Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
BikerDoc... Welcome to MCM! :clap:
An 1100 would be a real chore to manage on the slimey diesel, pollution, construction dust water covered roads you commonly see in China! You must have a VERY fine sense of control! :eekers:
Have you even been down in China? Also what are you doing in China?
CC
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Bikerdoc,
A Dragstar Classic? Not what I'd choose for Chinese roads either. From your list of previous bikes, I would suggest that the power to weight of the RD350 would be perfect for Chinese roads. :thumbsup: I've done 50,000 kms on small bikes in seven years, had a 125 then a 150cc both Sundiro Hondas, second one was a CBF150, which was a pretty good bike for its size, decent quality, just too small in the engine department. Now I've got a Regal Raptor 250, which is kind of a CB250N restyled with a Hornet as inspiration, average quality, but pretty fun.
I've been to Ningbo, some harsh bike restrictions down there? You're pretty lucky to have a big bike. We've got loads of big bikes up here, but they are nearly all unregistered, so no insurance means a can of worms I don't wanna open! Although I am thinking about keeping one in some small village in the mountains and ride there legally on my 250, or fins some province with something other than a legally registered Harley or BMW.
I've been wanting to go to Tianma for ages to do a track day. Learn the track on my own bike then do one session on one of their rentals from BG performance. Not keen on watching any races there, as foreign riders are banned from entry for most competitions, which seems like a cop out to me, winners being big fish from small ponds.
I don't wanna be sniffy, but are you sure you're not exaggerating your mileage? If you do 80,000 a year, that's 225 kms a day, every day! If you go shopping one day with your wife, you'd need to do do 550 kms the next day to make up! 20,000 is a more likely figure, no? At the moment I do around 2000 kms a month, because that is all I have time to do.
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CrazyCarl
BikerDoc... Welcome to MCM! :clap:
An 1100 would be a real chore to manage on the slimey diesel, pollution, construction dust water covered roads you commonly see in China! You must have a VERY fine sense of control! :eekers:
Have you even been down in China? Also what are you doing in China?
CC
Hi CC
Thanks for the welcome.
The bikes good to go around these parts, basically cause the roads near Ningbo are pretty good or at least better than the average. That's not to say there aren't some pretty cr@p roads here and there, or roads that are being ripped up to be resealed -but on the whole are okay. Same can't be said for many of the drivers or should I say learners or plebs who don't give a rats except for themselves. Vehicles and self-centredness or selfishness don't go together :rolleyes1:
but try explaining the fundamentals to your average Chinese :bs:
Yes, I've had an off, two to be exact. None of them on my Dragstar, though I've had close calls. Take a ride a few weekends ago, left here for Shanghai (450km, 7hr trip - one way) as I rode along the new highway that runs parallel with G329 on the eastern side of Cixi, an old guy riding a large 3-wheel flatbed trike crossed from the opposite side of the highway, through the median barrier, looked at me as I barrelled along at 110km/h -horn blaring as I saw some distance away -did he stop? hell no, not a care in the fukcin world, fist full of brakes light touch on the right brake pedal, front forks squatted down hard, front tyre let out its squeal (the squeal one gets from almost a lockup) as I wrestled the bike down to an almost standstill from around 100m away. The jerkoff continued on his way without a care in the world... fukcwit. Please lord, someone develop a bar mounted bazooka :riding:
Anyway back to the question at hand, my offs have been on scooters, both superficial. One in the compound where I live - a delivery pickup/ute drove round a blind corner on the wrong side of the internal road and hit me headon. Lucky I was as close to the edge of the road as possible and always expecting some numbnuts could slow down to walking pace. Just required some replacement panels on the front end (rmb500) fixed within an hour or two.
The second was another pickup/ute being driven by a moron who had his wife and daughter inside. It was first day on May holidays a couple of years back, I'd been riding on a mountain range all day, as it neared the end of the day I was riding down onto a flat valley and came to a village and had slowed down somewhat as cyclists and pedestrians made their way off the fields to home for evening dinner around 4:30pm. This moron drove his pickup/ute from between buildings situated so close to the edge of the road, the said moron didn't even attempt to look over his left shoulder -no the proverbial look ahead only mentality so prevalent here. Basically less than 50m and me doing around 50-60km/h -hit the brakes the rear wheel locked and hang on -Bang! hit his left front guard/fender. I wasn't injured and the bike/scooter damage was fairly much just cosmetic, though unfortunately party of the plastic fairing did pierce the radiator (liquid cooled) so even had I wanted to, the bike couldn't be ridden the 150km I was away from home-base.
The driver got out of his pickup/ute & looked with the typical big round google eyes, then composed himself telling me in Chinese I hit his car, that's when all the expletives in the world came forth from yours truly. He just shut up from the point on. The local traffic police came, then they had to call in a senior policeman who dealt with laowais who came along with his translating assistant (remember this was holiday week) both of whom had to come back especially off vacation and then drive to this little village police station. The moron was deemed to be fully responsible. My wife (7-8 months preggy) and a neighbour in a borrowed company pickup/ute duly arrived.
Luckily after discussion and agreement from the insurance assessor we could take the bike back to my city here and have it repaired as opposed to having it repaired in the nearest city etc. as is the usual requirement. I was also lucky in that the matter of insurance was carried out quickly and with little fuss which would of been the case had I been a Chinese by all accounts.
The bike/scooter was trucked on the ute and I and my wife returned a few weeks later to get the reimbursement at the police station from the driver.
That's it so far...
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ZMC888
Bikerdoc,
A Dragstar Classic? Not what I'd choose for Chinese roads either. From your list of previous bikes, I would suggest that the power to weight of the RD350 would be perfect for Chinese roads. :thumbsup: I've done 50,000 kms on small bikes in seven years, had a 125 then a 150cc both Sundiro Hondas, second one was a CBF150, which was a pretty good bike for its size, decent quality, just too small in the engine department. Now I've got a Regal Raptor 250, which is kind of a CB250N restyled with a Hornet as inspiration, average quality, but pretty fun.
I've been to Ningbo, some harsh bike restrictions down there? You're pretty lucky to have a big bike. We've got loads of big bikes up here, but they are nearly all unregistered, so no insurance means a can of worms I don't wanna open! Although I am thinking about keeping one in some small village in the mountains and ride there legally on my 250, or fins some province with something other than a legally registered Harley or BMW.
I've been wanting to go to Tianma for ages to do a track day. Learn the track on my own bike then do one session on one of their rentals from BG performance. Not keen on watching any races there, as foreign riders are banned from entry for most competitions, which seems like a cop out to me, winners being big fish from small ponds.
I don't wanna be sniffy, but are you sure you're not exaggerating your mileage? If you do 80,000 a year, that's 225 kms a day, every day! If you go shopping one day with your wife, you'd need to do do 550 kms the next day to make up! 20,000 is a more likely figure, no? At the moment I do around 2000 kms a month, because that is all I have time to do.
Hi ZMC888
You're partially right, the Dragstar is not the most ideal of bikes for PRC, but Zhejiang isn't as bad as some other parts of China. Jiangxi for instance has pretty harsh un-maintained roads and that includes many of the provincial highways. I was surprised that the Dragstars on the trip held out as well as they did -I had only one bolt from the saddlebag brackets that loosened on the entire 3500km journey that included many of the poor metal/rocky roads that are meant to pass for highways in Jiangxi.
Actually I feel that the ideal bike is less like an Yammie RD350LC and is something more like a Beemer F650GS or F800GS. Something with reliability, quality, that has a reasonable spread of power through the rev range, thats not exceptionally fast so much so that it gets one into trouble, a bike that has ABS (the number of times I'd wished I had ABS on my bikes here... is more than the digits on my hands and feet). The bike also needs to be handle to hand the worst roads or the constant road upgrades, re/construction that seems to be never ending around these parts, and also have the ability to handle some dirt tracks etc.
That being said I know that the prices for legal Beemer bikes here is ridiculous, basically twice the price of most other places on the planet, which is why I'm looking at getting myself a JH600 very soon.
You're bang on with Ningbo having harsh restrictions, but that's fairly much the norm in many parts of China now. Many cities have implemented total or partial motorcycle exclusion policies. TIC!
Tianma is okay, and the recent racing held there a couple of weeks back included a few foreigners too. About inclusion versus exclusion of foreign racers; I've not been to Zhuhai though, so I wonder if that's any different there?
To tidy up the 80k claim, sorry I'd omitted that about half of that has been done in my car -great little sporty compact that it is, and it's about as economical as my Dragstar too. All in all though, it does work out to be around 80k (average/yr), but only half that on bikes. That's just how much time I put in doing mileage, and Zhejiang has oodles of mountains :scooter:
cheers for the welcome
Bikerdoc
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Bikerdoc, :goodtime:
I did 20,000 last year, but two months of the summer out of China and also three months off for winter. If not for that I'd probably be up over 30,000. The roads where I am vary from fantastic, to is this a actually supposed to be a road? :confused1::lol8: So it can be pretty hard to do more than 400 kms a day.
In one sense a BMW F650GS or F800GS is a good bike for China. Quality and reliability, but the prices and spares? Waaay too expensive on my salary. Suppose it would be cool for touring especially if you are breaking into unfamiliar territory, and need to bring equipment.
Where we live there are so many tight twisty concrete roads that are really as tight as a go-kart track and would be super boring on anything over 180KG, and are super fun on anything under 150KG. For me being a pure road rider who is happy to scratch around in familiar territory a Hornet 250, VTR250 or Ninja 250 would be ideal, but alas no registered bikes like this around here.
I've gotta be honest, a JH600 does seem like a good choice currently, especially when up against an overpriced BMW or a YBR250, which is really a budget commuter bike with a hiked price tag.
Let us know how the JH600 goes if you get one, not many detailed reviews around. For me I'm saving for a Chinese bike that doesn't exist yet, hoping that some company can get together a road bike with a 400-600 single, twin or triple from one of the many quad bikes made here. But for now I'm happy with my 250.
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Howdy Bikerdoc,
Looks like you have a lot of good tales and info to add to the site... but we need more pictures because some of us don't read so well :icon10:
I have a few bikes and find the V-Strom 650 to be the perfect balance of suspension and power for China. Also ride an older BWM F650 to work every day and that's a good choice for the roads here as well.
I have come so close to purchasing the JH600, but it just doesn't impress me. It's heavier than the V-strom and F650 with half the power. I would rather continue farting around with the lightweight 250's as they seem to have a much better power to weight ratio. Given the number of kilometers you do, I don't think the JH600 is going to last that long.
Hope you can post some ride reports of your favorite roads sometime :deal:.
Cheers!
ChinaV
Re: Hello from Ningbo biker
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ChinaV
Howdy Bikerdoc,
Looks like you have a lot of good tales and info to add to the site... but we need more pictures because some of us don't read so well :icon10:
I have a few bikes and find the V-Strom 650 to be the perfect balance of suspension and power for China. Also ride an older BWM F650 to work every day and that's a good choice for the roads here as well.
I have come so close to purchasing the JH600, but it just doesn't impress me. It's heavier than the V-strom and F650 with half the power. I would rather continue farting around with the lightweight 250's as they seem to have a much better power to weight ratio. Given the number of kilometers you do, I don't think the JH600 is going to last that long.
Hope you can post some ride reports of your favorite roads sometime :deal:.
Cheers!
ChinaV
Hey all
Have uploaded some photos to the beginning of my intro and also added a couple of dozen photos to the Galleries, more to come. Have talked with Jialing about the JH600, and one of the guys in the group I ride with from time to time has one, he has had to replace the front forks (not sure the reason why) which was done under warranty. Am still giving it consideration, mainly as all the BMW F650/800gs or R1100/1200gs that I find are illegal imports that either don't come with any plate or a questionable plate... still searching though. Since it's winter time (cold spell came on pretty rapidly and its been raining almost non-stop for two weeks), no rush I guess...
shiny side up
bikerdoc
:scooter:
