Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

Walter, thank you for another video. And, like others have said, no apologies necessary, for something so cool, that you continue to make for us all to enjoy! Really is wonderful to watch, and imagine doing something similar.

Riding alone its possible. I prefer to eat a lot once a day... so a day can start at 8am and go thru till 9pm or later ... and apart from one 30 minute eating stop, it all riding. When I ride with Terry, we stop every 3-4 hours. Terry cant go too long without food in his stomach. :) So it depends if you have co-riders and what their appetite is like for doing the miles. I tend to put the headphones in a just get in a riding groove, stopping only for fuel and a quick bounty bar. If possible I will even leave eating till I get to a hotel in the evening in which case I will stop only briefly for fuel during the day and the rest of the time is up on the pegs. If you do 10 - 11 genuine riding hours at 75-80 km/h avge speed, you clock up 800 km a day in Mongolia.

Not camping or cooking is a huge time saver and therefore daily distance booster.

It wouldnt have been pretty ... me swearing bashing my thumbs trying to get the bearing shell out, and yelling to the heavens promising to be religious if I get out of this situation in time ....

Bashing thumbs and making miles. THAT is adventure.
Thanks for taking the time to put together what you did with what you have. Good job.

Fricken massive thread.....where is one supposed to start?

Walter, You did a great job pulling together the limited video and stills. Keep it up as it is just an awesome trip to watch and read!

Hey, @Pyndon. This is a great thread. We're all so fortunate when guys like you and Walter take so many of us along on your awesome adventures. I suppose it's kind of a nice change for you to take a bit of time to follow an adventure, rather than produce it. Pretty sure you've earned it

Do you generally try to avoid camping on a trip like this or just in areas where big miles are necessary? Any benefit in trying to reduce pack size on the bike?

Excellent!!!

There are different philosophies on this... on one end of the spectrum is the Rolling Hobo approach, which packs superlight (2 kgs for all camping equipment .... http://therollinghobo.com/2017/05/riding-light-camping-with-22-kg.html) or there are the guys who take a 5-6 kg tent, directors chairs, sleeping bag and mattress and cooking gear, totalling at least 15 kgs of camping gear. I am in the middle with a strong leaning towards the Hobo direction. I have a 1.6 kg tent, no cooking equipment but i do take a chunky sleeping bag and mattress (need it for a good nights sleep on the road). That totals about 5 kgs of outdoor equipment. I dont take camping stoves and the like cause I find the food you can cook on them is never particularly delicious, and I am fine eating at a town I pass thru. The food will be more varied than something freeze dried that you have to add water to (and you have to carry that additional water as well).

I dont mind camping, but if I can get a cheap hotel, I prefer that. I dont spend time getting the camping gear out, putting a tent up, packing it up in the morning, drying it, and I can have a warm shower as well. The time you actually hit the road and start covering miles is a lot earlier when you leave a hotel than when you pack up a campsite and start rolling. Having said that, the trail has fixed accommodation options on about 2/3 of the days. The other third is pretty much compulsory camping due to remoteness.

When I was younger I camped more .... but after 6-7 days without a shower, everything reeks pretty bad !

Thanks for the detailed reply. I suppose staying in fixed accommodations permits better interaction with locals, which for many is an important part of the journey. Many good points Walter and a reminder that changing and evolving one's approach is part of the journey travelling by motorcycle.

Yes, not just staying in hotels, but eating in local restaurants and cafes. I always find local food is a key part of the cultural experience for me. So eating in local cafes rather than freeze dried western food not only exposes you to that aspect of the culture but eating in a cafe is an "interaction with locals" rich activity ... with other customers, with the staff etc.

Not only is it lighter and more culturally rich, its typically a lot cheaper too. I know gearheads who spend thousands on their camping equipment, literally thousands. Then 5-7 pounds per freeze dried meal. Eating locally in this part of the world is going to be a 1-4 pound per meal experience. No expensive burners, microlight titanium cooking pans, carbon fibre soup bowls etc required. ... And no washing up

I like your thinking on the lodging and meals.....

It seems that I became a sibex addict junkie.

When I've seen the notification on tapatalk during the day that "Colebatch has posted in the topic" I expected that it is the next Sibex installment.
So I deliberately kept myself from reading it so I would not risk pinned to the small screen during work and get distracted - and save the fun for the large screen in the evening. It is past 20.00 here so while wifey reads bedtime stories to the kids I fired up the TV and media PC to see it.
Only to find that it was "only" a useful comment about lodging and eating on the road.
So I think I got to revert to past episodes again tonight.
Sigh...

It’s interesting the difference in ideas on the same subject. I am the opposite in I like to eat 3 times a day and am up and riding fastest when camping. If I take a hotel I end up going for a few beers and don’t want to get up as early n go load up my bike. I find it harder to get up as early indoors. If I camp I wake up at first light,reach over an undo the valve on my air mat so it deflates as I’m getting dressed. I’m up the stove is on while I put my tent away. Oats are cooked so I have some good solid long acting carbs in me to be fuelled up till midday. I like a roadside cafe with local food then

Different strokes for different folks,if we manage to keep our individualism there will always be an Adventure to be told.

yeah, that's how I roll. If I'm solo, I can be on the road from a campsite, coffee'd and fed in 45min.

Episode 16 is up ... stage 1 of the BAM. In which 3 new Norwegian riders join the squad ... and we make our way North to the BAM and begin the easy maintained part of the road ... or so we thought ...

Epic Ride indeed. Just amazing to watch these vids, have watched all of them. Like doesn't do them justice. Thanks for the taking the time to make post them. They are as close as I will ever get to Siberia on a bike!!

Your episodes keep getting better and better Walter....one day before I croak I hope to get a taste of Siberia