Road of Bones and the Kolyma Highway - Pure Photos

Every now and again you come across Kilometre posts - I started collecting interesting years in history ... this one was 1206 ... a very good year for Genghis Khan.

Soon after Artik, you finally leave Yakutia, or as George W Bush would say "this great state of Yakutia" ... and cross into Magadan Oblast. By this stage we had ridden over 5000 km of dirt roads in Yakutia, from Lensk to Artik ... makes you appreciate just how big Yakutia is, when you can do 5000 km in it. ... to put it another way, it almost 5 times the size of Texas (with less than a million people living there.)

All I can say is WOW!!

Thanks for taking us along..........


Todd

Great pictures man.

Thanks for the ride reporting. Amazing.

And... Texas has few hills.

Love it.

Don't stop now!

BTW how heavy is the bike that has the tire and wheel problems? I'm sure a few extra pounds of air would help, but then driveability would probably suffer.

You guys rock!

Literally.

Love the pics, great report. keep it coming!!

Anymore info on your solo buddy in the mud? looks like he was pretty lightweight...

Arnaud, French guy on the Yamaha 250. His bike was too underpowered, and he had only quickly rigged up a luggage system at the last minute, so it all sat very high.

His case is a bit unique ... he lives half the time in Siberia and he keeps his bikes in Siberia, so did not have to take too much stuff, or travel too far to get there. He travelled very light, but think he needed more power and the luggage sitting lower down.

I'm in, this is great.

The Fireweed pic is outstanding. Well every pic that you have presented is captivation. After spending 10 years in Alaska the beauty of the north is just remarkable. I just want to get a bike to Siberia and travel.

Once upon a time there was a big coal mining town at Kadykchan, with almost 20,000 people living and working there. That all changed in late 1996, as winter was approaching. For reasons I don't fully understand (apparently to do with an accident in a coal mine) the authorities decided to abandon the town, overnight. To help people who didn't really want to move (most people) to make up their minds, they turned of the electricity and hot water (like all Russian cities, the hot water was provided by the city and piped to everyone's apartment). It being -40 ish outside at the time, the city of 16,000 was abandoned by the next day. It still stands now as an eerie ghost town, about 3km off the Road of Bones, immediately adjacent to where the old summer road thru Tomtor meets the maintained section.

This marker on the main road signifies the road junction, with the road to Ust Nera one way and the road to Tomtor the other:

This is the Old Summer Road, which at one time was the shortcut (via Tomtor) between Kyubeme and Kadykchan, neither place even exists now, but at least Kyubeme had a fuel station. In Kadykchan there is nothing but ghosts.

The Old Summer Road is no longer maintained, and deteriorates every year. At present it is only possible in August or early September, due to water levels on river crossings. (unless you hire a Ural truck or two to follow you the whole way - possible but expensive)



We took a look and rode 5km down the old road, but it was getting dark (it was 10:30pm), and we had to get to a town to eat n sleep (Susuman is 85km away). Here is Tony arriving back at the junction with the Susuman - Ust Nera road:

The remains of a shop:


And the main street:


Side streets:


Soviet uplifting murals on the sides of buildings:

nicely put ... most of the more extreme parts of Siberia (away from the main trans-siberian highway) are nothing if not rugged, and nothing if not beautiful.

Its a very serene, lonely beauty up there.

Near the village of ... "Bolshevik" ... there is a turnoff to the South. This turnoff represents a more scenic and lesser used variation among the Road of Bones network.

We took it.

The road from Bolshevik to Palatka near Magadan, is known as the Tenkinskaya Trassa, and is part of the Kolyma Ring.

No problem, we had more than enough!

I see you were running Michelin Deserts on you XC, How did they hold up for you?

The Deserts were very good. They were more grippy with more aggressive tread, both front and rear than the Karoos that Tony used - and they lasted 50% longer.

The three of us, Tony, myself and Terry who joined in Vladivostok, all fitted new tyres in Khabarovsk, before starting the BAM road, again I had Deserts and the others had Karoos pre arranged. Same deal again. The Deserts were better wearing and better grip off road. Karoos were better on asphalt. By the time we finished the 4000 km of the BAM road, the Karoos were finished, the Deserts were only a bit over half gone.

They also gave me no flat tyres, while both Tony and Terry had quite a few between them. That may have been luck, or may have been helped by the very strong sidewalls on the tyres.

I was impressed. I will be using them again.