Sambor ships bikes from Warsaw to both Bishkek and UB (and Tblisi I think) and back. You can ride from one to another. The cost is not cheap but if time is an issue, it saves a lot of time.

Modman and I are arranging to ship bikes to UB in 2015, fly in, ride UB to Bishkek and fly back. We're planning around three to four weeks riding. If all goes well, we'll overshoot Bishkek and spend some time in the Pamirs/Bartang etc. before heading back. The total cost of shipping and flights will be around £2,000 (€2,500) but it saves us the better part of six weeks travel. Running my own business means that I just can't be away for that long so I'm biting-the-bullet and coughing up the money.

ADVFactory tell me bikes must be in Warsaw 29 May, arrive UB 25 June, must be in Bishkek by 20 August and arrive back in Warsaw 10 September. You can do the reverse trip but I don't know the dates. You can also collect and drop off at the same location.

Hi,

7 weeks should be fine.

We rode this spring / summer from London to Mongolia and back. On 2 honda XR125… and including 3 total breakdown, one bad accident that left me unable to ride for some time and numerous road repairs and taking our time … it took us just a bit above 3 months. (including a good 3 weeks stranded here and there, waiting for trucks, repairs or for recovery of my accident).

We rode through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakh again , Russia’s Altai and Mongolia. We then rode to Irkutsk, took the trans-Siberian train to Moscow (takes 3 ½ days). Then we took our time back across Europe. We did a total of 12,000 miles.

The trans-Siberian train is an easy option. It is very straightforward to organise the bike there and you could go from Moscow all the way to Ulan Ude (or other way round). From there the border to Mongolia is fairly close. It is also very cheap, we paid about 14,000 roubles per bike if my memory is correct.( I put details at the time on SEB thread about the trans-siberian).

One option is that, if you go via the Stans first, and you feel like you are running out of time, you could get back to Russia and get into the trans-siberian. It has many stops.

Cheers.

Thank you for the helpful information :).

So we actually already decided on this specific route that you also did, maria41, (georgia-russia-stans-russia-mongolia-back through russia with train), but investigating on our possibilities regarding russian visa more deeply, we now found out, that it will probably be pretty much impossible to do this route, because we are students and we didnt find a way yet to get business visa at all without a real job....

Which leaves us the possibility to skip the stans for now and go from georgia directly to mongolia, which would probably be very tight on schedule with a 30 day double entry tourist visum, even if we take the train on our way back.

Or we really have to sell the bikes in Mongolia and fly back.

Also in general we underestimated the costs for everything a little bit, so shipping is no option at all anymore and going via Iran and turkmenistan also rather not. Besides the cost aspect, here also the paperwork looks extremely difficult.

Currently we are bombading agencies who organize russian visa with requests for more information :D.

Try to apply for a "humanitarian" visa. Some of my friends, who are retired, did that and they breezed through Russia!
This Visa also includes sport events, it does not need to be Humanitarian at all.
Ask Real RUssia, if you are in the UK, (even if not, I would still ask them, as they deal with lots of things like these and could give you good advice!), they were pretty good on that. I am a contractor (self employed) and was not asked for proof of work when applying for my visa. Neither my husband now I think of it. Only that I had enough money in the bank!

Speak with the agencies see what they say. You should be able to get one. Either Business or Humanitarian. Otherwise, as you say, it will be too tight. And it would be a shame to miss the Stans.

Good luck.

Humanitarian visa is an interesting idea.

We look into the organization of the russian visa intensively now, maybe we will figure something out.
After talking to so many people on the phone we also start to get a feeling for who actually knows their business and wants to help us and who not :D. I will post when we figured out the visa issue.

Cant all countries be as easy as mongolia or kyrgyzstan :)

Your Russian Visum will be no problem at all!

May be you can manage with two times transit, cost €30,= each.

If you plan to stay longer than 11 days on your way back you can take a tourist visum.

GRTZ,

JP

I Got a multiple Entry 1 year business visa and I never had a visa before.

I also was at this time a freelancer and I got that.

All I did was to have it a visa agency done for me.

So far the agencies (and we talked to plenty) either said that there is no way to get such a visa as student or that they dont know. Even the people we had the feeling actually wanted to help us, said that it doesnt work. One was suggesting to get a second passport and then apply for two tourist visa at a time, but i think that would be pretty illegal :D.

Apparently its a new rule that you have to have been in russia before at least once in the past year for a multiple business visa. One agency says thats a fixed new rule, the other says that it depends on the mood of the person who approves visa at the embassy.

But we will figure it out; as soon as we have a more specific idea of our possibilities, we will approach the agencies again and ask for help to arrange it.

Hi Saskia.
I did Switzerland - Wolgograd - Aral - Osh in 21 days. Not too much to see except it is on the side of the road. Long distances are the same (Ukraine, Kazskhstan)
Also Switzerland - Turkey - Azerbaijan - ferry Baku - Turkmenbashi - Uzbekistan in 16 days. Much more interesting scenery. Problem is the ferry… but still possible.
Now we do Switzerland - Turkey - Iran - Turkmenistan - Tajikistan - Kyrgyzstan in 31 days. Most interesting. Most expensive (needs CdP).
I agree, 7 weeks all the way to Mongolia is very stretched if you want to see something off the paved roads.
Why do you want to send back 20 year old bikes? You can get them for Euro 1000.- by the dozens in Europe. Sell them for couple 100.- and you replace them easily, or not?
CHeers from Osh.

Hi Wildman.

For the money you spend on shipping you would be able to rent one of our XT 600 E and take them as far in to Tajikistan or Kazakhstan, Mongolia as you want. New tires fitted, large 23 l. reservoirs, fully serviced.

Just as a option.

Thanks Muztoo for these timings,
l need more details about your trip Switzerland, Turkey, Iran, Turkm.: Did you drive across former Yugoslavia or did you use the ferry to Greece? And about your whole trip, did 31 days inlude some loops for visits in Turkey, Iran, ....?
Thanks in advance,
RR.

Thank you Patrik

It doesn't save me any time though as I'd have to ride the bikes all the way back from Mongolia, right?

Is it an option to find someone who can drive to bikes back?

:)

HI Roro.

Check:

MuzToo Abenteuer Seidenstrasse

for more infos…

CHeers

Right. But you can do border west Mongolia to Kyrg in 2-3 days…. and it would give you a nice loop in Mongolia (southern and northern route). And you would see the beauty of Kyrg...