2011 Already !!!

Well, I made it through another Christmas and New Year and now it is hitting home that there is less than three months before the off.

Since the NEC bike show at the end of November it has been busy, busy, busy. We have (at last) found a shipper to get the bikes into Russia from the United States but it means that there will be no riding in Japan. The costs of shipping from the US into Japan and then onto Russia were astronomical and it would mean additional, very expensive, paperwork in the form of a carnet which, for the uninitiated, can best be described as a passport for the bike. As it stands at the moment we have no other country on our list that needs a carnet.

It is also looking a little “iffy” for our journey through the “Stans” as there is currently unrest in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan but the trip is still possible.

I have been in contact with Dave Grist at H C Travel and firmed up our arrangements for the first leg of the journey. We are dropping our bikes off (fully cleaned as the US authorities will not allow dirty machines into the country) in Southampton on 1st April for shipping by boat on 2nd April. We will fly out from Heathrow on 2nd April to New York where we will stay for a couple of days then get a hire car to meander down to Baltimore so that we arrive on 14th April ready to collect our bikes on 15th April.

We have a month and a half to tour the States and Canada which should have us arriving in Seattle on 28th May ready to have our bikes shipped to Vladivostok – this should take around 2 to 3 weeks during which time we will tour Japan in a hire car then get a ferry as foot passengers to Vladivostok to arrive in time to clear our bikes through the port. Then it’s westwards – homeward bound. The shippers in Seattle have been fantastic. We are using a company called Radiant Logistics and Bob, ou contact, is superfast at responding and dealing with our queries. We are ordering a 20ft container which is going to cost us around six thousand US dollars for both bikes but we will have plenty of spare room so we may be able to lay off some of the cost by taking other cargo.

In the meantime……… we are busy preparing our bikes. We have just ordered replacement suspension for each bike in the form of Ohlins shocks and springs at a cost of around £1500 for each of the two bikes and Mark’s aluminium panniers have arrived from Germany which we will fit to his bike next weekend. I have also bought two 3 litre fuel tanks and fixing brackets which will sit (uncomfortably) on the panniers behind my legs but, together with my rear mounted fuel bottles, will give me an additional 90 to 100 miles of travel.

I have also been speaking to Motorcycleexpress.com in New York to arrange our bike insurance in the States so that is another problem solved and out of the way.
Our last hurdle and the one which we will be sorting out this week is obtaining our visas. We have unearthed all sorts of logistical problems so we will concentrate on the Russian visa first of all because if all else fails we can stay in Russia until we get to Ukraine which will give us our entry point into Europe by way of Poland.
Lots to be getting on with…………………………………