The Project

Our mission is to map and ride twenty thousand kilometers from Helsinki to Mongolia, around Lake Baikal and back again through Siberia.

We ride light and fast. No support vehicle, no film crew, no mechanics, no tarmac. Two light enduro bikes and two riders with an insatiable lust for adventure. Thousands of kilometers of dirt and gravel, on some of the toughest terrain there is.

We start from Helsinki at the end of June and plan to be back in sixty days. The date of return is not set in stone as there are no rigid plans on rides like these. It will take as long as it takes, and end where it ends. Other than that, there are no certainties.

 

The Challenge

The obvious challenge is keeping riders and bikes fit to perform in demanding terrain for two months. That is fairly trivial. Proper fitness, technical enduro skills and correct nutrition keep riders going. Bikes are kept alive by frequent maintenance with a good set of tools and spare parts.

The real challenge will be mental stress. The team needs to remain functional despite back to back days of tough riding in sometimes hostile conditions. Being wet, cold and miserable for days from river crossings and rain. Fatigue and bad sleep. The challenge is to cope with it, and be able to enjoy it all over again the the next morning. For sixty days.

We will mostly camp outside, so wild bears will be a very real threat to prepare for in Ural and Siberia. The Mongolian equivalent would be running into a sand storm in Mongolia.

 

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The Route

The long stretch through Europe and Asia is ridden several times annually. Mostly on heavy bikes, on the best roads available. Only a handful of riders have ever covered the distance on dirt tracks.

The BAM Road, a section of our route, has been dubbed “The ultimate test of man and machine”. However, all over Russia conditions are similar, if venturing off the main veins of transit. Smaller roads and trails have fallen into decay from exposure and lack of maintenance.

The vast body of Mother Russia is crisscrossed with rivers. Many of the bridges are long gone, if there ever were any. The mountainous trails of Ural, Altai and Siberia require navigating high mountain passes on small or nonexistent trails and crossing raging mountain rivers. Mongolia treats us with days on end of desert riding. If it rains, the rivers in the valleys become flooded and riding turns into a waiting game.

 

The Equipment 

We ride KTM 690 Enduro R K13 single cylinder, enduro bikes. They are be severely modified to cope with our ride. Main upgrades to the stock bike include a 300 mm rally suspension, three extra fuel tanks for 500 km operating range, protection for electrical system, radiator and engine, luggage racks with soft luggage, custom navigation system, racing exhaust and a million little tweaks and improvements.

Our route is split into four roughly 5000 km sections, due to bike service and tyre change intervals.

In addition to the rider, the bike is designed to carry all personal riding and camping equipment. All group equipment for maintenance, cooking, first aid, photography and communications will be distributed evenly among the bikes.