Sibirsky Extreme Project DVD

Join prolific adventure motorcyclist and Siberia aficionado Walter Colebatch and his friends on a ride of discovery into Central Asia and the darkest depths of Siberia.

Sibirsky Extreme was the journey that pioneered new routes across Siberia, including the legendary BAM Road.

This journey also features the Tuva Track, Vilyuisky Trakt and the Road of Bones.

Full of interactions with locals, as well as stunning scenery. If you ever dreamt of exploring Siberia on two wheels, this is the DVD for you!

Enjoy the main feature and then feast on the fantastic extras that really give you a feel for life on the road (and off it) in some of the most remote parts of the World

Main Feature: 31min

Walter’s Extras (people, places, lots of river crossings, the ups, the downs and the girls!): 73min

NTSC Version For North American customers & PAL for Europe & the rest of the world

Click here to Buy PAL version or click here to but the NTSC version

I decided to leave Lindsay and Delilah to do their own thing today as I’m sure they wanted to plan the next leg of the route, blog a little, have some rest etc. I had a chat with my friend Greg who is currently playing doctor to his girlfriend who has just come out of hospital after a gall bladder operation.

We met at the “shed”. Not in the British sense of a wooden structure at the end of a garden but a workshop full of manly, sharp and dangerous tools . Without burdening him too much I needed some of his skills in order to bash a few things into place after yesterdays spill. He also kindly made my muffler a bit more legal after initially making it sound very illegal LOL

With some flat black paint he also restored the bike back to it’s stealthy origins. So I have a lot to thank Greg for. He’s a good guy.

After some bashing, spraying and welding we got down to the important stuff of helping Lindsay and Delilah decide on where would be a good next stop before nightfall. Naturally all this planning was done on the saddle of an original XT500.

I rode with them out of town and had intended to ride with them to the lakes but my recent ailments and the increasingly persistent rain were telling me to save it for another day and head home. So with a wave and a thumbs up I bid farewell to these intrepid adventurers as they traversed Austria en route to Italy and ultimately Africa.

Tomorrow or should I say today some friends of mine arrive from the Czech Republic. They are a 3 strong team but only two of them have set off in advance of the third who is sorting out visas back in the UK.

They are part of the 2010 London to Cape Town team. Riding two F800GS’s and one F650GS the length of Europe and Africa. When I heard they were in Berlin and in no real hurry to reach the port in Italy I thought it would be good to arrange a meeting. Berlin and Prague are almost exactly due North of my current location, so plans were made at the beginning of the week for a rendezvous.

They took this photo in Český Krumlov which is a very beautiful Bohemian town just a few clicks north of the Czech/Austrian border.

Český Krumlov is a UNESCO world heritage site and really worth a visit if you are in the area.

The last time I met Lindsay,  Delilah and Andre was back in April when I had to give my 800 back. Back then I got to see the plans for their trip which were inspiring. They are also doing the trip in aid of charity. Links to follow after the jump.

The planned route through Africa

doppelgänger’s

When in London they laid on a fantastic South African Brai (BBQ)

These are good guys.

You can follow them on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/uk2za

Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/uk2za

Blog: http://uk2za2010.blogspot.com

I’ll post some new photos tomorrow. Not sure of the plans as yet if I will join them for a ride or they will stay put. They only have an hours ride tomorrow which is not enough in anyones book.

It's tough being an adventure motorcyclist

Sibirsky Extreme 2010 is underway. I have known for some time that it was going ahead in July when I met Walter in the UK last month at the Horizons Unlimited event. His bike had been upgraded in many areas from his original suppliers.

It's tough being an adventure motorcyclist

Who is corrupting whom?

I had also learned that Sherri Jo Wilkins would be joining Walter on the road West from Magadan to Yakutsk on her KTM.

Sherri Jo Wilkins enjoying Russian hospitality

Ian at Gatley signs was producing T-shirts and stickers while I gave the Sibirsky Extreme website a spring clean and setup a Facebook fan group last week.

At the same time I am receiving text messages from Simon Johnston in Mongolia with content to update the blog. Simon’s main objective was Mongolia and perhaps lake Baikal. While he is the captain of his own destiny it could make for a nice meeting if both the Sibirsky Extreme project 2010 and awayfromhere.org could meet Bolot Bochkarev in Yakutsk. For those that do not know Bolot is a journalist and the main man when it comes to networking with adventurer’s of all kinds passing through Siberia.

I wish them all well and look forward to the coming weeks adventures.

As we trip into the wee small hours of the morning I remembered that I should log two highlights that happened to me yesterday. The first being the arrival of Austin Vince & Lois Pryce’s DVD.

As the embryonic components of a hack are beginning to take shape in a secret Austrian garage I have to say this is a very welcome and timely arrival. I saw Austin last week and he gave me the jewel case of the DVD as the actual DVD’s had not arrived from the guy putting them together. Myself and others wrote our addresses out on sticky labels and so as of today I was reunited with my label and a shiny shiny new adventure DVD.

The second momentous event was that of Si Johnston calling me on Skype from Volgograd. I was beginning to wonder if he would ever make it to Russia as the Ukrainian cops were bleeding him dry. I wondered if it had put him off the Ukraine but what at the beginning was a negative had turned into a positive namely because of the generosity and friendliness of the people he had met.

www.awayfromhere.org

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Si Johnston yesterday. He had embarked from Northern Ireland early on in the day, Coleraine to be exact with the today’s destination being Cambridge but ultimately he is headed for Mongolia. That’s quite a ride by anybody’s standards and he had a deadline to meet. The start of the England vs USA World Cup match at 19:30.

I met him at the Windmill pub just off the M6 near Knutsford. A suitable venue I felt considering its geographic position and the fact it is where most GS riders meet once a month. He made some amazing progress but he was late for Cambridge before he even set off. I wanted to escort him on a scenic route through the Peak District but that had to be curtailed due to the time constraints. My thinking was that if we did some of the route he could then cut across to the M1 and then onwards to Cambridge.

After a quick fuel stop we were off. We took the A537 from Knutsford to the Cat & Fiddle pub and up the renowned twisty road that takes on its name. Normally associated with speeding, sports bikes ploughing the fields and putting holes in dry stone walls it is also a very pleasant and scenic ride on a blue sky day which it was today.

We carried on down into Buxton and from there took the A515 Ashbourne road. It’s a fast Roman road with great views of the Derbyshire countryside. By this time it was 6pm and Si had to be in Cambridge for 19:30. I knew he had to blast off so I filmed him jet off near Eaton & Alsop. (video to follow)

View Larger Map

I decided to take the scenic route through Biggin, Longor, Hartington Nether Quarter (sounds rude), Hartington Middle Quarter, Earl Sterndale, Crowdicote, Longnor and then home.

www.awayfromhere.org

It is with great sadness that I have to hand back my F800GS. The recession has bitten me hard and I can’t afford the bike anymore.

I could only afford such an expensive bike on finance and I can be glad I had two great years on it seeing places and meeting people others only dream of. For that I am grateful and privileged but 6 months out of work has meant that the time has come to part company with my bike.

BMW could not help despite the promotional work I have done for them and so I now have no options left.

The timing could have been better. Handing a bike back as you enter winter time would be easier to swallow but handing it back as we approach summer is particularly hard.

With luck and a fair wind I will emerge on the other side, stronger, happier and with a new bike.

It may not be a BMW but it will hopefully inspire the same spirit of adventure.

As the tag-line says on the website. The adventure begins in your head.

Jonathan

Late last year I took some time out to write a full review on the F800GS for Visor Down magazine. Thanks to Mark Godsland in the UK he made me aware that the article had been published along with all the feedback from my many friends and fellow 800 riders in the UK and beyond. He sent a copy out to me which I’ve been informed will cost me a cup of tea and a pastry.

I have ridden the F800GS over 32,000 miles and it is better than ever. I am full of praise for the 800. It is my desire to keep this bike as long as possible.

It always puts a smile on my face whether it is raining, snowing or beating down with blazing sunshine. It is a commuter, a continent buster and a trail warrior all rolled into one.

After a few minor niggles were ironed out at the beginning which is to be expected of any new machine I can say I have had no problems with the bike at all.

With regular care and servicing this bike will look after you in heaps.

But remember the black and yellow ones will always be faster

Fixing a bent footpeg – Attempt 1 from everywherevirtually on Vimeo.

They’d probably not be as good as these…

So the videos are fine but everything looks good in the factory. I can tell you that I have had over 5 heavy offs whilst riding the bike off road and in the snow. It has gone down hard and the bars only sustained cosmetic damage. In fact the rear footpeg hanger bent before the crash bars did. In my view these are the best crash bars in the world.

oh yeah… and now for the weaker foot peg hanger…