Kazakhstan - Uralsk to Aktobe
 

We arrived into Uralsk at about 4am and set up camp next to the police checkpoint. It was as good a place as any and after explaining to the police that 3 men were going to sleep in 1 tent we got some much need rest eye.

The bikes, with no front wheels were reassembled the following morning only to discover that my front cush bearing was missing which meant that the front wheel had about 1inch of play along the axle. We were going nowhere...

The next 4 hours basically involved the police stopping every single car passing and asking them had they something that would act like my missing bearing. Very nice of them but we knew that it was unlikely. They also tried helping us with a lift to get to aktobe (500km) but we discovered that we werent exactly on the right road, only the outer road around uralsk and 6km away was where we needed to be..so, on the lads went leaving me behind to have chi with the po po and his friends and they returned with a bearing from the other bike so I could get down to where they were.

We got a lift after a short while,,threw the bikes in the truck and there was only enough space for 1 in the cab so myself and paul got in the back with the bikes..3 c90s, 1 diesel generator about the size of a small horse and steel pipes everywhere. It was an uneventful ride for the most part, we were locked into the back so there was little we could do or see. About 5 or 6 hours in, the half tonne genny decided to keel over and land directly on my bike...sh1t!!!! Here we were trapped in the back of a truck in Kazakhstan, with diesel everywhere and my bike being crushed more and more by every bump that we went over. It took about 30mins for us to signal the front cab as there was no phone reception. I took a hurley and made a hole in the back door to wave down a car..anyway, we stopped. it took 5 of us to lift that thing up off my bike and we got back on the road,.the following 3 hours was not easy. it consisted of paul and i holding up the generator in the dark and covered in diesel. I had a head torch on and when i looked down onto the floor, a cush bearing rolled out from under the generator...wtf

when we arrived we put my 90 back together and fired up with the first kick!