We have done the Kolyma Hwy in the second half of September, this year.
Go and do not be afraid of the stories of people who never went.
Go before they sealed the road completely (vast road works are ongoing).
Kolyma = two lane dirt road (with occasional patches of asphalt) all the way.
No more wading (unless you venture on an old part here and there still visible).
People are friendly and are willing to help, and we didn't see a bear or a wolf (locals tell you to watch out).
Interesting routes? There is the Kolyma and the ... Kolyma.

September:
-advantage: the trillions of mozzies disappeared (June - August = mosquito festival),
-disadvantage: it started snowing (second half of September) and the Kolyma became extremely slippery.

Yes you will fall of in Mongolia and on the Kolyma, but you do not go there for the perfect asphalt?

See also our blog: Christine & Filiep on a trip. with shipping info if you need.

Well its nice to meet people with there glass halve full,,,,, if you no what I mean,,,some useful info on you site thank you

As I mentioned earlier, the Kolyma Highway (Federal Road) is fine. Its a 3-4 day, 100-120 km/h high speed blast on good graded gravel roads. And as I said earlier, its fine for your bike choice.

Thats not what the Old Summer Road is tho. Thus my efforts to differentiate for you the Federal Road and the Old Summer Road, which werent helped by the Belgian post above.

I mentioned the unlikelihood of getting your 1150 along the Old Summer Road, (especially solo) because you specifically mentioned the Old Summer Road, which the Belgians are not referring to, because they didn't even go there.

There are probably at least 30-40 people here on this forum that have been to the Kolyma and Magadan. Most of those on a motorcycle (thus with info more specific to the OP), not a car.

Actually you took the least interesting route (Federal Kolyma Highway route) between Yakutsk and Magadan. The Old Summer Road and Tenkinskaya Trassa are more scenic and interesting routes. Side trips to the Gulags Butygychag or Dneprovski are also very interesting from a route perspective and from a cultural history perspective. A challenging track to Jack London Lake takes in exceptionally beautiful nature and scenery. There is far more to the area than just the Kolyma Highway. If you know a bit more about the area other than just driving down the main highway in a car, once, you might know that.

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Having done some time crawling out from under bikes in the snot and usualy managing to jump ship and avoid getting squashed,the idea of a 250 kg or worse bike is completly crackers..
Was chatting to a couple in a 2cv couple of months back in France,they had seen a fair few injuries whilst in North Africa involving oversize adventure bikes breaking legs etc in fairly minor offs..
If anyone needs any convincing try picking up a 100 kg bike that's got about 60kg of that red,sticky,clay stuff all over,after you've been off about 5 times already and the wheels will almost no longer go around,then try and find the energy to get up on the pegs and get the thing going faster enough to clear some of the crap off the thing..
The prospect of this with any sort of luggage attached to bike doesn't even bear thinking about..

Hi Colebatch,

I have read your web site before leaving and it inspired me!
I found your web site some years ago, via the "askyakutia" web site from Bolot.

I have seen in Mongolia bikes ranging from Yamaha 250cc (frail little French guy) to BMW 1200 (bulky Polish guy). I have seen a KTM 990 Adventure in Iceland. The latter guy could pick up his bike 3 to 4 times in a day. The 5th time he needed help. I suppose everyone has his limits? Personally I would prefer also a lighter bike, but you ride what is most appropriate for yourselves?
On the Kolyma, there were no more bikes around, probably due to the season of the year.

Saying that the Kolyma is a 100 - 120 km/h blast is not correct.
Parts of the Kolyma were recently graded (90 km/h), parts were graded some months earlier (40 km/h) and parts were very bad (20 km/h).
The weather is one of the main factors dictating the road condition and therefore parts that were graded recently can deteriorate rapidly (loaded trucks). On two occasions rivers eroded half the width of the road.

It is correct: we did not do the Old Summer Road. We were late (snow) and alone (no second car). But as I understand, the OSR is a part of the original Road of Bones. The scenery is overwhelming on the Kolyma and I suppose also on the OSR, or road to the polar circle...

The main message: live your dreams.

Regards,
Filiep

I can only agree.. I know first hand that riding an R1200GS offroad is hard labour. I did it, and do it, in belgium, without luggage. I manage to do some 150 km per day.. Then i am exhausted. I agree i don't have tons of offroad experience, but all that I know agree that any serious offroading is hard or even impossible on this heavy bike.

But if someone thinks otherwise, fine by me, but you will not see me tackling the track with my GS.

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Your probably the best person to explain the joys of riding 250 kg in that stuff then I would think..I don't think I would entertain it unless I was about 8 foot tall and 18 stone or maybe if the bike wasn't mine and it was possible to utilise this cruise control type device some have fitted....stand next to the bike with clutch in,set cruise control for about 70mph and let the bike go by itself with no rider to get across the tricky bits?....not sure if thats actualy possible or if those clever Germans put a sensor in the seat that disables cruise control if no rider is fitted...so can't do this type of behaviour..hhmm..

I was hopping this thread was for people that had something sensible to say,
If you what I'll start another for jokes