Mongolia to Magadan: Any which (the hard) way

I felt for you there Chris !! the dicission to turn back can be the hardest thing to do !!!
Phil

Fantastic report thus far; I love report about this part of the world as I plan on attempting a similar trip myself in this part of the world next year. Looking forward to the part where you swap to an X-Challenge and get back to it!

PS. Your pictures are great, and the amount of accompanying prose is perfect. Keep them coming!

I am in..

Ah, Monsieur Francais
How's life in sunny Montana? Yeh, Adam is a great bloke. His photography is top-notch too.

I'll not be posting updates for 2 weeks as I'm away from my desktop PC riding around Bulgaria and Romania. Vlad the Impailer beware!

Best wishes from Yurop

Yep. It felt shite at the time. several years of planning and lots of $$ down the drain. As it turned out, it was a wise move. The Shed would never have made it. The conditions east of the Vitim Bridge only got worse and with the leaking rad, soon to explode shock and choclate teacup clutch I would have had to abandon the bike somewhere.

Phil Kneller's XC saved the day (and allowed him to spend more time with his now wife ). Also, riding with Felix was great: company, friendship and getting each other out of the shit: (mainly him helping me ).

Thanks for the kind words. Part 2 of the trip involving the "Mark 2 Transalp" a.k.a. "Rebadged Aprillia" will start in a fortnight as I'm away from home touring eastern Romania and Bulgaria on the Shed's "Parts donor bike" an 87 Transalp. The Shed is an 88 model

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

Subscribed and in to anything eastern Russia and Mongolia. This is gonna continue to be an extreme & awesome RR.

Cheers and thank you.
Ateam

I'm away from a desktop PC for 2 weeks riding around eastern Bulgaria and Romania, as well as hunting for the Easter bunny closer to home, so if it floats your boat, here are a couple of maps of the end of the Transalp "Mk 1" trip and the start of the "Mk 2/RBA" caper for you to hone your geography skills. Prepping a RR on a tablet PC or smartphone isn't feasible.









And also 3 pictures from the Mk2/RBA jolly to hopeful wet you appetite

Simply FANTASMIC!!

Thank you for sharing and hints!

I hope my dream ride will come together sooner than later, and you, sir, are an inspiration!

Great RR!! Keep it coming :)

There's no such thing as an innocuous looking puddle in Siberia eh!

Ch 8. The start of part 2 (the “any which way” part&#8230 Irkutsk north and east

A bit of background as to how I ended up riding an XChallenge:

After my aborted attempt at the BAM on the Transalp and before I boarded the train at Taksimo, I had texted Felix and Phil, who were behind me, to let them know I was returning to Irkutsk and asking if they'd still be there. I again had cell phone contact in Severobaykalsk when Felix texted me to say Phil would lend me his XC to do the trip with him.

My first reaction was "Don't be so ridiculous": I'd sworn I'd never ride a BMW again in my life and the concept of riding a bike that wasn't in my name in a distant country like Russia made me feel uneasy.

The day's ride from Severobaykalsk to Zhigalovo gave me 8 hours to think things through:

+If we just rode one way (i.e. we had to ship bikes out of Magadan) we should have the time

+If I stuck a sticker over the BMW logo, nobody would ever know I was riding that brand from Berlin

+I knew I wouldn't meet many police who might want to check my papers as there were very few people where we were going

+I would actually make it to Magadan and have no more frigging in the rigging and get this huge monkey off my back.


So, I texted Felix and said I was up for it, as long as he was ok to just ride one way.

Why do I dislike the BMW brand, you might ask: I rode around the world on an airhead between 1999 and 2002, spending too much time in mechanics' workshops and relying on the kindness of strangers to get it fixed. The story is at Round the World TBSdotCom


Before we left Irkutsk, I serviced the (black) Transalp as I knew it would be close in terms of timing to ride it back to Mongolia when I flew back. I parked it at a posh hotel in the city.



Old traditional architecture




Vladimir Ilyich is always watching over you




Admiring the architecture




Is he saying "You looking at my girlfriend's architecture"?







Chatting with Phil about bikes at Nina's Guesthouse in Irkutsk





Nah, it definitely ain't a Beemer




Like the badge says, it's a Honda ;-)





Less of the BS, time to hit the road!

hehehe...
You should never complain about getting a bike for free... ;-)

There's no such thing as a free lunch! I ended up buying the bike

I know, but that's later....