Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[stemic01]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Steve took some great shots of the scenery and of us riding along that day ....
Dont normally end up with a lot of pics of me riding because of that, but now there are quite a few. Cheers Steve.

Thanks Walter... Nice sharing with you guys. Here are some more from my archives :)


The captain


Unloading the bikes


The team posing




Russian truck drivers


Nice view


Geir and Walter


Walter


Nice bridge

[Schannulleke]

Steve, it strikes me that every picture you are in, you always have the biggest smile on your face

2012 Norway, Europe, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
- The Pamir Highway, Tadjikistan, Kyrgistan, Kazakhstan
- BAM road, Road of bones, Russia to Magadan
- USA, Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Equador, Peru.

Are we going to get a ride report with nice pictures of the rest of your trip as well?

[vintagespeed]

they do the moonwalk in Norway??!

[lipsee]

Originally Posted by nachtflug

Christ that is freaking high I get dizzy just loking at it. Anyone who rode across that bridge with no rails on the side is a freaking major stud and there is no shame in pushing across I would have done the same thing and would have had a hard time doing that.

Me too,,it was hard enough watching the vids,,,

[BordenBmw]

Originally Posted by lipsee

Me too,,it was hard enough watching the vids,,,

[GSlite]

Originally Posted by lipsee

Me too,,it was hard enough watching the vids,,,

No joke. My palms started to get a little clammy.

[GRinCR]

Originally Posted by nachtflug

Christ that is freaking high I get dizzy just loking at it.

Let us not forget the current.

[ADKbeemer]

Originally Posted by BordenBmw

....Its funny how we will think nothing of walking along a sidewalk with cars going by at 60 mph a few feet away, yet add in the exposure and the fear of falling we freak out.

The thing that gets me is not the exposure, but the idea of having a wheel hit one of those parallel ties or metal plates just the wrong way - yikes! No question the look straight ahead at your line, not at whats right in front of you is good advise anywhere, especially here.

You guys (and gal ) have been awesome....bring on more of the BAM!

We can't get enough of this trip!

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by agentsteel53

I can't really tell how long that gap is where the cylindrical transverse posts are missing. does a truck (6wd or the like) need to very carefully tread on the longitudinal planks, or can it just power through without getting a wheel stuck?

The gap in the pic above, is the same gap as the gap in the pic below.



A bike could fall through it. I got to this particular bridge first ... found a few loose planks nearby ... put a couple together in the middle for the wheels, then spaced a couple of outriggers for feet to use to balance on. Thats pretty normal on the BAM ... you are responsible for the track you take so often have to adjust what can be adjusted to suit you.

No vehicle that uses that bridge could ignore that gap .... you would need to use planks. Reality is the big heavy 6WD trucks wouldnt use the bridge ... they would detour through the river. For every rotting bridge, there is also a ford nearby that the big trucks use.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by rick3foxes

Walter, my curoisity is killing me...

When you come up on these "rustic" bridges, do you stop and cross by foot to plan a route between the cracks/joints/gaps, or do you just tell one of your companions to "GO FOR IT, YOU BIG SISSY!" and then follow if he survives?

No. You often stop if there are obvious hazards like the one above, then walk across it first and plan the line. Often there are 4-5 "hazards" on one bridge, so the line is a zig zag path around the hazards.

On easier bridges like these ones below, you just ride them. For these you dont stop.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Aarrff

I am checking in several times a day if I can!!! There seems to be a lot of spikes in those rotted bridges that could snag a tire. Was that a problem or did that happen at all?

loads of spikes and nails yes ... you learn to ignore them after a while as they dont seem to cause any problems. touch wood.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Pamirski

The major obstacle on the western BAM seems to me not the Kuanda bridge, as this one has alternatives, but the Oljokma bridge. The river is bigger than Kuanda and I think even than Witim. Therefore you have no alternative by truck (only in winter). We'll see how they get over it this year

Well the guards at the Olyokma are friendly ... the guys at Kuanda are not.

Vitim Bridge is 570 metres, Olyokma 380.

[Colebatch]

We rode through some pretty countryside


(pic courtesy of Steve)

... before reaching the Chara river bridge, on the outskirts of Chara. For some, its the Gnarliest bridge on the western BAM. Personally I dont mind it. Its 270 metres long, very rough surface, no edges and you have to ride along a raised ridge of 3 sleeper widths. But for me, my issue with the Vitim Bridge is its height. I dont feel good about the exposed height at all.

The Chara bridge by comparison, is normal bridge height. Maybe 20 feet (6 metres) above the ground / water. Most of the bridge is over ground that floods in season, but is usually just ground. Sure, care and precision is still essential, and a mistake can mean the end of your trip, but somehow for me, the lack of that 15 metre (50 foot) drop makes it feel tame in comparison.

Check out the exposed nails and stuff on the left side of the bridge.



EtronX and I rode over ... but the other guys were having issues ... so EtronX (whose confidence had been sky high ever since the Vitim Bridge) went back and volunteered to ride Terry's bike over. Bongo accepted faster than you can say - "oi, get me a truck".



EtronX had his helmet cam running at the time ... so this is his first crossing (first of three):

[cgvaughan]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Yes ... the greedy fu@ker on the bridge could have made an easy 5000 rubles in 2 minutes ... but he wanted to screw us for 25,000. It was enjoyable seeing him staring at us as we rode the truck over.

I would encourage any readers planning a BAM trip to stop in Kuanda town and ask around for a truck.

Hello all - I was one of the travelers with the kudu team in 2012. Its great to find this site and incredible we were only a few days ahead of you and didnt know. thought i would put my 2 cents in about our trip. We also got stopped at the Kuanda bridge and there was no way that guy was letting us across. So we had to go back and arrange for a train float thing to get all our bikes from Kuanda to the next station past the bridge. Anyway, although we lost a few days at Kuanda, the stay in Kuanda turned out to be a highlight actually, everyone was so friendly and helpful. Had a great time.

I did put together a video of the trip - here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdmC3QxSzbg

I also did a quick write up of my experience with Kudu: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...editions-65523

I dont want to send readers to another site etc, but a quick summary is that overall, it was a dream come true. For me, there was no way i was going to be able to do this by myself unsupported - kids, family, work - so i only had a small window of 4-5 weeks. So, i paid Kudu some cash, turned up in Mongolia and away i went. The logistics were all taken care of so I just had to focus on getting myself to Magadan, via the BAM and ROB in one piece. Definitely hard work and a grind for a lot of the days, but was outstanding!

Highly recommend it to anyone! Outstanding trip!

[stemic01]

Originally Posted by Schannulleke

Steve, it strikes me that every picture you are in, you always have the biggest smile on your face

2012 Norway, Europe, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
- The Pamir Highway, Tadjikistan, Kyrgistan, Kazakhstan
- BAM road, Road of bones, Russia to Magadan
- USA, Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Equador, Peru.

Are we going to get a ride report with nice pictures of the rest of your trip as well?

Smiling:
What is there not to be happy about? Here I am with a great bunch of people, do something I really like and fullfilling one of my dreams! There would not be a smile on my face on all the railroad bridges which were quite stressfull for me.

Rest of the trip:
I have been thinking of writing a ride report from the whole trip, but did think it was not that interesting. But if it is like that people think it is interesting I might just do that.