Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[Beater]

Good God ... How did I miss this?!

ALL FREAKIN' IN.

[Colebatch]

But some things had changed in the last couple of years. This was an awkward water crossing in 2010





And this is how it looked now





A small wooden bridge had been built

[achesley]

Ya'll gonna make me sell both my Garmin 276C and Zumo 550 and upgrade to a Montana. And I just put the Big chip in one of my 276Cs. Sigh!
I can only dream of what all of Olga looked like. Sigh!

[Colebatch]

Will go back and edit them in later, but they are here for now.

Back in Pervomayskiy (a day ago) ... This was our waitress / cafe girl ... who gave me all the inside info on the lovely Olga (but cant remember this ones name) Note the beer selection, even way out here in little old Pervomayskiy includes: Carlsberg, Stella Artois, Lowenbrau, Hoegaarden, Kronenbourg 1664 et al.



Our waitress did keep us well supplied with beer, and shashlik ...

[Franck B]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

I cant really do them for free. The TAT trail details is several hundred bucks, Gandini (the Morocco guru) sells GPS routes through Morocco for like 600 EUR, transcontinental motorcycle GPS routes via firms like ride-on motortours run for 2000 EUR. And there were months and months of work that have gone into this route in 2011, and I am been at it again for over a week revising it. But I know I can do it a lot cheaper than any of that stuff.
My current thinking is I will do it is split the trail into 3 parts. Each part 6000 miles (10,000km) long and would be doable in a month - Cause I don't think that many people will have the chance to ride the whole thing. Each with detailed GPS route, waypoints and accompanying video clips, pictures and route notes. GPS route tracks will have everything in there for a trip; fuel stops, cafes, hotels. I am actually putting a fair bit of work into the route now, to change it from the areas we needed to detour around or that were closed border zones etc. I am currently drafting a bunch of detours and incorporating them into a revised route.
And I think I will do the trail route and video stuff separate from a general video DVD of the ride.

Walter, your RR is more than awesome, it means so much more to me:
Back in 1994, I travelled 9 weeks from France to Russia on my DR350. It was the travel of my life. I went back to Russia the next year with my fresh Diplom and worked 1 year in Toliatti. I´ve always dreamt of a journey like yours, especially 2014 will be 20 years, and I´ve left some friends, memories and "dusha" there. Since always I´ve been doing enduro riding, rallye and short adv rides, I have good gnarly buds, Ragi our Dakar/London-Pekin hero and Marc our stunt man, we go next year 3 weeks in Madagascar... but 2014 it must happen ! I´m glad to see you suggest your support for some contribution, it will make it all much easier.
I´ve read your 2009 SE book, and I´m looking forward to this RR unfolding now..

[Colebatch]

By the late afternoon we had reached the outskirts of Orenburg, a regional capital city of about a million people. A hotel and restaurant were right on our path, We checked into the very plain hotel then went next door to the equally plain looking restaurant. We were stunned when we saw inside. It was anything but plain. The restaurant was kitted out to the max by regional Russian standards - especially considering it was by the highway into town and not in the centre somewhere.



Here's Terry looking suitably elegant in his finest long sleeved t-shirt for our enormous pork chop dinner:



And this is the big chop itself. We had one each. We could barely finish the things. They were huge and they were delicious ! You dont need much in the way of side dishes with a 500 gram (1.2 lb) chop.

[AFCFORME]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Well I dont have any direct experience with them, but I do know they have very small screens with much lower resolution than the Montana. My experience when riding with guys that used 60 and 62 CSx units in the past, was that they ALWAYS had to slow down significantly or stop to read them and control them. They were too small to be readable at 60 mph off road (especially with the vibrations).

As the vidcaps show, there are a load of track splits or intersections on this track. You have to check at each and every one that you are going the right way. If you can do that without slowing down, from just a quick glance at the unit, its a huge convenience. I wish they made these things with 5 inch screens, like many of the car units, but for now 4 inch is as big as bike capable screens get - and thats the Montana.

A comparison on the link below highlights the screen size and screen resolution difference (almost 4 times re pixel resolution). Surprisingly, the weight is almost the same. 9.2 oz for the 62s vs 10.2 oz for the Montana.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare....eProduct=63801

Thanks for the insight!

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by achesley

I can only dream of what all of Olga looked like. Sigh!

I am a pretty tough judge - especially when in Russia or Ukraine when there are so many attractive women about. So I rarely think one is "stunning".

But Olga was !

[levain]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

I am a pretty tough judge - especially when in Russia or Ukraine when there are so many attractive women about. So I rarely think one is "stunning".

But Olga was !

I, for one, trust your judgement

[vintagespeed]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

get some!

and i'd be getting some of those chops too!

[GSpot1200]

I was wondering what you were drinking out in the middle of nowhere, nice to see they have good beer to go with the scenic views.

[Pickup man]

I can clearly see why you guys love to ride there so much.
Amazing riding with no fences, hot chicks everywhere, delicious food, and beer available anytime!
I mean, what else could a guy ask for .

Looks like Olga was peering out the window, thinking she should ve taken you up on the photo op.

[Tracks1]

Originally Posted by Pickup man

I can clearly see why you guys love to ride there so much.
Amazing riding with no fences, hot chicks everywhere, delicious food, and beer available anytime!
I mean, what else could a guy ask for .

Looks like Olga was peering out the window, thinking she should ve taken you up on the photo op.

She'll be ready next time!

[Malcolm Van Hilten]

Hi Walter,
with regards to selling your routes, i think that is a great idea. I make routes the same way as you did down here in South Africa and Lesotho and i appreciate how much time it takes to build a 100km off road enduro loop, so 1000's of KM across a continent is really a large investment in time. I would buy a set even if i never get to use them as it would hopefully help you to ride a little more and then another great RR would be in the production line.
Many thanks for taking the time to put all this together.

[motoreiter]

ha, that restaurant's decor is classic and screams "regional Russia".

Pate, good to see that something was left of the car after Andrei hit it; he was really OK after that incident, it looks like a rough one!