Tires in Russia
 

Happy new year to you all,

I am looking for some advice on changing tires in Russia.

I will leave in April on are quite new road tires (Dunlop D607) mounted on my R 100 GS, which, as far as I am informed, should be sufficient at least until Irkutsk.

Roads seem to get pretty tough after Irkutsk, so I am planning to switch to Continental TKC 80 (or similar) in Irkutsk.

Are TKC 80 available in Russia/Irkutsk? Any recommendations on local tire brands?

If not, I would rather ship tires to an adress in Irkutsk instead of carrying them around. Does anyone know and recommend an adress to ship them?

Regards

Lars

Local marks, worthy yours Ð 100 in Russia it is not made. To buy new rubber of any brand it is possible only in Moscow.

www.motorezina.ru

I would take them with you Lars. I would chain them to the bike wherever it was parked. I figured if the bike was stolen i wouldnt need the tyres.

cheers

alec

http://users.netlink.com.au/~asimpson

Hi Lars

I was summer 2004 in russia and had to buy new tyres in St. Petersburg. I found a very helpful biker there named Igor, who organized me a pair of original german metzeler Tourance. Maybe he can help you with buying good tyres and sending them to Irkutsk. Please contact me by e-mail and I will get you in contact with him.

Marco
http://www.schnueriger.net

I have found that if you contact the local motorcycle club in the bigger cities, they know where to get tires. I have seen tires in lots of sizes available in Novosibirsk for example, which would be an ideal location for a tire change if you are going east to west OR west to east. If you're going east, it would be ideal to put on some knobbies - they'll last you to Vladivostok even with a long Mongolia detour. Brand selection is poor though - its a take what is/if offered situation.

The tire situation gets quite dire further east than Novosibirsk, and I doubt you'll find any until Vladivostok. I saw 21, 18, and 17 inch tires. I did not see 19 inch. There were a surprising number of sport bike tires in 17 inch, not that that helps many of us...



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Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius - William Blake

I did not take tires with me, but bought a new front tire in Novosibirsk at:

NBSmotor, www.nbsmotor.ru, Tel. 3832/922-922 (I guess that the number for Novosibirsk must be added, but I do not know it).

This is a large store, I saw dozends of bikes and they could offer four different 21-inch tires (including tubes). I was told that this shop has kind of a monopoly in the region, which I believe: The tire was not really a bargain

The GPS-Data of this place are 55* 01,184 N, 82*55.880 O

Regards

Lars

Thank you Lord!

I have found through a string of contacts the mechanics that changed tires for the 8 White Knights in Irkutsk. I had a good deal on a nice second hand pair of TKC 80's that serve me well now in Mongolia. My girlfriend will fly in a new set, since the pair will not last forever.

If you are interested in the tyres, 7 pairs should still be there. Go and look for the Irkutsk BMW center, behind that building is the shop, run by two brothers.

I ride a 1100GS, so they were my size, I don't know for other bikes.

For the rest, I agree with the statement that finding tyres in Siberia is not a piece of cake. Have a tyre strategy before you head out.. not like me

Martijn

Check out BMW-motorrad website. It lists the bmw dealers for russia. So at least you'll have somewhere to start looking. I think three are listed for Moscow. I've just use the one in Saint Petersburg (Now the proud owner of a Russian battery of dubious quality). But they were a helpful bunch. Most of them are.

Another approach to consider would be using a set of tires that would last the whole trip (depending on the length, of course).

I was using a set of Avon Distanzias (http://www.ronayers.com/catalogs/tir...cid=7&type=177) on my Suzuki DRZ400S. They come in a good assortment of sizes including 17 and 18 inch rear and 19 and 21 inch front.

Put over 16.000 km on them so far, looks like there is a few thousand km of thread left. They served us very well on highways and quite sufficiently on dirt roads (about 3-4.000 km of dirt). They are I believe designed for heavier bikes than the light DRZ and that’s probably why they held up so well. Not much fun in the mud but that was not much of an issue during a trip from Vladivostok to Prague over Mongolia.

Moto.ru has shops in St. Petersburg and Moscow selling tyres, and all kinds of (expensive) motorcycling supplies.

No idea about the Moscow location, but the St. Petersburg shop is next to a cathedral on one of the streets leading from Tekhnologiskij Institut metro station.

http://www.moto.ru/

Photo from the shop:

http://bergie.iki.fi/gallery/2005/shnjaka/shnjaka-3

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Ein Schwein, das nicht fliegt, ist nur ein gewöhnliches Schwein