I was the guest of Nurbek and his gang of adventurous Kazakhs. These guys were looking after me while in Almaty, chauffeuring me around, taking me out to lunch and dinner etc. The boys aren’t bikers but they do everything from parachuting to quad biking to all sorts of hunting and other assorted outdoor activities.
Almaty was my chance to service and freshen up the bike. Through the Kazakh bikers I had met in Tashkent, a pair of whom were bike parts importers, I had ordered a bunch of spares, which were waiting for me on my arrival in Almaty. Unfortunately, probably the most pressing part required, the new front brake disk, was the wrong part. I would have to fore go replacing that (or wait in Almaty 2 weeks.)
Still, I managed to get the other spares I ordered, of which the new chain was the next most critical thing.
One of the other Kazakh bikers from Tashkent, Marat from “Silk Off-Road” bikers, had booked me in with the club’s mechanic and with my spares I headed on down to meet Boris the Mechanic. Boris spoke enough English and me enough Russian to fully communicate the things that needed to be done and the quirks involved.
By the time I got back from lunch, Boris had changed the chain and front sprocket. The back one was still immaculate (its steel rather than alloy). I had chosen to go down to a 14 tooth front from now on. Since picking the bike up in Wales in February, I had been riding on the standard size 15T sprocket. The 14T front will be better suited to Siberia.
The chain itself was completely knackered. I had adjusted the tension for the first time in Murgab just 4 days earlier and now it was loose again. It was making funny noises and it was definitely time to go. The front brake pads were changed. There was a little more than I thought on them, and I will keep them as emergency spares, or platforms to replace the pad material. I had hoped to merely rotate the headset bearings to eliminate the severe notching that had set in over the last 5000 km or so, but Boris the mechanic said the bearings were too far gone. So in went the spare set.
With that all done, and after a couple of large evenings with the Nurbek’s adventure boys, it was time to head north. I had just over 3 days to meet with Tony, a friend from England, and seasoned Russia rider, in Siberia. He was heading due East from Moscow and I am heading North from Almaty, with a plan to meet up on the Russian side of the Altai border about June 6th. I squeezed in a couple of hundred highway kilometers late on the 3rd and overnighted in Taldy Kurgan.
There was one other thing I needed to do in Kazakhstan and that was to register. Any stay over 5 days in the country means to have to register with the migration police. I didn’t have time in Almaty, so decided to do it in Taldy Kurgan the next morning.
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04-06-09
It took me some time to find the migration police, even in relatively small Taldy Kurgan, and after initially moaning that it should be done by the visa inviting company, they relented and gave me the required stamp for 10 further days in the country.
With that out of the way, I headed off he main northern highway to explore some of the back roads. It was an pleasant afternoon over some dirt’s and some minor asphalt roads that came to a sad halt just before Lake Balkhash, 15 km before the village of Lepsi. I had a flat tyre. I have never had a tube go flat on me in 15 years
of riding and kinda figured it wouldn’t happen to me, so I had not prepared well for flat tyres. In fact I didnt have a tyre lever. I removed the back wheel, on a empty road and inspected the tyre while I waited for a vehicle to come by that might be able to help. There was nothing penetrating the new tyre. Not sure where the flat could be then.
The first two cars to stop had no tyre lever, but one of the drivers suggested he would return with one from Lepsi, where he lived. After 30 minutes by the side of the road a third car stopped, and they did have a tyre lever. A couple of guys from Almaty visiting family out in the sticks. They warned me this was a dangerous place to break down. Locals were dangerous around here.
After getting the tyre off I saw the valve had sheared off the tube. I put in my spare tube and re packed the bike. I had also noticed my luggage rack was hanging on by only a few loose bolts. the others had come off. I suspect Boris had forgotten to tighten the luggage rack bolts when he refitted it in Almaty two days earlier. I would need to find a metal repair place and sort out my rack properly. It hadn’t been fixed since Beyneu, and that was a dodgy repair to start with.
As we are getting the wheel back onto the bike, the earlier local guy (named Abai) returned with a tyre lever, which he gave to me before insisting I stop by his place in Lepsi for some tea. I could use a chill out by now, so I accepted and followed him back to Lepsi.
As I pulled into his yard I realised immediately that he was a metal worker. With it now being 6pm, I had a bright spark of an idea. If I stayed here the night, we could get to work on the bike and sort out all the metal issues that needed seeing to. It was almost 6pm by now in any case, and I wouldn’t get that far down the road.
After chai, we pumped up my back tyre a bit more (my hand pump didn’t have a working pressure guage and it was still too squidgy) and I explained my metal problems. “OK” said Abai, “Get all the luggage and the seat off” and away we went.
By the time it was dark (about 8:30) Abai and his son (the welder) had cobbled together some new drink bottle holders, and sorted out the luggage rack bolts, and we all sat down to eat a traditional Kazakh meal, which consisted of, among other things, cows stomach. I stuck to the regular beef.
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05.06.09
When I awoke Abai had already headed off 250 km away in his car and I had breakfast with his wife, 2 sons and 1 daughter, all the kids in their early 20s. I didn’t stay long as I wanted to put in a lot of miles today and also to test out the new baggage rack.
The road north from Lepsi first heads to the edge of Lake Balkhash, the largest body of water in Kazakhstan. Its more like an inland sea than a lake – I couldn’t see the other side of it. From the lake north the road ends and a couple of tracks head towards Aktogay, one graded gravel and the other a pair of sandy wheel ruts. Yes the graded gravel seems the obvious choice, but no. It was heavily corrugated and very bumpy. No fun at all. I tried the sandy track and it was much better. Thrill seeking at times, but much better on the suspension.
Near Aktogay, the track disappeared all together and I was left with a dusty, soft dirt track similar to sand – the tyres sunk in a couple of inches, and riding thru it was a bit like being buffalo bill at the rodeo.. the bike was kicking thru this soft stuff like a bucking bronco.
With the need to meet Tony in Russia in about 24 hours, the recent shake up with the flat tyre and recent reports saying there is no ‘road’ heading north from Aktogay to Ayaguz, I decided to play safe and turned east towards the main road. An hour later I got to the main road and topped up with fuel.
By 3:30 pm I was just 30 km from Ayaguz when yet another dodgy quality repair from Almaty stopped me in my tracks. Not only had the valve stem sheared off (presumably from not being fitted correctly) my tube, leaving me a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere yesterday, nor the luggage rack that wasn’t tightened, this time it was the drive chain. It lost its joining link. How does a brand new chain (that cost me 200 EUR in Almaty due to customs fees) die less than 2 days into its life.?
Fortunately I was on the outskirts of a village. I walked the road and found the chain a few hundred metres back, but no sign of ‘the missing link’. A Kazakh local walking past told me there was a workshop jut a few hundred yards away near the village shop. I pushed the bike there.
There was a workshop all right, but no-one working in it. It belonged to the guy who ran the village store, and he opened it up and let me use whatever was in there, which wasn’t a lot. He did have some device which I was able to use as a chain-breaker
My idea was to take a pair of links out of the chain and to rejoin it, one link shorter, but it didn’t work. Boris had taken a link out of the chain in Almaty to give it room to stretch, so the chain was already near the minimum possible length. I needed a longer chain. With no other possibilities, I left the bike in the ‘garage’ of the general store guy and hitched into Ayaguz, 30 km north.
In Ayaguz, I was taken to an auto parts store where there had a couple of chains for Russian bikes. most were incompatible but one of them had links the same length as my own. The new chain itself was unfortunately too short, but it was just 15 EUR and I could cannibalise a few links from it and then use its new joining link to complete my masterpiece. I took it and began hitching back to my bike, in the village of Shinkosha.
Hitching back was a lot harder than hitching into Ayaguz and I waited a good 45 mins for a lift. but eventually I got my lift and was reunited with my chain less bike. Immediately I went to work, bashing pins out of the new chain and then joining up my old chain (2 days old) with the few links of new chain. My construction had to last about a week and 2000 km , when I would get a new chain sent out from England to Russia.
Finally it was ready and I fitted it to the bike and linked it all up. It all looked like it could work. Tools were put away, hands were washed and I thanks my friend in the general store and hit the road again, nervously.
It was 8pm and almost dark by now and I stopped at a cafe a few km north of Ayaguz for some food. I hadnt eaten anything other than bread all day so enjoyed a meal of shashlik and chai. I was joined by a Kazakh guy from Semey (Semipalatinsk) driving home after visiting his parents. He told me this was not a safe region. I had known from previous trips to Kazakhstan that the north of the country is very much each for his own. Its the only place in the world where I have had security problems on a bike. I was glad to not be staying the night in Ayaguz, but would need to find somewhere to stay. My friend recommended I go thru to Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk) but that would take me thru to 1am and I wasn’t sure I had the energy for that.
We both hit the road, with him following me for the first 30 mins to make sure I didn’t have any problems, before his Mercedes sped off into the night. I was in no mood for speeding – still worried about my chain. I stopped at a petrol station after the chain had done a bit over 100 km to check the state of my bodge. It was still good. I was relieved and upped my speed from 80 to 90 km/h. About 11:30pm I saw a cluster of cafe’s by the road, about 15km south of Grigorievka, one larger than the others. I decided to see if they had rooms. Sure enough they did. I was feeling pretty tired and drowsy on the bike so I took a room for 5 EUR and took all my luggage in. To my surprise they had a garage and the security guy would let me use it for EUR 2.50. It was too much, but I took it anyway. I then had a lovely warm shower (extra 1.50 EUR) and a beer and relaxed after a long stressful day.
I cant get over how many things are failing, that were ‘fixed’ or fitted in Almaty. I have to find a good mechanic in Russia to give the bike a once over. Oh how I wished for Valera, the master mechanic from Yalta.