Western BAM solo on a 990
 

Iker Iturregi has just completed te western BAM in 3 days aboard his 990 solo.

Good effort. Some videos and stuff here.

http://www.motostrail.com/vb2011/sho...beria%2Fpage69

Every man and his dog ....

Seriously though -

40 seconds on his third crossing of the Vitim Bridge. WOW.

Three crossings must also be a record.

I'm impressed by both feats.

Big bike too.

vitim 1 - YouTube

The rail bridge was the Kaunda River, not Vitim as titled.

Sadly, I feel it inevitable someone will go over one day - and he got near the edge once or twice. Riding one handed, gesticulating in true Mediterranian manner!!


WOW again! Some crazy rider.

It doesn't bare thinking about. I doubt I could swim any distance with motocross boots on let alone all my kit. I think the temperature of the water would put paid to my efforts anyway.

Actually motocross gear is quite good to swim in it floats.


I haven't seen the vids yet as I only have slow connection, but I knew he was keen to get a record of sorts. There were some questions that if you hit it at speed would it still count :).

He is a serious rider, showed me pics of some big jumps on his 990. Bigger than anything I would dare on one.

He is a man on mission he still wants to get Magadan and then back out of Russia when he left UB he had 25 days left on his Russian visa. I think he has used 5 of those already and was at Tynda. I can see a visit back to Mongolia to get a transist visa.

But would that not put too much buoyancy at the non breathing end?
Possibly equalised by a polystyrene helmet?


But after the 15ish metre drop and cold (this is a snow melt river), the real killer would be the swirling current. You can judge the water speed looking at the bridge support protection barriers.
It is deep too in the main channels.

Records keep getting broken, but I notice no claimants yet for mine here - 43 minutes :wheelchair:

Oh don't call him Mediterranian. He is a Basque! Still crazy though :)


It would look something like this :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cSs9...ayer_embedded#

Hi

I met him 2 days ago near Chilchi, but as I'm not familiar with motorbikes, he first had to explain, what it is, a big bike.
I'm not sure if he couldn't have avoided some river crossings, there are now new ones, the people in Chani told me that the week-long rain had taken out more bridges between Chani and Oljokma. But on a motorbike and a bicycle you can go along the railway, what I then did. btw, it is really more interesting in terms of landscape (trees are cut away, so there is more sight and you are on a dam), mosquitos and meeting people (railway workers are quite frequent, but from the nearby road you often don't see them).
As I told, there was a long rain period, I was lucky and as of Kuanda had only sun and the rivers were already significantly lower (vitim was still frightening, and the Chani and Oljokma must have been incredibly high when you looked at the flood marks), there must have been a grup of baltic drivers, that was a week before me, they also used partially the road along the railway, but had probably wetter conditions.
2 Jeeps were waiting at Ojokma river bridge for a permission to cross. But usually jeeps should be taken on a plattform from Chani to Juktali, I still haven't seen them overtaking me.

Greetings from Tynda

Christian

If you meet Iker (as we were lucky enough to do for a week long stay at Oasis with many many beers drunk!!) as Craig says - he is indeed a man on a mission.

I have ridden bikes for 25 years on road off road and on the track but there is one rider I have seen whos ability astounded me and that is Iker.

The fact that he crossed the Vitim in 40 seconds does not surprise me one bit!!!

Hope he goes well on the next leg to Magadan

Callum

Already in Magadan
 

Iker is already in Magadan.

For those who speak Spanish, I strongly recommend his report. It's very direct and amusing, written in a very colloquial and enthusiastic language, so it's great fun to read: it feels like you are listening to him in person having a beer, so a nice chance to improve your Spanish with good fun as well.

Euskadi - Siberia

Esteban

BAM
 

Solo wow hats off to him that is true courage, not from the point of danger or difficulty but stamina both mental and physical
I am not really sure how anyone can do it in 3 days thought he must have been riding 12 hour days, incredible

In Mongolia he said he had been riding like 10 hours since he left (and mostly camping), so in BAM maybe... 16h??? Still waiting for his report to tell about it, he got delayed since Mongolia.

Worth visiting his youtube channel: Canal de Indarktm - YouTube

People who met him like Craig and Callum confirm the impression of everyone who was reading the report: great and humble guy. Actually he mentions (and thanks) several times Walter Colebatch and Sibirski Extreme Team, as well as Sambor (ADV), as the great sources of inspiration for him to go on this trip, saying how much he enjoyed their reports and the days dreaming about parts of this trip.

Btw, thanks, Craig for posting, made me find a nice Spanish forum.

Has some other bikers ridden the Western BAM on solo? I am planning to do it this summer. Not becuase I want, but because I didn't find anybody willing to ride there with me. I am a little bit concerned about security and the river crossing.

I'll be doing it on a pushbike, you can join me and ride slowly :)

There was an Estonian that rode the western half last year, he has a ride report on advrider , his name was Vaser from memory. Being Estonian he would have had good russian if not fluent being a good help.

Don't worry yourself too much Zimi and have a great time. And remember that you can only die once! Statistically speaking most do in their own towns.

There was a ride report on ADV of another person who did solo last summer.