The ride begins in Biysk, a city of just over two hundred thousand on the northern doorstep of the Altai, at the point where the Biya and the Katun rivers join to form the Ob. That fact alone gives the place a certain quiet importance, since the Ob goes on to run for thousands of kilometres across Siberia to the Arctic. Zarya and Pervomayskoye are small settlements just beyond the edge of town.
As a starting point it could hardly be easier. Biysk has everything: fuel, markets, cafes, hotels, mechanics and tyre shops, so fill up, eat well and check the bike before you leave. The city is flat and a little sleepy, with wooden houses mixed in among Soviet blocks, and the main roads are broad. Heading south, you leave the steppe behind and climb gradually toward the first foothills, with the Chuysky Trakt, the famous highway to Mongolia, taking over as your road. Early morning is a lovely time, with mist over the river fields and the first hint of blue mountains ahead.
Biysk dates from 1709, when a wooden fort was founded here by order of Peter the Great as a frontier post against nomadic raiders. It grew into a trading town for Altai goods, honey, grain and furs, and its merchant houses still show some of that prosperity. The Chuysky Trakt began as a caravan track to Mongolia and was upgraded into a modern road in the early twentieth century, and Biysk is the traditional start of that journey. There is a museum in town devoted to local history, and the river embankments make a pleasant evening walk.
The landscape on the way out is gentle at first. Wide fields of wheat, sunflowers and rapeseed, with birch groves between them, give way to the Altai foothills, where pine and larch begin to appear. In July the air smells of hay and warm earth, in late September the birches turn gold, and in winter the road can be very cold and icy.
A practical point: the first stretch is busy with trucks and holiday traffic, so be patient and keep alert. The real riding starts south of Gorno-Altaysk, where the road starts to curl along the Katun. Make sure you leave with a full tank and a warm layer.