Hi guys,

A friend and I are currently planning to fly bikes from the UK to Alaska then spend 9 months riding south down to Tierra del Fuego. Since planning this trip and speaking to others, someone, somewhere along the lines has planted the seed in our heads that we may actually have enough time to cover even more ground.

The new proposed plan will look like this:
UK to Russia in 3 months. (Fly the bikes to Alaska)
Alaska to Mexico 1 month
Mexico to Argentina 5 months.

We will be riding DRZ 400's.

How does this timeline sound to you guys? This is primarily a riding trip but we certainly don't want to have to spend 8 hours every single day on the bikes. We want to have the time to stop for a couple of days here and there and enjoy the places we visit. We certainly don't want to be rushing through South America just so we can complete the ride in the time that we have.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Pete.

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You probably could do the trip in that time but won't actually have time to enjoy it.
Your nine months should be enough to get from Alaska, earliest month June due to weather then down to TDF for Christmas, it gets a little cold down there after January, with some time left to explore some more of South America.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply. In short, we have from the beginning of April until the end of December off from our jobs. We were always hoping to leave for Alaska the day we left the office but it would seem that April is still a little too early to be riding in that far north.
Hence the birth of the UK to Russia idea. You mention that June would be an ideal time to start in Alaska. That gives us two full months to fill. The dates, unfortunately, are not flexible.

It would seem from your comments that squeezing the ride over to Russia in before hand is a little enthusiastic. That's a shame but i was a little dubious myself if i'm honest.

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You can do UK to Eastern Russia (eg Vladivostok) in 3 weeks if you wanted to. 6 weeks will allow for a bit of sightseeing - allow
at least a week at the end for shipping/customs etc.

Sounds brilliant , not being too negative but you won't be able to fly the bikes out of Vladivostok or anywhere close to.

The best way in my humble opinion is ferry to Korea then truck the bike to a major airport to fly out to the USA .

I think you can get to Vladivostok quicker than two weeks but as already said what would you see and what would you experiance . I covered the trans siberian road last year and it's looooonnng and boring , it's the people you meet that make it an adventure .

I would do it again but leave more time on my visa to explore the place, the Siberians are so friendly .

With a trip like this any little delay could put you into some serious weather and problems, and we all know it won't go like clockwork .
Anyhow keep posting like to see how your trip goes

Take care have fun and smile Mark

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Superb. I had no idea we could potentially get there that soon if we really wanted to. If we gave ourselves 10 to 12 weeks so get over there, taking your advice it sounds like this could be quite a comfortable ride with sufficient time to stop and check some places out.

So flying out of Vladivostok is a no go? If necessary, we are more than happy to enter either Korea or Japan. It sounds like a roll on roll off ferry my be available for this leg of the trip. Is it safe then to assume that flying the bikes out of either Japan or s.Korea to Alaska or Vancouver easily enough is a fairly safe bet?

Like I said, we need to fill the time between leaving work in April and the Alaskan ice melting in June time. I'd much rather be on the road East bound rather than sat here in the UK twiddling my thumbs.

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Yeah the ferry runs once a week follow this thread http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...6-2#post364777

but as i have said a few times the ferry is very small compared to European ferries and it does get fully booked , so be best to advance book

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So, by the sounds of it, 3 months to get to the east side of Russia from the UK should be plenty.
Does anybody have any thoughts on whether or not 6 months will be comfortable to ride from Alaska to Argentina? Like i said, we want to ensure that we have sufficient time to stop and check places out etc. We don't want to be riding non stop every day.

Any opinions?

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As above, London to Vladivostock is possible in just about 3 weeks but this is virtually non-stop other than sleep and fuel. It's a l-o-n-g boring grind (half way round the World, crossing 11 or 12 time zones) and the scenery hardly changes for days and days and days and days on end, virtually all the way.

This is in the potentially most favourable (but not necessarily ideal) riding weather - early June to early September.

If thinking of spreading it out with breaks, visiting other places en-route for sightseeing etc (which I recommend) remember RUS Visas have a 90 day stay limit in 180 days, even if valid for longer duration.

There are no regular flights between east Russia and Alaska.You will get them from S Korea to main, west coast USA/Canada but at quite a high cost. It is very cheap flying bikes into S Korea as most freight planes are returning empty - but they leave full of Korean made/assembled consumer goods, so prices are high for the limited exit air cargo space/capacity.

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Tony, you say it's very cheap flying a bike into S Korea. Where from though? Nick

I meant by comparison with the other way.
Maybe I should have used the words 'comparativly cheaper than the other way'.

Any Air Cargo firm will transport motos anywhere. Some make a speciality of it and build the crates around them.

From UK these are the main people -
Motorcycle Shipping, Transport and Freight

Just outside London Heathrow, they are Air Freight agents who make a speciality of air freighting motos (and live animals!). You ride the bike to their warehouse and they do the paperwork, crate it, and send it by air - even give you a lift to the airport or a nearby station! You have to arrange collection and deal with local Customs etc at the other end, but they have representatives/contacts who would assist.

I've not done it, but I have assisted mates using them several times when I lived nearby. From memory one paid something in the region of £700 to £900 to send his fully loaded bike to Soeul three years back.

Contact Giles at James Cargo.

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Although I have never tried to ship a motorcycle by air cargo out of Vladivostok, I'm doubt that it would be impossible to do.

I was in Vladivostok last week (I had to ferry a new aircraft from Canada to Singapore, via Alaska, overnighting at Anadyr, Magadan, and Vladivostok along the way), and the Vladivostok airport is certainly a big airport with a number of international carriers operating scheduled services in and out on a regular basis.

The prerequisite for shipping a motorcycle by air is a widebody (i.e. two-aisle) aircraft. Those have cargo holds large enough to accept a motorcycle without disassembly. I saw a lot of widebody aircraft at Vladivostok.

That's not to say that it will be easy to make arrangements to fly a bike out, simply that it should be possible to do so. FWIW, all of the customs, immigration, and other government officials that I encountered at all three airports in Russia were extraordinarily courteous, efficient, and friendly. There was a lot of paperwork to do, relative to other countries, but they did it quickly and efficiently. Not a hint of corruption - in fact, at every airport, they even refused a gift of a 2012 calender that we give out free of charge everywhere for marketing purposes.

Michael

Vladivostok Airport - last week