Conclusion Siberia 2016 and BAM-Road

I can understand why the BAM is upraised to an ultimate adventure even if i don’t share that opinion. 80% are completely easy to ride for an experienced rider and a bike below 200kg. The 10% percent difficult conditions are mostly a result of stupid decisions and the 10% risky part results from use of the railroad bridges, railways and crossing of the railways. Depending on the weather and waterlevels you will be forced to extend especially this last part. Thats why it makes more sense to drive in opposite direction than we did. We had high waterlevels and were forced to stick to the railway from Olekma to Lopcha. What means that? You drive on the unused second railbed on more or less good gravel. You have to use every railroadbridge and there are a lot of them. Nearly any switchpoint you have to cross the rails. To me this part seems to be horrible dangerous if you are alone please don’t try. If you use two boards it’s much easier don’t try to be a hero and ride over them without. Biggest Problem is you never know when the train is coming. Best advice, switch of the engines and listen. You will hear it long before you see it. The trains drive slowly near the bridges but they are still faster than you can go. Watch the signals. Red means train in front of you green from behind and I guess orange means no train. The Railroad workers walk on the rails the whole day. It’s not as insane as it sounds. Doing all that with a motorcycle is tough but still easy compared to cars. First time I have to take of my hat to the car drivers. For them this part is much more dangerous. If a Railroadworkers charges you money for crossing the bridge keep in mind that he risks his job that brings him 200€ a month.

The risk you have do deal with is not worth what you get for it. The Landscape on the BAM is definitely beautiful but most of the time you have forrest to your left and right and you will not see it. If you like photography like I you should go somewhere else. Anytime you find a nice spot, hordes of mosquitos will force you on your bike and drive ahead. Near Nowaja Tschara is a famous dessert we didn’t try to get there because we expected that we will not be able to cross the river on the way. From the whole trip I recommend the trail between Lake Gussinoje and Babuschkin. Still a crazy amount of mosquitos but a good mixture of more or less challenging parts and as you can see more potential for nice pictures. If you are alone the risk on that trail is much higher then on the BAM we haven’t seen anybody there.

The best thing is definitly the Hospitality of the Russians, and especially on the BAM it was amazing. I never experienced that before and I’m very thankful to Kai that he slowed me down to enjoy it. For me definitely the only reason to ride the BAM.