Bike in or around Ningbo

Hello MCM peoples,

I'm new to the site, fresh as of 20 seconds now. I'm looking to buy a motorcycle in China. Basically, I only see the construction dudes riding around where I live.

I'm in Ningbo, 2 hours south of Shanghai.

I was wondering if anyone knew a good place to go in the area to check out bikes? I've gone over chinasidecar.com but they're in Beijing so I wanted to check if anyone knew anything closer.

I'm not out for the best of the best. I want to work on it a bit myself. I'm into something I can work into a cafe racer style.

Any help is awesome and great site!

Bukowski

Bukowski,

Central Ningbo, at least as I remember, bikes are banned in the typical strait-jacketed 'one size fits all/what would my neighbors think?/cold beer is bad for you' Chinese mentality we all love to hate.

On a lighter note Zhejiang has killer mountain riding in its rural mountain regions, and reasonably priced registration costs. Also a cafe racer has my vote! Also big fan of street and flat tracker styled machines, but you won't find much over 250cc unless you have lots of money. How much money do you have, and how legal do you want/need to be?

Dear Bukowski,

Greetings, welcome to the forum, and lucky, lucky you! Ningbo is on the cusp of some of the best riding in all of eastern China. First thing to do is check out the posts of a neighbor of yours who calls himself bikerdoc. He knows every inch of road in Zhejiang, knows everyone in Ningbo who rides for pleasure and probably can help you find a gem of a bike. Search this for Zhejiang ride reports by Felix, Motokai and many others. awesome riding there.

We Shanghai denizens have to cross 3-5 hours of endless city wasteland to reach the wonderland that's just outside your back door.

cheers!

Hey bukowski saw an old v twin 400honda the other day I
n a workshop near yangzhou
Crying out for the cafe racer treatment

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Yes, bikes are illegal in the Ningbo city limits (I'm in a suburb of sorts just a bit out of the city, I'm sure they'll be illegal here soon but for now the construction dudes can give you a ride now and then).

I'll definitely try and get a hold of bikerdoc. Thanks for that.

Also, I'll contact bikerdoc first and see what's around here. If it's all a no go, maybe a trip to Yangzhou is in order.

And for money, I'm really not sure where the starting rates are for anything over 250cc? Does anyone have any tips on what they think basic prices should be? That could be helpful when meeting up with a possible haggling situation.

Thanks again guys and really looking forward to getting on the road in the future.

B.

well, asking for prices for unnamed motorbikes is like asking how long a piece of string is,
firstly you should ask your self if you need anything more powerful than a 125 (yeah i know, but they arnt half bad around here, and they are cheap)
if you want a dirt cheap bike, you can go for the bikes the construction dudes have, they should be around 4000 ish, then you need a license and a reg plate (different thread)
if you didnt care about any of that, you could buy a second hand one with plates for around 2,000-2,500 rmb (im usless, i prob paid way to much but i fall in love easily with bikes and so never really bother with hangling to much, if i can get200 rmb off im a happy man and have saved a little 'face')
for a 150cc bike, they seem to start about 7k ish and go up to.. well up... (this is for a half nice looking street bike, not the construction dudes types of bikes)
200, seem to start around 8.5k
and 250's at around 9k.
a good bike, if you can afford it is a regal raptor 250dd. (look on bikes for sale thread (sorry i cant work out how to do the fancy things euphonius does, so it involves a little looking around the forums :-)

if you dont mind being totally illegal, then you can get a bike that hasnt passed any tests and cannot get a license plate, for a 250cc one of them,,, maybe 7,500
something like this can get license plates http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12749607501 and it looks kinda nice, although i dont see a gear indicator on it and im not sure how easy it would be to get a license plate for it.

im a fair few miles south of you kinda near a place called ningde (check google maps) (its in fujian province)
i take it you have a license in another country?? if so, it is worth the time and effort to get it changed to a chinese license and being totally legal (ningbo police will be more on the ball then the local police in the villages, so driving to and form ningbo and around ningbo will be a tad risky if you are in any way not totally legal.

many people drive for a little while with nothing, i have read people drive around up north east china for a whole year with no problems (except crashing into a glass door(no explanation given)).
personally i wouldn't recommend it.

umm, oh yeah, a big hello to you :-)
hows china life treating you so far?

<edit>
after thought: ........ crap, forgotten what i was gonna say..... and it was quite important.... dang it.... ummmmm,,,,,,, no ,,,, no its gone for good,,,, :gun_bandana:

:icon10: always good to see new blood :icon10:

might i also recommend getting a ebike first, although not like a motorbike, it will give you some time to get used to chinese roads (not so much the roads, more the other drivers on the roads... they are, by far, the biggest thing to worry about, drivers, pedestrians, old people taxi's, police cars ignoring mirrors, stoooooopid bus's, people running red lights, people not looking at the lights and driving on regardless, suicidal citizens, school kids on foot and on bikes and ebikes, distracted people with phones in one hand, shopping in the other trying to mount their bikes and loosing balance leaving bike on the floor, shopping on the other side of the road and a person in between looking red and embarrassed, and then there are the actual roads, big holes in the middle of the street which if you arnt paying attention can leave you 3 foot down a trench with your face in the mud and a bike ontop of you, random dead ends on a 6 lane road, drain covers missing (my personal favorite) not to mention the 'sights' of chinese womens backsides as they are walking down the road........

I've been in Ningbo 16 years.. Great rides around the mountains and all thru zhejiang province, jiangxi, anhui, fujian and well.. just twist and go..
There is a lot to talk about and it's probably best that most of it discussed off line.. There are hundreds of riders and hundreds of bikes.. Every year we have a zhejiang meet and around 300 bikes show up.. Many many nice people.. A few foreigners and we do do lots of trips.. Keep in touch and bikerdoc and me will put you rights.

Thanks for all the replies. I've had an e bike for three years or so and am used to traffic. Looking now for something a little more fun.

Thanks Crazy Jon, great to meet another Ningbo person and the meets sound great.