Thank you, Fastship. The Russian MLAE expedition is absolutely amazing. Never thought that a crossing of the Northern Polar cap could be possible with cars on wheels. And they started in March ... so late!

The Amarok expedition has now made it to the border of Kamchatka Oblast, but only with the help of caterpillar trucks paving the way. Let's see how long the last couple of hundred kilometers offroad will take.

Potential polar motorcyclists. Would you consider it cheating to make modifications at some point in your journey and to have had the parts shipped in, as opposed to have carried them in yourselves?

I ask because I've been looking at snowbike conversions like the Timbersled Mountain Horse.


Obviously you wouldn't be hooning round northern Siberia like the video, but it does show their ability out of the box to handle deep powder. The flat tray over the track could no doubt come in handy for payload, enough for the fuel needed? I have no idea.

To be honest riding the zimnik is one of those pipe-dreams I have that will almost certainly never happen unless circumstances change or someone says "Alex come and do it with us, we'll pay/we'll get sponsors." But it shouldn't stop me dreaming and if I can chip in with something I've found while Googling, I hope you'll forgive the intrusion. I know I'll be following the exploits of the person to do it with huge interest.

__________________

^^ that's not a motorbike. If it doesn't have two wheels it's something else. If it has more than two wheels it's not a motorbike.

That machine sure can go places a motorbike never will though

If those Amoroks have been towed by those tracked vehicles I'd also question if their trip is absolutely valid - but I'd be splitting hairs.

Studded tyres on those winding zimniks would be excellent riding!

__________________

Great product! This could be the solution for crossing the Bering Strait, or for the real offroad sections to Kamchatka.

On the zimnik/iceroads a standard motorbike will do it (however one needs fuel deposits).

IMHO there is no cheating, as long as you cover the whole distance on the ground. As Fastship said, even the Amaroks needed to be towed by tracked vehicles. Nevertheless a great adventure, and for tough guys only.

If you could easily retrofit such a device to say a big GS en-route just for the snowy parts it would be good but I can't see that being practical or realistic - but if it could...

I think I have seen land rovers temporarily adapted to tracked motive power.


The system fitted to a KTM 690 looks great. Perhaps some of our Finnish members could translate?

Kelkkalehti 2013 #001 - Snowbike - KTM 690 Enduro R + Timbersled Mountain Horse LT 137 - YouTube

__________________

Or the Fords of the 2006 Moscow - Chukotka expedition

Moscow-Chukotka Expedition

Their Yellowbrick is reporting an inaccurate position; their last report is from Ossora but the map says they are still haven't crossed the Kamchatka border.


On reflection, Axelbrit's suggestion of using that Timbersled is the only way you could emulate this Amorok or similar route. For most of the route it seems you could stay on two wheels but from what experts say, the deep snow of the rest would be impossible on a bike.


Just thinking out loud – it would entail carrying the Timbersled rig on the bike in addition to everything else you need to carry. At the required juncture, you would swap in the Timbersled rig then carry the wheels, swinging arm and other bit & bobs and away you go.


The Timbersled rig only weighs about 30kg but is bulky. The tunnel on it does provide a convenient place to mount the now redundant wheels, swing arm etc.You can see a picture of what you take off on the relevant PDF on their site.

It only fits chain drive bikes so that means a KTM 690R, possibly a 950R so water-cooled.

It's not impossible.

__________________

Either their Yellowbrick tracking device is broken, or it was left behind accidentally. Hopefully not in an abandoned car. One of the Amaroks (looked like Zietlow's) needed bigger repair, as visible on the fotos.

Can't contribute on the bike equipment question, but a one-car-escort would definitely help ... for food, fuel, the Timbersled, warming up and as an emergency shelter. As of Anadyr (or the US-Alaskan side), a caterpillar vehicle could take over the escorting.

P.S.: I'll be driving that car anyway :-)

It's a pity that the Yellowbrick tracking has not been working in the most important (= totally offroad) section of the Amarok Expedition:

Timbersled are just one maker, although seemingly the biggest, there's also FrozenMoto:



They have an innovative track system which can change shape to suit different snow conditions, from hard packed to powder snow. I'd thought about a three part trip, part one is on wheels, part two would involve swapping the rear wheel only to give a half-track, before transitioning to track and ski.

The two big questions are transporting the spare components and transporting the fuel, a back-up vehicle sounds a must.

__________________

Hey Axelbrit – thanks for putting me onto these things, I'm a little more convinced that using these things is the only way to emulate that Amorok route. In fact, I think a bike with those things are more capable than those balloon tyred four wheelers.


I found another maker ( Welcome to 2Moto ) it's hard to judge which is the better rig but here is a write up of the 2moto one: 2Moto Snow Bike Motorcycle Review - Motorcycle USA These rigs open up whole new horizons for bikes to explore where no bike has gone before – new life, new civilisations etc, etc..

As you say it remains to be seen if the rig could be transported on the back of the bike, then the two wheels etc when it's swapped in, it needs further consideration.


Back-up vehicle is completely out! It's just not correct. In my previous planning for this trip I've estimated that the longest sectors are ~600km so local fuel could be obtained. Pushing the boundaries for a bike though and I reckon those tracked bolt ons would cause high fuel consumption.


Other thoughts – you need a big, powerful bike but with a good power to weight ratio; I think my 950R could be fitted with a track. Only use the bolt on track where the zimniks are absent so that would make it just a small part of the whole trip. According to reports from the Amorok expedition some zimniks will no longer be maintained with more and more communities up there being abandoned completely.


Anyone else wants to chip-in with their thoughts?

__________________

My understanding is that locally they have only Diesel (?)

IIRC the MotoSyberia had a leg of about 1300kms where there was no fuel stations. They pre-organised a truck to carry some for them, but they also managed to find some on the way also from locals and I think a mine. They only went to Anadyr.

All those ski-mobiles would run on petrol.

__________________

Various snowbike riders report that fuel consumption can be almost double but then they are boondocking round the mountains, not riding for economy (and reliability!). Undoubtedly fuel consumption is going to be a major consideration when choosing the bike.

Various questions spring to mind:
· Where are you starting from? Shipping or riding the bike in.
· How would you transport the track and ski on/behind the bike?
· How will you keep the bike warm overnight to prevent the oil from sludging?

Snowbikes have only fairly recently appeared on the scene in their current guise which means the manufacturers are still producing batches out of workshops rather than having full production lines, but this is probably a bonus for the expedition rider as you could talk to the designers/producers to hopefully build something suited for expedition travel.

If it were me (and unless someone offers sponsorship that's unlikely) I'd look at keeping the track unit on the whole time, changing the front end only between studded tyre and ski, perhaps fabricating a cradle on the ski so the wheel could remain in place. Why keep the track unit in place? Because I think tweaking the tracks, maybe carrying two different tracks in and changing once off the zimnik. One track I would profile so that the treads were thick and low, tapering towards the outside to give a tire like shape and studding the treads. Hopefully on the compacted zimnik this would give the control and speed of a bike with studded tires while reducing the weight penalty of having to transport in the track unit and the rear wheel. The second track would be the more traditional spade shape better suited to soft, deep snow.

Looking at the available track units the Timbersled has simplicity on it's side, the FrozenMoto's shape-shifting track seems better suited to the ice-roads. The 2Moto doesn't appeal, I don't know why but the design seems over-complicated I can't see what it offers compared to the other two. I'd make my choice based on the ratio of ice-road to off-piste.

Hopefully leaving the track unit in place solves a lot of issues and gives more room for the fuel you'll need to carry along with all the survival and expedition gear you'll need along with the extra large tent and sleeping bag you'll need to stop the engine freezing.

So that leaves bike choice, the difficult balance between simplicity/reliability/power/weight/economy. I imagine weight will be a key issue considering the load to be carried, what's the bike with the best economy to weight ratio?

__________________