This page was last updated Mon 31 March 2008.

Contents: Tours (20)    Sites (3)    Cycling info pages (2)   

Russia (all)

This page lists all reports that for Russia including those that involve other countries too.
Click here for a list of reports that involve only Russia.
All descriptions are in English, unless otherwise noted.

Tours

International Cycle Traveling, solo and self contained
by Peter Davis, tour started 2008, submitted 31 March 2008

I'm at one of those grave intellectual impasses that have been known to bring even greater minds than my own to a standstill. I have an orphan sock. Trivia, you say. Ha! I think not.

The cause of this problem is surely the work of that Slovakian KGB Agent, foolishly disguised as a laundress in Svolen. She stole it, I'm sure. Probably for a DNA sample to impress her superiors in Bratislava. They've been following my every move since the kustoms agent in Warsaw asked me the purpose of my visit to Poland. When I answered ``vacation'' the disbelief on his face gave him away. What, doesn't anyone go to Poland on vacation?

But back to the real problem, the orphan sock. The purists among cycle tourists would say, ``Throw it away, it's excess baggage. And while you're at it, cut three inches off that over-long toothbrush handle.'' But the Calvinist in me says, ``Save it. It's a good sock, nearly new.'' I've already reduced the weight of my baggage by losing its mate. Maybe I'll lose another and be back to even and lighter still.

Gerloss Pass, Austria 2006
Comm'on Life in Eurasia: 2 years of challenge and cultural discovery
by ELena Chernyshova and Gael de Crevoisier, tour started August 2006, submitted 18 July 2007
language: fr, ru, en

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

Elena on bike, -12C Kazakstan, December 2006
Paul Carter's Cycling Adventures
by Paul Carter, submitted 12 July 2007

Just a simple compilation showing some photos of my solo, minimum preparation/planning, fast, travel light, using only my vacation allowance rides across the continents. First ride was with road bike, all other rides on Orange P7 rigid mountain-bike with semi-slick tyres.

First big ride 1993. New York to San Francisco via Grand Canyon and Death Valley. 6000km in 28 days
Mal & Lee's Cycling Diaries
by Mal & Lee, tour started October 2006, submitted 3 May 2007

Mal & Lee on a world recumbent cycle tour of the world.

Just completed a cross continent tour of Australia and circumnavigation of Tasmania.... Off to the UK now :-)

90 miles dead straight road.... total desolation and isolation
Amsterdam to Vladivostok: A bicycle ride across Eurasia
by Mike Vermeulen, tour started March 2007, submitted 9 February 2007

A trip planned in 2007 to cycle across Eurasia. Follow along as Mike discovers Russia by bicycle. Departure from Amsterdam at end of March. Plan is to ride the first month to St Petersburg and then for five months cycling across Russia including the new section of road across Siberia.

BikeRussia
Cycling Home From Siberia
by Rob Lilwall, tour started 2006, submitted 23 January 2007

A 40,000 km. 3 year ride through 30 countries, from far eastern Russia (Siberia) in winter, to London England, via Australia. Trying to cover the whole route by bicycle and boat only. I have encountered plenty of good times and a few tough ones, noteably in Siberia (camping at minus forty), Papua New Guinea (pushing my bike down a beach as no roads) and Tibet (in winter).

In Siberia (2004)
Inner Asia Expedition
by Nathan Rutman, Alex Tilson, Doug Sage, tour started May 1995, submitted 8 January 2007

12 countries, 12,000 kilometers, five men and five bikes. This is the story of a remarkable bicycle journey across Asia nearly entirely by bicycle. At the time, we believed it to be geographically and politically, the most diverse summer ride the planet had to offer.

The website contains hundreds of high resolution photographs, extensive journals of each country and much advice on gear, immunizations, maps, routes and visas.

Doug Sage and Alex Tilson at Khunjerab Pass bordering China, Pakistan
Round the World by Bike - 60 countries. 5 continents. 4 years. 46,000 miles
by Alastair Humphreys, tour started 2002, submitted 10 December 2006

The author is selling a book on his tour around the world, but has made several chapters available for free, in PDF format. Espcially the chapters on Ethiopia and Siberia are fascinating to read and among the best stories found on Trento Bike. This is true adventure. Here are two short paragraphs:

  • Ethiopia How can two sides of one village be so different? One hundred metres from Sudan and I had left behind Islam and North Africa and was into the continent's heart. The buildings, people and attitudes all felt different. The red dirt road was busy with pedestrians. Barefoot people and donkeys easily outnumbered the few fume-spewing, rattling vehicles. Women walked shaded beneath golf umbrellas, a strange sight in the African sun. Men bore a stout staff across their shoulders, their hands hooked over like wings. In Sudan the ladies flowed in colourful loose robes and men with bushy moustaches glided around in white galibayahs. In Ethiopia the men wore tight little shorts and tattered T-shirts, repaired many times, with a blanket draped over their willowy shoulders.

  • Siberia We rode on and on through a frigid emptiness of low hills white with snow or black leafless woods. The white road ahead on the wooded hillsides stood out like a photo negative. The horizon's high mountains looked enticing and I felt happy to be here, to be at the ends of the earth with my bicycle. ``I'm out here a thousand miles from my home, walking a road other men have gone down. I'm seeing a world of people and things,'' sang Dylan in my headphones.

Also check out the expedition advice.

world map with tour route
Our trip around the world - we are now in Cambodia
by Benoit Cote et Genevieve Fortin, tour started 2006, submitted 1 November 2006
language: en, fr

We are now in Cambodia, after 10 months of cycling thru New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand. Our site is bilingual.

Our web site is about the trip that we are now realizing. We have gone across the world to go back to Canada. We already crossed 5 different countries in 10 months. We will keep biking for around 2 more years. The subject treated by the web page is mostly about our trip (story, pictures, organisation) but we added a lot of other stuff like recipes, rock climbing, and small articles. We are French-Canadian, so our web site is belingual.

This is the road to get to Siam Reap from Thailand
Ukraine and Russia: Carpathians to the Volga
by Mike Vermeulen, tour started May 2006, submitted 3 July 2006
Europe: Ukraine, Russia

A five week tour from the Hungary/Ukraine border from Uzhgorod, Ukraine to Samara, Russia. Two American cycle tourists who speak some Russian travel across much of Ukraine and southern part of European Russia. This was a mostly self-supported trip where we stayed in hotels, but also some visits with friends in Russia.

Tambov oblast
Russia by bicycle
by Herman Veldhuizen, tour started 2004
Europe: Russia, Finland

A story about a small cycling trip in a large country. Helsinki, Lahti, V?rtsil?, Olonec, Vitegra, Vologda, Tot'ma, Nikolsk, Kotelnic, Urzum, Kazan.

Herman in Тотьма (Вологодская область)
The International Family Adventure Cycle Tour, Moscow - St. Petersburg
tour started July 2001
Europe: Russia

A photo report. Route: Tver - Staritsa - Ostashkov - Svapustcha - (soil road) - Molvotitsy - Demiansk - Zaluchie - Staraja Russa - Shimsk - Erunovo - Novgorod - Train to Pavlovsk - Tsarskoe Selo - Petergof - Saint Petersburg

A store in a small village
Go (North-) East - Radtour durch das russische Karelien
by Natalie Hesse, tour started 1999
Europe: Russia
language: de

Warum Karelien? Warum nicht! Ich wollte schon immer einmal mit dem Fahrrad durch Nordrussland fahren, seitdem ich dort einmal mit dem Zug durchgefahren war und aus dem Zugfenster heraus die endlosen Wälder bewunderte. Dann las ich während meiner Arbeitszeit, beim Drucken der ``Frei atmen'' um genau zu sein, die Anzeige von Markus Müller, der Leute zu einer Radtour durch Karelien suchte und ich rief an.

To the Last Northern Point of Russian Europe
by St Petersburg Travellers' Federation, tour started 1999
Europe: Russia

Unreliable server, you'll have to dig for the story.

The natives of Kola Peninsula are kindhearted and eager to help, but there is one strange thing about them. Each time you try to ask someone about the road he puts a strange smile on, makes wide gestures and mutters something about off-road vehicles and ice roads. Sometimes our questions brought sweet memories to life: ``Yes, it was in the year before granny died, 1973 it was, and we drove 150 km to the very end of this road in a lorry in no more than a week. And don't listen to the neighbor, he just got to the middle the year before last.'' Inspired by these descriptions we took one of the ground roads north. It started from simply bad quality and later turned out somewhat between ``absolutely impossible to ride'' and ``possible to ride if you Really want it''.

Around the Baltic Sea
by Erik Straarup, tour started June 1998

26 days from 26-6 to 21-7-1998 - Distance 4830 km. - Average speed 21,3 km.t.

A Little Story of Cycling in a Big Country - Dubna to Helsinki
by Axel Pichlmaier, tour started May 1998
Europe: Russia, Finland

After an official visit to Dubna, about 120 km north of Moscow, I had the pleasure to spend two days with friends on a dacha in a little village about 150 km east. [...] I set out for the unknown east. At that stage my plans were as follows: take the main road to Nishny Novgorod and then muddle yourself through in a big semi circle via Vologda and Petrozavodsk to Finland; fly out then from Helsinki. This would have been a distance of about 3000 km, ambitious enough for 18 days of cycling in the West. What I had not taken into account were the typical Russian difficulties.

Across the international border Norway - Russia
by Ulf Berntsen, tour started March 1998
Europe: Norway, Russia

A short bicycle trip from one world to another (plus train travel 36 hours from Nikel to St. Petersburg, and a bike trip in the streets of St. Petersburg).

Also see Igor Romanenko's Comments.

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
Around the Baltic Sea
by Catherine McCammon, tour started June 1996

I cycled around the Baltic Sea from mid-June to mid-July 1996, starting in Stockholm and going clockwise, finishing in Stockholm a month later. It was a great trip!

From the Balkans to the Baltics by bike - 1989-1991 - An Illustrated Travel Journal
by Marcus L. Endicott, tour started 1990

This is the story of Marcus Endicott's solo bicycle journey from Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union in 1990. The adventure really began the year before, in 1989, but really hasn't ended yet today; though, there have been perhaps more than a few bumps in the road along the way...

This is a travel journal, and was originally intended to become a book. But, two great historical events occurred virtually one after another and changed the course of not only my personal history but that of the world as well; the first was what became known as the ``Gulf War'' and the second was the ``August Coup'', essentially the collapse of the Soviet Union.

If we run out of bread, we eat cake... - a tour of Karelia
by Frank Brächter
Europe: Russia
language: en, de

We wanted to visit the classical destinations of the Russian Republic of Karelia... But not in the usual way with a river-cruise on a vessel... We did it by bike!

A nice report, with plenty of pictures, and extensive practical information.

Valaam: small chapel

Sites

velotourism and trips
by Grishanov Igor, , submitted 6 November 2007
Europe: Russia
language: ru

The best Russian site about trips on bike.

Lerdal - Aurland (Norway)
Reiseberichte
by Karl Brodowsky
language: de

A massive travel site, this guy has been everywhere.

Hier finden sich einige deutschsprachige Reiseberichte von Fahrradtouren, die hoffentlich unterhaltsam und informativ sind, aber auch vielleicht die eine oder andere Anregung für Leute geben, die selber einmal so etwas machen wollen. Für englischsprachige Radtourenberichte habe ich hier auch einen Anfang gemacht, ebenso für schwedischsprachige Radtourenberichte, wobei noch ein bißchen auf norwegisch und dänisch dabei ist, aber diese drei skaninavischen Sprachen sind so ähnlich, daß man entweder alle drei ein bißchen lesen kann oder eben keine davon.

Fahrrad-Reiseberichte
by Dietmar Jaeger
language: de

An enormous collection of bicycle tours all over the world.
Eine enorme Sammlung von Fahrradtouren in der ganzen Welt.

Cycling info pages

The Twizi hostel directory - the cheapest places to stay on the planet
by Patrick Sexton, , submitted 6 January 2007

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.

world map
Rec.Travel Library: Russia
Europe: Russia