The transcontinental motorbike expedition from Germany through Central Asia to Mongolia is a real adventure for experienced motorcyclists. The route leads via Eastern Europe and Russia to the vastness of Mongolia, with long tarmac roads, challenging off-road passages and magnificent nature. Flexibility and a sense of adventure are required. Discover the beauty of the Altai Mountains and experience picture-book Russia and the endless expanses of the Mongolian steppe. This expedition adventure offers unforgettable experiences and encounters. Are you ready for your next motorbike adventure?
Detail
We start 2025 on the Transcontinental Motorcycle Expedition through Eastern Europe and Central Asia to Mongolia, a motorbike adventure trip that every motorcyclist should have done once in their life, if you are ready to take on the challenging journey from Germany via Eastern Europe and Russia to Mongolia.
From long tarmac roads in Eastern Europe and Russia, remote routes and beautiful mountain stages in the Altai Mountains and the vast steppes of Mongolia, there is everything a biker's heart desires.
In Mongolia at the latest, we will be travelling mainly off-road - challenging off-road days await us. That's why we'll be doing a little off-road training with you in Mongolia. But even the long tarmac stages in Eastern Europe and Russia won't be a coffee ride. We will be rewarded with magnificent nature and warm encounters with the locals.
Experience from previous trips has shown that this motorbike adventure is for motorcyclists who are able to lend a hand and can adapt flexibly to changes in the tour, time and itinerary on this expedition trip. What is fixed is the start and end of the trip. In between, you can expect thousands of kilometres, adventures, mosquito bites and glasses of vodka!
Itinerary of the Transcontinental Motorbike Expedition from Germany via Eastern Europe to Mongolia:
Day 1 to 9: Across Eastern Europe by motorbike (approx. 490 km/day)
We all meet on Friday morning at the OVERCROSS office in Tübingen and the motorbike trip can begin. Together we'll head off on our touring enduros towards the Czech Republic, more precisely to Pilsen, where we'll spend our first evening in a cosy hotel with no frills and get to know each other over a beer. The route takes us and the motorbikes eastwards to Wroclaw. The city is very impressive and a cultural highlight of Europe. We go out for a nice meal and have time for a little stroll through the city in the evening or the next morning.
As our destination is still a long way off, it's time to keep on making kilometres as long as the roads are still reasonably good. The journey through Poland mainly takes us past meadows and fields, we try to make good time and will stop for the night shortly after Warsaw.
We set off for Vilnius and here, too, an Eastern European city of art and culture awaits us. We try to arrive in the afternoon so that we can see this beautiful Baltic city. The next day, the first hurdle awaits us: we pack our belongings onto our motorbikes and head towards the Russian border. After winning the patience game of border clearance, we look for a place to camp and rest.
In Russia, we are immediately greeted by much worse roads and the general impression of the villages and small towns lets us know that we have left Europe.
Before we finally disappear into the Russian province, we immerse ourselves in the hustle and bustle of the metropolis of Moscow and meet our OVERCROSSi Moritz, who shows us around the Russian capital on a city tour. We take our first day's break in Moscow to check the bikes, do some shopping, rest and have enough time to explore the city.
After the rest day, we get back on our motorbikes and ride along the side roads of important cities on the Golden Ring. Kremlins, monasteries and the oldest churches in Russia await us.
Our interim destination is Nizhny Novgorod, the eastern city of the old Rus. Ruts and crazy overtaking manoeuvres are not uncommon here.
Day 10 to 14: By motorbike through Siberia (approx. 450 km/day)
From Nizhny Novgorod we ride our motorbikes through a beautiful floodplain landscape towards Kazan. We spend the night here in a hotel near the city centre, from where we start a sightseeing tour of the city. The fusion of Slavic Russian and Islamic Tatar culture, the Kremlin and the mosque, is extremely interesting to see in Kazan.
From Kazan we head north until we reach Ekaterinburg. We drive through typical Russian forest and meadow landscapes until we reach the ascent through the Urals and the geographical border between Europe and Asia.
Once we have passed the Urals, our expedition slowly becomes wilder and wilder. We continue eastwards on minor roads and may have to choose alternative routes if the road is flooded again or bridges are impassable. Now we are in western Siberia and endless expanses and swarms of mosquitoes await us.
Motorbike tour day 15 to 20: Motorbike check and a unique biker bar (approx. 500 km/day)
We avoid Kazakhstan, which saves us two border crossings and a lot of time, which we need. We will arrive in Novosibirsk, Russia's third largest city, about halfway through our motorbike trip to the east.
But before that, the ‘dry stretch’ awaits us. From Omsk we ride through 700 kilometres of marshland to Novosibirsk. Two days of straight tarmac and endless mosquitoes are rewarded by reaching the Altai.
If everything is technically and otherwise in order, we leave Novosibirsk on the left and ride our motorbikes to the next stage destination: Barnaul. The route now takes us slowly southwards and into the Altai. But before we head into the mountains, we stop off in Barnaul and pay a visit to Siberia's most famous biker bar in the evening. The biker bar is a must on our transcontinental tour, with motorbikes everywhere: in the walls, the ceiling and the floor. After all, you drink with your eyes. We can treat ourselves to a few beers there and, if we're lucky, there's also live music in the bar.
Day 21 to 33: Picture-book Russia and off-road riding in Mongolia (approx. 400km/day)
We set off on our motorbikes to the Alati Mountains, one of the most beautiful places on earth. We take two days to cover the 700 kilometres from Barnaul to the border. The route takes us through beautiful high mountain landscapes on some very good tarmac roads with perfect hairpin bends. But there are also stretches of gravel until we cover the last few kilometres through a wide valley on asphalt to the Russian-Mongolian border.
We now have to clear the border one last time. We will do this in the morning and now Mongolia awaits us without tarmac. The first off-road kilometres to Ölgii, one of the larger towns in Mongolia, show us what awaits us on the last stage. For the first time, we get to know the impressive vastness of Mongolia. From now on, we are mainly travelling off-road, which demands a lot from us and the motorbikes at the end of the tour. We ride past beautiful lakes, high mountains and through the vastness of the Mongolian steppe to the destination of our transcontinental motorbike expedition through Eastern Europe to Mongolia, Ulaan Baatar!
We will arrive two days early to register the participants' motorbikes with the transport company and prepare them for the return journey. Those who want to ride back with us can organise the time according to their own wishes.
Important:
The tour is to be regarded as an expedition tour, as various things change every year. The tour description is only a rough guide, as you have to reckon with unpredictable events on such a long motorbike tour and in Russia and Mongolia. (e.g. weather, border crossings, unforeseeable repairs, flat tyres)