So I went to a small, 3day trip to Russia. I couldnt believe it when I suddenly had no brakes in the middle of the road with heavy traffic. Although those bolts are not meant to be tightened with Loctite, i strongly recommend using it.
Look what happened:
http://album.piipz.com/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=0
Yes - it came totally loose and just hanged there by the oil line.
Luckily i had low speed and I managed to stop the fully loaded bike with just the rear brake. But it was close :P And luckily I found a dude within 500m radius who got me new bolts.

But the roads in Russia.....

Exactly the same thing happened to FostersMonster 2 years ago, we were on our Lakeland trip and on the way back he totally lost the bolts holing the front caliper. He tightened the caliper to his fork leg with some zip ties and made the journey back on his back brake only. Scary **** as we had to drive on the motorway. Locktite is good but it's no substitute for regualr check up on all your bolts and something you can easily do yourself on a weekly basis.
Hold on to your nuts by keeping them well tight is what I say

almost forgot to mention - zip tie is your friend too - its the same thing I did when I searched for the nearest mechanic shop for replacement bolts. Funny thing is, as I asked around today in bolt shops, the dont have exactly the same bolt so I had to order them from Yamaha, 3euro a piece.

Yikes. Close call, man.

Those russian roads must realy be something else .

Hope to experience them myself some day.

Torsten

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the deeper you go, more surprised you will be. I bet that russia has the longest gravel roads (official routes) or the longest f*cked up paved roads in the world.
if you are starting from denmark, then one way would be through Belarus, but then again, you would need a visa for belarus also. For Ukraine you would not need a visa but entering to Russia through Ukraine (or Belarus also) would not be recommended, it will take you forever in customs. The easiest way probably would be to take a ship to Tallinn (estonia) and go directly to Ivangorod (russia)
http://maps.google.fi/maps?client=fi...,0.154324&z=13

which is the exact same point I entered Russia. But this is getting offtopic already :P

we had same problem in my friends xt two months ago and offcource in russia.....when we noticed that failure brake saddle was allready hanging on brake line and both bolts has disappered to russian mud. after that he did not had front brake that day. after days riding in the evening in the motel we managed to find two missing bolts from motel owners old snowmobile!!!!

offtopic thing: when was that biker meeting in spb and where exactly? iam intresting to go next year.

an other offtopic thing: ukraina and crossing boarder from or to russia is not a big issue. from belarus to russia is not recomended. and my opinion is that belarus in not recomended attall.

hono - it was 24 - 26 july 2009 near St. Petersburg
http://test.ivi-group.ru/ - this is the rock fest site.
And this http://www.nightwolves.ru/en/ is the Night Wolves site, just keep an eye on this page, starting from spring 2010 and you should not miss it.
Much bigger event was in Ukraine, Sevastopol, but i missed it since i knew about it too late.

same thing happened to me although it was on a honda 250 in thailand. I had hired the bike and ridden most of the day on fast sweeping roads I was cutting through a rain forest on a dirt track and one second i am merrily ridding along next i am in the dirt with a bad knee.

I couldnt understand what had happened then i found the brake caliper had come loose and locked the front wheel.

Luckily i had a leatherman and I was able to cut some wire from a fence to back up my cable tie.

I'm just glad it happened at 25-30 kph and not over 100 kph

I actually carried on for 2 more days of great roads and trail with no problems and just returned the bike after dark