MOVED POST crashed in russia - transport

[salihk]

end of july, i started what i hoped to be an RTW! i started from reston, virginia just outside washington, dc, drove to toronto, canada, flew with the bike to frankfurt, germany. then drove to russia through czech republic, Poland, and ukraine to meet my friends in rostov-on-don. long story short, few days later i crashed just outside of saratov on the way to kazakhstan border. a mini bus cut me off and i slammed to the back door. due to extensive damage to the bike, my injuries, and hard to meet schedule for the kyrgyzstan-china group border crossing, i had to call it off.
i was riding metallic orange 2010 BMW F800GS i just bought for this trip. the front of the bike is totally damaged and require a lot of parts. as the bike is not mobile, i'm weighing the option of shipping it to europe, maybe even USA and repair it there.
anybody know of such a service in russia? contact information would be great.
do i have to be with the bike during border crossing?

any information is greatly appreciated!

[ta-rider]

Hi,

Sorry to hear your story...still cant understand why people allways bay such expensive bikes to travel to third world countrys. When i droped my 500.- Euro Transalp i crossed Africa with into the Baviaans Cloove, i just replaced the whole front including hand bars and broken break pumps. lights etc with used parts from other bikes wich were available in the country and continued my trip.

Riding the rough west coast through Africa part 3

If you get all the papers ready you can ship the bike without being there in person but to temporarly import the bike to Europa or so you will need someone to pic up the bike at the harbor or so and do all the customs paperwork.

I could helf you in Bremerhaven, Germany just contact me with PN

Greetings Tobi

[JustMe]

I´m sorry for you. But you´re shooting with cannons at sparrows now. I take it
- you´re not seriously bodily hurt
- you got time on your hand
- you got some financial backup
- you have friends in Russia who would be able to help you contacting folks by phone and to some liaison work.

Another good thing is you´re in Russia, which does have more in-country service than you would think.
Now, either you throw some money at your bike in Russia and have it repaired by a Beemer service. Get in contact with ABTODOM - Automotive - Москва | Facebook or BMW Автодом : АВТОДОМ - официальный дилер БМВ, МИНИ, АЛЬПИНА. | ABTODOM - the official dealer of BMW, MINI, ALPINA. in Moscow and they will most certainly be able to give you some advice whom to contact for repairs down there where you are or be at least able to tell you how to get the parts. I have found sufficient mentioning of AVTODOM (notice the different spelling on Facebook) to believe they have a Motorcyle branch too, even started a BMW motorcycle club up there and would speak English. Approaching them via FB may even get you some help from local folks. It´s not rocket science to fix the front end of a GS and there´s lots of mechanics in Russia. But even if it is: Remember they went to space first :-)

Or you sell the bike as is, cough up the money for the import duty and purchase a straightforward japanese bike locally. Running back to good ol´ Europe won´t be so much helpful timingwise or costwise, if you add all up.

Don´t give up, buddy. This is part of the trip!

Cheers
Chris

[JustMe]

Just noticed that you have several posts with different information running. Looking at the damage, well, is it possible to ride the bike or not? Who needs things like new fenders and fairing as long as glue and wires are available at the next mom and pop´s? If the bridge assembly is really damaged, you´d need to decide whether it is a real damage, immobilizing the bike for safety or mechanical reasons or whether it´s just, well, fighting scars....
Cheers
Chris

[salihk]

Hi Tobi,
Thanks a lot for your offer! My brother lives in Venice, Italy I will send it there. I just don't know the process in Russia.
I have customs papers for Europe as I landed in Frankfurt less than a month ago. I hope it is still valid and going back to Europe won't be an issue.
I totally agree with you, but this was my first major trip and I wanted to have a reliable ride! I love the F800GS, it is a great ride! Translap was one of the options my friend and I considered.

Best Regards,
Karwan

[salihk]

Hi Chris,
Thank you so much for the info, i will contact them. i hope i would find the parts in Russia!

- you´re not seriously bodily hurt: not seriously, but bad enough not to be able to ride for some time!
- you got time on your hand: i've got time as i took several months off for the trip, but not enough time to carry on due to kyrgyzstan-china border crossing schedule on Sep 5th!
- you got some financial backup: to some extend..
- you have friends in Russia who would be able to help you contacting folks by phone and to some liaison work: Yes, there is an unnamed group of bikers in Engels just outside Saratov where the accident happened. They helped me with everything! They were in the ambulance, stayed with me in hospital, got the bike from police and transported it to their garage, even offered to fix it for free!! I left the bike there. They are awesome! They are willing to help anyway they can!! Fred, the leader of the group is a mechanic. He will fix the bike whenever i provide the parts.
The bike is immobile. At a minimum the Front Bridge Assembly, Front Panel Carrier, the Front Wheel Fender, and the Headlight Cover need to be replaced. The front bridge is completely damaged. The middle rod is broken off, and the upper brace is popped open. I hope there are no damages to the chassis. The oil filter and the heat exchanger system are dented by the engine guard. There is a dent in one of the exhaust pipes too. All caused by the front tire pushed back into the engine!

Best regards,
Karwan