southern October-Holiday-Ride 2012

this year, Thomas and I will ride down South China; if somebody wants to join in "you are welcome"!

This is the idea:

Day1: Suzhou - Ningbo 317 Km
Day2: Ningbo - Taizhou 287 Km
Day3: Taizhou - Zhuji 251 Km
Day4: Zhuji - Anji/Moganshan 251 Km
Day5: Anji - Suzhou 167 Km

Attachment 8510

Roundtrip ~ 1280 Km

Maybe some Shanghai riders join in and we can meet down south and ride all together. The day distances are not so far, so even not so experienced riders can enjoy the rides. The coastline must be great and I found some twisted roads in the mountains.

@ Bikerdoc

Attachment 8511

is this the bridge you mentioned?

Bypassing Hangzhou city is advised due to motorcycle bans and to do so requires working out how to get across Hangzhou Bay. There is an alternative bridge. The bridge I refer to is West of the longer cable stay bridge which is part of the Expressway that bans motorcycles. The alternative bridge is shown on the "Google Map" above and as one can see it is some distance from the long cable stay bridge.

Keep in mind that there are some tolls on the Hangzhou side of this bridge, and it seemed as though motorcycles were/are banned from using it the last time I used it which was the Suzhou Harley Davidson opening. Don't despair as there is a way to use the bridge. On either side of the of the bridge simply locate the main bridge columns (on either side of the bridge) and use the ones to the East i.e. the columns that are closest to the seaward side and away from the Western side. At the base of the Eastern side columns one will find stairs winding up the bridge column as well as a big wide elevator. Use the elevator, and then ride the bike lane of the bridge. I've done it several times. Use the elevator on the other side to get down and out.

As for the size of the elevator and whether or not it would fit an outfit (sidecar), I have not idea. Even the outfit could fit, I'm not sure it would fit on the cycle lane? The only way is try it out... if it won't fit then either try getting across the bridge the normal way (I don;t know if the tolls were/are in use or not), otherwise I guess you'll have to take the coat-hanger route.

We just decided to cancel this ride call because change of plans, sorry!

dear Bikerdoc, we will come down to Ningo later this year and I will send PM when I know the date.

no worries... let me know when you can make it to these parts... :) meanwhile me and a mate will get together the next few days to work out our October riding plans...