15-16 - 07 - 2006

Russian bike show in Tomsk

This is fun. A lot of bikers, bikes and tents. It reminds me of Rock Werchter. They have bands and events in the old parade square. I stayed at our camp the night before, only going to the event area to get food and drinks.

A lot of custom Urals and Dneprs here, even an old M72. The overall majority of the bikes are Japanese though. Some Urals with sidecar. I just lounge around my tent and try to recover from my mad night ride. I also have a closer look at my motorcycle in one of the abandoned hangars.

The sputtering problem is back in full force. I am sick of it. It finally dawns on me that the only reason for the spark to ground at the coil is because no spark is going to the spark plug. The cable must be faulty. The problem indeed goes away when I push the cable better into the socket. I have a look and indeed, the NGK spark plug cable is not connecting properly into the socket. I cut it back a little and it now looks that the problem is gone for good. We will see. With the help of Alexander a Russian biker on Ural I adjust the valve tappet clearance. We also have a look at the generator, because of a noise. Everything appears to be fine. Thanks for that Alexander.

Gino, Doug and me have a lot of fans here. Foreigners are scarce and we talk to a lot of people, shake a lot of hands, have our pictures taken with or without the bikes. I am almost getting tired of the attention. All are amazed to see a new Ural from Belgium that costs over 7000 euro in Germany. I have a hard time explaining that this is not an export model, but the new Ural that is the same in Russia, Europe and the USA, although pricing may vary. There are a lot of events going on all the time. The one that I liked the most was a Ural performing a burnout. You can only see this in Russia. At the end of the bike show there is an award ceremony for all the different contests that were going on during the weekend and we ask to go on stage to just say thanks to all the Russian bikers for their hospitality and help on the road. Our 15 minutes of fame.

I met Nadia at the festival. She is a member of the Legion of Siberia, a biker club. She owns and drives a black Ural with sidecar. She speaks a little English but conversation is difficult, nevertheless sparks just flew and we both speak that one universal language.

It was again very late before I fell asleep.

The next morning we say goodbye to Gino, he is also heading for Vladivostok, but moves a lot faster than us on his sporty BMW. Riding together is not an option; we hope to meet each other again in Irkutsk. After a refreshing swim in a nearby lake I say goodbye to Nadia. Maybe I will see her again on my way back. Earlier this morning I tried to talk her into coming to Irkutsk so we could spend a couple of more days together, but this is not sure yet. We will see. It would be great if she could make it. So Doug and I are now travelling together to Chita, where he will get on the train to Vladivostok and I drive on. We are staying with ‘the professor’, the president of the Legion of Siberia. He got the nickname because he is an academic and scientist. We communicate in German, but it is not always easy. He has a banya and we are invited to partake in this ritual. Man is it hot. You go inside this steaming hot small log construction and they beat you with a bundle of leafy branches. You go out a couple of times and finally you wash yourself. It does feel good afterwards. Drinking beer through the entire procedure is standard.

We have a nice dinner after that and talk a bit.