Road of bones, Russia

[spskog]

Hi!
Anyone ridden the Road of bones old summer road this year? Which month? How was the Kyubeme-Tomtor-Kadykchan? Or the Bolshevik-Palatka section? Rideable alone? Planning to go there next summer.
Thanks for advice!

[Declan]

Originally Posted by spskog

Hi!
Anyone ridden the Road of bones old summer road this year? Which month? How was the Kyubeme-Tomtor-Kadykchan? Or the Bolshevik-Palatka section? Rideable alone? Planning to go there next summer.
Thanks for advice!

Interesting post, I'll be solo on the ROB also next summer. From what I have read it might be wise not to do the old summer road alone in case you get rightly bogged down - there is really no traffic to talk about on it. I don't know much of its condition but will wait to hear what others say...

The Bolshevik-Palatka section I think is known as the Tinkinskaya Trassa and again I would be interested to hear of the condition of that section...

[DeeGee]

A friend of mine Lyndon Poskitt did it last year as part of his RTW races to places project. Look him up on Facebook. There's also a mini series on YouTube (racestoplaces) you may have seen his posts also on ADVRider (Pyndon).
Good luck with your planning.

[Zimi]

Hi,

I did it this summer. We were 4, me and 3 russian guys I met by chance in Magadan. We started in Magadan. We left Kadykchan around 5pm when we started the route and had to camp twice before reaching Tomtor in the evening.

We were not fast, we drown 2 bikes and had a clutch issue on the 3rd one. The guys with me needed an enormous time to pack their stuff in the morning ,and were taking smoke breaks quite often. We were really lucky with the weather, no rain, the rivers were not high.
I spent one week in Magadan waiting for the weather to improve.

It's very unpredictable, every year can be different. I know people there which whom I have often contact.

After us, the was another group of irish (the BAM riders)/english/german, 5 bikes and 1 landcruiser. They managed as well.
I heard about a group of kiwis that did it in late august. They sent a bunch of 250 Yamaha's to Yakutsk by plane and they had a truck following to carry the bikes during the river crossing. According to the information I had, they had to load the bikes in the trucks for most of the crossing, water was already too high.
There were 2 Chinese guys as well, they hired a truck driver but they couldn't make it and had to go back, water was too high even for the trucks.

So I would say that the most important factor to ride the OSR is.... LUCK

It was my second attempt, first attempt in 2014, mid August (same year as Lyndon did it), was out of question, there was even flooding on the new federal road, we were stuck 2 days in Ust Nera. When Lyndon did it, according to the videos I've seen, most people wouldn't make it. Already the first river was too deep for most motorcycle. Him and Lukas had Rally Replica, with the super high air intake, and don't forget that they are exceptional riders.

I would not go alone on the OSR. Some have done it, we found a kawasaki GPZ 140km from Tomtor, stuck in mud. The guy walked the 90km to the road near kadykchan and hitchhiked to magadan... but that's crazy...WE had many situations were we needed to help each other. One of the guys felt down during half of the river crossing, and we were often stuck in bogs.

Absolutely no one goes there! We were first this year and there was no tracks of cars or truck up to 80km before Tomtor.

You can read my detailed report and see the pictures on my blog here:
www.facebook.com/zimiontheloose

In the january 2017 issue of Adventure Bike Rider magasine (UK), you can ready a short very of my story as well.

About the route, starting from Kadykchan, the first part is ok, the first river crossing was the most difficult. Then until the hunters camp it's easy. It start then to get harder up to approx 140km from tomtor. The last 100km, the track is quiet good, no bogs (when we were) and several river crossing, but not that bad.

The second half from Tomtor to the federal road is now a piece of cake. There are only 2 river crossing left, one of them was a little bit tricky.

[hammertime]

I am riding from UK to Ulaanbaatar in 2017 and will ride from there to Magadan in July 2018.
I need to join forces with someone for the ROB, so if anyone reads this and has a similar plan for 2018 then please send me a message.

Chris

[hammertime]

I am riding from UK to Ulaanbaatar in 2017 and will ride from there to Magadan in July 2018.
I need to join forces with someone for the ROB, so if anyone reads this and has a similar plan for 2018 then please send me a message.

Chris

[GSA1200OnTour]

Hi myself and two other lads are thinking about doing the ROB next year and like you are based in Ireland.
How are you planning on getting there? are you getting your bike shipped?
We are in the early research stage as of yet but looking for any info that will be of help..

[Declan]

Originally Posted by GSA1200OnTour

Hi myself and two other lads are thinking about doing the ROB next year and like you are based in Ireland.
How are you planning on getting there? are you getting your bike shipped?
We are in the early research stage as of yet but looking for any info that will be of help..

I guess you're posting to me... I started from Co.Clare in Ireland last year on a KLR650 and 7 weeks got me to Kyrgyzstan via Iran and the Stans. The bike is still in Kyrgyzstan and I'll return in June to do a loop around the Pamir before heading north through Russia and Mongolia and hopefully reaching Magadan in late July and then plan to ship to Vladivostok and onward to Vancouver. PM me if ye want to chat

[Zimi]

You can ship your bike from Moscow to Magadan with AviaPartner. They shipped my bike in may 2016. For a KTM 640Adv it was about 450 euro (including the crate). It takes several weeks for the transport (first by train until Vladivostok and then by ferry to Magadan). I think about 6 or 7.

You can ship it by plane as well, it will be around 1000 euro (depending on the weight and size of your bike), but the bike will be there in max 2-3 days.

They are very professional. You can contact Oleg Abdulov, the boss in Magadan, he speaks perfectly english and tell him you got his contact from me.
olegabdulov [[AATT]] gmail <<DOT>> com or partner [[AATT]] maglan <<DOT>> ru
phone: +7 914 852 25 22
Авиаперевозки грузов. Грузовые авиаперевозки из Москвы по России - Авиа-Партнер

[vicky250gt]

Did the BAM and ROB in Aug-Sep 2016. Skipped the OSR.

ROB was easy except for the sticky mud getting out of Yakutsk and rains near Susuman. It all depends on weather conditions esp rains. I drowned my bike (low intake - 530Exc) only once on the BAM road, no hassles with the few river crossings on the ROB.

have fun.