Today we had a scenic drive in the rain. The temperature dropped to +12 C (~ 53 Fa). One of our fellow riders wrecked at speed and totaled her bike. Thanks to good riding gear, she’s okay. Our Mercedes support van is broken down a few hundred miles back, with bad shocks and a severed leaf spring due to the bad roads. We’re covered in dirt and tonight are staying in a Russian “Sanitorium” – an ancient rehab place for people with heart and lung disease, because there are no hotels or guest houses in this area.
A vacuum lock in the fuel tank tricked Mike in to thinking he still had some fuel left…. Alas, no gas, no go!!!! Saved by a passing Russian rider!
Randy McClanahan wrote:
“We had to stop for the night in this town. Wherever we stop, we always have the “best available” accommodations. Sometimes it is literally a 5 Star hotel, as in St. Petersburg. Tonight is at the other end of the spectrum. This is a “sanatorium” built as a recovery hospital of sorts for highway workers. No wifi, no restaurant, no liquor, dormitory type rooms. The water in the faucets starts running brown. I am told that it was opened as a favor to our group, and may not be available in the future. It makes “basic” an understatement, but I understand we will have even worse to come.”
“Too bumpy or too slick!
Siberia started extracting its toll on our little band of adventurers.
First was a California license plate that vibrated off its bike somewhere in Kazakhstan and was lost. No problem except that you can’t get a bike into a new country without a valid license plate that matches the title and registration. The owner is an artist, and made a clever temporary replica with pen and cardboard that we were able to finesse into Russia with a bit of diversion of the inspecting officer. Might be able to pull that off in Mongolia as well. But no way in China. The ingenious solution–find a U.S. novelty company to make a counterfeit duplicate out of aluminum (until California can issue a real replacement) and air ship it to meet us in Russia. Necessity is the mother of invention.
The next victim was our chase truck. Although a heavy duty Mercedes panel van, it broke its axle spring and shocks on the very bumpy roads we have encountered. So, we took what we needed for the night with us on the bikes today and the van spent the day in the city improvising some new parts with cutting torch, welder, etc. We hope it meets up with us before we leave tomorrow and that it makes it all the way to Hong Kong. We are about 1/3rd of the way there. About 4500 miles so far.
The final, and most significant, casualty was one of our riders. We had another 300 miles of Siberian rain today. She doesn’t remember exactly what happened. At 70 mph her rear tire began swinging to one side and then the other. Fortunately there was no traffic. The bike low-sided on the left side, then flipped over on to the right side. She was thrown off the bike and slid on the wet pavement about 200 feet. The bike kept sliding for another 100 feet until it’s right handgrip embedded in the mud. Fortunately her Klim gear did its job and she only has a bruised hand. Her bike, however, is not rideable. It likely has a broken frame, in addition to other damage. She is a trooper, however, and rather than make her way home from the opposite side of the world, she will continue the adventure as a passenger.
We are in Nizhneudinsk. The surrounding area reminds me of northern New Mexico. We passed roadside vendors selling tea, using pine cones to boil water in a samovar, a kind of Russian tea kettle. The smell of burning pine permeates the roadside!
A word about tires and traction. On a motorcycle, even at 100 mph, you only have one inch of “traction” where your tire touches the road. If that inch gets compromised and you lose traction, you can fall. We have discovered a special kind of blacktop on certain sections of the Siberian Highway. The pavement changes color to shiny black and there are grooves in the blacktop from years of vehicle use. Add rain to that, and it becomes like ice. I have felt my bike’s rear end lose traction in these sections several times during the last two days in the rain. One of our most experienced riders touched the sole of his boot to the pavement at speed and reported that he felt NO friction. It is literally like ice! It really shakes your confidence when the bike does not behave as you expect! I will lower the air pressure in both tires and see if that helps.
Note our position. We are in the very center of Asia and closer to Alaska than to New York!”
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