I'm new to these forums so I thought I would give an intro as requested.

My roadworthy motorbiking career started in a bit of a rush, about 7 years ago an internship supposed to be out in NYC for my 3rd year summer holidays fell through last minute (I was at uni at Edinburgh, UK) . Some mates at the time were about to embark on a trip from London to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia in a battered 998cc Suzuki 410 4x4 (the shitboxes that are renound for tipping over). They were 3 weeks from departure and I had a very long Summer ahead of me with nothing left to do. There was no room in their car and I didn't want to drive my own car, so I opted for a motorbike, bearing in mind that I had no licence and no bike at the time, just some very minimal experience with some small offroaders on the farm my parents live on in Scotland. That evening I got on Ebay and found an awesome looking 125cc 2nd-hand Korean cruiser (a Hyosung) in London and dropped the reserve price on a complete whim. The next day I went down to London early doors, did my CBT in the afternoon (for those that don't know a CBT it is the UK pre-test motorbike test - requires L-plates, no motorways, 125cc max etc...etc...basically not enough to drive half of the way around the world) and then went to find the bike owner and pay the rest of the money. The seller was totally dumbfounded and didn't believe me for one minute that my plan was to drive his bike to Mongolia having only become semi road legal 2 hrs before. Nevertheless, I parted with my cash and he parted with his bike... little did I know at the time that I had bought an absolute beauty that I still own 7 years and a hellovalota kms later - albeit now repainted and rebuilt.
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The next 19 odd days were frantically spent getting visas and getting my full motorbike test done and dusted. I passed the full course and removed my L plates 2 days before the off and got my last (for Azerbaijan) visa the morning we left Hyde Park. To say I was a newbie to motorbiking was understatement, to adventure long-distance motorbiking (on a 125cc cruiser) well that was another thing all together and the learning curve was steep. What ensued for the next 6-8 weeks (including the trip home) I could write a book about, but the short of it was that after 17 countries, a lot of amazing places (especially The Stans) & people and some seriously arduous times I fell in love with motorbiking and the open road (or lack of it) in a big way... before finally arriving in Mongolia alone as my friends had completely written off their shitbox Suzuki by rolling it 5 times over an Kazak embankment and unfortunately had to end their trip early.
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Since then I have done a bunch of trips, unfortunately none quite as long (and have been run clean over by a 10 Tonne lorry whilst riding a KTM 540 Exc in Kenya...long story) but I have now lived in China for the past 3 and a bit years where I run an export company in Shanghai.

Until recently I kept a 250cc botched job Chongqing Yinxiang cruiser in Yangshuo, which has been a base for long distance bi-annual trips all over Southern China with a couple of mates, however some pikey b****rd stole this a couple of months ago, so I am now on the market for a 250 in Shanghai and am presently weighing up my options. I reckon it is going to be a close run thing between the following 250 'Sports' bikes: a Regal Raptor, a Yingang, a Qingqi and possibly the Sachs 250 X-Road....suggestions please?

Anyhow, enough rambling. Would be great to hear from any fellow bikers in Shanghai/ Suzhou and the vicinity... once I get the aforementioned bike legal I fully intend to take advantage of the surrounding provinces at weekends and further afield as often as possible.

If anyone wants to know more about any of my long haul trip or longish haul trips in China let me know and I'll share some more photos and info.

Cheers