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Attachment 7891
The bodged foot peg and shifter
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Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Thursday 21st
Disastrous start to the day, set off at 8.30 and kick stand spring fell off almost immediately. Then the zip broke on the tank bag while I was getting a cable tie to fix the stand. Have stopped in xingguo to fix it all.
Should be in jinggangshan at lunch time.
It's now 2pm, stopped for a break north of jinggangshan. Didn't go up the actual mountain as I couldn't be bothered in the heat but went up a stunning gorge with perfect twisties. Well worth the detour.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxNjg0.html
Near Jinggangshan
Attachment 7892
The next extreme sport - buffalo surfing
Everything has been distinctly average this afternoon. Some busy shitty roads around pingxiang. My choice of route was pretty shite a couple of times so I turned around back on to pretty nice but dull main roads to avoid some nasty dirt tracks that were like the surface of the moon.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxNDUy.html
on the way to Wanzai
Arrived in wanzai at 5.45, could've pushed on but felt like a beer. Found decent bike shop to replace my handlebars, there is a hotel and restaurant all within 50 metres. Bike boss is letting me leave the yingang in his shop as hotel has no parking.
519 today, 1135 in total.
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Attachment 7893
This abandoned ferry toll booth was looking like home for the night...
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Attachment 7896
Bent old ali bars and new steel ones
Friday 22nd
Last night was pretty tempted, after a couple of beers, to ride to changsha and meet the jialing people because the roads seemed to be getting worse in jiangxi. Decided not to this morning, felt it was better to finish off the jiangxi job properly. Left wanzai at 8.30 in the pouring rain and immediately the roads were much better, nice pretty scenery with a reasonable surface. After a couple of (short) nasty dirt stretches came out on to a beautiful road at the bottom of a gorge, it stopped raining so got some good footage.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxMzYw.html
Towards Xiushui
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxMjQ4.html
After Xiushui
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3NjQ4.html
Hubei twisties
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3ODA0.html
Towards ferry crossing
Soon after came into xiushui and on to a pretty fast big road then back off on to an x road for more great twisties. Then, in hubei, the road came to an abrubt halt and I waited with some truckers for a ferry, when the ferry came the bike wouldn't start! Pushed the thing on and drained the carb (it worked before) but no joy. Tried bumping it off the ferry but nothing. All the truckers and the ferryman were helping but it was a no go. The ferryman and I pushed it up the slipway and I took the tank off. No obvious fuel blockages, and there was a spark. Air filter also ok, maybe the spark plug is kaput. Just as the abandoned toll booth was looking like tonight's accommodation a man in a trike loaded with chairs pulls up and asks me if I'm French or German, not a good start. But then offers to ride the 3 kms back into town to fetch a mechanic. What a champion! There aren't many countries where random strangers would do that I'm sure. So I'm sat here waiting and hoping not to have to sleep in the booth!
Trike man returned with a mate who towed me to town. Turns out it was the spark plug, I'm kicking myself for not carrying a spare. Found a hotel/restaurant down the road from the bike shop.
Only covered 365 today, will have an early start tomorrow to make up some time.
Attachment 7894
Northern Jiangxi
Attachment 7895
My saviour on 3 wheels
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Saturday 23rd
The pikey town I stayed in last night was bailuozhen. Got on the road at 7.15 with a duck egg, egg and zhongzi in my bag. It's dragon boat day I think so probably the first of many. immediately after leaving the overheating light came on, strange as no coolant had leaked out overnight, anyway I topped up and continued on but an hour later, red light came on again. Stopped in a truck repair place and found one of the hoses had become slightly misaligned, sorted that and nipped up the rest. Had to buy a huge truck size can of coolant but at least they threw in a bungee for free. Roads were absolute shite up til lunch time. Fairly broken up but the main issue was the traffic. There was an old city wall in jingzhou, 2000 years old apparently. The dragon boat festivities were in full swing on the river/moat by the wall. Continued on for a bit then got on another ferry which really wastes time, probably nearly an hour.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3ODA0.html
Ferry crossing
Attachment 7906
Truck stop crew
Attachment 7907
Jingzhou city wall with dragon boat festivities
Attachment 7908
Nice honda 150 and bicycle
Attachment 7909
Cyclist on his way to Tibet - note how skinny he is among the portly motorcyclists!
After the ferry the roads improved immensely. The final 300 plus kms into enshi were some of the best I've ridden. Fantastic surface and scenery to match. There were quite a few cyclists on the road, one bloke on his way to Lhasa, a two month ride away. Also met a guy on a nice 150 honda, he tried to keep up but couldn't come close. Shame, as it would've been nice to have a partner in those twisties. It pissed down for an hour at one point so pulled on to the side of the road. An old crone started screaming bloody murder, saying that I couldn't under any circumstances put on my waterproofs under her lean to shack. I just smiled, waved and put on my waterproofs. Hubei is another province that employs anqian di yi tea pots in the petrol stations, I went on a mini rant at the attendant! This was the first real day in hubei, 300 kms of shite and 300 kms of near motorcycling perfection. A game of 2 halves Gary!
Arrived in enshi at 7 pm, I'm now sat in a bike shop waiting for the jialing boys to turn up.
600 kms today, 2100 total.
Attachment 7905
I sschwear offisha, that ditsch jumped out in front of me
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDk2ODMy.html
Hubei gorge
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDk2NzE2.html
Bumping into fellow 2 wheeled travellers
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Bloody awesome, subscribed! Yep got a few photos of trucks in ditches in all kinds of poses. Must be relatives!
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Sunday 24th
Set of at 8.30 ish. Headed north west through the enshi canyon, amazing scenery and great roads. Then north through more fantastic gorges and mountains. Craig slid off on a corner as the road was polished smooth but no harm done, and I got it on video! We ended up crossing the Yangtze and were quite near the 3 gorges. Went through a brand new town built 150 metres higher up the mountainside. enshi is a top motorcycling destination, there seems to be no end of awesome roads heading out in all directions. My bike started overheating again but there's no sign of any leaking. It's also becoming harder to start and the idle speed has increased. I'm a bit worried something may be seriously wrong, it may be sensible to head to Chongqing asap, as I doubt anyone here has any idea how to deal with it. It's done nearly 20,000 kms now so probably needs a proper going over.
We arrived in wuxi before 7, only 290 kms today. I'm in no rush now having completed the jiangxi ride and the scenery is so special we've been having a lot of photo stops.
Attachment 7910
Motokai's best friend and purveyor of directions on his cb400 :lol8:
Attachment 7911
The arrival of the jialing riders in Enshi
Attachment 7912
Milton teaching the hotel staff how to register foreign devils
Attachment 7914
The local booze in Enshi. The 'hao nan ren' bai jiu was particularly revolting
Attachment 7913
Just outside of Enshi on the way to the canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NjYyNzA0.html
Leaving Enshi to canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NjYyNjUy.html
More canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2Nzk2MjY4.html
Even more canyon! (I was quite impressed with it)
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NzY1MDUy.html
Near 3 gorges dam
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Attachment 7915
Motokai taking in the scenery
Attachment 7916
More canyon
Attachment 7917
Newly built town 150 metres up the bank
Attachment 7918
Hot pot in Wuxi - great apart from the gizzard that milton sneaked in there!
Attachment 7919
Check out the crazy eyes on the hot pot lady! Motokai and I ended up in a flirt off over dinner! (not with each other :naughty:)
Monday 25th
Left wuxi at 9 am, bike was a pig to start this morning, I had to put in a new spark plug. These shitty 10 quai ones only seem to last a day and no-one has anything better. Rode north on ANOTHER great road! This area is a biker's paradise. It rained all morning which was a shame and we got stopped by the feds at the border with shaanxi. They just wanted to see our licenses and blue books, its hilarious that this happens a week after getting my license, having never been asked before in 6 years riding. Stopped in zhengping for lunch. I bought another spark plug (number 4) and jubilee clips to try and sort out the coolant issue as the red light came on again before lunch.
The quality of road and scenery continued in the afternoon with a couple of breaks in the rain where I took some video. Arrived in ankang at 7.15 after 50 kms of mud hell. It's a small miracle no-one fell. The red light came on again twice when riding slowly so topped it up each time. The extra hose clamps obviously had no effect on the invisible leak. I'm gonna start heading to Chongqing tomorrow while the guys will head west, destination unknown. There are some nice looking bikes near the hotel so I'm going hunting for spark plugs.
Did about 315 kms today.
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Attachment 7920
Motokai's boxes, branded 'ourfella - to hell'
Attachment 7921
Maturity levels were pretty low that day :thumbsup:
Attachment 7922
Motokai on top of a mountain
Attachment 7923
Stopped by the fuzz. Nice pose!
Attachment 7924
This road is in the video 'catching milton'
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NzY1MTE2.html
Catching up with Milton
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NzY1MjMy.html
Big bear this here's rubber duck :riding:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2Nzk2MjQw.html
Leaving Ankang
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2Nzk1OTI4.html
Towards Wanyuan
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2ODExNDky.html
Dirt track to Piwoxiang
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Tuesday 26th
Left ankang late at 10.30 due to a fairly boozy last night with Craig and Milton. Put in my new NGK Spark plug and she started right up. The roads were great to start, more of the mountain passes and twisties that have been the mainstay of this trip. It was very wet all day though, so had to take it easy. The road was blocked outside of bashanxiang due to construction. There were a couple of long planks over the concrete laying machine but it looked very dodgy so I decided to take a detour. There seemed to be a road heading off towards piwoxiang and it looked more direct so I gave it a go. What a decision that was. The road turned into an insane dirt track, very steep and muddy. It semed like I was sideways most of the time, I don't know how I made it without dropping the bike with those tyres. It was about 30 kms in total and I was in first gear pretty much the whole way, the only thing that stopped the engine overheating were the huge puddles. I didn't check the time but I was there for hours, at one point I thought I'd have to find a cave to sleep in! When I finally got back on to tarmac I stopped at the next town large enough to have a decent hotel, that town being wanyuan just over the border into Sichuan, the 7th province covered on this trip.
The new spark plug has solved the starting issue, obviously the yingang is a bit of a snob and will only work properly with a 25 quai NGK plug. It's about 400 kms to Chongqing from here so should be there early evening. Gonna have an early start to make amends for today's debacle.
Attachment 7925
The Jialings received their own private parking areas in most hotels! :confused1:
Attachment 7926
Arrived 6pm, 250 today. 2950 total.
4 policemen and a translator just barged into my room. Rude fuckers. wanted to know who I worked for...so they said...
Went out for gong bao chicken and was mobbed by a load of teeny boppers. They were in the PLA, pissed out of their heads and wanted me to go to ktv. I politely declined and was tucked up in bed by 10.
Attachment 7927
Yours truly
Attachment 7928
Milton shreading up the dirt
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Wednesday 27th
Left wanyuan at 7 feeling very glad I avoided a night of ktv. Road was pretty nice and twisty until dazhou, thereafter just a normal boring road. Stopped for lunch, as an appetizer I had some whole pickled cloves of garlic followed by 3 steamed buns stuffed with organic pork, finely chopped fresh chives and spicy pickled cabbage with a bowl of congee to fill up with - all for 2 quai! brucey bonus!
Some nice twisties coming into Chongqing, arrived at 4 pm. 430 today, 3380 total for the trip.
Spoke to Raymond who said that yingang have outlets all over northern China and it'll be no problem to leave the bike at various locations for a month each time. This is great news and means I'll be able to cover a lot of ground next summer.
Bamboo found the coolant leak, it was under the water pump. The engine has now done over 20,000 kms so its going to get a full overhaul. Yingang have a better carb which will add a couple of horses and hopefully a engine modification kit coming soon which will add several more.
Watched the long way round team in Mongolia over dinner with bamboo. There's some concern among the team here over my plans to go to inner Mongolia in September, they seem to think I'll get lost and never be heard of again. Hope not!
Attachment 7929
Somewhere in Sichuan
Attachment 7930
The penalty for failure was quite high on this road
Attachment 7931
Watching the long way round over dinner with chief engineer Bamboo
Attachment 7932
My new footpeg
Attachment 7933
Engine out for inspection - images censored
Thursday 28th
Decided not to go sightseeing in Chongqing as planned, couldn't be arsed. Just hung around the factory instead, bamboo totally dismantled the engine and found very little wear. One cam had some and the water pump but that was it. Couldn't take many photos cos a few companies are trying to copy this engine at the moment. Shineray was the only name I recognised, apparently they have a fake unit in a crosser that has sold quite well, even though it doesn't make anything like the same power.
I'm now at the airport drinking expensive heineken. It's been a great trip and now my mind is filled with ideas for trips in the north. One possibility is xinjiang, I'd ride out through
Gansu and back through Qinghai, leaving the bike at the yingang dealership in urumqi.
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
So that's that. The next trip will start on around August the 14th and will be from Chongqing to Hohhot. Does anyone want to meet along the way? I haven't planned the route yet, any suggestions?
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
awesome stuff mate, watch a couple so far and wil work throu the rest long way round style, shame about the weather but more great stuff from the Yingang boys.:riding:
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
This is definitely a must-scribe thread for me, with Motokai and me both featured in it.
I enjoyed your company totally in those 2 days in Hunan and Hubei, excluding "hao nan ren" bai jiu though.
Your "Go Pikey" videos look tremendous, especially the one with the Jialing biting the dust. Still doesn't seem obvious to me why that had happened the way it did. To avoid similar mishaps I will just keep on maintaining my merry slow pace as always and be content with being the tortoise, not hare, sans getoffs hopefully.
Cheers!
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
....Damn that Go-Pikey!
Milton - Ouch! But thanks.
And not sure what you mean by the tortoise and the hare - I thought it was goat you left for dead in Qinghai? :naughty:
It was a pleasure for Milton and I to ride with you Tom. The riding, the piking (yeah it's a verb), and day's end beers.
BTW - I'm still thinking it was Crazy Eyes who weixined you at 3am that night in Wuxi.
I've been busy "catching-up" here in Shanghai, but I'll share some photos of our intersecting Rides/Reports tonight.
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Cheers guys, I hope we can do some more in the future. Do you have plans for October week? Joe (on China V's old orange qingqi) and I will be setting off from Hohhot on around September 25th, then riding to Chengdu to fly back on Ocotber 6th. The plan at the moment is to go through Ningxia, Gansu, maybe Qinghai and Sichuan. We are gonna do some camping, particularly in inner mongolia. We hope to meet up for a day or 2 with a couple of mates who are riding a sidecar from western Gansu to around Chengdu.
Tempted? :riding:
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
....Milton - Ouch! But thanks. And not sure what you mean by the tortoise and the hare - I thought it was goat you left for dead in Qinghai? :naughty:...
That was a preemptive ouch for you. Running over a goat definitely tops that. Fortunately Go Pikey wasn't there to record the act, except your photo of the goat after the collision. By the way, there must be some MCM bylaws forbidding the publishing of that kind of cruel and unusual incident. That was simply sad :sad:
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Rest assured that the photo has been buried.
But if years from now, Julian Assange gets a hold of it...I will not be held responsible.
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
I'm not sure what's going on in this photo, but there's that Go Pikey....(I'm talking about the camera of course.)
Yes, it's a strap-on!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7254/7...99f42d70_z.jpg
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Tom cutting it up during the 30kms of road construction.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7...8ac08654_z.jpg
And finally after a long wet ride that concluded with mud , it was dinner - Milton doing the ordering.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7...38c27fb1_z.jpg
While Motokai and Tom did the drinking....
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/7...e81153b2_z.jpg
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
Let me tell you what this is. Pikey model Tom was trying to look professional in presenting his strap-on video cam attachment kit, the Go Pikey. However, the attempt wasn’t particularly successful, as viewers are easily distracted by his camouflage shorts, the oversized knee braces and the unshaved legs.
Milton’s supporting role was completely inadequate. The script called for his looking in awe at the ether Tom was pointing at, which turned out totally unconvincing. His suspenders definitely need to go. We ought to send him to some Pikey acting school.
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
thanks for posting the go pikey pic, unfortunately the camera is now knackered due to dust in the zoom lens. so much so it doesn't shut anymore...bugger. I'm trying to get it sorted for free as its still on warranty, so fingers crossed. I've ordered some waterproof diving bags to modify the system.
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Bloody brilliant ride report mate!
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Agreed. Fantastic ride report, fellas.
But something was missing ... couldn't quite put my finger on it ... then the penny dropped ...
Motokai's ride reports/pics always have some hot mystery-babe in them. I guess it was slim pickin' this time around ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
