MOTONOMAD II: BLOG POST (JULY 23)

Follow the making of the feature-length adventure film, Motonomad II, as Motology Films’ Adam Riemann and his two companions undertake an incredible 8000km two-wheeled journey through Central Asia…

‘CROSSING THE GOBI’

“Motorcycle riding is dangerous, but for the last 600 kilometres, you could say our lives have depended on our KTM’s. No fuel stations, no water sources, no marked route, no support vehicle, and, no guarantee – we stepped further outside our comfort zone and rode into the magnificent nothingness of Mongolia’s great Gobi Desert! Having already traversed over 8000km of epic trails and overland sections between Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia – with nothing more than waypoints and road networks punched into my GPS – I was confident enough in our moto-nomadic skills to take on the challenge of riding through the Gobi.”

“Completely removing yourself from used tracks and traversing unknown terrain is a genuine lesson in adventure, and one that demands your complete focus. The focus to stay on target to waypoints while navigating through or around the perils of unmapped landscape. At one point, we were burrowed into a 50km square patch of vegetation and could no longer see any reference points on the horizon. You can’t freak out – you simply don’t have the fuel range to back out and look for an easy way around … you have to push through and hold your line. I had just as much faith in my GPS as I did in M1 to make it to each waypoint … perhaps a gamble, but a very rewarding one.”

“From here on we’re continuing a loop via the mountains of Central Mongolia to return to Ulaanbaatar and prepare for the final leg of what has been an epic journey. Stay tuned, I’ll post another blog when I can …
Adam”

To see more images from the journey, click here.

To access all of Adam’s blog posts about the making of Motonomad II, click here.

And if you want to get a detailed insight into how the Motonomad trio custom-developed their KTM 500EXC machines for the trip, grab a copy of Transmoto’s July-August issue (#51), on sale now, and check out the Bike Dissected article.