These are the days that must happen to you
Walt Whitman - Song of the Open Road
The next day I didn't manage to get on the road until the early afternoon – Wlad had insisted on cooking a very filling lunch and I was still tired from all the riding since Ufa and not planning a very long day. After about 400km I decided to stop for the night and set up camp some distance off the road – one of the great things about riding in Russia is that is possible to camp nearly anywhere. In most places it is very easy to find secluded spots to camp that are easily accessible from the main roads.
I awoke early and continued east to Tulun where I had a decision to make – whether to continue east 600km to Irkutsk and then on to the south Baikal region or turn to north towards Bratsk and then make my way east to Severobaikalsk and north Baikal and from there make my way south. Tony, an English rider living in Moscow had recommended a new dirt road to me. As recently as several years ago it was impossible to drive between north and south Baikal. The new road linked the two regions together between the small towns of Ulkan and Zhigalvo, a distance of 300km with no fuel or even permanent settlements. Tony had added the caveat that the road was in good condition, “depending on the rain,” - I should have given this more thought!!
Here are maps showing the route from Tulun-Bratsk-Ust Kut-Magistrali-Severobaiklask- back west to Ulkan, then south to Zhigalvo and Olkhan Island:
View Tulun-Ust Kut in a larger map
View Ust Kut to Olkhan in a larger map
I decided to turn north and headed towards Bratsk. From Bratsk the next real town was Ust Kut, a distance of 400km. I had no information about this road – and mistakenly thought I could I cover the 400km before dark. I had assumed the road would be decent, Ust Kut is a town of nearly 70,000 people and I imagined it would be well connected by road. As I've learned it is dangerous to assume anything about Russian roads!! The 400km was nearly entirely dirt – in good condition in some places, awful in others with extensive potholes and corrugations.
In the future when I write potholes it doesn't mean that the road has a pothole here and there, it means the road is potholes. In places the roads are just a series of holes – they are unavoidable and beat the hell out of the bike and rider. In any event it was much slower going than I expected and would become even slower! After stopping at a cafe for dinner I noticed a strange squeaking noise coming from the rear of the bike. I pulled over and in the fading light inspected the bike – nothing was immediately apparent – I noticed small hairline cracks in the paint near the top rear shock mounts and thought this could be the cause. I was still 120km away from Ust Kut, but decided to ride very slowly until I could inspect the bike more closely. It was obvious that I wouldn't make it to Ust Kut before dark, and I began to look for a camping spot. Stupidly I passed up two good spots while it was still light thinking it would be easy to find another, it wasn't. The road was following the Lena river, on my right, and on the left was the BAM railroad. In many places it was too steep between the road and the river to camp, I was also reluctant to camp too far from any civilization because I don't like the thought of bears as neighbors! So I continued on very slowly in the dark and fog, it would prove good practice for the following night!
Eventually around 10:30 I found a suitable place for camping and unloaded the bike and inspected it with my headlight. The cause of the noise was immediately visible – the rear subframe had completely broken on both sides! This part of the frame basically supports all the weight in the rear – the passenger, any luggage, etc. The weight of my luggage and extra fuel combined with the pounding the bike has taken on the roads must have been too much for it.
This was worse than I had expected, but there was nothing I could do about it so I set up camp and had an excellent night's sleep. Woke up in the morning to find I was much closer to Ust Kut than expected, it was only 30km away so I decided to jettison the fuel in the rear tank to ease the load on the bike and slowly made my way into town.
The Lena River at dawn:
In Ust Kut I parked in the main square to collect my thoughts and think of what to do – almost immediately a group of men took interest in the bike, and with much pointing and gesticulating I explained that I needed a mechanic. One of them got in his car and led me to a car service center and explained the problem to the mechanic. The mechanic immediately set to work taking apart the rear of the bike and improvising a fix. He cut some solid steel bar to fit inside the broken hollow subframe bars and then welded the broken sections together. He also welded the hairline cracks I had noticed around the suspension. Everyone at the shop was very friendly and very surprised to see a motorcycle from New York! They only charged me 300 rubles ($10) for almost two hours of excellent work and I was on my way by the early afternoon.
I thought about trading the Scrambler for something more suitable:
Once again it was raining, it was cold as well – low 50s. There was no choice but to ride, fortunately the 150km from Ust Kut to Magistrali was a good dirt road – much better than yesterday's road from Bratsk.
The road passed through rugged terrain, paralleling the BAM railroad:
I reached Magistrali around 5 in the afternoon and had to decide whether to continue riding or stop for the night. It was 180km from Magistrali to Severobaikalsk and I assumed I could make it before dark easily if there road continued on in a similar condition. While thinking it over during a break in a cafe a drunk accosted me and asked where I was going. When I explained he warned me that it was dangerous to go this late and that I should spend the night in Magistrali. I should have listened to him, but he was starting to really annoy me and I figured I knew better so I decided to press on.
Magistrali was a vaguely depressing place:
Friendly kid, thoroughly drenched me, and wise drunk guy:
Within 30 minutes of leaving Magistrali the first of my many problems that night happened. I missed a road sign and decided to turn around to check it out – while doing so I managed to drop the bike in the wet gravel on a hill and snapped off the left foot peg. I was able to replace it with the passenger peg, while doing so I met some friendly police who wanted to take a photo with me, several of them were more or less inebriated, including the guy taking the photo so it is out of focus:
After this delay I continued on – the road, however, was in much worse condition than I had experienced earlier in the day. The surface was constantly changing with many long stretches of potholes and it was still raining making the road very muddy in places. While taking a short break I saw that my side bags had nearly fallen off the bike – the bags are mostly held on to the bike by two wide straps that go over the seat and connect the two bags. One of these had broken and there was nothing keeping the bags in place really. All the other smaller retaining straps had broken earlier! I was able to jerry rig a fix with some extra bungy cords, but this took more precious time and it was quickly becoming dark and even colder.
I decided there was no choice but to continue on. It was in the upper 40s and I was cold, wet, and in no mood to camp this far from civilization - this road was the most remote I had yet been on. The forest pressed in on both sides of the road, in the 180km between Magistrali and Severobaikalsk there are no towns or villages and I only saw two cars the entire distance (no doubt in part because I was the only one stupid enough to be out at night in this weather!).
The road was getting worse and worse because of the rain and it was no joke to ride in the mud at night with a bike weighing over 500lbs. At one point the road was flooded and there was no way around it - I was forced to ride through over 18 inches of fast moving water – adding wet feet to the list of miseries. In these conditions I had no choice but to ride very slowly and I would soon be riding even slower.
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