For me as well I hope we will meet somewhere in Siberia

Great idea. More likely to be in Budapest or Yorkshire though.

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Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

It might have been some "financial" reasons why they used XT660Z.

I think it's a bit funny that Victor (one of the Swedes) went to Magadan. Back in 2003 his father (another Swedish traveler) and I had a long conversation about Magadan and travel in general. He was a bit disappointed that two Norwegians already had been in Magadan(1995; F650). From memory I think Victor left the conversation and went to bed early, he was probably tired after a hard day racing winter-enduro in Norway.

As far as I know Victor is a family-man now, but his father is in Spain driving BMW S1200R - it sure beats the Swedish weather!

For the sake of making it clear what the old summer road entails, I have stitched together some clips from 30 odd crossings - but note that this is just a tiny selection of the water crossings on the Old Summer Road.

Note more of the clips feature the heaviest bike there, the 186 kg F800. Thats because it needed by far the most help for the crossings. Therefore everyone stopped and cameras were set up for the F800 crossings. Less so for the lighter singles, which often just rode across, before realising they would have to stop anyway to help the F800, so why not set up the camera.

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Great clip walter

If nothing else, it makes clear how challenging the OSR would be for most solo riders.

Thats the idea ... so people know what they are getting into. Its a big risk solo, as Adrian Silindean found out 18 months ago. In general, its not really a road to do solo. Water levels rise and fall subject to recent weather, but they can also rise and fall overnight when you are on the road, leaving you stranded unless you have a co-rider or two to help you get thru the deeper water crossings. So even if it is dry with low water levels when you start the road, that doesnt mean it will be low water levels all the way.

Also it should give an idea how high the air intake needs to be. Some bikes like the X-Challenge, F800GS and 690s have high air intakes and can do these swamp puddles and rivers without modification. Boxer engined BMWs have very low air intakes (and the 1150GS has a comparatively low exhaust too) leading to the much greater risk of sucking water in via the intake (if it is running) or exhaust (if it is not running).

A snorkel type modification would be a wise consideration for boxer engined bikes on that road. Try and get a good 90cm+ of ground clearance for your air intake.

If you drop or stall a bike in a river crossing and ingest water, you have to be able to push it using manpower alone, over the football sized boulders, to the other side - where you can then remove the plugs and clear the engine of water. But you have to either have a light enough bike that you ALONE can push across a wide, deep river complete a bed of football sized stones if you are riding solo, or, have enough guys in your riding crew to help you do it, to even contemplate that road.

The road has not seen thru traffic since 2008, when the new Federal road was built. Now there is no traffic coming along the OSR after Tomtor. Its just the random expeditioners. There might be 3 in a week, there might be none for 3 weeks. There are no trucks like Ewan and Charlie paid to follow them, no vans ... about 200 km of that road sees NO TRAFFIC at all except motorcycle or 4WD expeditioners. And they are very few and far between.

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As I said in the prevues thread i will try the old road on my 1150gs the one below

As for bikes, its a mater what suits me, I ride with the trf the bike I normally ride is a ccm 404, but I'm in training, this weekend I took my BMW 1100 gs the other bikes that were there ktm 990 adv, gs 800, 2 honda 400s and beta 250, it was very wet but I must say I did everything the other bikes did,

I thank you all for your advice its most helpfull and keep it coming.

Here is the end result of the bike build

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/7873...okmark_t=group

This is the link to the bike build if it interests anyone

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Next time you should try it with fully loaded bike. Try to simulate that status you will ride on tour.

Like this, went down to Croatia then into Montenegro, then into Albania done a lot of off road,

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I've done loads of off road stuff in the sticks in different country's with the 1200gs fully loaded, but the 1150 is a different bike all together the handling is different the weight and so on, I've no issues with what bike I use, I've a new r1200gsa but I want to do it with the bike I rebuilt as its all part of a journey that I've wanted to do for a long time........

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Lowrider,
your GS looks fine, but i will agree with Walter about the weight of the Bike. I`m planning this Trip also for 2015, but i`m looking at least for a XChallenge, a KTM690 or a XT660R or Z, because i think, weight matters.
And if i have no Co-Riders, i won`t do the OSR.

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Greetings
Wolle

This is what we do when the big boys go out to play

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Wishing you the best of luck,my trip is the same time 2016,like your self i have done extensive research regarding that route,im sure we both appreciate the juggling of planning involved.I have a few trips under my belt and my main concern is weight,ie: where ever i go off road the best weight to aim for is around 200kilos fully laden except rider obviously,especially if your doing a long haul off road trip as a solo rider.
by doing that i chose a bike such as a drz400 (130kilos est +gear)i would have concerns with your gs on certain parts of the route,if your hauling camping gear water etc expect the bike to push close to 300 kilos+,well suited on metal roads,youl feel capable of doing anything,but that weight on the road of bones can be disastrous,i am sure you dont need people on keyboards pointing out the fact that picking up a 250kilo+ bike off the ground a few times a day poses serious risks,injury etc,and ive picked up a few 250kilo bikes to know so my message to you is dont exceed your bikes limitations and yours on such well known dangerous roads,plan to suit your abilities,good luck and safe trip