Recomendation for Dual-sport Bike for Trip from China to Europe

Hi, quick update. We're in Guiyang, couchsurfing with a teacher and nursing the sores on our rear ends :-). The natural beauty has been obscene, people friendly, some good roads some poor roads, but all great motorcycling. Bike does fine, well suited to the roads, just the suspension is a bit soft and can bottom out on potholes a bit too easily. The power is is sufficient but not abundant on inclines. All the advice is ringing true (thanks for the PM 888). Gearbox is notchy when the engine is hot though, my fault for not checking the bike better. Last night got cheeky and took expressway, waved through two tollbooths and a policeman with smiles.. hmm, not sure if that should be repeated! Planning to stay some days in Kunming, should be there in 2-3 days. Will PM you. When I get time to sit down I will post more photos and details.

@Symon Thanks for the compliment. Actually it's nothing very difficult, just need to be able to think clearly and have some knowhow. Migrant workers I read do enormous distances on the same bikes in China, we see many and often drive alongside them, two up with their blanket and teapot dangling off the back. It's easier for us because we have more money and the whole thing is for fun. Some people we meet either are impressed by our trip (two thumbs up), others seem to pity us. Last night we got given a blanket and a hot water bottle at the fuel station by the last working there and were told we could sleep inside the station. A couple of days before, we were given free drinks by the fuel attendant.

As for language, no big problem although obviously we are missing out on things by not speaking Mandarin. In most nuts and bolts situations it doesn't really matter to much.. I just speak English, smile, motion and point at things, they do likewise and most things are understood. A little mandarin is on the todo list but the todolist is long. Google translate also works offline on my tablet and that is useful for my abstract communication.

A quick update, we've reached Xining, soon to start traveling west towards the border. No issues of yet. I'm putting together a webpage with the nuts and bolts information for doing such a trip, will post details soon.

Here are the photos so far, hope you enjoy:

https://plus.google.com/photos/10330...09263004099409

Hi David,

I have visited your photo collection. You take such fantastic photos. Obviously you are enjoying the trip through the most scenic part of China and meeting nice people along the way. I am amazed by how much you have accomplished in such a tight budget. Reading your report and looking at your photos makes my sitting in the office in Shanghai so much more unbearable. I need to get out there soon.

It'd be nice if you can publish the route you took, which overlaps parts that I have experienced myself: big sky, tall mountains, high altitude, grassland extending to the horizon, ...., wonderful stuff.

In Xingj!ang you may run a higher risk getting into trouble with police. It is a much more "protected" region than most other parts of China due to political troubles. Without a DL you need to watch out more.

Good luck on the rest of your trip. Keep those excellent photos coming. Thanks for sharing.

Have been meaning to do a write up, just been busy.

This is some information for those thinking of doing something similar.

Yes, you can drive across China without a licence. We might have been lucky, but it can be done. Avoid the cities where there are many traffic police. We had our licence checked three times. Once was in Kunming where me and forum-user foxy88 were riding on the elevated ring road where bikes are banned; the police stopped us and foxy feigned bad Chinese to tell them that we were on the way to the traffic police HQ to get a license (which was true), and they let me off.

The second time there were many traffic police waiting around bored after an accident on the highway, and they decided to check my license. I showed them an official translation of my foreign license, and it was OK.

The third time, the secret police were called when we tried to stay in a big 'trucker hotel' in Kuqa, Xinjiang. They were surprised we were on a motorbike but seem satisfied with the translation.

I suspect the police are not generally aware of the law. I suspect an international driving license with it's page in Chinese would have worked just as well as our translation.

RE Getting a Chinese licence, with foxy88's help I would have been able to get one in Kunming, were it not for the rule that you can only get one with a three-month or longer visa. The temporary license, I was told at the traffic police HQ, is only for organised tours.

Crossing the border at the Irkeshtam pass was an ordeal. Customs and passport control (at Ulugqat) is a good distance away from the physical border. They wouldn't let us take the bike accross, seeming to find constantly changing reasons, for example, a motorbike is not a vehicle, it is goods, where are your export documents for these goods? Then it was: 'there is a proceedure for tourists crossing the border on motorbike, we just don't know what it is, so here's a number for a travel agency who can perhaps help you' etc. etc. In the end we kept insisting for the reason that we weren't allowed to cross to be written down on a piece of paper and signed by the officer, which he avoided doing. At the end of the day, a more senior officer walked over to the one we were dealing with, and seemed to say something along the lines of, 'why are you giving these guys such a hard time? Let them pass already.' So we were allowed to check out of China and have our bike put on the back of a taxi-pickup and have it taken to the physical border. And that was that. No one even looked at the bike documents in the end. The Kyrgyzstan side took no interest in the bike at all, just stamping our passports. I would recommend trying the Kazakhstan border near Urumqi instead, it might be more straightforward.

A 125 is plenty of motorbike, even on the highway two-up, unless your spending a lot of time above 2000m. Then you'll be wishing for more displacement. But it's possible with patience.

A useful observation: We didn't try in Guangxi, but we were able to use the highway without any problem in Guizhou and in across to Kunming, then as far as Dali. We were denied entry after this as we headed North, but there wasn't much highway there that we would have wanted to use. There wasn't any highway where we were in Sichuan (along the Western border with Tibet, then along the Sichuan-Tibet 'highway', North and South routes), no highway in Qinghai. Gansu seemed ok with us on the highway, Xinjiang was mostly ok too. Different people quoted different reasons why bikes aren't allowed (only allowed with one person on the bike, it's too dangerous), but mostly they didn't feel like they needed to offer a reason.