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Ulan Ude or Irkutsk to hit the Bam Road Ulan Ude or Irkutsk to hit the Bam Road
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  #1  
Old 15 Mar 2019
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Ulan Ude or Irkutsk to hit the Bam Road
Helo,im trying to decide whether to go east or west of Lake Baikal (linking onto BAM)is there a usual route that seasoned Riders prefer? Cheers
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Old 15 Mar 2019
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Depends how hard you want it!

The 'normal' route is west. If you go east, you'll be doing the more hard-core 110 in the north before you join the BAM.

This map shows where we went in 2015, I've also added the 110 (if you 'un-hide' it):

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?m...uY&usp=sharing
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Old 15 Mar 2019
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I believe the East route is quite hardcore past Barguzin. We drove it up to Ust-Barguzin, where you can go onto the peninsula and camp on the beach. We liked it (although quite some washboarding roads), but we were not going to do the BAM road and were not coming from West so not coming over Irkutsk.
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Old 15 Mar 2019
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It seems most travelers stick to the west Route....whose to say the condition il be in Physically and mentally to say il go the hard way....if the western route is a boring slog to hit Severobaikalsk then id like to think id be brave enough to try,baring in mind id have the BAM ahead of me as well ,ive went over the East route on Sat images and it looks like trouble in the northern sections,im wondering about the river crossings in those areas around July,id be hoping the thaw should be well receded by then.Your Routes are not far off mine,but im going via Iran and pending Turkmenistan Visa
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Old 15 Mar 2019
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brian p View Post
It seems most travelers stick to the west Route....whose to say the condition il be in Physically and mentally to say il go the hard way....if the western route is a boring slog to hit Severobaikalsk then id like to think id be brave enough to try,baring in mind id have the BAM ahead of me as well ,ive went over the East route on Sat images and it looks like trouble in the northern sections,im wondering about the river crossings in those areas around July,id be hoping the thaw should be well receded by then.Your Routes are not far off mine,but im going via Iran and pending Turkmenistan Visa
I think it is the rocky river crossings that can make it hard in the north (The 110), and water levels. I doubt anyone's done it on a big bike.

West side not that exciting, but I think the graded dirt started reasonably soon north of Irkutsk.
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Old 15 Mar 2019
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Just uncovered that 110 route on your map....some useful information im doing it solo on a 81 Harley Davidson Shovel Head only kidding mate its a DRZ400,i think the only call i can make on this is get to Ulan Ude and make a split decision based and current events weather etc,il keep planning
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