You can be partly reassured
by the fact there’s three days
of rolling training
A note from The Adventurists
on saving the world
“Adventurists’ teams have raised millions for
charity and by supporting Cool Earth, you’ll be
saving the world one rainforest at a time. Not
because we’re tree hugging sandal weavers,
but because the world would be shit without
rain forests.”ADV RIDE I LAKE BAIKAL, RUSSIA
Ural crazy
These days Ural is owned by an American
company and makes excellent bikes with
modern el ctrics and EFI. Thankfully, that was
not alway the case and, scattered across the
former Soviet empire lie scores of old-school
ones. Built like a tank, slightly rusty and often
unreliable, they are the perfect Siberian
adventuring machine for facing over 2000km
of frozen rivers, lakes and roads at -20deg.
In 1939, the Russian army thought it was
high time they had some motorbikes. Ever the
masters of efficiency they nicked one from
the Germans, a BMW R71, pulled it apart,
copied it (badly) and slapped a Ural badge on
it. Thus was born one of the world’s coolest
motorised vehicles.
Right up until the 2000s, the design
remained pretty much unchanged. It is these
old engineering marvels that The
Adventurists have carefully selected to make
sure completing the Ice Run is quite hard.Before the start, you get three days of trainingShoot us all now, pleaseThe lake stretches more than 12,000 square milesarse crack, meaning the route across
the lake certainly won’t be in a
straight line.
While the wind can polish the ice
smooth and flat like a mirror, in more
sheltered areas it can resemble a
freshly ploughed field, with great
tombstones of ice to navigate around. If
the winter is mild there will be surface
water and cracks to pick a path
through and sometimes jump over.
If this sounds like your cup of tea,
but you’re a little concerned about the
fact you’ve not ridden a bike across a
giant frozen lake, you can be partly
reassured by the fact there’s three
days of rolling training and
mechanical briefings on the lake, so
you get to know the basics of how to
ride and fix a Ural motorcycle in
minus 20deg., how to camp in the
cold and how to pull someone out of
the ice. If something does go
drastically wrong, The Adventurists
invisible backup crew is only a call
away with their team of bike and
adventure experts on hand.Got something to say about this yarn?
[email protected]
More images and info at adbmag.com.auThe Ozero Baikal is the oldest
and deepest lake in the world
182 | JANUARY 2018 http://www.adbmag.com.au