Sitting
on a riverbank in 2012, eating their lunch, whilst fly fishing at Gargrave in
North Yorkshire two ageing bikers reminisce about their past motorbike
adventures, and how they would love to "just do one last big trip"
before it is too late!
This
idea conceived in 2012 has now grown into a planned 15,000 mile round trip,
enduro motorcycle adventure for four people travelling across Europe and
Russia, into Mongolia, then back into Siberia, round the west side of Lake
Baikal then east along the infamous BAM road (a service road built only to
build the Baikal Amur Mainline in the 1930’s with most of the bridges either
rotted or swept away in floods) ending up eventually at Vladivostok, Russia's
most eastern port. After Vladivostok we hope (?) to put our bikes (and
ourselves!) on the Trans - Siberian - Railway back to Moscow before riding back
home through Europe.
So that's the plan, and we are only 1 week away from our
starting date of June 29th 2014!!
This blog will hopefully keep our families and friends updated
with our progress as we make this epic adventure.
The organising and planning started nearly two years ago, so we
will try and outline some of the key decisions and incidents that have occurred
in the build-up to the journey.
Who is
going ?
Paul Mercer and Geoff Barkess sat on the riverbank in 2012.
Frank Baines and Dave Newton (past biking friends of Paul) joined
the group in 2013.
Where
are we going?
The journey out to Mongolia was originally to go through Holland,
Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, but the recent political turmoil and
violence in Ukraine has caused us to revise our plans and travel from Poland to
Lithuania, Latvia and then into Russia avoiding the Western Russia/Ukraine
border region.
The route across Russia almost follows exactly the 56 deg north
line of latitude crossing the Ural Mountains and then the Russian Steppe region
before dropping down to enter Mongolia at its most western point. The northern Mongolian border has only three
points where foreigners may cross. One
in the far north-west (where we enter), one north of the capital Ulan Bator,
and one further east. The only other
crossing point for foreign traffic is in the south to China. This is further complicated by needing a
permit to travel within 100km of the Russian border which is where our planned
route goes.
Mongolia
offers an image of nomadic horsemen managing
livestock (sheep, cattle, horses, yaks, camels?) galloping across undulating/rolling
grasslands with mountainous regions in the north and the Gobi desert to the
south. We have chosen a route from the western border with Russia across the
northern mountains.
We will only be a few miles into Mongolia before the tarmac runs
out and the fun begins!! Hundreds of miles of rough riding is expected.
We don't know how bad the roads will be, and a lot will depend on the weather,
but we are expecting it to be arduous with problems crossing rivers that could
be in flood!
Photo courtesy of Trip-advisor
When are
we going?
This decision started with river levels in Mongolia and Siberia
only being low enough to cross on bikes by late July, and how long we would
need to travel the 1400 miles in Mongolia, and then the similar distance around
Lake Baikal and the BAM road in Siberia. We allowed ourselves a whole month for
these two journeys, and since we need to be leaving Siberia in early September
when the snow could start to fall this means entering Mongolia early August.
Now working back with our anticipated speed and the distances from Europe to
Mongolia, we came to a start date of the end of June. Being in Mongolia and
Siberia in August should give us an even money chance of reasonable weather
conditions however a wet period at any time of the year is likely to make some
of the rivers impossible to cross by motorbike.
Unfortunately August is also the time when Siberian bear have
their young and mother bears can be very protective (aggressive)!
Squadrons of mosquitos will make
exposing bare flesh a risky business and we will all pack plenty of repellent.
If we manage to get the bikes onto the Trans Siberian Railway then
the journey time from Vladivostok is just seven days, if we have to ride back
it's another 3 weeks riding, and then another week to get home from
Moscow.
All this gives us a nominal return date of either mid September or
early October. But remember this is just if things go to plan !!!
Why are
we going ?
Good question, as we get closer to "Le grande depart" we
keep asking ourselves the same question!
What
bikes should we choose?
Like all decisions this starts with eliminating what is not
appropriate, eg big heavy bikes like the BMW 1200GS Adventure, or any bikes
with sophisticated electronics that cannot be repaired with simple techniques.
Since all modern bikes use electronic fuel management/petrol injection systems
this means we need bikes with carburettors and simple electrics and these will
therefore be at least 10 years old. Next is how big an engine to choose,
250-400cc would make the bike nice and light and suitable for the off-road
duty, but to get all the way over to Mongolia with lots of luggage probably
needs a bike with a bit more power and therefore at least 650cc. Next we need a
tough durable bike built with enough ground clearance and off-road capability
and a simple reliable engine.
In the end we settled for Honda NX650 Dominators, which have
single cylinder air cooled engines. Ideally we would have liked to get kick
start versions of the bike, but these are only available in the early ones (1980's)
which makes them older, with greater mileage, and only coming up for sale very
rarely.
So from early 2013 we started looking for Domi's. First Frank and
Paul bought their bikes
off eBay, Franks being the oldest (1995,) and Paul's (1996, 10,000miles),
next Geoff bought his bike from a friend of a friend (1998, 23,000miles) and
finally Dave bought his bike off eBay (2001, 9,000miles) and Geoff Laycock and
Paul collected it from the south coast– a 12 hour round trip.
Frank
immediately stripped his bike down and sent the engine away to be overhauled
and rebuilt.
Next
we collectively agreed to buy another Domi to provide strategic spares for the
four bikes going on the trip. This was sourced again off eBay and Paul and
Frank collected it from Meltham near Holmfirth.
Paul's
bike initially seemed ok but quickly developed a problem with the starter
motor, which proved difficult to repair, then for some still unknown reason
somehow managed to starve the top end of the engine of oil. This proved to be
terminal and Paul reluctant to use up the whole engine of the spare bike was
left with the tough decision of trying to source another second-hand engine. In
the end the easier option was to buy another whole bike, and to transfer the
engine and starter motor to his original Domi. This bike came from
Aberdeen!
Geoff's bike performed well, but a cause for concern was that it
consumed too much oil. Domi engines only hold 2 litres of oil and are
notoriously intolerant of low oil levels. For ordinary road journeys in and
around towns this is not a major problem and it is easy to keep topping up the
oil level on a regular basis, but for long distance enduro style remote
journeys the need to carry with you sufficient oil to keep topping up oil
levels would be a problem. Since no oil was leaking from the bike, the oil must
be burning in the engine cylinder. The oil can only get into the cylinder
either past worn piston rings or through the valve stem seals. After testing
(blue smoke only when accelerating after long period of engine idling) it was
determined that the valve stem seals were the likely cause. So with help and
advice from my friend Martin the engine was removed, the top end stripped and
new valve stem seals fitted. Problem fixed!
So
to get four Dominators to Mongolia so far we have bought six whole bikes of
which only two have not yet had to have the engine removed!
What modifications
did the bikes need?
The
bikes would need various modifications to prepare them for this trip.
Each
person would need panniers to carry luggage. Frank managed to pick up a bargain
on eBay of a complete set of second-hand aluminium Tourtech panniers. Dave
already had a set of KTM Adventure panniers that he intended to fit his
Domi. Paul had new aluminium boxes made by a friend, Dave Seal, that runs
a fabrication business (R.Briggs at Clayton le Moors). He very generously designed, then further
refined the design and finally, even made them free of charge. Paul and Dave designed and made pannier
mounting racks and fitted them to the bikes. Geoff had read a story of a 70 year old biker from Hebden
Bridge who had travelled some 250,000 miles over 7 years passing through what
seemed like every country in the world on his Honda Africa Twin. He used and
recommended plastic Givi panniers for all round durability and Geoff decided to
take his advice and purchased second hand plastic Givi panniers off eBay.
These had come off an Africa Twin and had used the Givi wingback support system
which did not look suitable for rough off-road duty. Givi don't make standard
rack mounts for the Honda Dominator and so Geoff purchased the rack mount for
an Africa Twin, and had these modified and made to fit the Domi. This work was
done by John and his brother at Autotec Ltd, Keighley who cut and carved the
racks to make them fit the bike. Many thanks to them for all their
support.
Next each bike would need engine guards for added off-road
protection, and also provision to be made to carry extra petrol to extend the
travelling distance between fuel stops.
The Dominator only has a range of about 160 miles and we expect the distance
between fuel stops in Siberia to be well in excess of 200 miles.
Paul and Dave then designed and built absolutely from scratch
using cold drawn high strength tubing four magnificent engine guards. These
guards not only protected the engine, but also incorporated two purpose made
storage mounts for petrol "jerry" cans. The final guards were powder
coated to stop corrosion and to give them a thoroughly professional
appearance.
Geoff's bike complete with the false exhaust pipe to hide the handle of his machete.
Because the bikes were going to be subjected to prolonged off-road
style riding the headstock bearings on each bike were replaced with taper
needle bearings better suited to withstanding the pounding this bearing has to
endure.
Knowing that we would have to undertake repairs at the side of the
road, and that this may frequently require removal of the bikes wheels concern
was growing that Domi's don't come with a centre stand. A trawl of the internet
soon revealed that centre stands for Domi's are not available, and getting one
made and fitted to each bike would be a difficult and costly business. Through
a friend of a friend Geoff made contact with Nick Stamp who runs a biker
friendly engineering business (Deconsys) in Bradford. In mulling around the
problem it was decided that the best solution would be a simple lightweight
aluminium stool purpose designed to be easily and unobtrusively carried on the
bike that would provide not only a secure lift on centre stand that can be used
for any of the bikes, but also a camp side seat! Many thanks to Nick and
his son for all their help.
What
spares need to be taken?
The reason for choosing identical bikes was to reduce the amount
of spare parts that need to be taken.
Spares fall into two separate groups, ones that are likely to be
required and therefore need to be duplicated and carried by each person, and
strategic spares only thought likely to be needed once and caused by a single
breakdown to probably just one bike.
Individual spares include: brake and clutch levers, throttle and
clutch cables, brake pads, front drive sprocket, front and rear inner tubes,
wheel bearings, puncture repair kit including spare valves, oil and air
filters, spare bulbs.
Common spares to be shared between the bikes include: regulator,
coil, CDI box and pulse sender unit, fuse box, yokes for both clutch and brake
levers, front brake master cylinder, clutch and brake fluid, throttle grip,
clutch plates, some spare spokes for both front and rear wheels, starter
solenoid, 20cm of spare chain and split links.
What
visas will we need?
A Russian ‘tourist’ visa is quite easy to get
but we would need a visa that would allow us more than one entry into the
country (as we’d be leaving it to go into Mongolia and then re-entering to
continue east through Siberia). We would
also need a 90 day visa – the maximum length of time allowed in a year. As two of the team are retired, we couldn’t
get a ‘business visa’ so had to do some rule-bending and get a
humanitarian/cultural visa. Russia
requires a ‘letter of introduction’ and these were bought using an agent in Kazakhstan
that one of the team had used before.
The
Mongolian visa was quite straight forward and all visas arrived at the end of
May giving us time to get into Mongolia before the visa entry expired and 90
days in a 180 day period in Russia. We
had great support from Stantours who arranged for our letters of introduction
and via the Real Russia website the processing and delivery of our visas for
both Mongolia and Russia.
Decisions
and problems encountered?
A
number of meetings were arranged and as problems and tasks arose, individuals
volunteered to tackle them. Things like
getting the visas, sourcing camping equipment, arranging comprehensive
‘repatriation’ insurance, arranging for bear spray (more effective than a
firearm!!), where to purchase an electric fence to deter hungry bears during
the night, finding phone coverage, purchasing a spare bike, estimating mileages
and therefore tyre needs, sourcing tyres in Russia (a 17” tyre is uncommon in
Russia), finding GPS coverage and maps, researching documentation that will be
needed – the list of tasks was almost endless.
The
Russian language uses Cyrillic text and, of course, all road signs will be in
it. We have learned the Cyrillic
alphabet and some can speak ‘basic’ Russian having done an eight week course
during the evenings and used the internet to supplement this. We should now be able to order four beers
with ease!
Camping
issues ?
Whilst some of the
team already had fairly comprehensive piles of camping equipment from past
journeys, it was decided that we would ‘common-up’ on the major items of gear.
Four new tents and sleeping bags that would be comfortable in the wide range of
temperatures that we expect to encounter were purchased. Cookers need to be able to run on the fuel
from the bikes. Because the scent of
food attracts bears from huge distances, we have made and learned to use a
method of storing food in a bag that is suspended from the ground, some
distance from the tents.
Insurance,
emergency planning, phones etc?
Normal
UK bike insurance covers you throughout the EU however all the UK insurers will
not cover you ‘East of the Ural Mountains’ so we will have to buy it at the
border in Russia and Mongolia.
Reseach
into travel insurance for adventure motorcycling found a number of policies,
ranging in cost from £250 - £1200. By far the most important requirement we
needed from travel insurance was comprehensive ‘get you home’ cover. It was decided that we would all get travel
insurance through the same company with the same policy, then in the event that
something happens to one of us, there is no difficulty with different people
having different policy conditions, and it is easy with just one set of contact
details and emergency phone numbers needed. In the end we settled for Worldwide
Insurance Ltd who seemed to be a responsible company who were offering good
cover at a fair price £400 per person.
Mobile phone coverage in EU and most of eastern and central Russia
looks to be quite reasonable, and the plan is for us all to buy local simcards
in Russia. We have all arranged with or phone providers to ensure our phones
are unlocked and will accept different simcards. In Mongolia they have not bothered to install
hard wired phone systems as it is cheaper to install mobile masts and to rely
on mobiles for telephony. Just how good
the coverage will be is still uncertain, but we expect there to be reasonable
coverage in the towns and villages.
In the remote parts of Mongolia and in eastern Siberia we will
probably not get mobile phone coverage, and for emergency contact Dave Newton’s
family have given Dave a gift of a satellite phone. This does pose the question though of “who do
you call?” as there are no emergency services waiting to come to the rescue !!
Travelling to eastern Siberia and Mongolia requires inoculations /
injections. These have included Hep
A,and B, typhoid, rabies, and tick born encephalitis (£200). Also each person
is taking a personal first aid kit, and collectively we also have two sets of
sterile needles / sutures etc.
Documents
needed on journey?
Beside
the visas, we would each need an international driving permit and a Russian
translation of the log-book. Both these
were available through The AA in UK.
Also
originals of each bikes registration documents, and insurance certificates.
To deal with possible loss of documentation each person needs to
make comprehensive copies of all the documentation needed eg passport details,
visas, credit cards, health insurance etc.
To deal with the fact that the bikes could fall over and get totally
submerged, all these document have to be waterproofed in some way. We have sourced a supply of waterproof paper
which amazing though it seems can be printed using standard ink on an ordinary
printer and even if you soak it in the sink it dries off and is as perfect as
the original!!
If only the iPad could be waterproofed so easily! The iPad has been loaded with workshop
manuals, lonely planet guides, maps etc. but although this saves a lot of
weight it means all this data is vulnerable to loss if the iPad fails. As much data as possible will be put onto
emails so that it can be accessed via an internet cafe at a last resort!
Off-road
skills?
We are about to embark on a journey described by seasoned
adventure bikes as one of the greatest endurance journeys still available, and
it is fair to say that the four of us are approaching this with differing
levels of off-road experience.
Without needing to establish who
is the most skilled, it is fair to say that Geoff who at the start of planning
had done no previous off-road riding has the least experience of the group.
So far as a group we have had four days rough riding across moors,
farmland and green lane tracks. We have crossed rivers, slid across boggy
fields, got stuck in ruts, and not without a few mishaps and adventures. On the first day Geoff had a spectacular off
where he lost control of the bike in a rut, mounted an adjacent wall and hedge
and crashed back onto the track. There
was broken plastic, bent clutch lever, damaged panniers and bent
handlebars. At the time with adrenalin
running high you don’t feel any pain, but two days later and hardly able to
move the bruising was evident for all to see.
The good news was that the engine guards did their job, but had to be
straightened out with a sledge hammer and blocks of wood!!
I think this is what people call ‘a steep learning curve’ and
since that first day out the group have successfully tackled progressively
harder tracks. We have still had the
bikes falling over on tough ascents and descents, but not another spectacular
‘off’.
Geoff Crossing the River
Twiss above Ingleton
The first trip out on Salter
Fell – Geoff, Frank and David with his son Joseph
Frank struggling across muddy
field without knobbly tyres!
No matter how hard you practice you can never be fully ready to
tackle everything that might come your way.
In the end you can only give it your best shot and hope that you have
learnt enough to keep you out of danger.
Below are some links that you can use to see the kind of riding
and experiences we are expecting to come across on our journey.
Because
a 17” rear tyre is not a preferred size in Russia and to avoid the need to
carry tyres from UK all the way across Russia and Mongolia, we decided to
research the possibility of getting tyres either delivered from UK to some
location or trying to find an agent who could get them for us in Russia.
We
eventually located an English speaking Russian guy who runs a tyre business in
Moscow but who has agents across the country where the tyres could be delivered
to.
We
will leave UK on ‘road’ tyres for the first 4000 miles or so and then we will
change the tyres for off-road tyres to cross Mongolia. Our first tyres will probably be delivered to
Novosibirsk.
We
think that after 1500 miles or so crossing the rough terrain of Mongolia that
the rear tyre will be very well worn so we will arrange for a new rear tyre to
be available post Mongolia/pre BAM in Irkutsk.
Hopefully these tyres will last us along the BAM and we will then need
to decide what to do next – if we get the bikes on the Trans-Siberian Railway,
we will need fresh rubber in Moscow; if not, we will need tyres in Vladivostok.
Once
the tyre pressures are reduced to give better off-road traction/handling,
punctures will be frequent so to supplement the two spare inner tubes that we are all carrying, spare tubes will be sent from Moscow
with the tyres.
Each
bike will be carrying about 50kg of luggage and a lot of this is camping
equipment and spare parts, but some weight will gradually reduce as we progress
on the journey as we have all packed dried food, milk, tea and coffee for the
remote areas. The clothes that we are taking is limited to just 4 sets of
underwear, two shirts, two trousers, and a fleece and light rainproof jacket
and a pair of light shoes as well as the motorcycle clothing and boots for
riding, so we will either smell awful or have to wash very regularly! We’ve all had to purchase special hats with
combined mosquito nets and weve bought lots of DEET as we are expecting the midges etc. to
be vicious.
This
extra weight on the bikes will make off-roading much more difficult and picking
up a bike on its side a bit eye-popping – especially if it’s in a river!
So after nearly two years in the planning we are as ready as we are going to be. We are expecting to write a short blog covering each days events, but given the fact that we may find it hard to connect to the internet as we travel posts on the blog may well come in "stits and farts" like buses!!
Please pen your comments to the blogs as these are very welcome and make us feel as though we are in touch with all our friends.
Geoff, Paul, Dave and Frank
The Rooski Riders (TRR)
