Old Summer Road advice...

Realistically, you are not going to do the old summer road on an 1150 GS unless you are very very lucky with weather and water levels.

It was done with once with one 1150 in 2006 when water levels were quite low. And thats it. In 2004 Ewan and Charlie failed to do it on 1150s (they failed to do ALL their off road sections on those heavy 1150s - they failed to finish Mongolia too). Only one 1200 has ever done the OSR too for that matter ... so only one 1200 and one 1150. Thats a pretty low success rate for 15 years of the most popular adventure bikes on the planet. Especially considering in a normal year 3-10 single cylinder bikes do it.


You arent going to want to hear my advice, but I have got to be honest with you, as a former 1200 Adventure owner / rider, and as someone who has been to Magadan a bunch of times, almost everything you have expressed in this quote is going to bite you in the arse.

Firstly, my experience, which includes heavy adventure bikes, midweight adventure bikes like transalps, light adventure bikes and very light adventure bikes, and adventure riding on every continent, is that your logic for selecting the bike isn't right. Yes every bike for every trip is a compromise. No argument there. The question is how do you frame the compromise. What is the best compromise.

The majority of first time adventurers to Siberia / Mongolia etc think (mistakenly in my view) to base their compromise on what the majority of the trip will be. My experience, however, is that you should not choose a bike based on the needs of the majority of the trip and compromise on the smaller parts. What you should do is choose a bike based on the requirements of the toughest parts of the trip and compromise on the easy parts. If you intend to do the old summer road, then your starting point is a bike that can comfortably do the old summer road. THEN factor in the needs of the rest of your trip. Not the other way round.

Your starting point for bike compromise decisions should be nothing to do with the majority of the trip. Your starting point should have everything to do with the TOUGHEST parts of your planned trip.

Secondly, the distance ... the 1150 will win basically nothing regarding the distance, over a 650cc bike. There are speed limits all across Russia - strictly enforced on the long trans siberian highway. 90 km/h (55mph). Overtaking opportunities are limited and illegal overtaking on a solid white line is a BIG DEAL there and cops hide behind trees, bends, and enforce this fiercely. Partly because its a huge killer on Russian roads, and partly because its a great revenue raising opportunity. The best opportunities to speed when riding across Russia are actually on gravel roads (where there are no cops). Its easy enough to sit at 75 mph all day on secondary gravel roads across the countryside, but a 650 will be more comfortable doing that all day than an 1150, on which you will be gripping the bars with knuckle fever doing those speeds with that weight on gravel.

You will have 3 days of advantage in Western Europe (saving you a total of about 2-3 hrs) - if you take the motorways - on an 1150. If you go to the Old Summer Road you will realise that this 2-3 hrs of net advantage in Western Europe is not worth the endless daily misery that miniscule advantage costs you in Siberia.

I am not telling this to change your mind. You are clearly well underway in bike prep. You are going to do it on an 1150 and that's fine. Just want you not to be kidding yourself when it comes to the reality on the ground in Siberia, with respect to Russian highways and what its actually like to cover that distance on them (its very boring and you are stuck behind freight trucks with very limited overtaking opportunities), and especially with respect to the Old Summer Road - which normally has a couple of dozen thigh deep fast flowing water crossings. (this last year - 2013 - no one did the Old Summer Road - including experienced off road guys on light bikes - because water levels were too high). I will try and put a brief video compilation of OSR water crossings online in a week or so to give you an idea.

Realistically, taking an 1150, you are going to need to be doing the federal road, rather than the OSR. The federal road is a 2100 km long piece of good graded gravel road that you can cruise along at high speed all the way from Yakutsk to Magadan if the weather is good. Parts of it can get boggy and muddy and slippery if its wet, but if its dry you can do it in 3 days.

If the Federal Road was the toughest part of your planned trip, then the 1150 is a suitable compromise. As you are well down the 1150 road already, and are not going to change bikes, I think it would be realistic to adjust your focus from the Old Summer Road to the Federal Road. You are still going to look back at the end of your trip thinking I really should have taken a lighter bike, but at least then your aims will be compatible with your bikes capabilities.

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