Chinese New Year Solo Ride from Shanghai into Zhejiang.

This CNY, on the first day of my holiday, I got up, packed my bike and rode out. I picked up a backpack for the laptop and a flourescent, Hi-vis jacket from Decathalon. Unfortunately, a new friend and rider couldn't come, so this would be a solo journey.
BikerDoc, another member on here had given me a long list of places to explore in Zhejiang. Thanks for this. This is what I used as the basis for the trip.


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The bike by an abandoned house on the endlless route out of Shanghai (it does end, only after about four or five hours). This shows I went quite light with the packing this timne with only one 40 litre dry sack from decathalon and a 20 litre backpack. No panniers.

The first hurdle was crossing the river to the South of Shanghai. Scratch that, the first hurdle was to leave Shanghai- it's massive.

I rode South and hoped there would be a ferry to Ningbo or Zhoushan in Zhejiang. After asking locals, I gave up on this and went along the river to find the fabled elevator bridge across the Qiangzhen River. Before this, I ran out of petrol and converted my camelbak into a syphon. Luckily a Chinese guy on a scooter arrived and offered to sell me some petrol. I now know what petrol tastes like.

Next day was the bridge crossing.

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The bridge- the Jiang Dong Da Qiao. The road across and approach road are a GaoSu- Expressway or GuoDao so no motorcycles allowed. However there is a road alongside that leads to two towers with steps and an elevator that is used to ride across the bridge. Many other posters on here before me have used it, but this info was instrumental in getting to Zhejiang.

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This guy was an absolute life saver. He came along on his scooter and assured me that he had enough petrol to help me out. We tried different ways to get the petrol from the scooter into my taller dirt bike, even putting his bike on a two foot high manhole cover. In the end, the expensive Camelbak had to be sacrificed, But I was grateful for his kindness and after paying him for the two litres, we wished each other a Happy New Year (the next Day was the EVE of Chinese New year and I headed off into the darkening evening to find a petrol station and a bed for the night. Next day, bridge crossing.

* as an adendum to this, I've gotta point out that I knew the tank was only 8 litres and that this event was totally my fault. The bike, during winter, had had some starting problems and only seemed to want to idle with the fuel petcock turned to reserve, so I must have started the journey with it set this way. A bad habit, which left the tank bone dry miles from a petrol station.

keep it coming...love a good story and learnings out of it :thumbsup:

That is all you found? Just one little building?

Hope you had a great time despite running out of gas. I find those small things are what makes it more of an adventure. I learned my lesson a few years back when I was stuck in the country side. Always have a fuel bottle and/or a siphon with you.

... i advise to unscrew the petcock from tank and clean the filter inside.
Maybe even flush the tank to get the remaining dirt out.
That should fix you problem.

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Originally Posted by Asymptomatic

That is all you found? Just one little building?

Hope you had a great time despite running out of gas. I find those small things are what makes it more of an adventure. I learned my lesson a few years back when I was stuck in the countryside. Always have a fuel bottle and/or a siphon with you.

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Cheers, actually not much of note on the ride out of Shanghai. I did, however, see a huge mock ancient Chinese building. It was astounding in size, going to be a new hotel, it was near an ancient looming walled structure.. Think I have one or both on film.

I now have my own siphon in the form of a ¥600 Camelbak:)

Yeah, the good stuff is obviously to come..

Your brother bought his bike yet?

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Originally Posted by ShuBen

... i advise to unscrew the petcock from tank and clean the filter inside.
Maybe even flush the tank to get the remaining dirt out.
That should fix you problem.

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Okay, cheers. I wondered.

Man, motorcycling.. Really does require the learning of new skills.. Maintenance etc. I'll be casting around for a torque wrench soon too.

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Originally Posted by Metalmonkey

Okay, cheers. I wondered.

Man, motorcycling.. Really does require the learning of new skills.. Maintenance etc. I'll be casting around for a torque wrench soon too.

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I advise the brand SATA for the torque wrench. Quality is good and price still reasonable.
But you must know the range per tool is limited.

If you want to torque 40Nm you can't torque twice with 20Nm 😉😁😁😁

Sent from my GN8003 using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Metalmonkey

Cheers, actually not much of note on the ride out of Shanghai. I did, however, see a huge mock ancient Chinese building. It was astounding in size, going to be a new hotel, it was near an ancient looming walled structure.. Think I have one or both on film.

I now have my own siphon in the form of a ¥600 Camelbak:)

Yeah, the good stuff is obviously to come..

Your brother bought his bike yet?

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Are you going to start shooting video and editing and posting it up? I picked up a few go pros for the summer. i hope I find something interesting out here in Jilin!

It is still snowing here in the North. My brother will purchase when he can ride it home. It will be another month most likely. Then the real fun begins.

Your camelbak is a sad story... I hope your it is not dual purpose now!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asymptomatic

Are you going to start shooting video and editing and posting it up? I picked up a few go pros for the summer. i hope I find something interesting out here in Jilin!

It is still snowing here in the North. My brother will purchase when he can ride it home. It will be another month most likely. Then the real fun begins.

Your camelbak is a sad story... I hope your it is not dual purpose now!

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Yeah, bought a go pro five last year, done a couple of videos , but they are too long. Should improve with practice.

ride it home? To Europe?

lol no, Changchun only has 2 dealerships so most of the time you need to bus or train to a neighboring city and ride your new bike home and since everything is covered with snow and ice it is not an ideal time yet.

Yeah make some videos... I tried getting into the video thing but so far I would not even watch my videos :( good luck!

I should continue this.

So, on the second day, I went over the bridge via the elevator and arrived in a maze of small sheets. One thing that is good about riding at Chinese New Year is that everywhere is like a ghost town with very few cars on the road. Fireworks were popping all around and I made my way generally South.
One bad thing about travelling at Chinese New Year is that very few restaurants are open (none except for KFC, which is inevitably crammed with people). That day, my usual “head South” technique - trying to head in a general direction as one is not allowed to take main roads- was wearing me thin. Drizzly weather and such and I ended up stopping in petrol station for a lunch of Fangbian Mian. It wouldn’t be the first time on this trip.
I waited around for inspiration and put on my wet weather gear as it began to spit. This discouraged me massively as it reminded me of my past trip Beijing to Shanghai where it bucketed down for the whole first day.
I asked “what’s good to see near here?” of the pump attendant and the driver of a car that was refilling came over and gave some suggestions. He spoke in clear English, and added my WeChat. He advised to see a famous temple just 30 km South then take the S101 then G329 to Ningbo. I headed South out of town and saw mountains for the first time on the trip, looming up in the fog from a small town where everyone was out buying fireworks from roadside stalls for the coming New Year.

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on the way to the temple

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candles burning in the smaller temple at the bottom of the hill.

I eventually found the way to the Temple which lead me up a long gravel road. Nice. There was then a long walk up the hill to the top. Leaving the bike at the bottom and my kit in a Shrine there.I had the Temple to myself and I wandered around sweaty in the thick fog, watching candles burn and flicker. Coming down was nice, with a view over the valleys and the fireworks rising and popping all around.
After I got down, I made my way into the city.. actually a conurbation of Hangzhou and went in five hotels to find a reasonably priced one that would admit a foreigner.

The next day started early. My mission was now on. I flew down the G329 to Ningbo, through Shaoxing. I’ve since been told that Shaoxing has a lovely old water town, so this would actually be an ideal place to break this journey up.

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On the G329. I thought it was interesting how the names of the people who'd donated money for the construction of this gate were written on the side, with the amouynts in Yuan that they'd given

I want to put more pictures in here. I am, however having the same problems as older posts. Inexplicably most of the pictures come out as the wrong orientation (see test track) even after rotating them. Maybe I need to get used to my Mac and my Iphone. Hmmm.

Slash...
I arrived in Beilun after dark and found an awesome hotel- The Boning hotel. Not making that name up. The English name is Balance hotel. Here’s a tip, if you look on the Meituan app, reception will know off 40-50 yuan from the price when booked there.

This place was heavenly and had a Western breakfast. I kinda didn’t want to leave.

Next morning was an early start to catch the ferry to Taohuadao- Peach flower Island... I might have mentioned that the previous day I screamed down the main road to get to Beilun. I had noticed that the oil level was extremely low. The day started my putting a bottle and a half of oil into the bike.

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Oil slick. Knocked the bottle over.

Some more pictures from this trip. The first ones are on TaoHua Island.



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Some more pictures from this trip. The first ones are on TaoHua Island.



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The hills around Beilun.

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Some roads just run out.. This is outside NingBo

After getting lost amongst cabbage patches on the way out of Ningbo, in the drizzle, I found a very charming temple.

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Two things on the way back, the town at the foot of Simingshan was a surprise. A picturesque little tourist town on a river. Apparently was ChiangKai Shek's hometown. Called Xikou（西口）. I stopped a night there then went throught the Simingshan reserve. This was really well paved with twistys. Had some fallen rocks on the good road. The main thing though was the intense fog. Down to 10 m visibility in parts.

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A MASSIVE golden Buddha next to a Temple on the way up Simingshan

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SiMing Mountain (四明山， 浙江）

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Ironic this. The LAST picture cocks up.

Anyway....

I blasted through the town of Shaoxing in Zhejiang on the way out and on the return. I heard from a French friend and Chinese friends that actually this place is a destination in it's own right. I saw lovely pitures from them of stepped terraces near the town with rapeseed flowers blooming. I was also told that the town is a famous water town. But...


This trip was over 9 days solo. 8 days riding.

The bike, as I said developed an oil eating problem, so it's now sat outside stripped doiwn waiting for parts to come on Taobao. Then more travel in Summer.

Good luck with your engine rebuild.

See you on the road


:scooter:

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All sorted ok

A video I macde of the trip on Youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_wLyVAV7hQ