hello there planning a trip from st petersburg in the near future,anybody out there done this trip .is it possible to ride the full length, is the train a possibility at all.any info would be appreciated also lenth of time to cover this trip riding every day or maybe stopping of a few days here and there with thanks paul

G'day Paul
A search on russia will bring up lots of info on these pages. You can ride across Russia and there is a thread on the Vladivostok-Ulan Ude section under ASIA.


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

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Close to Antarctica and a long way from reality

We did St Pete to Vlad July/ August last year, also went down into Kaz/ Uzebk/ Tajik and back. Two Triumph Tigers, 00 and 01's.
We ran out of time on the Visa's so did the Chita/ Vlad leg via the train. Did meet a couple of riders who in Vlad who completed the last leg. They said the road was OK, mostly gravel but only averaged 250/ 300 km per day.
One fellow has placed a post today on the Asia section having just finished it. (20 July) Best riding in Russia is around Lake Baikal and through to Chita (that we found away)
A few different ways across but we followed the M7 for the most part. The road conditions was on the whole OK (well from an Australian point of view), few sections in Eastern Siberia that was under construction.
Camped nearly the whole way after leaving St Pete. Lake Baikal is a must stop. Some great camping sites right on the road.
You can find good Road Atlas of all Russia and Central Asia (our copy was printed 2002) in a number of book stores in Helisnki. Also saw them for sale in St Pete and Vlad at around the same price. For the most part was reasonably up to date and OK to navigate with (we did not have GPS)
We averaged around 500 km per day, but as I said we spent too long in Central Asia and had to pull our fingers out for the last leg.
Feel free to e-mail if want any more details, but cant help with accommodation at all, few others on the site have used hotels and maybe able to give you information on bike friendly places.

I'm gonna be doing the same route in 2006 on my Fazer 1000, going round Norway / Finland and then straight through from St. Pete.
I'm going for it - no train (sorry you just can't say you've been round the world on your bike if you take a train!)- I've been over a mountain using a goat track on the French / Italian border when a tunnel was shut down having ridden to it for half a day on the Fazer and my mate on an R6 and we made it (just). I don't think Russia can throw anything worse at me than that!

Go for it and Best of luck.