Ride Report: China, "The Middle Kingdom Ride"

MKRIDE Pictures are IN!

I am just writing to let you know that after two weeks on the road we have a great selection of images we'd love to share with you. Riding long hours every day as proven difficult and updating our followers with images regularly is even tougher, we appreciate your patience. Today the MKRIDE Team is enjoying a rest day in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, so we've had some time to organize our images and get them out to everyone, links to our images are below.

The journey so far has exceeded all expectations. The expedition has taken us through extreme heat, intense traffic and some of the worst flooding China has seen in a decade. Through all of this the MKRIDE team has navigated their way safely through Eastern China, the borderlands with North Korea and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Each day is filled with amazing scenery, and captivating personal stories. Our days are so full and intense that events that occurred only one week ago seem a month old already.

The MKRIDE team would like to thank everyone for following our journey so far, and we hope that you'll continue to follow us as well as introduce our expedition and our stories to your family, friends and colleagues. As our expedition is now 25% completed there is a strong realization among our MKRIDE team that we are truly doing something very special, and China is playing it's part by offering us incredible landscapes and amazing experiences on a daily basis. China is one of the most remarkable country's in the world, and this expedition is really a special opportunity for brothers Colin and Ryan re-connect and ride their motorcycles 20,000 km in 60 days around this awesome country.

With 25% of our behind us we can't wait to get started on the next portion of our journey. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors: BMW China, Touratech, The Tomson Group, Airhawk, Pelican Products, Kodak, Oakley, Cardo Systems, Lowe Pro & Mandarin House. As well as remind everyone out there that our Charitable partner for our expedition around China is the SEVA Foundation, who for more than 30 years, has served people around the world who are struggling for health, cultural survival and sustainable communities. You can learn more about SEVA by visiting their website. We also want to thank all our fans and followers for all their emails offering support and kind words.

Looking forward from Inner Mongolia, the MKRIDE team will head West through Gansu and Xinjiang before dropping in to Western Tibet. Links to our pictures are below.

MKRIDE Pictures:

1) Trip Preparation LINK
Actual Link: http://archive.ryanpyle.com/gallery/...0001B2NYqu1cOY

2) MKRIDE Week 1 LINK
Actual Link: http://archive.ryanpyle.com/gallery/...0002C88njQakPI

3) MKRIDE Week 2 LINK
Actual Link: http://archive.ryanpyle.com/gallery/...000k1BvL663GAI

Hello,

I just wanted to make you aware that the MKRIDE team is not only traveling vast distances each day, we are also cutting clips and sharing our journey with the wider world as we travel.

We have created two new video clips, please see below:

Video #1 - MKRIDE 2 Week Trailer - LINK
This is just a very very brief clip showing the type of experiences that we've been enjoying so far on our journey.
Actual LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxAxdHLErWc

Video #2 - MKRIDE Hits China's Worst Traffic Jam - LINK
This is a brief clip showing the MKRIDE team getting stuck in a massive traffic jam spanning from Beijing westward to China's Inner Mongolia province.
Actual LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqPIy6qjvH0

Enjoy.

Day 16 - The MKRIDE team had to stay on in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia for an extra rest day. We needed to pickup further supplies and tune the bikes before carrying on along the Silk Road towards the border of China and Pakistan. More updates coming soon.

DAY 17 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in the town of Hanggin Houqi, Inner Mongolia, on the edge of the southern Gobi Desert. The team covered 421km today in just under eight hours without any hassles. The team is excited about the changing landscapes and cultures as they move further west in China, along the storied Silk Road.

DAY 18 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Wuliji Sumu, Inner Mongolia. We are currently on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert. We covered about 300km today and were hampered by strong winds, and severe road construction. The road construction was particularly difficult as entire stretches of highway were gravel or worse. Most of the day was spent up on the pegs, and felt much like our enduro training in Germany.

DAY 19 - The MKRIDE team arrived safely in the town of Zhangye, in Gansu Province, in Western China. We said goodbye to the province of Inner Mongolia, which had been our temporary home for over a week. As we moved from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia to the deserts of Gansu we realized quickly that this trip is beginning to take on a life of its own. The MKRIDE team has clocked over 6,000km in the bank already, and we just completed DAY 19, meaning there are just over 40 days remaining on our journey of a lifetime. We can't even being to describe our excitement as each new day begins, and that endless road takes us someplace new and interesting. For the next few days we'll be traveling along the famous Silk Road from Gansu province in to Xinjiang province. From there we'll get well off the beaten track. Stay tuned.

Thanks for the daily updates, Ryan. Given your reflections about being 6000km and 19 days into the trip, are you thinking you'll end up revising the expected total distance, and possibly need more than 60 days to complete the circumnavigation? In other words, are you roughly on track, given your pre-ride calculations, or are you feeling you under- or overestimated (or perhaps misunderestimated) the scale of the commitment?

It's been pretty epic already, and you are just now getting into the good stuff!

Keep it coming!

cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by euphonius

Thanks for the daily updates, Ryan. Given your reflections about being 6000km and 19 days into the trip, are you thinking you'll end up revising the expected total distance, and possibly need more than 60 days to complete the circumnavigation? In other words, are you roughly on track, given your pre-ride calculations, or are you feeling you under- or overestimated (or perhaps misunderestimated) the scale of the commitment?

It's been pretty epic already, and you are just now getting into the good stuff!

Keep it coming!

cheers

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Jeff,

We are about two days behind our original schedule at the moment, but that is mainly because of one completely wasted day with a flat tire on the support vehicle and another day we were almost completely rained out and could only cover about 100km. I am still pretty confident we can finish in 60 days, but there is no deadline and we absolutely won't rush ourselves. If it takes 65 or 70 days then so be it.

Ryan

DAY 20 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Jiayuguan, Gansu province today. We covered a brisk 300km in the morning and spent the afternoon enjoying the Jiayuguan Fortress, the final outpost of Chinese rule in ancient times, as well as the furthest west section of the Great Wall. Needless to say, an amazing day! Also, today marks the fact that we have completed 1/3 of our Middle Kingdom Ride so far. We are very excited about our next 40 days on the road. We hope you'll continue to follow our journey.

ps. If anyone would like to leave comments or ask any questions feel free to do so. I know I am not posting much content on this site, but there are links to where you can find our images and video's. We, at MKRIDE, would love to hear from other riders out there.

Cheers,

DAY 21 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in the town of Dunhuang, Gansu, China today. We arrived in town early enough to visit the famous Sand Dunes of Dunhuang, and they were amazing. Colin and Ryan had an amazing time riding ATVs through the sand dunes, as well as even taking glider up over the sand dunes to enjoy an ariel view. Gansu province is a really amazing place and it is too bad that the MKRIDE team were only here for a few days. But, upwards and onwards as we begin our journey in to China's Northwestern Xinjiang province. More amazing adventures ahead. We hope you all continue to follow along.