Blacks and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Located to the south of China's Inner-Mongolia Plateau is the world's largest loess plateau 黄土高原, formed by accumulation of wind-blown silt and clay. Loess is homogeneous, porous, friable, pale yellow or buff and forms the most breathtaking landscape:
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Three of us JH600 riders made a trip on the Qingming 清明 week to the mountainous area of this loess plateau known as Taihang Shan 太行山, with Motokai and me set out from Shanghai on 2 black bikes, joined on the second day by Barry on a slower but equally handsome blue Jialing from Beijing. For the Shanghai gang the “value index” may be a bit low, costing 4 days for getting there and back with only 3 days for the fun stuff. However, that is the cost of living in the warm and sandstorm free beautiful Shanghai. The plan was to ride to Taihang Shan 太行山 and spend a few days there and later perhaps meet with Felix somewhere close to Xi’an for the second half of the trip. For Shanghai gang we would train our bikes back to Shanghai from either Xi’an or Zhengzhou 郑州.
Three JH600s in front of a Jialing dealership just before entering Wangmangling 王莽岭, the owner of which had never seen our kind of Jialings before:
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The highlights of the trip are:
1. Loess plateau
2. Taihang Shan 太行山 and hand-dug “hanging tunnels” 挂壁公路
3. Longmen grottos 龙门石窟
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The weather couldn’t have been better, with only a couple of hours of rain on the first day arriving at Xuzhou 徐州 and the rest of the trip warm and dry.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 1 and 2:
Getting there: Xuzhou 徐州 and Anyang 安阳
The first two days were spent on the road galloping towards Anyang 安阳, where we were to rendezvous with Barry coming down from Beijing. This part of the trip was simply for getting there, going through totally flat terrains with very little sceneries. From Shanghai we made a short ride to Taihai ferry 台海汽渡 to get across the Yangtze River to Jiangsu 江苏. After getting off the ferry, it was guodao 国道 G204 to Yancheng 盐城 and some other guodaos going west to Xuzhou 徐州. Those guodaos are mostly divided and wide with fairly light traffic during Qingming holidays. It was quite pleasant and relaxed going through those green wheat fields lining both sides of the road. We took very few breaks as it was difficult to find shaded rest areas. There were just too few trees large enough to cast decent sized shades.
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We arrived at Xuzhou around 8 pm after getting rained on for about 2 hours on the way in. We were cold and stiff with hands totally numb. After checking into a hotel, we ventured out to find food, which brought us into the freezing rain more. It wasn’t too pleasant.
Xuzhou is the ancient Chu 楚 territories and full of history and culture. People there are straightforward and laud, not as refined as those south of Yangtze. Its food has its own unique style, spicy but not very hot. Motokai and I had a good dinner of local Xuzhou dishes:
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Delicious fish balls of fresh-water fish:
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Since we made good time the first day, covering almost 800km, we decided to do some sightseeing around Xuzhou in the morning.
View from Yunlong Shan 云龙山:
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In Xuzhou museum, we were presented with the following world famous gold-threaded jade cover 金缕衣 of an emperor, and his empress in equally impressive silver-threaded jade cover 银缕衣:
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Xuzhou museum:
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We left Xuzhou before noon and headed for Anyang 安阳 to meet up with Barry. Along the way we passed Heze 菏泽 and Dongming 东明, crossed the Yellow River the first time via the Great Yellow River Bridge 黄河大桥 at Dongming.
The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization" as its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history.
The muddy flow of yellow river:
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The sight of Yellow River is known to elicit strong patriotic feeling from Chinese people, but Motokai was just happy to take a nap on the bridge over the mother river of China:
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Shortly after crossing the Yellow River we entered into Henan 河南, which had the most chaotic traffic conditions and the worst possible roads. People there obviously had no idea of what traffic rules are. The roads were teeming with people on cars, trucks, tricycles, motorcycles, e-bikes, tractors, horses, pigs, water buffaloes, donkeys, goats; you name it, but all arbitrarily determining their own routes and directions in total ignorance of all other vehicles supposedly sharing the road. Amazingly they were all super conscious of the poor road condition and did everything possible to avoid any pot holes, frequently going to the extreme left to circumvent them, again in total ignorance of the incoming traffic. One had to look at those vehicles very carefully in order to tell which direction they were headed. It was both scary and comical at the same time.
We met up with Barry and his slow blue bike around 7:00pm and checked into Anyang hotel for the night. For dinner we ate at a very nice little restaurant specializing in local Anyang cuisine. Can’t recall its name but it’s definitely something worthwhile to seek out if ever we were in Anyang again.
The triangular things are “blood pancakes”:
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All in all, it was quite nice to be able to stay in an inexpensive clean hotel and finish the day with unfamiliar but delicious food. We almost forgot about the exhausting ride in the horrendous Henan traffic earlier during the day. It was a good day.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Getting there is half the fun. Or in this case "2 days of the fun"!
Riding with Milton is a great experience - particularly his insights into places of interest, cultural contexts, Chinese history and most importantly FOOD! Which each meal Milton would seek out the local specialties 特菜 (tecai). And after a hard days (and sometimes nights) ride, it's quite a luxury to have Milton managing the ordering. The food was always good, even the Blood Pancakes!
Here are some pics of the Black Bikes "Getting There".....
Black Bikes Getting There Map: Days 1-2 (Shanghai to Anyang, Henan)
Day-1 Ferry leaving Shanghai crossing the Changjiang (on way to destination Xuzhou).
The day started out sunny & beautiful, but we would be caught in the rain for the last 2 hours of the ride (in the dark and on the expressway). The crosswinds were quite strong so it was a challenge to keep your line when riding over the painted arrows on the road.
Where's Milton?
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Milton checking out some of the not-so-historic landmarks along the G204.http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/6...eb74b090_z.jpg
Day-2 Morning in Xuzhou - checking out the historic and cultural siteshttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7102/6...bc90b6b3_z.jpg
Crossing into Shandong before hitting the rough roads to Anyang, Henan.
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Been lazy day 1 & 2, barely took any pictures.
Day 1
I left BJ through the mountains in the west to Laiyuan and continued further to Fuping where I stayed on Monday night.
Day 2
I left Fuping early in the morning on a truck road through the mountains, and ended up taking the boring roads all the way to Anyang. Where I met the black bike (Craig) and the glue bike (Milton) after I had found us a decent place to stay.
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 3: Taihang Shan
We left Anyang early and headed for Taihang Shan passing Linzhou 林州 and Rencun 任村. The plan was to go through Hongtiguan 虹梯关 village along route X670. The road condition was again quite poor, but the scenery more than made up for it.
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Taihang Shan region is quite arid without much crop or vegetation to speak of. The dusty dark brown terrain is spectacularly rugged. However, there are large parcels of land evidently still being cultivated but without much to show for. The life here must be pretty harsh. However you could still see people in the field fighting their one thousand year losing battle:
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Us taking a break with Barry’s pink T-shirt and blue bike the only bright colors in sight:
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More rare colors:
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A village built by brick and clay almost invisible to the landscape:
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The first tunnel we came across in Taihang Shan:
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We had lunch at a really small village; noodles at 6 kuai each. The blue bike was leaking oil, so we decided to pull into Huguan 壶关 for repair. Later on we were told by a mechanic that the blue bike was missing a gasket at where the stator wires exiting the engine. Since there was no possibility to get the right gasket in the middle of Taihang Shan and the leaks were not that major (yet), Barry decided to keep going with oil dripping and staining the tail end of his blue bike. Had this kept up the back of the blue bike would have turned black, which was probably what the blue bike had wanted all along subconciously.
We checked into Huguan Hotel for the night. It was more money than Anyang but comfortable. We did have a run-in with the local police, who dared not to let us pass by without properly registering our documents. After copying our documents, this uncommunicative cop took us to a small restaurant full of rowdy locals with people queuing for tables.
Not being able to get a table, the cop walked around the restaurant to “find” us one. We didn’t know how he managed it but we soon were given a table with the cop attending:
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The food was again excellent, different but tasty.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 4:The Tunnels On my way to the breakfast in the morning, much to my surprise, I found Barry and Motokai actually getting their fingers dirty working on MY bike, tightening the chain with Barry’s shining new wrench set and checking the coolant level. Owning little tools and knowing almost nil about bikes, I was lucky to have these bike buddies to travel with.
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On our way to the tunnels, we followed Barry’s GPS but ended up in some small village roads. The cement roads were in good shape, the sky crystal clear, and the air cool and fresh, all the perfect elements for a great morning ride. We took a short cut here, through the road on the right of the picture, to Shuzhangzhen 树掌镇:
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The reason that I was there all by myself was due to the fact Motokai and Barry had gone on ahead of me to explore the short cut. This was the typical marching pattern: with Motokai or Barry leading upfront, with me almost always taking the last place, slow, wise, not easily tempted by cheap thrills over the twisties and always free to take pictures whenever I feel like it. Fortunately I was on a black bike; otherwise I’d have been even slower.
After Shuzhangzhen we headed for Wangmangling 王莽岭, around which there are several famous tunnels carved into the side of the mountain. Constructed in the seventies by hands and primitive tools those tunnels used to be the only way small villages in the areas can be reached. The tunnels are basically narrow roads about 5 meters high and 4 meters wide, carved into the cliff close to its edge with openings along one side of the insane pathway through which one can peek at the outside breathtaking scenery over the drop.
The one we visited was Kunshan tunnel 昆山隧道,not the more famous Guoliang 郭亮 tunnel or Xiyagou (锡崖沟) tunnel. After strenuous negotiation with the guys guarding the entrances of those sights, we got a discount on the admissions for all the sights by promising not to actually enter them (except Kunshan tunnel). It was just fine for us as we were keen to make time for meeting Felix in Luoyang洛阳 that night.
Kunshan tunnel, which is empty due to the exorbitant entry fee:
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Just gotten out of the tunnel:
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After the tunnel it was lunch hour already. We walked up and asked the villager of this house “Can we eat here”? Yes and we did.
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Too tall Barry:
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Waiting for our noodles in the courtyard:
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While his daughter was working in the kitchen, this retired former steelworker extended his very warm welcome by writing his welcome speech on this piece of paper:
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, which says “Welcome to visit my home, from a Chinese citizen, People’s Republic of China” quite formerly. He also collected some wild “flowers” to decorate the lunch table.
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Notice how Barry finally came to terms with the village food. From this point on he ate whatever the locals served us, including tofu, blood pancakes, donkey meat, etc., but was nevertheless steadfast against the lamb.
After lunch it took us full 10 minutes to bid farewell to the old man and his family. Heading for Luoyang洛阳 the first part of the guodao was horrendous, completely torn apart by identical looking coal trucks. For a dark moment we all had this ghastly thought that we might be doomed to this terrible road all the way to Luoyang, by then we’d be comatose. Fortunately it was brief. We even took a picture break over the beautiful dam along the road:
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From the lookout one can see the “hanging tunnel” specifically designed for coal trucks . It must be the most beautiful truck route in the country. Too bad we wouldn’t dare to stop inside the tunnel for pictures:
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We could have been stopped to pay for the sight of this tunnel and dam if not because of the coal trucks. By the way, for the admission of those sights we visited in the morning the Shanxi part was 120 kuai and Henan another 120 kuai. \
In order to ride with Felix on day 5, we got on the expressway from the north of Jiyuan 济阳 after it got dark. The expressway was in excellent shape as usual, but the gusty wind made it challenging to hold a steady line. We did notice that sections of the road were quite scenic, unlike most of the boring expressways. We passed Luoyang 洛阳 downtown into Longmen 龙门 around 8 pm and found out that Felix didn’t even leave Xi’an.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barry
Been lazy day 1 & 2, barely took any pictures.
....
I left Fuping early in the morning on a truck road through the mountains, and ended up taking the boring roads all the way to Anyang. Where I met the black bike (Craig) and the glue bike (Milton) after I had found us a decent place to stay.
By now we must have established that glue is our best friend. I have the glue to thank for my bike not leaking motor oil, unlike some blue ones. Just avoid blue glue though.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
milton
By now we must have established that glue is your best friend. I have the glue to thank for my bike not leaking motor oil, unlike some blue ones. Just avoid blue glue though.
A little background for everyone on The Blue & The Glue....
Some JH600 Riders already know that there is an issue with the rubber chain guard that lays on the swingarm to protect the chain. The problem occurs when this rubber guard comes off either from i. deterioration/it just wears down ii. the eyelets where it's screwed down just break.
When this guard comes off it can move into the front sprocket and be a nuisance. During my first days of riding the JH600 in 2010 my rubber guard came off and flew into the front sprocket and forced the chain off and the force of this broke the sprocket cover open - not a good thing. Well the widely used solution is to GLUE down this rubber guard, which most Black Bikes do (but apparently not all Blue Bikes).
Milton: Seems to like this fix so much he now uses glue for ALL OF HIS FIXES. Gluing wires together, gluing broken turn signals back on, etc.
But for some reason, still refused to glue down his soft bags that hang off his bike!
Barry: Has 30,000kms on his blue bike, of which he's ridden 20,000km of them.....and all without using any glue!
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Well I'll let Barry share the details of his "missing gasket", but I will say that during this Taihang Shan ride he lost yet another rubber chain guard, and bits went into the front sprocket. This is what happens when you're not a glue fan. And this surely led to the Case Of The Missing Gasket.
Here are some additional photos of Days 3+4:
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 3 - Bonus picture:
Milton with his "JH600 Desert edition", recognizable by the sandjob and the floating blinkers! (All credits go to Motokai for taking this picture)
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barry
Day 3 - Bonus picture:
Milton with his "JH600 Desert edition", recognizable by the sandjob and the floating blinkers! (All credits go to Motokai for taking this picture)
You wouldn't miss the opportunity of bringing this up, would you? the Desert Storm version of the glue bike.
Sand is the opposite of glue, definitely not a good friend of mine. But the dusty, old and intrepid Milton survives always!
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 5:
Longmen Grottos
Without Felix we didn’t really have a plan for the day other than visiting the Longmen Grottos. Were we to go to Xi’an after visiting Longmen Grottos? Or go up north to Hukou 壶口 for the second largest waterfall in China where Yellow River displays its full volume and power? We decided to put off the discussion until after the Longmen Grottos.
For breakfast, we had lamb soup with mo 馍, the toasted bread you drop into your soup. This was the kitchen that fed us. Everything was handmade:
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To me personally Longmen Grottos was the highpoint of this trip. It consists of an astonishing collection of 1350 caves, 750 niches and 40 pagodas, which altogether contains some 110,000 sculptures. It represents 500 years of progression of the Chinese stone carving art.
Earlier examples of Buddha images:
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Another example of happy Buddha, which looks quite a bit different from the later day standard image of Buddha:
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Some small sample of Buddha images, made shiny by people rubbing it for good luck and protection :
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Now they are more Chinese looking:
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Then there are lots of caves dedicated by the faithfuls over a thousand years ago:
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The most impressive exhibit was the splendid and huge Fengxiansi 奉先寺(Ancestor Worshipping Cave), the culmination of the grotto art, carved between 672 and 675 for Empress Wu Zetian 武则天. Before its renovation, it was really an oversized “cave”:
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The Buddha in the middle is 17.14m in height with 2-meter long ears. The image of Buddha presented here is in the mature style that this particular art form finally settled on with the Buddha looking Chinese with little Indian vestige.
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The left 2 statues are eroded beyond recognization:
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From a distance the Buddha peeked at us from behind:
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After Longmen Grottos, the blue bike was really getting sick and gushing oils. After fooling around with some silicon sealant in vain, we gave up around 4 pm. For about 2 to 3 hours we were there by the road side there were a few local bike enthusiasts passing by and offering help. Finally we made friend with a local biker on CBR 400 who happened to run a “dealership” of assorted bikes of questionable origin. We took up his offer and loaded the blue Jialing to the bike ambulance:
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It turned out that the gasket wasn’t missing. It was simply forced into the engine housing by the impact created when the chain guide fell apart and thrust into the sprocket housing. This is one of the cancerously bad designs that has caused many JH600s broken chains and exploded front sprocket housing. Fortunately for the blue bike the disintegrated rubber parts of the chain guide didn’t clobber the front sprocket housing or break the chain, but pushed the gasket into the housing still in recoverable shape. So taking it out of the housing and reinstalling it was all that were required to put the blue bike into its former slow running state.
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We had our bikes thoroughly washed after the repair and checked into a Motel 168 afterwards. At night we took time to visit the Luoyang night fair and mingled with locals.
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day-5 (More Pics)
Notice the "windows" on this mountain?
This is a tunnel we rode thru, filled with coal trucks!
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Take a look at those Grottoes!
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Milton once again assisting with the ordering... 好吃!
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This time "Glue" didn't work.
Pink stuff is the silicone, and the black rubber piece is the "missing gasket".
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Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 6 and 7:
Going home
According to our newly acquainted Luoyang friends, there were many nice bike routes to the south of Luoyang. However, without Felix and not certain how best to train the bikes, Motokai and Barry decided to wrap up the trip and head our separate ways home on bikes instead of putting them on the train. As a good team player I went along with the plan. Motokai consulted the Google map and came up with a straight route for Shanghai.
The ride going home was quite uneventful as expected.
Not willing to pay the entry fee, we passed by the famous Shaolinsi 少林寺, the mecca of Chinese Kungfu, at the foot of Songshan 嵩山 without seeing Shaolinsi:
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Day 7:
Almost immediately after getting on the expressway Motokai had a flat. By the time I’d found out about his misfortune I was already 150km ahead of him. Through a SMS conference, we decided to go our separate ways for Shanghai. I was told previously that going across Yangtze River through the expressway was rather difficult, so I opted for G40 from Nanjing and headed for Nantong 南通 to trace my way back to the same ferry I used on the first day.
Along the expressway the Rapeseed was in full blossom. Getting really bored of riding on the expressway and trying to get a better view of the rapeseed blossom, I exited earlier before reaching Nantong 南通.
The view from the expressway is always less than optimal and confined:
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After exiting, the same rapeseed blossom becomes more enjoyable:
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From the ferry going back to Shanghai, the Yangtze River was just as muddy as the Yellow River:
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I was safely home by 7:00pm. It had been a highly enjoyable trip with 2 wonderful riding buddies. The bike performed well. The 3.0 ECU upgrade had also proven itself.
I can now cross out 黄土高原 from my bucket list.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
milton
It had been a highly enjoyable trip with 2 excellent bike buddies. The bike had performed well. The 3.0 ECU upgrade had also proven itself.
Great report guys! Looks like you had a lot of fun. Start of a great riding season.
Glad to hear that the 3.0 upgrade is working on your bike.
Seems like all that remains is to source is a better quality chain guide. So far (fingers crossed), I have not experienced any advanced wear/tear on mine (still original).
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Days 6 & 7: In hindsight it would have been more fun banging around the mountains for another 1.5 days, and training back which was Milton's original idea. Slabbing ain't fun. He was indeed a team player to agreeing with the 1,150km ride back to Shanghai from Luoyang.
Shaolin (MCM style)
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The Expressway Flat
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As Milton mentioned, he rode about 150km ahead before realizing my dilemma. This meant I had to sort out the fix solo.
Rode the flat approx. 200m to the nearest overpass. Parked the JH600 and jumped over the guardrail and scaled down the embankment to a farm road, then out to the nearest shop to borrow a couple of wrenches (Barry had the 27mm wrench with him on this trip - from now on I will ride with one too). When I got back the Emergency Highway Team was there inspecting my bike. They were nice enough to lay out traffic cones for my safety while wrenching on the expressay ;)
They were mostly concerned with why my motorcycle was parked against the traffic. I had to explain that for safety reasons I'd much rather wrench FACING the oncoming traffic!
After getting the wheel off, it was back over the guardrail, down the embankment where I took a sanlunche out to the nearest intersection to flag down a mianbaoche. This vehicle took me to the nearest moto shop for the fix (I had a spare tube with me, but not a mini tire pump compressor). Then did this in reverse, back to wrench the wheel back on. But this time the Emergency Highway Team was replaced with Police. They were nice, asking me questions on my destination, about the bike, etc. They took photos of me putting the wheel back on, then wished me a safe ride = 安全第一! [I wish all Expressway Police were this friendly!]
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Absolutely fabulous trip, great to see and read as ever!
Was in Hebei myself, loved the donkey food!
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Day 5:
https://public.blu.livefilestore.com...192.JPG?psid=1
https://public.blu.livefilestore.com...197.JPG?psid=1
https://public.blu.livefilestore.com...202.JPG?psid=1
Day 6:
Luoyang - Beijing
No pictures. After breakfast with Craig and Milton, they headed back to SH and I decided to hop onto the expressway in Luoyang. So I let myself onto the expressway passing the tollbooth before the girl could get out of it. Went all the way through Henan till I hit the Henan/Hebei border north of Anyang. I tried to hide behind trucks, but there were loads of police checking the trucks so they saw me and a few young police guys came running after me. First one coming after me was to slow, 2nd one wasn't and I didn't want to cause any accident so I stopped. All suprised to see a foreigner on a motorcycle after I pulled up my (sun)visor, one of them gave some "an quan" speech for a few minutes and I was good to go again.
Continued my way on the expressway in Hebei all the way to the border with Beijing, quickly remembering the names of the last 2 entrances onto the expressway. Drove up to the tollbooth to show the ticket I never got, after looking in my pockets I pretended to have lost it. He gave me new ticket for the BJ part and waved me through.
Total: 780 km of which about 750 km was on the expressway, costs for expressway where 15 RMB.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Hey Milton,
There doesn't seem to be much interest in ride reports anymore on MCM, in particular Dual-Sport RRs.
Therefore can I suggest that you change the title of this RR Thread to the following:
Shanghai to Taihangshan on GSX-Rs
You'll need to re-work the preamble a bit to come up with some pretext about how our GSX-Rs were confiscated by the local police for having illegal plates or something. Then you can makeup something about how the Jialing Sales & Marketing Team in Chongqing, being savvy brand-focused company that they are, offered up 3 JH600s for the ride. We therefore made a last minute bike swap (reference the existing photo in your preamble), and then conclude with: so hope you all can [still] enjoy this RR!
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
Hey Milton,
There doesn't seem to be much interest in ride reports anymore on MCM, in particular Dual-Sport RRs.Therefore can I suggest that you change the title of this RR Thread to the following:
How embarrassing!!! That was supposed to be a PM to Milton - FOR HIS EYES ONLY.
Hope no one on MCM takes offense.
:poke
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Hi Blacks and Blue
Excellent report about an awesome trip and some excellent pics.
I wish I had more riding buddies like you guys when I still was in China.
My favorite picture - the grottoes :rolleyes1:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5316/7...2d86db29_z.jpg
Keep on riding and reporting :thumbsup:
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
Hey Milton,
There doesn't seem to be much interest in ride reports anymore on MCM, in particular Dual-Sport RRs.
Therefore can I suggest that you change the title of this RR Thread to the following:
Shanghai to Taihangshan on GSX-Rs
... in 6 hours you'd have to add :naughty:
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
How embarrassing!!! That was supposed to be a PM to Milton - FOR HIS EYES ONLY.
Hope no one on MCM takes offense.
:poke
Ohhh man, you better watch your back, you will be beaten up into french goose liver soon.
"because if the day comes he know who you are, you're gonna so regret this...
Let's start ... "
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
How embarrassing!!! That was supposed to be a PM to Milton - FOR HIS EYES ONLY.
Hope no one on MCM takes offense.
:poke
OK, I've seen what was intended for my eyes only.
Should I carry out what you've suggested, which might have offended a few silent MCM members?
Your suggestion to modify the preamble is so convoluted, you think our ignorant MCM members have the brain for it?
Are we really in danger of getting beaten into french goose liver (which is foie gras, isn't it, Meneer 998S? Sounds delicious!)
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Quote:
Originally Posted by
milton
Are we really in danger of getting beaten into french goose liver (which is foie gras, isn't it, Meneer 998S? Sounds delicious!)
Well, just copied and past from an other thread, and changed "I" in "he".
Anyway, love the thread, and guess so do others.
Not always neccessary to reply to every thread though.
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
A friend of mine was confused about the whereabouts of those tunnels. Actually both Google map and Sogou map are quite confusing in that part of the country. If you are interested in visiting those tunnels, look for Wangmangling 王莽岭 on the map, and connect the dots yourself between Wangmangling and Guoliang:
http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...ing.jpg?psid=1
There is a tunnel in between, not shown in those online maps, which is the Kunshan tunnel that we took our photos from. This tunnel goes between Shanxi and Henan, linking two separate parks or sights running by two separate provinces, each will charge you 120 kuai. The attraction on Shanxi side is Xiyagou 錫崖沟, to visit which one must park one's bike and take the bus run by the park, not an attractive option for us bikers. The tunnel on the Henan side is Guoliang, the most famous among all the tunnels, which you can ride your bike through.
Cheers!
Re: Black and Blue in Taihang Shan 太行山
Hey chaps thanks a lot for the report! Sorry again for not being able to make it. Judging by the number of times you mention that i didn't join, i'm guessing that there was a lot of crying. I wouldn't have been much help anyway as i haven't been to those parts yet.
Loos like you had a great trip regardless. The JH600 looks like a fun bike when it's working but i'm still not convinced that i want one. I don't really understand the pissing contest about the colours, everybody knows that KTM orange is the fastest colour there is.