Russia
Back in 2008 three of us left London and headed to Russia. We’d spent nearly three years planning the trip and after a delay as Patrick broke his leg we finally left the UK in September of that year.
The trip was filled with drama from the start. From an aborted attempt to get sponsorship through to the amazing amount of money and awareness we raised for Everyman – the male cancer charity. We were interviewed every few days of the trip by BBC Five Live – all of those interviews can be found in the posts below – along with a whole bunch of videos we shot reviewing the gear we planned to take.
The original plan was to hit Moscow and then head out of Russia via the Ukraine. In the end we suffered a massive time and money drain (bikes that broke down) on the way to St. Petersburg that left us short of cash and our confidence dented to the point that we decided that we’d made it to Russia and now was the sensible time to turn around.
It was an amazing introduction to touring the world on motorbikes. A journey that both dented and strengthened our friendships and something that the three of us will never forget.
The posts below serve as a small window on nearly three years of our lives dedicated to organising this amazing trip. Over planning? Us? Never. You can also read these posts, along with additional material over at the original blog – journeytorussia.co.uk
What’s this all about then?
Journey To Russia is explained simply; 3 Blokes, 3 Bikes, 3 Weeks. The journey starts in September 2007, when Matt, Patrick and Stace leave the weekly londonbikers.com meet for the far flung cities of St Petersburg and Moscow. The journey will cover several thousand miles in a very short period, crossing the familar western Europe … Continue reading »
Monday, January 8, 2007
Route finalised
With the New Year comes new determination from the Journey To Russia team – the final route has been finalised and the ferries are being booked. You can see the final route here.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
We need your help
So now we’ve managed to complete our basic route, we need your help. Do you live on or near our stops? Do you have the latest information on our border crossings? Do you have any practical advise on how we can keep our bikes running perfectly over 5000 miles? We’d love to hear from you, … Continue reading »
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Everyman – Funding research to cross out male cancer
When we first started talking about doing this journey we always knew that we wanted to do something – however small – to highlight a charity very close to our hearts – that charity is Everyman. Everyman fund research to help cross out male cancer, they also spend a lot of time educating people about … Continue reading »
Thursday, March 8, 2007
First Training Run
It’s coming up fast – our first training run. We’re heading down to Dartmoor to try our hand at ‘long distance‘ riding with rough camping. The aim this time is to see what the dynamic between the three of us is like. We’ve ridden with each other before but not actually all three of us … Continue reading »
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Tracking the route
I’ve been playing with a few methods of tracking our route and displaying it on the site whilst we’re on our trip. Couple of reasons for doing this, but mainly it’s there to show our progress, and if anything goes wrong, where we were at the last upload. I’m working on a way of pulling … Continue reading »
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Ready for the weekend
The lists are made, we’ve agreed who’s carrying what, and we’ve looked at the weather forecast. We’re ready for the weekend. We’ve deliberatly chosen to do this long run on a weekend when we have to finish work on the Friday, leave for the weekend and then go back to work on the Monday – … Continue reading »
Monday, March 26, 2007
Dartmoor or bust
As dawn spread over the Little Chef on the A3 Southbound just beyond the M25 three bikes were parked. Laden down with kit to make Charlie and Ewan gulp… Well that was the plan. However in reality I’m amazed we THE JTR team made the trip at all. Firstly a sudden stomach bug laid Matthew … Continue reading »
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
To Dartmoor, and back
As I sit here in my plush M&S dressing gown, red wine in one hand, laptop in the other and Northanger Abbey on the TV, I’m hardly the picture of a motorbike adventurer; facing the world with only 600cc and a toothbrush. Friday night saw me gripping the sides of my toilet in horror as … Continue reading »
Friday, March 30, 2007
GPS Trace for Training Run
Here’s the GPS trace from last weekends run – I’ve not managed to get the data working on an embedded map yet, but I’m getting there so keep an eye open. Click on the image to see the large version.