Shanghai(ish) to Istanbul on a Chinese bike

Hello everyone, I am in the process of preparing for a Silk Road trip which will start in Zhejiang and pass through Chengdu, Kashgar, Samarkand, Turkmenbashi, Baku to Istanbul. I want to do this route as cheaply as possible and am planning to use a Chinese made bike under 500cc and over 200cc. I have a short list of potential candidates but I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations or warnings.
So far it includes the Shineray X5 or X3, Zongshen RX3 and a dealer mentioned the GW250. I was thinking the first two companies might be interested in sponsoring the trip as they seem to be marketing their new bikes as long distance enduro models. But I figure in order to get them interested, I would have to have some guanxi, which i currently lack...
If anyone knows of any other bike options that i haven't considered or has any advice on getting a sponsorship or anything else, I would appreciate hearing it. Also, does anyone have any experience getting a license or registering a motorcycle in Zhuji or Shaoxing?

http://www.slowside.org/journal/
They just made it and arrived in France.
My 2 cents: forget sponsorship, safe money and go on a trip you never will forget. It doesn't matter which bike you choose. Learn maintenance and take enough spare parts with you

Great adventure! Wish I could join you.

If you are looking for a sponsor for this trip, find out which Chinabikes are best-sellers in Turkey; you might find some interest there. Motorcycle marketing inside China is based on the premise that Chinese people buy motorcycles either as farm transport, or to look cool and impress girls. I've never seen any marketing aimed at proper touring, or even proper riding.

Otherwise, you'd be wise to choose a bike with a Japanese clone engine for which parts will be reliably available all along your route.

You should have no problem getting yourself licensed there in Zhuji, though if there aren't many foreigners there you may encounter ignorance-based resistance. And if you are only planning to ride out of China and never ride back in, it won't much matter where the bike is registered. Do get it registered, though, as you'll be riding 6,000 km inside China...

Keep us posted!
euphonius

They sponsorship was never an integral part of my plan but It would be nice to have a bit more spare cash to set up my new life in Istanbul once i get there. Motorcycles are not really popular in Turkey but I'll do some research. I have also considered extending the trip to London if I got a sponsorship but without it I don't think I could afford it.

Definitely doing this the legal way. In addition to the peace of mind, I think I'll need the registration and license to cross borders. I remember reading somewhere that Chinese licenses are valid in other countries.

The X5 seems to be a copy of the XR400 so that should qualify. The thing that worries me is that I keep getting warned off that bike when I go into dealers to ask about it. And they often offer me cheaper bikes so they're not trying to sell me something that's more expensive. I'll probably end up getting the X5 anyway.

Will keep you posted. Also does anyone know any good off road trails around Hangzhou or Zhuji that I could practice on?

[QUOTE=SabineHartmann;62339]http://www.slowside.org/journal/
They just made it and arrived in France.
/QUOTE]

Wow that seems like exactly the blog I need to be reading! Thanks!

Actually it seems he skipped the most difficult part...

See my review about the X5 here in the forum to get more idea about strength and weakness of this bike. My one has clocked now 7300km and with the higher quality parts added it runs nice. During the summer in BJ I used it a number of times to run to work on expressway for 115km one way at constant speed of 100 to 120km/h. Even at 35deg C it never missed a beat. So far happy with it.

So I thought I would put my visa plan out there for people to see and comment on. After some research I have a few options for this. The best and most time efficient plan is to get the visa for Tajikistan in China. Once I arrive in Dushanbe, I'll spend a week or so getting visas for Uzbekistan (30 day tourist), Turkmenistan (3-5 day transit), and Azerbaijan (5 day transit). The problem with all of the above listed visas is that they are date specific meaning you have to declare the exact day that you will be entering the country.

This makes the Tajik Visa the most troublesome as I would have to pretty accurately predict how long it would take to get through China. Tajikistan is also the best place to go as you can't get the visa for turkmenistan in Kyrgyzstan. Another issue is at the moment the Pamir highway border crossing from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan is closed. It may reopen but i can at least count on it being unpredictable. There is another more reliable crossing to the north near Batken. Some good news though, I have heard that the government of Tajikistan has recently approved a bill which would make their country Visa-free (like Kyrgyzstan) but I'm not sure if it will be put into effect in time for my trip.

That leads me to the back up option. If i miss the deadline, I'll have to go to Bishkek to get the Uzbek, and Azeri visas taking a week or so, then go to Tashkent to get the visa for Turkmenistan taking another week.

The visa for Turkmenistan remains uncertain. A backup plan for that is to go to Aktau in Kazakistan and take the caspian sea ferry from there. But if I can get the transit visa that leaves me with another strict deadline: 3 to 5 days to get to to the Caspian sea and get on the notoriously unreliable ferry at Turkmenbashi. Apparently they do stamp you out at the port though if it looks like youre going to overstay your visa.

The rest of the countries are pretty straight forward visa on arrival deals as far as i know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gjackson4431

The problem with all of the above listed visas is that they are date specific meaning you have to declare the exact day that you will be entering the country.

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Hi, did you heck if there is an embassy in Chongqing or Chengdu... then you would be already closer and have a better feeling for remaining time needed...

Good idea, but it seems all the embassies I need are in Beijing. I guess they are too small to have consulates in any of the other cities.

Im not exactly sure if i was right about the date specific thing. It could (hopefully) mean that your visa starts on that day but you don't necessarily have to enter on that day. So maybe you can enter after the start date and leave before the end date which would make it much easier. That could be true for the tourist visas but Turkmenistan definitely requires you to specify the exact date you'll enter.