Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia [Paperback]

Mark Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1993

Jenkins relates the invigorating experiences he shared as part of a team of three Americans and four Russians who set the world record for bicycling, riding from Vladivostock to Leningrad. "An epic tour of one of the world's most forbidding and legendary regions."--San Francisco Chronicle. Illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

What's it like bicycling in a police state? In 1989, Jenkins found out by joining a team of three Americans and four Russians in the first expedition to cross Siberia by bicycle, via Vladivostok to Leningrad. Jenkins, the Rocky Mountain editor for Backpacker magazine and the field editor for Summit magazine, re-creates his excitement and trepidation over the sheer vastness of the task. The team slogs through an 800-mile swamp and climbs passes over the Ural mountains, enduring dirt roads, mud, and icy rain. While the Siberian journey is adventure reading par excellence, flashbacks celebrating the autonomy afforded kids on bikes are powerful stuff. Recommended for public libraries.
- Elizabeth Skinner, Forsyth Cty. P.L., Winston-Salem, N.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Feisty, sometimes brilliant first book about a journey across Siberia by bicycle. Jenkins, an editor for Backpacker and Summit, writes a leaping, impulsive prose that, for all its originality, should be whipped for its barbarisms: ``He lived with his faraway eyes crumpled in a stickwood wheelchair holding him and his medals very still in his backyard with his rosebushes growing tall as trees.'' In 1989, he tells us, he was invited to join three Americans (one a woman) and four Russians (two women) on ``the last great ride'' (Africa, South America, China, Europe, India, and Australia had already been done), 7,500 miles from Vladivostok to Leningrad--a journey to be filmed by Carl Jones, an American documentary filmmaker. Most of the team members were like Jenkins, born bikers obsessed with biking, often knocking off 90 miles a day through heavy weather. After the Americans met their Russian counterparts in Moscow, the team flew to Nekhoda, from where they would cross land twice the breadth of the US and go through seven time zones. At first the team was accompanied by a police car that tried to keep the Americans from observing the deprived lives of nearby Soviet citizens, but the bicyclists soon found themselves feted time and again by villagers following their progress on state-run TV. That Soviets live a hard life, with memories of Stalin hanging heavy, became clear to Jenkins; in fact, the Americans met Russians who had been jailed for five years for ``capitalism'' or for going into business on their own. Three of the fellow Russian bikers were not friendly and, tensions mounting, the team finally broke up on the last leg of its big ride. Mud, cabbages, sub-zero frigidity--altogether a super adventure that landed the team in the Guinness Book of World Records. (Eight pages of color photos; maps--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Perennial (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060975326
• ISBN-13: 978-0060975326
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting and captivating adventure., August 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia (Hardcover)

This book is amazing for the way Mark Jenkins moves his readers from village to village and along one stretch of trail to another. His emphasis on, and respect for, the cultural backdrop of this trip was what held my attention the most. I felt like I was there. The cultural emphasis also makes the reader realize that there is a more important aspect to a ride like this than the athletic accomplishment. This adventure gave me an understanding for another culture that I most likely will never experience, especially as a tourist. If nothing else, it gave me a whole different perspective on what cycling could be.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth pushing through, February 5, 2009

By 

A. D. Thomas "ADT" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia (Paperback)

I nearly didn't make it through the first quarter of this book. Probably one of the most poorly written books I've encountered. The lack of punctuation and subject/object sentences were annoying, at best. There is one section near the end of the book that seems to have no connections at all to anything else in the book.

The only reason I stuck with it was to compare my own experiences with the Soviets in the same timeframe. But not riding a bicylce! After getting over the sloppy writing, or the author's pretensions of being another Faulkner,the story moved along. Half way through, it was clear that the author had some significant observations to contribute on the Soviet system and the inherent hospitality of the Russian people. Chapter 32 captures two very, very clear examples of life under the Soviet regime. Descriptions of trying to obtain a meal in a restaurant were re-runs of just about every restaurant experience I had in the former Soviet Union. Following on that description is a hilarious-maddening re-run of trying to make an international phone call. How many times did I and my family endure such insane logic as the following: "There are no Americans in Krasnoyarsk and there have never been any Americans in Krasnoyarsk so obviously it is not possible to make a reservation to make a call to the US from Krasnoyarsk. Bzzzzzz."

There are some very realistic descriptions of the inherent kindness and hospitality of the ordinary, i.e. non-Soviet, Russians. These descriptions alone are worth the read. The mud, lack of roads and sheer grittiness of the bike ride is quite beyond belief. Though the author does describe well two types of motivations for the riders on the trip. Overall, worth the read.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring adventure story, July 6, 2000

By 

Rebekah S. Smith (Laramie, WY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia (Paperback)

Jenkins does an excellent job of conveying the feelings he experienced during this trip. Sometimes spirits were low and sometimes they were high. His writing captures the reality of the trip and reveals the spirit of the Russian people with great emotion. I disagree with the review above that states Jenkins hated Siberia. He clearly had a great appreciation for the people he met there and valued his experience. It was obvious that he had a problem with Communism, and hence did not understand the Soviets. This is a book about people. Who cares whether they were the first group to ride across the country? The objective of the book was to describe a journey, and that has been done very well.