We’ve made it to Vladivostok

We’ve made it to Russia!

After a 24 hour long journey we’ve made it to Vladivostok in Russia. We touched down at 7am local time which is 10 hours ahead of the UK. So to us it was still late Sunday night and we hadn’t slept much on the plane meaning that we more or less didn’t sleep on Saturday or Sunday night. Not to worry though as in traditional shipping style the boat was delayed and we were able to kick back in our cheap USSR concrete style hotel for a day or two instead of starting the import process. A couple of days of sleep and pottering around the city later and we’re still waiting to get in to the port. Our fixer is still confident that we should be able to get the bike out for Friday evening so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

If the scooter does get here for Friday evening then we will most likely spend the weekend doing maintenance before hitting the road first thing monday morning. Our maintenance list is quite long and includes:
– Replacing the clutch and drivebelt
– Changing our coolant
– fixing our brakes
– fitting our new exhaust
– fitting our new oxford heated grips
– fitting our new screen and hand protectors
– doing a general nuts, bolts and all other bits check.

Considering that a year ago today, we didn’t really even know how to use our tools it’s ridiculous that we now think we know how to do all of the above! We’ll let you know how we get on but it should be a breeze. Unfortunately, we’ll probably be doing it in the car park of the hotel where we’ll be exposed to the -5°C Vladivostok sea breeze!

The weather in general hasn’t been too bad yet. On the first day we arrived it was a cool -5°C with a windchill making it fee l like -9°C but yesterday it warmed right up and was too hot for a coat. In fact, it was such a clear day that we were treated to this pretty cool sunset!

While we’re waiting for our bike to turn up we’re piecing together the first episode of our Siberia YouTube series which is about getting ready for Russia. Don’t miss it by subscribing to our YouTube channel here. And don’t forget we’re also doing special behind the scenes episodes for our patrons. The first one will be released over the next couple of days which shows us reviewing a traditional Russian breakfast. Sign up to become a patron here.