Average kilometres per day - Russia to UK
 

Hi All

I'm in the early phase of planning for a solo ride from Vladivostok to the UK in 2016 via Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran. After Iran I'm considering 3 options to the UK... 1. via Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia etc 2. Azerbaijan, Russia, Baltic region, Poland etc, 3. Azerbaijan, Russia and Scandinavia.

I'll be riding an R1200GSA 2013 model and will be starting in Korea as I'm working here until 2016.

I would appreciate any advice, and initially would like to get a feel for the average km per day that I should target for ride like this. I'm thinking about 300 - 350 km per day with a rest day every 5 to 6 days.

Looking forward to hear from you about this and any another relative information - tyres, gear, spares, visa, costs per day etc

Safe riding to all

Cheers Daz :cool:

Have you seen the UK Bike magazine trip from the UK to Japan, and this is the route:

BikeTrac Events – Bike to Japan

bike is the new DL1000 V-Strom, and the distances etc show on the biketrac map.

Hi John

Thanks for the link. Based on their departure and arrival dates, and the estimated distance of 16,000 km (10,000 miles), it appears they have done around 200 km per day. Obviously road conditions will change greatly but I still think / hope I could achieve 300 km per day.

Thanks again

Cheers Daz

Hi Daz, reading the articles so far, on some days they didn't do many miles due to the stunning scenery / people they met, and it was done on a bike with no real off road prep, and without using TKC80 tyres looking at the pictures. I don't know if the bike survived in one piece, though they did show one picture when it was tired due to loose sand and the rider had to pick it up on his own.

They would have appreciated the extra fuel your GSA holds at times, though maybe not the weight when they had to pick it up off the floor.

BIKEs rider is a HUBB member. I rode with him for a short while in Tajikistan. I can certainly vouch for him not being flat out on the road all the time!

Personally I think you're asking the wrong question. We've all done long days to make it to something or get out of a country before our visa expires. Conversely we've all stayed put somewhere for a week or more while getting repairs done etc. Point is you can ride the big days at times to make up the necessary ground.

I rode from Mongolia to France in 2 weeks on a return trip. It took me 3 1/2 months to get out there in the first place!

My two cents: Decide what personally interests you in each country and allow time for it. You can always ride long days in between.

Safe riding!

Hi Daz
I've just ridden from Vlad to London via Russia, Mongolia all Stans. Iran turkey Greece Italy France

I worked out distances via google maps....used 400 k for Russia turkey and iran and 150 - 200 k per day and added extra days where I thought I might. Stop plus other days here and there

Worked perfectly!

Mongolia toughest also Pamirs slow
Email me if you need more

Hi John,

thanks for relaying further info from the magazine articles, as I couldn't get access to them. For the GSA yes, it's great have the fuel capacity and but bloody heavy for sure...I've had to pick mine up a few times and I'm not a big guy so I definitely have to get the technique correct to get it upright again.

I was checking my daily average for a tour in Australia in 2013 and it worked out to less than 200km per day and at the time I didn't want to go any quicker as there was so much to see..a re-think on the target km/day for Vlad to UK coming up! :eek3:

Cheers Daz :scooter:

Totally agree with you Tad, as I mentioned in a earlier reply to John, I didn't let km/day guide my ride in Australia...rather, I enjoyed the places and scenery and after reading your message I re-visited that ride in my memories and GPS data and noted that some days the ride was less than 90km.

Good advice mate, cheers Daz bier

Hi Branners

Great info! And as advised by Tadhg123, I'll do the research about what I want to see and put that together with your km/day to hopefully give me a better estimate of minimum duration needed for the ride. In a perfect world I wouldn't have to bother with a timeline but unfortunately will I have some time limitations - though I will add a month contingency! There is also the potential issue of visa entry and exit dates which for some countries may need to be fairly accurate - not sure.

Thanks for the offer to email you for more info and I will take you up on that as I'm sure I'll have many questions during planning.

Cheers Daz bier