Road of Bones and the Kolyma Highway - Pure Photos

[Colebatch]

[Colebatch]

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.

[Colebatch]

[Oso Blanco]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Thanks for the freeze dried food gentlemen. We ate them when totally fu@ked for food in the middle of the BAM road (post to come at a later date).

No problem, we had more than enough!

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

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by GNP77

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.

[sigma1959]

That's an Awesome Adventure!! Thanks for sharing.

[BlackBeast]

Absolutely amazing!

[Oso Blanco]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

The Deserts were very good. They were more grippy with more aggressive tread, both front and rear than the Karoos that the other guy 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 probably 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.

I was curious if I just got lucky or if your experiences were the same. I installed the Deserts in Khabarovsk as well, rode to Ulan Ude, down to Ulan Baataar then all through Mongolia and up to Barnual. Just hit the wear bars in Barnual on the rear, the front was 80%. No flats for me, none for Tim (Desert rear, TKC80 front) but Petar got one flat with his Karoos. The wear on the Deserts was pretty awesome and they are a very durable tire... wet traction on pavement wasn't too good though!

[jetjackson]

Those abandoned streets look amazing. Thanks for sharing the scenery.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by jetjackson

Those abandoned streets look amazing. Thanks for sharing the scenery.

OK ... I just edited that post, to add a couple more Kolyma ghost town pics in there for your viewing pleasure :)

[kta]

Originally Posted by TemeculaRider

Wasn't that bridge in "Long Way Round?"

So beautiful! Siberia I mean.

That is exactly what I thought when I saw it.

Amazing photos. I like that the tank has a Panda painted on it. ha.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by kta

That is exactly what I thought when I saw it.

Amazing photos. I like that the tank has a Panda painted on it. ha.

Yes ... its the same bridge

[pioter]

Hi Colebatch, your story is breathtaking. I love those photos.
Did you use HDR for taking some of the pics, or the colours are like that without any tricks?
Another question is the bear issue in Syberia. I know Motosybiera 2.0 guys met a lot of them. Did you? If yes, how often and what is the safe way to get along with them?
I personally never met one even in the mountains so I am curious.

Take care

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by pioter

Hi Colebatch, your story is breathtaking. I love those photos.
Did you use HDR for taking some of the pics, or the colours are like that without any tricks?

First of all, I am no photography guru, so I feel uncomfortable giving photography comments! These are just my views and how I like to shoot.

No HDR at all ... but there are a couple of things I tend to do when shooting that help make the pics more vivid and to avoid a burnt (white) sky.

(1) I almost always underexpose outdoor photos ... typically from between -0.3 and -1.3 stops. Darker fotos are more atmospheric and it makes the colours more vivid. Try it with a photo ... modify a standard foto by making it 20% darker and take a look which has the more appealing colours. If you have too much light, it overpowers the colours and things look too white. An example I missed in editing is on the third page of this post (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...529114&page=3). The top foto was taken by me and deliberately shot underexposed on the DSLR. The second shot is of me on the bike riding through part of exactly the same scene, taken by my colleague Tony, with a good quality compact camera (a Canon G9). He has just used the auto settings, and in my opinion the scene is too bright. It needs to be darkened in editing, or needed to be underexposed when shooting. Compare the colours between the first and second fotos on that page ... the darker picture has the better colours. The brighter 2nd picture is too "white" and bright and the colours look faded.

(2) I will usually use filters when shooting outdoors to avoid getting a boring white sky. If its sunny, I will often use a circular polariser, if it is cloudy I will often use a graduated ND filter to bring some character into the clouds. I guess it's not having an overexposed sky that makes you think that there might be HDR involved, but in my case there are way too many fotos to even consider doing that. I try and do as much as possible when shooting and do as little as possible when editing.

Most of my editing is cropping, and playing with the exposure (as per point 1).

[Mike_K]

Thanks that you share this great pictures with us! :)

Is this a BMW G650 XChallenge you use?

Regards Mike