The Honda Owners Club

8208 miles, 39 days, and two major accidents, but got to UlaanBaator and raised £2000 for charity. For those that don't know, I took part in this year's Mongol Rally. 200 vehicles of at most 1000cc, almost entirely cars. Myself and my team-mate were the only entrants on 125cc bikes (125cc being the imposed maximum cc for a bike). The only other bike I know of that tried this rally in the past went via Russian surfaced roads. I fancied showing that you don't need a 1200GS and a movie star to explore the world (Ewan and Charlie from the Long Way Round, and we took their route!)

Many thanks for the warm reception last Summer at the Oxford HOC meet. I said that I'd reply back with how I did, so here's a link to some pictures:

http://www.pzorb.com/gallery/view_album ... m03&page=1

Quick summary:
First day left at 3pm, rode for 22 hours straight to get to the middle of Germany. Exhaust gasket blew, so made a new one out of a drinks can. Next evening arrived in Prague at 11pm, for Rally party and Vodka shots.


Progressed through to Kiev, got lost a few times as the motorway was diverted, and my team-mate was pulled over my fake police who tried to mug him. First 2500 mile service was due.


Entered Russia and immediately ran into the Kursk Biker Gang, who put us up for the night and enjoyed true Russian Hospitality (aka lots of Vodka). Drove and drove, past the Aral Sea (ships in the sand), into western Kazakhstan.


Roads disappeared and turned to very deep sand for 5 days. Had first crash at 40mph when a solid pack of sand turned to very soft unexpectedly; rider was fine, front-end very un-straight. Rode it at a funny angle until I fixed it later that evening before setting up camp.


Entered Uzbekistan, fell asleep on the bike at night a few times. Decided to change our rate of progress to include more sleep after waking up to the back of a bus and busy junction at 55mph (luckily a gap between the bus gave me stopping distance). Got interviewed in a petrol station by chance and ended up on Good Morning Uzbekistan, and from then on had people beeping and waving to us throughout the country. Same thing happened in Kazakhstan too



Back into Kazakhstan to go north, stopped in Almaty for a few days to party and be normal. Bike had second 5000 mile service. Pre-arranged sand tyres did not show up, therefore only one set of road tyres for the entire trip (not great for deserts / gravel / mud / riverbeds!).


Continued up back into Russia, towards Barnaul. Crossed the Altai mountain range, and was amazed at the beauty. Makes the Alps look like Milton Keynes.


Bike so far going just fine.

Through Russia, a bird flew off the side of the road into my spokes. If you've ever wondered, feathers go everywhere and the 'bits' hit your legs.

Entered Mongolia (there's a picture of the border where the Russian tarmac ends and Mongolian nothing begins). People who said that Mongolia has no roads were not kidding. It's a 1000m offroad course to the capital city.




Hit very deep patch of gravel at 55mph, bike crashed on one side then flipped over with me still on it and ended up ontop of me. My teammate was upfront and didn't see (nor do mobile phones work) so had to sort it by myself - having a bike you can move yourself probably saved my life. Got out the toolkit and completely stripped the rear of the bike to fix a puncture and pull gravel out of places. In sand, at midday, in a desert, it's very hard to keep the inner-tube and grease points sand free so took some doing. Lost both wingmirrors, the headlamp, the indicators, the electrics and broke off the chain guard and the pannier mounting points. Had to bump start from then on.


Then faced a very deep river crossing, so we loaded up into a passing lorry. On the other side my bike fell off the back, and cracked both the frame around the engine as well as the tubing that keeps the back of the bike attached.



Now the bike was really only held together with 30% frame, it flexed somewhat especially when standing up. So much so that the back flapped around over the dunes and bumps, and wore a hole through the top of the bike. Notice the bend above the tax disk; not meant to be that bent. Showing cracks, and essentially the only strength on the left side of the bike apart from the plastic panels.


As I was only 400m away from the finish, I didn't want to give in and trash the bike. I dumped my panniers, emergency food, clothing, lock, extra petrol on the calculation that there should be enough petrol en route (8 litres goes 160 miles) and enough food and water.


Typically the map we had was wrong and the one tiny part of Mongolia that was meant to be sealed was not, adding an extra day to our trip. As we were out of both food and water that evening, we were very pleased to see thunder clouds and drank the run off from the tents after boiling it.

We did eventually get to UlaanBaator, with only 11 hours before my flight back home was scheduled to leave on Saturday. I left the bike there and it was sold for charity. On Monday I started my new job back in England, for which I was quite tired!





Again, there are plenty more pictures at my photo website:
http://www.pzorb.com/gallery/view_album ... m03&page=1

And for clips from the radio, as well as the planning of the trip, my main journey website at:
http://www.mongolbikers.com/

PS planning another trip, what does Honda have to rival the F650 Dakar?

Well done, don't think I can say much more.

Regards

Chimpy

Well Done sounds like a great experience. Please get the story to Tim Lee our editor so it can go into the magazine for all our members to take in.

What/who did you raise the money for?

British roads will always seem high quality after that lot.

Looks like you guys had a blast even with the odd problem.

and by the looks of things some great pics and no doubt stories to tell so I second dibble get in touch with editor so we can hear more

3 x Cheers

The money went to Christina Noble Children's Foundation and Mercy Corps Mongolia, both local Mongolian charities. The former provides aid for urban street children, and the latter is attempting to inject money into the countryside economy by providing sponsorship for families with children still in education. All good causes.

How should I contact the Editor? Can he be made aware of this thread?

Tim can be emailed editor@hoc.org.uk I will also PM him.

A fantastic effort

Well done

What a fantastic trip. Well done.

Alan

CONGRATULATIONS!! Knew you would do it .... you were so determined. You must come back to the Oxford Branch and tell us all about it one evening. Pop along, lets have a chat and see when you are free. Terrific ! Well done!

Wow!

Fantastic achievement, well done

Hi Cityflyguy

I am Tim the Editor and I would love to run a write up of this in the winter issue.

If there is any chance you can get me some words and pictures by the beginning of December, that would be great; in fact a little bit earlier would be even better

Send them anyway you like, but if you want to be really kind to me, a Word document with the words, with an indication of where the pictures should go, and the pictures (as high defenition as you have) as separate tifs or jpegs would be brilliant.

You can email me on editor@hoc.org.uk or if you would rather send a disk, the address is;

Tim Lee
Golden Wing
Units 1B & 5B
Kemps Quay Industrial Park
Quayside Road
Southampton
SO18 1AD

Thanks

Hi CityFlyGuy...absolutly blooming well done, what an experience.
PLEASE do let us know if your going to do a talk (possible slide show) at the Oxford meet as I for one would LOVE to come along and see it.
All the best and keep us posted x

Hi,

Many thanks for the warm responses. I shall see if my travel-mate can also make the Oxford meet, and then you can get the full picture from two Honda owners (he rode an XLR125)