Thursday, 1 August 2019

I rode from Mongolia to Switzerland on a 30 year old Honda


A few years back I bought a shitty old 150cc Honda in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and rode it across the country and into Siberia, where I got a lift to Moscow and then rode the bike onwards to Switzerland.The decision to buy the bike was a total impulse. I'd never ridden a bike off-road before. I was four months into travelling from Australia to Switzerland without flying and had to decide between the bike and the Trans-Siberian train. I bought the bike, and even though it was shit and a tough learning curve I'm glad I did.​I called it Noddy.It broke down on the first day out of Ulaanbaatar, in the middle of nowhere, and my tent was sniffed by wolves overnight before I was rescued by a nice guy who was able to fix it. It broke down just about every day after that as well. I eventually ended up having to duct tape the back brake lever into place to make it home.Riding alone was also challenging. At one point the bike fell on me and I was stuck under it for a while until I could get my leg free. It was also lonely at times.Other than learning to ride a bike off-road, I also stayed with nomadic reindeer herders, Russian scientists, confronted thieves, encountered more wolves, met plenty of Russian mechanics, paid a bribe to get into Europe, and a whole lot more more. Earlier in the trip I'd been held up at gunpoint so all in all it was quite a ride.Some more images of Mongolia-Europe on the bike are available here - https://imgur.com/a/Gkbe91aI also just published a short memoir of the whole trip. You can get an e-book or paperback here - https://books2read.com/overlandI'll be around for a few hours to answer questions if you guys are interested. via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/ckxl9m/i_rode_from_mongolia_to_switzerland_on_a_30_year/?utm_source=ifttt

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