Impromptu trip to Mongolia

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By chance I'm actually staying in the former Ural factory. It also housed the Ural museum for a while.
The owner was the sales manager for 15 years.
Ural started in Moscow and moved here during the 'Great Patriotic War' in 1941
 
Famous in my own dinnertime!

I'm going to be on TV! My phone rang, would I like to do an interview tomorrow morning..." But we're struggling to find an interpreter"
They ring back, they've found one...its Simon who teaches English at the local school and will happily bunk off for the morning 😀😀😀
We bond straight away and he tells me about his short time in England and life in downtown Irbit.
Annoying bilingual in French and English he could look at the camera, listen to me and spew out the local lingo without pausing for breath.... Makes me want to punch his lights out....!
Not sure if I'm on the cutting room floor at the moment.......
 
Famous in my own dinnertime!

I'm going to be on TV! My phone rang, would I like to do an interview tomorrow morning..." But we're struggling to find an interpreter"
They ring back, they've found one...its Simon who teaches English at the local school and will happily bunk off for the morning 😀😀😀
We bond straight away and he tells me about his short time in England and life in downtown Irbit.
Annoying bilingual in French and English he could look at the camera, listen to me and spew out the local lingo without pausing for breath.... Makes me want to punch his lights out....!
Not sure if I'm on the cutting room floor at the moment.......
 
Enjoying this Glyn .... keep it coming :thumb

We rode through Russia and Mongolia .... strewth, was it really twelve years ago :eek:

The road south, from Ulaan Batar through the Gobi Desert to the Chinese Border was just tracks in the sand ... there was talk of making a tarmac road ...

Great people, wonderfully welcoming :thumb

Enjoy

:beerjug:
 
The roads to the Gobi are indeed quickly becoming sealed. The Chinese have mines there and need sealed roads for their trucks.....
 
Irbit Russia

The Ural museum Russia
 

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Better than landfill!
 

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Good stuff, enjoying this.
I worked on Sakhalin Island for 3 years rotation and tried to buy a Ural to ride home. The locals knew there was oil money around though and the only ones I managed to find were for sale at crazy prices.
 
I've been to that Ural museum in Irbit. :thumb


Is that you on the bike ?
You've got one of my former hairstyles. :beerjug:
 
I've never seen a Chinese vehicle on the road before.
The first one is CHinese made, whilst the 2nd one with the bonnet up is a Ford Transit.....
 

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The Hooligans were very good to us 4 years ago.
We were in Kolpino on the edge of St. Petersburg, without accomodation and failing to find a shipping company who were to ship our bikes to Vladivostok.
One of their members approached us on the street and brought us to a hotel near their clubhouse.
Once settled in, we went over to the clubhouse.
They showed us their bikes etc and asked if we'd like tea in the next room.
Tea!!! The next room had a bar, with vodka shots and beers lined up for us. We stayed a while.
The vice president, a radiographer (or something similar) in the local hospital, took the following morning off to bring us to the shipping company and stayed around for most of the morning to make sure everything went to plan.
Typical of our ongoing experiences with Russian people.
 
I think the crown bearing in the final drive is on the way out.
Disaster!
I'm getting lotsa vibes through the bars and footrests at around 50mph. The breather is leaking oil and there's a little play in the back wheel....
The rear shock I can live with but this is something much more serious.
The bearing is peculiar to this model, and only fitted to BMW's for a few years.
No chance of finding one in Russia. I limp into the nearest big town and hole up in a tourist hotel whilst trying to figure out what to do....
 

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If you don't have good internet and need help from someone in the UK to source a part just say so on here.
 
I spend a few days in town debating with myself what to do for the best.
There's no BMW dealer in town, the nearest is 1000kms away, but I know they won't have the bearing...but might know a man who has?
There's a KTM shop in town 😱 can they find me one and put it in? I'm not too hopeful, I've only seen 4 bikes in 2 days and I think twice it was the same one!
I can gets parts flown in but rumour has it the customs will hold them up.
I call up my old chum Ken Duval and have a chat with him. He's nearly done 1,000 000 Kms on his G/S. He is 10,000 miles away from his home, I'm 5000 miles away from him and he's only 200 miles from my house!
 

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LADA saves BMW!
Ken convinces me that all the bouncing around is letting the oil leak out the top of the breather and that I really should do something about the rear shock and gives me a few ideas
I head off to the local Halfords and end up purchasing 2 suspension bushes from Daniel, off an early LADA ...(the shame) fashion them in the back room of the shop and cable tie them on
It works! I have plans for a Mark ll version.... Hence the bicycle tyres in the next shot...
I love bodges when they're good ones!
 

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The bike turns 170,000 miles today and celebrated its 37th birthday last month...is all all original? As original as Triggers broom...
 

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