Austin Vince tells us about a world first dirt-bike challenge, powered by Stanfords – PLUS there’s a chance to win 2 tickets to the Adventure Travel Film Festival. 

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It’s not a sentence you read very often: Before Ewan MacGregor there was Mondo Enduro. Let me explain….

When Obi Wan took a gap year back in 2004 and rode a m/cycle across Europe and Russia a lot of people took notice. His trip was heavily sponsored and sloshing about in cash with support vehicles and sat-nav every yard of the way. What’s less well known is that his ‘Long Way Round’ TV show was a shot-by-shot remake of an obscure film that had screened on Discovery back in the 90s. That doco was called ‘Mondo Enduro’ and I was lucky enough to be part of it.

Mondo Enduro was conceived by seven clueless buddies in 1992 and over 400 days in 95/96 they rode 44,000 miles around the world. They didn’t mean to, but the Mondo guys produced the first ever ‘Adventure Motorcycling’ documentary and now, 20 years later, it’s achieved cult status. The trip was the first time that a team had biked all the way from Europe to the remote Siberian gulag prison town of Magadan. Roughly speaking, the Soviet version of Anchorage but on ‘their’ side of the Bering Straits. However, unlike the jewel in Alaska’s crown, Magadan was officially a ‘closed’ city and full security clearance (or a prison sentence) was required for a Soviet citizen to be granted a visa to visit.

Back in the early 90s, when the Mondo boys were putting their ideas together they quickly realised that there was no such thing as the internet and so prep was as analogue as it had been for Scott, Hilary or Livingstone. They didn’t even know how far they were planning to ride across the former USSR so that meant one thing, a visit to Stanfords. You have to be a certain age to remember a life WITH 350cc four-stroke engines but WITHOUT search engines. Stanfords was the only place to turn for information about unusual places that no-one could spell. Back in 1992 you simply couldn’t find anyone in the UK who had actually BEEN to Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan yet alone Kolimar (Google it!).

Stanfords were then, as now, at the top of their game and despite there actually being ZERO English language maps of the USSR (excluding the weirdly unhelpful and massive scaled Hildebrand that went from Calais to Anchorage via Eurasia on a piece of A2 paper) they had one card to play; Stanfords stocked US military maps covering the entire surface of the earth at a scale of 1:1,000,000 in a series known as ONC. This stunning collection, prepared courtesy of the Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Centre in Missouri was designed specifically (albeit in 1970) for aeroplane pilots and focussed on what was visible from the sky as opposed to what we men of Mondo needed. They were stunningly detailed on runway conditions, lengths, alignments etc and did a special number on tall transmission towers (a knowledge of the Soviet love of UHF comms would soon be made known to us). Conversely, all surface routes were marked with identical symbols so, on the map, you couldn’t tell a dirt-track from a motorway. Most of all, in the madness of the Siberian highway system there was no distinction made between a ford and a full concrete bridge. This single fact would be the cause of weeks of aggro in the fullness of time.

Nevertheless, it was ‘any port in a storm’ and these ONC sheets were simply the most detailed info available about the USSR and we greedily lapped it up. We traced out our proposed route on sheet upon sheet (Did I mention, each sheet was about 4ft by 5ft and we needed 16 in all), a humble orange Stabilo Boss picking out our dreams. We lay there scheming on my bedroom floor, musing over the funny names and smarted at the bland annotations we encountered – Note, elevation of Caspian Sea is receding at an undetermined rate and our favourite: Aircraft may be fired upon without warning. There was no guidebook or support group for what we were trying to do. That’s the downside when you’re the first to have a go. We used the ‘piece of string’ method and carefully drew up an itinerary  which featured, back then, unspeakably exotic words like, Baku, Samarkand and Yakutsk. It took blinking ages but after much banging on the Casio FX-83 calculator we had our total; 12,623 miles from London to Magadan. Phew, and that wasn’t even the first third of what we had planned.

I still have the maps, they’re right here as I type (apart from a few that had to be used as notepaper. Yup, back in 1995 Russia, you couldn’t actually BUY paper). They really did get us across the biggest country in the world and what actually happened to us in Siberia has become the stuff of adventure legend. Be in no doubt, Mondo Enduro changed the landscape of motorcycling forever and it wasn’t powered by Garmin, it was powered by Stanfords.

With 2016 being the 20^th anniversary of Mondo Enduro’s return, the film is being screened at The Adventure Travel Film Festival which is held in the halls and grounds of Mill Hill School 12-14 August. It will be quite special indeed…

Austin Vince

Find out more about the Adventure Travel Film Festival 

 

Win a pair of tickets for the Adventure Travel Film Festival

Mondo Enduro was conceived by seven clueless buddies in 1992 and over 400 days in 95/96 they rode 44,000 miles around the world. They didn’t mean to, but the Mondo guys produced the first ever ‘Adventure Motorcycling’ documentary and now, 20 years later, it’s achieved cult status.

Be inspired by the greatest real-life adventures captured on film. Win a pair of tickets to the Adventure Travel Film Festival in Mill Hill NW7 from 12 – 14 August 2016.

About the prize

• Win two weekend tickets to attend The Adventure Travel Film Festival worth £89 per person
• Dates: Friday 12– Sunday 14 August 2016
• Location: Mill Hill School, London NW7 1QS (this falls within the Low Emission Zone)
• Inclusions: Entrance to all the films, permission to camp from Friday 2pm – Sunday 4pm, admission to free talks, workshops, activities, band and campfire
• Exclusions: does not include meals: these can be bought separately in advance, does not include any paying workshops: these can be bought in advance or at the festival if places are still available, does not include the provision of camping equipment nor travel expenses.

Terms and Conditions

1. One entry per person.
2. Closing date for entries is 17th July 2016.
3. Entrants must be at least 18 years old.
4. The prize includes: two weekend tickets to attend The Adventure Travel Film Festival in North London The prize does not include: meals, paying workshops, camping equipment or travel expenses
5. Getting to the venue in London: this will be the responsibility of the winner.
6. The prize is only available from 12th – 14th August 2016.
7. The prize cannot be exchanged for a cash alternative.
8. The prize cannot be sold or used by anyone other than the winner.
9. The prize winner can choose who they will give the second ticket to and all of the terms and conditions here apply to that person.
10. The promoter reserves the right to provide an alternative prize of similar value should the specified prize become unavailable for any reason.
11. Neither the Promoter nor any other person or party associated with this promotion shall be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever suffered (including, but not limited to, indirect or consequential loss or damage) or personal injury or death suffered or sustained in connection with either participation in this promotion or with any prizes offered.
12. The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the terms of this prize and without notice in the unlikely event of a major catastrophe, war, earthquake or any actual, anticipated or alleged breach of any applicable law or regulation or any similar event or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
13. The winner will be the first correct entry drawn randomly by Stanfords after the closing date of 15th July 2016.
14. Attempts will be made to notify the winner using the email address provided at the time of entry.
15. If the promoter, having used reasonable efforts, is unable to contact the winner, then the prize is forfeited and further draw(s) may be conducted.
16. The winner may be required to take part in reasonable publicity as specified by the Promoter.
17. The Promoter cannot be held liable for IT system failures or delays or loss of entries.
18. The organizer reserves the right to cancel this competition, or to change any condition of this competition, without notice.
19. Acceptance of these terms and conditions is a condition of entry.
20. No purchase necessary.