looking for used bike in QB? any advice or sellers??

I am moving into town in about a month (mid-July) and want to get a bike right away. I'm coming off a full-sized sport-tourer, but know that's unreasonable in CN.

I'd be interested in a dual-sport (200+cc), standard or sport bike (400+), if those are realistic requirements... I just would like to have a little power and I'd like to see the bike where I last parked it every day, if you understand what I mean!

I did all my own work on my bikes for the last 10 years so I'm very concerned about getting a solid bike since I'm not going to have any tools anymore; appearances take the pillion, as it were.

I don't know what makes are available in CN so I am appealing ahead of time to see what's out there.

Must have authentic legal papers. If there are specific sellers, please reply, but understand I will not be in CN until mid-July 2010.

Importantly, if there are suggestions/resources/advice I would be very appreciative; I can't wait to ride there!

Keith

Hi Keith, welcome to MCM.

Forgive my stupid question, where is QB?

You asked if there were any good resources, I think the 13,000 + posts on this website are as good as any resource you will find about what's available in China. Grab a beer and hit the search engine. Plenty here to discover.

BTW, you will be buying all those tools again here to do your own maintenance. Good shops and mechanics are few and far between.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Qingdao. Ech... the thrill is gone doing my own work and I'll probably be living in an apartment building but I don't trust American mechanics, so I understand what you mean. What's the theft situation in the major cities? I've been riding an old, 630 pound bike for so long that I've become anethetized to the plight of others with sharp little rides like I see in your avatar. I imagine, reading what I have about bikes without papers that come to CN from Japan and Korea, that it's pretty bad... that a decent bike can't live on the street on a daily basis. Am I right?

The theft situation may vary with different cities, so i can only speak for Suzhou.

I wouldn't leave my bike on the street as a permanent solution. The best of course is to get a private garage or lockable box downstairs in your building, a lot of apartments in china come with one. If not that, there will probably be a guarded area to park e-bikes in your apartment complex. These are cheap but usually close at ten which is an hour past chinese bed-time. If you get home after that closes you can always park it beside the guards at the entrance, which is a tiny bit better than nothing. Parking on the street will not work very long, even with a giant lock. If it's not stolen, people will just screw with it.

If your bike is parked somewhere that is accessible to even neighbours, and everyone knows it belongs to whitey on the 3rd floor, it will also potentially be subject to hate-crimes. My old 150 scooter which was parked in my stairwell, but not in anyone's way, had its tires slashed twice and the mirrors smashed. My XTR250 in a different apartment complex, parked outside the door, had superglue poored into all the switches and key fob. No signs of failed theft, just succesful hate.

Even if it's not deliberate vandalism, if your bike looks fancier than most around it (and it will) then you can rest assured that as soon as you leave it anywhere someone, or 5 people, will hop on and play with everything

Maybe i'm just unlucky though.

PS: and if you buy a sidecar, cats will piss in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by felix

If your bike is parked somewhere that is accessible to even neighbours, and everyone knows it belongs to whitey on the 3rd floor, it will also potentially be subject to hate-crimes. My old 150 scooter which was parked in my stairwell, but not in anyone's way, had its tires slashed twice and the mirrors smashed. My XTR250 in a different apartment complex, parked outside the door, had superglue poored into all the switches and key fob. No signs of failed theft, just succesful hate.

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Eww, the dark side of China. Really low life job there. Pisses me big time and makes me hate China and forget all teachings about "learning the culture and understanding the people". I can say I would had loved to teach about "respect the property" culture to that low lifie. I can tolerate and understand thieves much better than that kind of vandals, which in my eyes deserve to get a very hard lesson.

That would happen most places in the world I have lived in Moilami, certainly not just in China. In the safer 'rural' areas of UK and of Australia where I have lived most, you may have a bit more security but it is from remoteness and chance not values, and the racism is more overt here.