That one with the sidecar is awesome! I will check it out - thanks!
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Sorry to hijack nchenowith, but prince, you are riding with Doogle on advrider? I just happened to coincidentally see his thread on advrider, and saw his last bike (X5) he rented, and suddenly realized this was the same guy asking about bikes here on mychinamoto. As his thread mentioned, he rented bikes rather than figuring out how to buy one. Seemed to be a good choice. Ok, still in the middle of his threads on advrider...
Hi culcune
The bike is not a X5 it's the Shineray 250 c.c X- Trail and the bike was not rented ? But purchessed new in kumming and he will sell it very cheap at his last port of call which will be Beijing before the 14th April
Yes, thanks for clarifying as I finally did finish that thread. It reminds me of the time about 8 to 10 years ago when it seemed like everyone and their mother made a run to China, bought a bike for about $1k (mostly the Zongshen Sierra) and made runs through China. I wasn't aware it was still doable (which I am sure it requires someone relatively local to help out with :naughty: ), but I guess it still is (I WON'T post this on advrider)!
Douglas is a very independent RTW traveller but on reading his plans on MCM about renting all over Asia.
I just had to point out to Dug that could be a problem in China.
He was going to visit Thailand and at the time I was in Thailand as well.
We had a great 6 days ride around North Thailand and hope we could meet up in kunming.
With the plan to buy a cheap new bike in Kunming and sell it at the end of his ride.
That being said it took us a whole day and 5 taxi rides just to find motoerbike shops in kumming.
Motorbikes are banned in kumming so we had to travel to the outskirts just to find bikes shops.
When all was done we had a bike but to make it legel the bike had to go in my Chinses wife's name.
So yes you can still come and buy a bike in China but unless you have a contact in China the bike won't be legel.
For Douglas if you read his RR report the biggest problem he has been having is getting money out on his visa cards.
Please post on his RR on ADVrider I am sure he will be pleased to hear from you.
I left a post on his advrider thread admiring him for actually doing what he intended to do. I remember, people were buying bikes 'back in the old days' in a local's name, but it appeared to have stopped. After these adventure tourists had been going to China, it seemed China started banning bikes, tourists were thrown in jail and deported and what not. Like I said, I hope people don't start trying to do this kind of tourism in large numbers, because I am sure it will ruin it for everyone else (namely me who might want to try it some day!).
Left Douglas today at the Panda park in Ya'an Sichuan province.
He's truly on his own now and I wish he luck for the next 13 days till he leaves for home.
At the end of the day Douglas will have his points of view about China and the problems riding here and I hope he can share his experience with other American friends.
The other reasonably common sidecar model is the Chiang Jiang CJ750. Copy sidecar commun!st Russian sidecar which was a copy of an old BMW 750 horizontally opposed twin.
The CJ750 was used exclusively by the Chinese PLA and PSB. Over the last decade and a half more and more CJ750 have ended up in dubious forms of private 'ownership' & restoration.
Because of the historical use of the CJ750 the majority cannot be transferred into private individual ownership; and almost definitely not a foreign individuals name. Buyer be[a]ware!
Majority of CJ750s require ongoing significant maintenance even those having undergone full restoration. Plan on carrying a full suite of tools for roadside wrenching.
Prices vary from 1000cny - 40000cny (post full restoration).
IMHO I'd sooner buy and ride a JH600 outfit than a CJ750. I've ridden both.
The CJ750 is antiquated, while the JH600 is less so.
YMMV