Some shit luck there guys, hope you get the bikes running again soon and don't have to cut your trip any shorter.
Outstanding support by chinabiker!!!
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Some shit luck there guys, hope you get the bikes running again soon and don't have to cut your trip any shorter.
Outstanding support by chinabiker!!!
tare, that is really harsh. We've managed to pick up a replacement clutch. We are on our way back to EBC tomorrow.Quote:
Originally Posted by tare
Ryan
Felix,Quote:
Originally Posted by felix
We won't be cutting our trip short. We need to get the miles down. I'll keep you posted on our progress. We are back on the road tomorrow.
Ryan
DAY 42
Today the MKRIDE team put our motorcycle troubles aside and decided to explore Lhasa for all it's mystical glory. Sadly it's high season for tourism and the place is packed. We visited the Sera Monastery and watched the monks debate, but could barely see the monks through the throngs of tourists wielding massive digital cameras and lenses. After the monastery we finished up with a walk around the Jokang Monastery and a quiet dinner at the Snowlands Restaurant. It was nice not to think about the bikes for a whole day.
DAY 43
Today the MKRIDE team starting putting back together our motorcycles again. First we had to get Colin's tire fixed, which took two seconds. From there we visited the storied Potala Plalce and had an lovely time. After that we met with Leo, who is a friend of a friend who flew from Guangzhou to Lhasa with our replacement clutch. The original package left from BMW Toronto on Tuesday, arrived in Hong Kong on Friday and showed up in Lhasa on Saturday. Amazing supply chain. It should also be noted that Chinabiker (Andy in BJ) has procured another clutch for us from Vienna , in case we have our second bike goes down with a bad clutch. That second clutch will arrive in Lhasa on Monday. Amazing support from our riding community in China, and from our friends and followers at BMW in Toronto! Just to let everyone know, we managed to swap out our own clutch using this POST on the popular blog ADVRider.com.
DAY 44
Today the MKRIDE team has two working BMW F800GS motorcycles for the first time in what seems like months, but it has only been about 5 days. We fought a burnt clutch, a busted gasket, leaking oil and a host of other issues over the last few days. But alas today is our last day in Lhasa. To celebrate we'll visit the market around the Jokang Monastery and do some last minute shopping, and enjoy a feast at the Snowlands Restaurant before heading in to the back country again. Tomorrow from Lhasa the MKRIDE team will head back West near to the point where they broke down a few days back and continue their journey to Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC), and then backtrack to Lhasa again before heading out of Eastern Tibet. The journey to EBC will be a great test for the bikes, and my new clutch, as well top out near 5200m above sea level. We've got a tough few days ahead, and we have a tough few days behind us. Time to get cracking and get back on home to Shanghai.
Hi folks. This is an amazing POST on how to fix a burnt clutch on www.ADVRIDER.com. We followed the instructions and we have a working motorcycle, for the moment :)
Good news that you are back on the road!
I read that there was a minor outbreak of pneumonic plague but it should have been contained already. The cases were in Nyingchi, east of Lhasa by the G318, I think.
Just don't go petting any rodents!
http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?&id=7310
tare,Quote:
Originally Posted by tare
We actually do have to go through that town in a few days time as we exit Tibet. Will do our best to stay away from Rodents.
Ryan
Attachment 2329
I just wanted to introduce everyone to Leo, he was able to deliver a clutch to us in Lhasa! A real hero. Thanks so much Andreas and Leo for all your support.
It should also be noted that Chinabiker has also delivered a second clutch to Lhasa, because our second bike is in need of clutch work as well. Sadly I don't have a picture for that.
I think it is amazing that the riding community in China helped out so much on this recent breakdown. Honestly, this kind of support is amazing and I can't thank you all enough. I hope I have a chance to pay back the favor at some stage in the future.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for posting the picture of Leo. He didn't hesitate for a second, when I asked him to fly to Lhasa. Leo helps me and our company a lot in China since many years now. I think he deserves this trip and the little holiday, which he has connected to it with his wife. Wishing him lot's of fun up there.
Ryan, you are living a dream many of us have and you are sharing it with the motorcycle community. Being able to contribute with a little support makes us feel a bit closer to the real action.
Ride on and show us some more pictures... Shigatse, Tingri (check out Old Tingri) and from there to Everest Base Camp...Curious to know, if they let you ride the final few kilometers up above Rongphu Monastery with your bikes to the starting place of the mountain expeditions.
Cheers,
AW.
+1 to Pfaelzers post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pfaelzer
Your trip is really what many dream of - me included. You will meet difficulties on a trip like this which you are not prepared for - you can't be prepared for everything. In such a case you'll need some help which we were pleased to offer.
Ride on safely :thumbsup:
DAY 45 - The MKRIDE team safely traveled from Lhasa to Shigatse. Today is our first day of riding with fully functional motorcycles in what seems like weeks, but it was only about 5 days. We headed west from Lhasa, in an attempt to back track to near where we broke-down, and also visit Mount Everest Base Camp. Highlights included lovely twisting switch backs to a high pass looking out over the most stunning glacial lake, who’s name escapes me for the moment. It is F*#king great to be riding again.
DAY 46 - The MKRIDE team safely traveled from Shigatse to a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Tingri. As we moved further south from Lhasa and then on to Shigatse the landscape began to change and the snow-capped Himalayan range began to appear. Most of the day was spent on the 318 high-way which actually starts in Shanghai and runs right through the country, through Tibet to the Nepal border. We stopped at a plaque that was a marker for the 5000km marker for the highway, meaning that it was a 5000km straight shot from rural Tibet to Shanghai. It was a bit exhausting in Shegar where we had a police checkpoint and a military checkpoint within about 5km of each other, the two checkpoints combined added over an hour to our journey that day. Exhausting bureaucracy.
DAY 47 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived at Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC). We had an intense 70km, seven hour, off-road riding experience to get to EBC. Washed out roads, steep drops and tones of gravel and sand. Needless to say it was a dream day of riding. Pulling in to EBC on our BMW F800GS bikes was a real moment of accomplishment for Colin and I. We have traveled so far and worked so hard to get here, it was really an amazing experience; a real sense of achievement. Once we arrived we parked our bikes and headed to the EBC plaque and prayer flags, which is about as far as tourists can go. The altitude there was 5200m, the view was breathtaking.
DAY 48 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Shigatse today. We woke up and had breakfast looking out at Mount Everest before starting the long journey back to Lhasa. The road out for EBC was amazing as we had to overcome about one straight hour of switch-backs in thick sand and gravel before making it back to the 318 highway that we’d take back to Lhasa.
DAY 49 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Lhasa today. Though we had some bad news. Throughout much of the journey we’ve been making applications and petitions to travel through Eastern Tibet to Yunnan province, as this would coincide with our plans to circumnavigate China. Sadly, after months of petitioning and making applications with our travel partners in Tibet we’ve been denied permission. This is a huge setback for the MKRIDE team, as no we have no real way to continue our journey. Traveling north through Qinghai province would add some 4,000km to our journey. Sneaking through the three military check points in Eastern Tibet at night is not an option as well, as we would be putting our guides and driver potentially in harms way. We don’t exactly know what we’ll do at the moment. We’ll need to have a team meeting and sort it our in the morning.
DAY 50 - The MKRIDE team decided late last night that trying to “sneak” through eastern Tibet would be too much a risk for our guides and driver, not to mention our filming ambitions. So this morning we loaded our bikes on another truck, which really broke my heart – bikes in perfect working order should never be put on a truck, and sent them off to Yunnan province. The truck will cover the 1,600km journey in four days. The MKRIDE team, all being foreigners and not allowed in Eastern Tibet because of “civil disturbances” will fly from Lhasa to Yunnan and collect the bikes and continue our journey to Shanghai. These last few days have been tough on the team, we’ve spent more days off the bikes than on, and we are itching to get moving again. This is just another example that traveling through China, and Tibet specifically is never as easy or as straightforward as it may seem.
DAY 51 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived today in Shangri-la (Zhongdian), Yunnan province. We flew from Lhasa to Shangri-la and it was the fastest 1,600km we’ve done so far on the trip, just under two hours. We’ll hang out and rest here and await the arrival of our motorcycles, which should arrive in the next 48 hours. Fingers crossed.
DAY 52 - The MKRIDE team is still waiting for our motorcycles. Not much going on in Shangri-la. We are keen to get back on the bikes and get moving. Covering the kilometers and really getting moving provides such a sense of accomplishment for the team. This entire sitting around is really not good. It’s hard to relax when your BMW bikes are on a truck somewhere in Eastern Tibet.
MKRIDE Update: Back on the road again, almost.
Hello,
Well, it's been a topsy turvy two weeks for the MKRIDE team. We've actually spent more time off the bikes than on the bikes, which is never a good thing. After our blown clutch we had two new clutches arrive rapidly in Lhasa, with much help from our friends in the China riding community; a special thanks goes out to Tim at BMW Toronto, Andreas in HK, Andy in Beijing, Jeff in Shanghai and of course our couriers, Leo and Marissa. There were many other people involved as well, thank you to all involved.
With our F800GS clutch self-repaired, by using a DIY ADVRIDER posting, Colin and Ryan headed out from Lhasa and backtracked west some 600km to visit Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC), and yes - it was well worth the backtrack. Our overnight in a Tingri Farmhouse followed by a 70km, 7 hour, off-road ride the next day to EBC may have been the highlight of the journey so far. For those of you who haven't had the chance to visit EBC I can tell you that it is well worth the hardship of traveling there. The mountain itself is stunning. The surrounding valley is breathtaking and I consider myself very luck to have visited twice. My first journey I trekked in from Shegar (about 90km) in 2001. This trip was, by comparison, much easier with the bikes. I know the trip to EBC left a lasting impression on Colin, who is enjoying his first trip to Tibet.
Our journey from EBC back to Lhasa was full of frustration and indecision. We learned that our application by our travel partners in Tibet to ride out of Eastern Tibet was denied. There as been some civil unrest there in the last few weeks and the whole region has been closed to foreign travelers, meaning us. We had a few decisions to consider. One was to backtrack north to Qinghai province, then cut south back to Yunnan and continue our journey, but that was going to add about 4,000km to our journey. Another option was to try and sneak through the military, and police, checkpoints at night - but we feared for the safety of our guides and drivers - as well as our filming ambitions for this leg of the journey. In the end we decided to, yet again, put the bikes on a truck and ship them to Yunnan province; while the MKRIDE team flew that leg of the journey. This was a heart wrenching decision to make but we collectively felt it was the right thing to do as we didn't want to put our local guides in harms way and adding 4,000km to our trip so late in the game was not an option. Putting two perfectly working motorcycles on a truck is a horrible thing to do, but alas it was all we could do. Sadly we missed out on Eastern Tibet this trip, the stunning mountains and river valley's will have to wait until a future trip.
We are currently in Yunnan province waiting for our bikes to arrive, should be in the next 24hrs. While Colin and I have had an amazing trip thus far, we are excited about the prospects of being on the final leg of our trip. We are currently just under 5,000km from Shanghai and should arrive somewhere around October 20th, just five days later than originally scheduled.
We also would like to thank everyone for following our journey. Your emails, messages and support are wonderful and we hope that our journey not only provides you with an interest or better understanding of China, but also perhaps an ambition to get out and see the world. There is a lot of adventure and exploration out there to be had, and there is no better tool for exploration than a motorcycle. More updates coming soon. www.mkride.com.
ps. We have a new video on YouTube. You can view it by following this link: <http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMKRID.../1/bD2RbTxbU_A>
_________________________
Cheers,
Ryan Pyle & Colin Pyle
Base: CHINA
www.mkride.com / www.ryanpyle.com
info@mkride.com / ryan@ryanpyle.com
**Charitable Partner** - The Middle Kingdom Ride is riding to raise funds for SEVA, a charitable foundation that has, for more than 30 years, served people around the world who are struggling for health, cultural survival and sustainable communities. Learn more about SEVA at www.seva.org, and make a donation today at http://www.seva.org/mkride.
**Corporate Sponsors** - The Middle Kingdom Ride could not have happened without our wonderful corporate sponsors: BMW China, Touratech, The Tomson Group, Airhawk, Pelican Products, Kodak, Oakley, Cardo Systems, Lowe Pro & Mandarin House.
You can follow The MKRIDE at:
Actual Link: <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115422335152074>
YOUTUBE
Actual Link: <http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMKRIDE>
Actual Link: <http://twitter.com/MK_Ride>
Hello all. We've just issued a global press release indicating that we are almost completed our epic 20,000km journey around China. You can click the link below to view the HTML version of the press release. www.mkride.com.
LINK: http://www.prweb.com/releases/MKRIDE...web4600534.htm
Nice looking video guys :thumbsup:. Sad that you were unable to ride your bikes out of TB, things like that can be really frustrating, as another member here just went through that area and the only difference was his nationality.
I guess you will be heading off the plateau when your bikes arrive, it will be a great ride, but becomes a bit of a letdown as the scenery will pale in comparison to the places you've just been. You might want to take the route that Felix, Daniel and I did, which is a "back door" to Luguhu in Yunnan. Your van won't make it, but it would be exciting on the BMW's. :naughty:
Be safe and hit me up for a few beers if you have time while passing Guangdong.
Cheers!
ChinaV
ChinaV,Quote:
Originally Posted by ChinaV
Where in Guangdong are you based? We are just planning our route from Yunnan to the coast. Wanted to avoid heavy traffic. Any suggestions on how to get from Guilin to Xiamen without getting caught in a weeks worth of traffic in Guangdong?
Ryan
RE: Touratech
Ryan and Colin Pyle are very proud to have Touratech as one of our main sponsors for the MKRIDE. Today Touratech have updated their website with our global press release. To view it please follow the link below.
LINK: http://www.touratech.de/new/main.php?sprache=2
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
I was looking at your website and noticed your route is for Yangshuo-Dongguan-Yongding. I've done the Yangshuo-Dongguan thing many times and my home is in Dongguan. It's possible to make that in a long day, but there's a more scenic two day route that's a bit more fun. I just went from Dongguan through Yongding a couple days ago, so I can definitely tell you which way not to go, as Fujian has a lot of construction going on. If your not coming down to Dongguan, I can give you a scenic, northern Guangdong, route to get to Xiamen.
I have PM'd you my contact info if you want to discuss possibilities.
Ride Safe
ChinaV
RE: Random Update.
The MKRIDE team has ridden 4 straight days (about 1500km) in torrential trains from Shanghri-la, Yunnan to Rongjiang, Guizhou. Wea are waterlogged and mentally shattered. More complete updates coming in next 24hrs. www.mkride.com
RE: GREAT ROAD FIND
I think I found one of China's greatest roads today. It's the S308 from Kaili, Guizhou to Rongjiang, Guizhou. It's about 170km of amazing twisty mountain roads, endless rice terraces and amazing little villages. It took us about 6 hours to get through on very wet roads. Sadly I saw little as I was caught in a torrential rain storm the whole days and it was pretty chilly. www.mkride.com
DAY 53 - Today the MKRIDE had to hold tight in Zhongdian (Shangri-la), Yunnan province. Our bikes were supposed to arrive overland by truck today but they somehow never did. So we are sitting and waiting; not easy to do for two restless and impatient people like Colin and I.
DAY 54 - Surprise, surprise. For the second time on this trip our motorcycles arrived by truck at 430am; but alas they arrived. With our bikes finally in Shangri-la, Yunnan we are able to depart and continue on our journey. The moment we actually sat on our bikes and began down the winding and twisting roads in Northern Yunnan it began raining and didn't stop all day. Intense rains marked the late afternoon and near freezing temperatures were the norm. Glad to be back on the road again, yes. But the rain is a little much. We managed to make it from Zhongdian down to Dali in one shot.