I suppose it's about time...

I've browsed this forum for a long time but never signed up...until just now.

Where to start? Bikes! Yes, bikes. OK.

I started riding pretty late, about 17 years old, but managed to pick it up fast and loved it instantly. While at my home in London I was lucky enough that my best pal went through bikes like hot meals so I always had something nice to borrow and only actually ever owned one bike until I was 22 (that was a 2-stroke Yamaha RXS). The loaners, to name a few, included an FZS600, Firestorm (VTR1000), several Aprillia 2-strokes that went BANG!, CBR600R, various off-roaders; DT, YZ, KX(80) and so on an so forth. Never owned these bikes, just borrowed from my friend's garage when possible.

I moved to China in '09 and began actually owning bikes, with names like Tanky (Shinery Long March), Franky (something build from the parts rack at Yingang), Elise (Loncin custom dirt bike) , Shrek (another Yingang) and Little Red (World Record holding tour bike with a Zongshen lump).
Of course all of these bikes were small engined, air-cooled, carb fed, rides but none of them ever let me down given the correct maintenance.

After many short tours, in 2013 I started planning a tour of China which later became a Guinness World Record attempt which took from Feb '13 until April '14, from inception to completion, to nab my team mate and I the world record for longest distance in a single country officially at 35'511km, but in reality closer to 50'000km were covered. We we lucky enough to have Motorhead in Chongqing build two brilliant bikes with Zongshen engines that made the whole trip with very little in the way of problems.

Since leaving China for Thailand in May '14 (following a female, naturally) I've been riding scooters mostly with the only exception being a Suzuki Desperado 400 V-twin and a CB500X, neither of which suited my needs so were passed on.

It's fair to say I love bike and riding. I've ridden pretty much every terrain available; swamp, desert, mountain, rubble, tundra, glacial, polar, tropical, etc but my love still lays with the smooth black top. Nothing better to me than the right conditions on a twisty bit of mountain asphalt. I'm not completely confident on sand or gravel still and I'm far from considering myself an expert rider (compared to many), though I am well experienced.

I'm currently writing for China2Wheels which might be known by some of you as my father is the chief editor/ founder and has posted here a bit with the latest news. I'm hoping that our rag can be for the exact type of people who frequent this message board.

Sorry for the long post, here's some nice photos so you don't feel let down by the wall of text above. ;)

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That seems to be the site limit for photos but there are some YouTube vids as well of me out on the roads but I'll only bother linking them if any is interested.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to hanging around the forums and chatting with you all.

Cheers, Shem.

OK, Rashomon mod is over for you too. :icon10:

Welcome.

Say... since I read article in C2W, I was wondering... how far are you from "Iron Butt" certificate? http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/mooning/showing.gif

Not to forget: don't hesitate to write more articles about underbone bikes, especially Chinese-made, and about their reputation in... traditionally underbone-riding nation like Thailand.

Welcome Shem and I can imagine a ride report of your trip is probably a bit much to ask. But how about your best and worst day of that trip?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

I haven't got the hang of all the features yet so I'm not sure how multi-quoting works, so let me reply to both your posts here.

@Zorge - I'd have to say I've still some way to go before I reach Iron Butt status, not that I don't physically have one already though. I assume you refer to the 1000 miles in 24 hours achievement, for which I'm rather short on distance. I've not even done 1000km in a 24 hour period, 700km is my best, though I've never really had the opportunity to give it a proper crack since the bike I rode 700km on (during the China tour) topped out at around 70mph and that was with gearing adjustments for top end. Any more and we'd have risked valve float.

I'll be happy to write more about the underbone models as they're somewhat of a regular feature of the roads here, especially the little Hondas with clip-ons, 2 inch tyres and race trim, the model name slips my mind but I'm sure it'll come back to me once I've finished this post.

@Zhu - Best and worst days are hard to pin point as there were so many highlights and lowlights.

If I had to choose I'd say the best was probably a club meet in Jiangjakou about 200km from Beijing. The club there was so hospitable and asked nothing in return. They took us for dinner every night of the week we spent there, took us out for rides and even let me rip one of their 450s up a ski slope, which I managed to drop a few times. They were a massive highlight. So many other things were up there though, like riding across the Heavenly Mountains or spending Chinese New Year camped on a deserted beach in Sanya, Hainan.

The worst days were perhaps any time we crashed or were held up for petty reasons. Constantly getting kicked off the highways after sneaking on springs to mind. Crashes, of which there were many, also put a grim spin on things. I've still lots of nice scars from a big one that had me in constant pain for the last few weeks of the tour (hip protruding through the skin, super glue repair because there were simply no hospitals around).
The one grim moment that my team mate and I still reminisce about more than others was the days in which we got hit by a Siberian blizzard. We stopped for 2 nights at some middle-of-nowhere truck stop and made a break, continuing north, once the weather broke. After just 100km we had to admit defeat as the road turned to thick ice and we just couldn't keep the bikes upright with the road tyres we had fitted. That, and the fact it was minus double figures and no amount of clothing seemed to keep the inevitable hypothermia from setting in. No choice but to call it a day and return south, missing out on hitting China's most northerly point by just a few hundred kms.

In NZ we say if you rode on ice and didn't crash, you didn't ride on ice. Thanks for your reply , it seems universal that the best days are because of the people you meet and the worst days are due to the weather. Hard to enjoy being wet and cold , no matter how much you tell yourself you are having fun. Even being at work, swinging on the end of a welder sounds good when you are freezing your ass off and half a days ride to shelter.

You mentioned a few crashes. Any insight on keeping the carnage to a minimum? Would you use different tyres? Riding gear? Routing? Riding at night?

I go out of my way to avoid cities and highways , what do you think?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zhu

You mentioned a few crashes. Any insight on keeping the carnage to a minimum? Would you use different tyres? Riding gear? Routing? Riding at night?

I go out of my way to avoid cities and highways , what do you think?

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I have to say that city riding is probably my favourite after nice twisty mountains roads, maybe I have a death wish but I love dicing with traffic. Highways I quite enjoy for a short stint, longer distances can be boring though.

I honestly think sometimes accidents are just unavoidable. I don't think I've had one single off (not crash) that wasn't related to poor road conditions or poor weather.

I try not to ride at night purely for visibility reasons but often it can't be avoided and it's just a case of being extra vigilant and getting the bike lit up like a Christmas tree.

Apart from a helmet and gloves I've never worn any protective gear for regular street riding. Because most offs happen at low speeds there's really been no reason for me go down the leather and armour route. I have had a few collisions caused by typical Chinese drivers but somehow through 99% of them I've managed to bounce off and keep the bike upright.

Tyre wise I guess having a good all-rounder is the best bet for touring because it's hard to know what will be around the corner. It's very true that people come off more in the wet than in the dry but it's also true that some people fail to adapt their riding style to account for the lack of grip when it rains.

Crashing or going down the road is just scary in general, unless it happens so fast there's no time to think, I think we can all agree.

To conclude I would go as far as to say that the majority of offs are caused by poor road surface; wet, loose or muddy and a misunderstanding by the rider, and that most crashes are usually caused by outside factors, like stupid motorists or animals in the road.

I have plenty of pretty wild crash stories but I guess they can be saved for another time or the appropriate thread.

Hello and respects from here, also thank you very much of the pics and words.

A very good saying it is that if you haven't crashed on ice, then you have not driven on ice :lol8:

All this makes me consider to get crash bars on my Jawa because a crash is like inevitable anyway during winter. It can happen even when pulling the bike to centre stand, just one slip on snowy ground by boots and the bike is on its side on the ground.