Diary & Travel Reports by Simon Milward

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Wed, 30 May 2001 12:07:28 -0000
From: simon @ millennium-ride.com
To: sponsors @ millennium-ride.com

Privet Everyone,

& Greetings from the San Francisco of Russia!

Vladivostok is ups and downs. Up go the hills topped off with massive blocks of flats and down go the tram-lined streets to the expansive harbour. Up go my spirits when dealing with the Russian people and down goes my suspension when riding on the streets!

I arrived on the ship MV Nezhdanova from the Japanese port of Fushiki which is about 400km West of Tokyo on the East coast, on Sunday. It cost $340 all-in but they gave me a $70 rebate. Once in the Fushiki port area I never saw another Japanese until a group were taking photos here in Russia. The calm crossing took 36 hours. My bike was not unloaded until Monday morning since there were so many second hand cars to unload first, cars which are worthless in Japan but hot stuff here. There are virtually no Russian cars in this part of Russia, only Japanese, just like the motorcycles. Customs and immigration were no problem.

The world famous Iron Tigers Motorcycle Club put me up in their clubhouse/workshop on Monday night and gave me a present of the road atlas of Russia. I'm planning to visit Lake Baikal in June, the deepest lake in the world just north of Mongolia. It will be a high point!

The Tigers also invited me to a sauna, where we ate dinner and sang Karaoke in between heating up and cooling down.

I asked a few people about the recent government takeover of NTV the television station here. Remember the headlines a few months ago? They are quite confident that the reason for it was financial not political. The present news team runs stories criticising the President Putin as much as ever.

THE BIKE
got cleaned yesterday! Before leaving Japan I fitted the new nobbly Metzeler MCE Karoos tyres which have already proved their worth on some backstreets here. I got the frame welded since the hardtail mode in Cambodia lead to a crack on one side where the panniers mount. Daytona Motorcycle Products 200km west of Tokyo donated a set of shocks - unfortunately they are not up to the job so its back to my two monos from Malaysia - and brake pads. What a great company this is. My fusebox needs replacing though.

SATELLITE TRACKER:
I'm still battling to set the tracker system working properly after some help from CLS Japan with new antennas and a fishing boat mounting system. Some connections in Tokyo's Akihahara electronics area set me back $50. Rob's efforts of making it all fit together were admirable, though my heavy-handed effort at assistance wrecked it a bit. However Usin, the electrics wizard at the Tigers worked some magic yesterday. Watch this space, rather the Route page on www.millennium-ride.com. I'd like to get it working because the next 5000km through Siberia should be quite interesting.

FOOD
on the ferry was nothing like the oriental stuff I have become used to. Vegetables and meat complete with a bit of gristle! Right now I'm about to eat at the flat of Sinus and his girlfriend Light. After a taste I declined the sour fat of pigs stomachs carved off a lump and normally eaten with bread (this is the first food en route that I do not like, maybe it's just the thought of it). It's good to east 'proper' bread again though and not the plastic Japanese version. Their flat is on the top floor of a highrise block, and the rain leaks in, thankfully just outside their front door. Sinus has his own TV show and we made something for tomorrow's local TV news today. He rode is bike to Gibraltar and back a few years ago and is now preparing a photo exhibition of it.

COMMUNICATION:
All the emails I prepared on my Psion palmtop computer, in preparation for emailing once in Vladivostock, including this report, are useless since the screen has packed up! Also my mobile doesn't work here probably because British Telecom has blacklisted the Russian GSM telephone providers. What a pain.

GOODBYE JAPAN
My last weeks were really busy. Japan always was going to be a working place. There are two solid aims to my ride. Riders rights and fundraising for charity.

RIDERS RIGHTS:
I was interviewed by seven national bike magazines with my message to riders to get organised now. The articles were just starting to appear when I left the country. A new organisation is in the offing and I assisted them in a few ways. I did a few days research for Seiho Publishing who are compiling a report into electronic road pricing around the world. The city government of Tokyo is intent on charging motorcycles the same as cars to enter the city, in a wanton display of stupidity.

FUNDRAISING FOR CHARITY:
Japan results - US$2,500. Better than a kick in the jacksy but not as good as I hoped. The latest donations came from:

Motorcycle Federation of Japan (FIM member) $500,

Mitsui OSK Lines (world shipping leader) Yen50,000

Seiho Publishing Yen30,000 ($250),

JF Hillebrand (world leaders in wine and beverage shipping) Y30,000,

- Daytona Motorcycle Products sent their catalogue to Flores and will supply parts for our twelve medical delivery bikes.

- Arai may give us twelve helmets.

- Yamaha finally agreed to ask their Indonesian company to supply the twelve bikes (115cc trailies) at cost price. (The SE Manager said at first 'No we are not a charity'. I was amazed and pleased to find a Japanese who could give a straight clear answer, so we did some business! It is of course a good investment and great PR for Yamaha.) This should translate into a good discount making yours and any future donations go so much further.

Most of this came in my last days in Japan and it made me very happy. I didn't care in the least that it was raining harder than when I could remember!

Update Wednesday: I was checking the valve clearances today and found the exhaust rocker arm assembly very broken. Bombardier-Rotax are rushing me the part from Austria. Glad I found it here, I'm well into spending a few days more in Vladivostok!

Take care everyone and live your dreams!

Simon