Despite a broken wiring loom, Lithuanian motorcycle adventurer Karolis Mieliauskas has successfully competed an epic ride to the coldest place on earth on a Yamaha Tenere.
We published an article in late January about his plans and many readers thought he was crazy to ride 1000km across Siberia in temperatures down to -60C.
Some even suggested the oil in his suspension would freeze!
However, Karolis emailed us to say he had completed the aptly named The Coldest Ride from Yakutsk to Oymyakon, one of the coldest habitable places on earth.
Mind you, it wasn’t -60C, but a relatively balmy -56C!
The Coldest Ride started on February 04, and was scheduled to finish on February 10.
However, Karolis reached his destination two days ahead of schedule, and celebrated with a dip in a frozen river, despite temperatures of -45C.
The endeavour was filmed and will be featured on the BBC Travel Show later in 2019.
Mind games
Karolis says his journey on a single-cylinder Yamaha Tenere across the Road of Bones was a research exercise into what he calls “active meditation”.
Basically, it’s a way of forcing the mind to meditate by subjecting the body to harsh conditions; in this case, the cold.
Most riders have ridden in harsh conditions such as cold, heat, high winds or driving rain.
For some it’s an absolute pain.
But for others it is an enlightening experience. Some even refer to an out-of-body experience when the mind takes control of the pain and discomfort, divorcing the rider from their body.
Author Robert M Pirsig explored the theory in his famous 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Epic ride
This is not his first or most epic ride in the cold.
In July 2016, he rode 11,000km from Vilnius to Vladivostok in 12 days and in March 2017 he rode 785km across the ice of Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, with our support, camping gear or a satphone.
Lake Baikal