road. But just 3 months after he learned to ride a motorcycle, here was Steve, (aka stemic01 on this forum) being thrown into the deep end - and he was being asked if he wants to come along and do the BAM and ROB with Terry and myself. I cant speak for Steve, but I would have been petrified if that was me.



Steve was riding a pretty stock F800 ... with crash bars. :eek1 :eek1 :eek1 Not ideal for the job, but then if I hadnt thought it could get the job done I would have told Steve not to bother. I had a hunch that Steve would make it and get his bike through kicking and screaming.

Easy now sailor boys

Lets make a new thread where we can discuss C&E, orange machines and heavy german panzervagens. In this thread, if you don't mind, we will continue our little trip...

I am going to borrow a fun teaser video clip Geir put together while on the road, immediately after the BAM Road, in a crummy hotel between Tynda and Yakutsk ... (amazing what you can do with apple templates) to give you some idea whats in Stage 3 of the ride:

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/57hCKRZwu_4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I was hoping that you would do that !

thank you