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Beijing gas station refueling
Noticed this on a Chinese forum ...
http://attachments.motorfans.com.cn/...1Hjdp28322.jpg
Prior to being allowed to fill up at some stations, a pic is being taken of your plate & blue book while you are inside registering your driving license (while being recorded by the security camera inside ... "please remove your helmet").
OK, this is getting ridiculous. Who dreams up these policies / practices?
There is a guy that lives in my building and rides one of those Turtle things, without plates. He siphons gas out of his car to fill up his bike. All done in the underground parking lot, which is poorly ventilated. Sometimes, the area reeks of gas fumes.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I wonder if those gas station jockeys can be enticed to sell the plate numbers & bike details (out of the blue book) to the counterfeiting crooks ... 20 rmb per picture? Incredible.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
They should hire Booz Allen and automate the whole process so you as the driver won't even know it's happening. Hey, I hear there's a former Booz surveillance guy down in Hong Kong who's probably looking for work right now...
cheers!
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Hey Mr Euph - just a few hundred meters south of your old homestead, next to the Honda Car dealer, is a gas station that drives me crazy. I need to take my blood pressure meds before I fill up at that station.
One week, I'm almost strip searched to get gas. Next week, they're pleasant & smiley and quickly fill my tank without so much as a peep or a query. Following week, back to the gestapo tactics. Once, a small group of us (4) came in ... this crazy old lady came running out and told us we had to push our bikes (with the engines off) from the station's driveway entrance up to the pumps. We were already at the pumps but ... no no no ... she wanted us to leave and start over. We were all on large, heavy bikes .. all fully legal ... and a couple worth several hundred thousand rmb. And while this is going on, a POS Xiali sedan sputters up to the pumps and gets a happy fill.
None of this makes any sense. It certainly has no impact on illegal bikes and/or riders.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Luckily I don't have these problems. We have the 'fill up in the corner using a dangerous kettle because it's safer' routine. A few stations don't insist on it so I only go to those.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
I feel so lucky out here. No license checks, no stupid teapots, just pull up to any station and fill up. They also don't mind filling up jerry cans, which i've been refused in most other parts of china.
On the other hand the bike ban is enforced pretty strictly. And they don't allow their citizen to even hold E or D licenses.
Also i have yet to get a fill up without them spilling petrol all over my bike. Sure why would they be able to do their job?
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Milton and I were (no idea where we were but may have been Sichuan) somewhere, and it was one of the stupid teapot provinces and at a station where it was strictly enforced. There were 2 small pots each big enough to make tea for an entire 30 person danwei but no more. Milton got in early getting the "good pot". I got the leaky one. Yeah, leaky one!!
There I was carrying it from the pump to my bike which of course was parked 30m away against the right hand side of the gas station. The walk to the bike created a stream of gasoline from pump to bike from the leaking pot. When I arrive at the Jialing and tried to get the spout into (or somewhere near) the opening on my gas tank I discovered that too was damaged. Now I have gasoline leaking from not just the bottom but now also the top and now all over my bike and over Motokai. As I was trying to salvage this ever so delicately Milton was my advocate firing at the attendant how in the world this could be safer than filling up at the pump??
Gasoline everywhere: Ground, Bike, Clothes, Motokai
Really? This is safer?
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6209/...1144e240_z.jpg
Motokai File Photo: Inner Mongolia
* The best is when the station which by law must enforces the policy (I get that) actually puts care into their teapots. I appreciate those who attach the Garden Hose to the spout so you can actually pour the gasoline into your tank without risking self-immolation.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Seriously, what is the rationale behind the teapots?
I am going to guess that it is because they think an exposed engine might somehow cause the fuel to ignite/explode? The reason I think this is because once, a long time ago, I filled up my Jeep in some hick-ville outside Harbin ... pulled away from the pump (so others behind me could have their turn) and stopped about 20 meters away ... popped the hood to check my oil ... and the entire cast & crew of Sinopec, filled with terror on their faces, came running out to me, yelling to immediately close my hood.
Living in China, we get to experience the effects of a country that shut down its education system during the Cultural "Evolution" ... folks that missed years of education (including classes in basic physics) are now the leaders, dreaming up "public safety" policies.
So, opening your hood (bonnet for you Brits out there) is a dangerous public hazard ... smoking in hospitals, nyeh, no problem.
EDIT: In one of the Mythbustsrs episodes, they test the theories of gas station fires (e.g., cell phones, etc). They couldn't get it to work - nothing started the fires. Nothing - they had a hell of a time getting anything to start a fire. They even went as far as tossing a lit cigarette into a pail of gas (nothing happened, except the cigarette was extinguished). (linkie)
There was ONE thing that was shown to be a risk, however ... at self-serve gas stations, static electricity could create a spark and ignite the fuel fumes. Apparently, this happened most with women! Women would leave the car, put the nozzle in to start filling, then hop back inside the car to get their wallet out of their purse ... then get back outside the car and touch the nozzle, right where the fumes were exiting. Rubbing across the driver's seat created static electricity. Men carry their wallets in their pocket, and don't hop in/out of the car, so it was rare. If there was any static electricity when a man first got out, it was grounded when he reached for the nozzle at the pump (before starting to pump). (linkie)
Anyone want to volunteer to explain the physics to a Chinese gas station?
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MotoKai
Milton and I were (no idea where we were but may have been Sichuan) somewhere, and it was one of the stupid teapot provinces and at a station where it was strictly enforced.
Actually I have a few pictures for the occasion described by Motokai:
Motokai was re-filling his bike, wondering why there wasn’t much ended up in the tank. Note the puddle underneath his bike, which according to Sinopec is less a fire hazard than filling up at the pump:
https://emimgw.bn1.livefilestore.com...625.jpg?psid=1
Motokai finally gave up and switched to another kettle. Notice how the first teapot splays, side way, at the spout:
https://hygiow.bn1.livefilestore.com...430.jpg?psid=1
That leaky kettle works better than any of these in the garden:
https://public.bn1.livefilestore.com...800.jpg?psid=1
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
When did this requirement come into being? We have toured through Sichuan (twice) and Yunnan on motorcycles and never had any problem filling multiple motorcycles from one pump (so we could pay one bill). In Laos, they still use 1940s hand-pumps in 44 gallon drums with no problems. As a child, I regularly refulled our farm tractor with a hand-pump (rotary) out of a 500 gallon underground tank. My father once showed us the dangers of petrol by putting some in a wide can and immediately putting a match in it. It went out. Then he struck another match a minute or so later (when there were plenty of fumes above the fuel) and toosed teh match in. The vapour immediately erupted. We tried this with kerosine and diesel so we could see the difference. That's when we learned about 'volatility'. Don't they teach this stuff in the People's Republic?
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Jeezus, that looks like the set up for a dramatic explosion in a bad action movie.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PeteZ
Jeezus, that looks like the set up for a dramatic explosion in a bad action movie.
Hitchcock's "The Birds" has a memorable scene where gasoline from a dropped spigot is flowing downhill and a guy gets out of his car, unwittingly steps right into the stream of petrol and -- being a guy in the 1960s -- just has to light up a cigarette. Everyone's shouting "look out! don't drop the match!" but he is confused and does precisely that. Shot on location in Bodega, in my home county of Sonoma.
cheers
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Are you kidding? We had lots of fun playing with petrol as kids, and never blew ourselves or anyone else up. That's because we knew what we were doing. Education these days is sadly lacking from parents. Oh, and the stuff we had was the good old leaded variety without all that toluene and benzene muck (carcinogens). If you want a decent explosion, use an explosive. If you can locate some sodium chlorate, I can show you how to make a decent fire cracker...
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Was at my least favorite station (see above) yesterday, filling up my GW. Its location is convenient, and often not busy. Anyways, it was a smiley day - they didn't ask for anything. And they even filled up an unplated R9 at the next pump.
Consistency, yeah, that's the key.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
So in China they force motorcycles to use an aluminum kettle at service stations, but they don't in any other country in the world......
This means logically....
a. China is a very clever country, in China they know much more about safety than any other country.
b. Chinese fuel station managers are stupid and don't have a clue about what is safe or unsafe.
Pick one..........
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ZMC888
So in China they force motorcycles to use an aluminum kettle at service stations, but they don't in any other country in the world......
This means logically....
a. China is a very clever country, in China they know much more about safety than any other country.
b. Chinese fuel station managers are stupid and don't have a clue about what is safe or unsafe.
Pick one..........
Thats a hard one but i think i will go with B
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
prince666
Thats a hard one but i think i will go with B
Unless it is your wife or her family asking these questions then the correct answer is A
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
It is in fact a demoralising mixture of stupidity and apathy.
Someone important who's never ridden a bike hears an anecdote one day of a bike catching fire or whatever and decides that teapots are the solution. The law passes because because no one involved has ever ridden a bike, probably never even had to fill up their own fuel.
Everyone below follows blindly because they don't care and it's not their problem. You can't yell at the petrol station attendant that it's stupid, because he doesn't care and he's just covering his arse. You can't yell at the station manager that it's nonsensical because he doesn't care and he's just covering his arse. You can't yell at whoever's above him because etc...
Those who could change the stupid law won't benefit financially from doing it, and since no one cares apart from a few insignificant riders, it will never change.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
felix
It is in fact a demoralising mixture of stupidity and apathy.
Someone important who's never ridden a bike hears an anecdote one day of a bike catching fire or whatever and decides that teapots are the solution. The law passes because because no one involved has ever ridden a bike, probably never even had to fill up their own fuel.
Everyone below follows blindly because they don't care and it's not their problem. You can't yell at the petrol station attendant that it's stupid, because he doesn't care and he's just covering his arse. You can't yell at the station manager that it's nonsensical because he doesn't care and he's just covering his arse. You can't yell at whoever's above him because etc...
Those who could change the stupid law won't benefit financially from doing it, and since no one cares apart from a few insignificant riders, it will never change.
This is why in the west we have 1%er bike gangs. Bad fucking attitude and don't take shit. Someone tries the kettle routine in the west and they'd soon be 'clued in'.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
I have a sinopec gas card that i keep topped up with 2 or 3 hundred rmb. Just stick the card in, dial the pin and you're good to go! I fuel up at the pump this way around 8pm when it's quiet and there are only 2 staff in the station. When they tell me (in Chinese) that I "...have to use the kettle" I tell them (in English) "Wrong; it's dangerous!" to which they walk away because that idiot foreigner isn't worth loosing face over; "Let him burn himself" I might have heard one of them say :icon10:.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
If a gas card was linked to a drivers licenses and registration, then there could be stations that only accepted that card for fueling and regulated through rule based criteria, eliminating the problems systemically.
Then as long as everything is in order access is granted to the fueling system. The required linked information imbedded on the card, the vehicle itself would have an RFID the pump would pick up its signal and then the card would validate the registered insured owner of the vehicle. The ideal system would validate the vehicle by a signal exchange from the inserting of the nozzle into the vehicle. That would prevent using it outside of the rule system. Such a system would report consumption, it could even upload data like diagnostics, if the vehicle had a smart chip, most modern bikes do.
Such a system would eventually systemically reduces waste and pollution and also make it impossible to operate a vehicle illegally.
This is the future, the issue for this generation is accepting it and or what events will transpire before you accept it? I suspect that sensationalism coupled with ignorance, fueled by paranoia will bring about instances that make some desire accountability system more and more.
Privacy is what you do in room alone with the door closed.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
There is a gas station a few hundred meters West of the Temple of Heaven's North gate. It is very popular with motorcyclists because it has never asked for the blue book or DLs, and the pump people are always pleasant and smiling. You'd also see a lot of the three-wheeled box-thingies filling up there. It was usually quite a busy station.
Went by there yesterday and, noticing it was almost empty, I zipped in for a fill-up. They had a table set up next to the pumps, with a big book (like an accounting ledger) being managed by a grumpy old guy (maybe the owner?). Everyone's DL and blue book detail was jotted down and photos taken. Became obvious why this place was not busy. And I also understood why the old guy was grumpy - I'd be p'd off too, if I was forced to have my business partake in this silly system.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
As a gweilo who has done around 20,000 km of motorcycle touring in the past, starting in 1986, I have never experienced this motorcycle re-fuelling lunacy. Can someone tell me:
1, is this a nation-wide law, or is it a refuelling station advisory;
2, when was it introduced?
3, what is a DL ?
4, what is a Blue Book?
We had registered bikes and just rode, refuelled direct from the pumps, and carried on.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
1. No, it's not a nationwide law. I ride a lot and quite far and have never experienced this ridiculous and discriminatory policy and if I was subjected to such draconian measures well hell have no fury like... but I'd also likely have a 5-10L fuel can and simply fill it and then use that to fill the tank of my bike.
2. ? doesn't apply in any of the provinces I've ridden in. Just travelled through Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi in the past month and never experienced this nor saw it.
3. DL = drivers license/licence
4. Blue book = is really a misnomer since it refers to the blue wallet 行驶证 vehicle license/licence that are issued by the 交警大队车辆管理所 traffic police and vehicle administration bureau. This is the one that should be produced when demanded by an authorised person.
Green book (FYI) = 车辆登记证书 vehicle registration certificate that are issued by the 交警大队车辆管理所 traffic police and vehicle administration bureau
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
During my recent 5+ weeks Beijing visit was asked several times to show the motorbike blue book (registration booklet) at Sinopec stations inside the 4th. ring road but was never refused to fill up at Sinopec stations using the prepaid Sinopec cards.
Never asked to show my driving license, register or remove my helmet (used my Schuberth C3 flip-up while in capital city).
Now, on several occasions was approached while filling up by some Cheap Charlies (foreigners) riding un-plated / un-licensed petrol scooters to use my bloom book to fill up, you know my straight forward in you face reply to the requests for sure....
side-note: totally understand the measures the Beijing government is taking to get the unlicensed clowns off the streets. Was very surprised to see so many motorcycles and supercars (Porsche, Ferrari, Bntley, Lambo, etc.) without license plates during my stay up in Beijing.
going around the BJ Workers Stadium on a weekend night feels like going to an international car expo, every imaginable supercar parked in front of one of the busy night clubs without plates of course....
pss: a mate has huge problems to get petrol for his petrol lawnmower out in Shunyi with the metal jerry cans....
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
.........pss: a mate has huge problems to get petrol for his petrol lawnmower out in Shunyi with the metal jerry cans....
let me explain:
Its because the Public security found out that dangerous lawnmower fuel bombs are used by Chinese separatists from "the green front"??? Imagine, they are much small than a truck with Diesel-Fertilizer mix, not suspicious and therefore only to be detected by the staff on fuel stations where they are filled up. Frightening, right???:eek2:
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
If you can believe everything you read in forums, this gas station debacle just took another strange twist.
Over on a Chinese forum (motofans), a few people are starting to post that they have been refused fill ups because their B plate is registered in a company name, not an individual person. In a strange way, I guess that makes sense because of the following ...
What some crooks do is put a fake B plate (with associated fake paperwork) on an illegal/stolen bike and sell it as "legal", substantially raising the price. The fake B plate is in a company name, therefore the buyer does not do a document transfer upon purchase (a transfer at the police station would uncover that the bike's documents are all fake). In company-registered B-plate transactions, the seller & buyer usually just do a Bill of Sale. Company B-plate registrations are common in Beijing, primarily because of the residency restrictions and difference in A <-> B plate prices - I am not sure if Shanghai, or other cities, have something similar.
IMHO, this current gas station nonsense appears linked to the recently announced crackdown. Kernelpanx offered one idea on that other thread (i.e., related to stolen bikes) that appears supported by my own unscientific research. On a thread about crooks openly selling stolen bikes in Beijing, I commented that I was surprised these thieves would so blatantly advertise their spoils on well-known websites (e.g., 58.com). Often with my morning breakfast, I'll check the ads out of curiosity. There would always be a couple of new "lost the paper work and need to sell immediately" bikes for a tiny fraction of market price - these ads have totally disappeared in the last week. Haven't seen one.
Digressing slightly further off-topic, I had a lively debate with a couple of Chinese riders at lunch today. They were going on and on about how much they hated bike thieves, and the thieves should be tortured, or worse. I asked them "what about the illegal bikes - the bikes smuggled in - why do people seem to be OK with buying those?" They both looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet and said "they are illegal because they are smuggled." To which I asked "have you ever wondered where they come from? Do you think they might have been stolen in another country and smuggled into China?" They kinda sheepishly said "never really thought about that."
OMFG. Crooks' paradise.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
I once checked some of the VIN numbers on photos of some of the smuggled big-bore Japanese bikes for sale on 58.com and weifengtang and most of them were wrecked bikes from the US that had been advertised for sale on breakers' websites in the US. Not saying that some of them weren't stolen but I reckon most of them were salvage bikes that had been purchased legally, taken apart, and then shipped off to China to the notorious port at Jie Shi where they are reassembled, fixed up and tarted up to look all new and shiny. To me, it's all the more reason not to ever buy one.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lao Jia Hou
Over on a Chinese forum (motofans), a few people are starting to post that they have been refused fill ups because their B plate is registered in a company name, not an individual person.
Starting to sound like it's going to be easier for me to take the bus to Beijing this fall instead of riding up... Or carry 20L of fuel with me from Tianjin ;)
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PeteZ
I once checked some of the VIN numbers on photos of some of the smuggled big-bore Japanese bikes for sale on 58.com and weifengtang and most of them were wrecked bikes from the US that had been advertised for sale on breakers' websites in the US. Not saying that some of them weren't stolen but I reckon most of them were salvage bikes that had been purchased legally, taken apart, and then shipped off to China to the notorious port at Jie Shi where they are reassembled, fixed up and tarted up to look all new and shiny. To me, it's all the more reason not to ever buy one.
Good point!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
thedannywahl
Starting to sound like it's going to be easier for me to take the bus to Beijing this fall instead of riding up... Or carry 20L of fuel with me from Tianjin ;)
No, don't worry - this is a temporary inconvenience - things will be back to "NerMeL" in a while. Besides, this "crackdown" is inconsistent in its application. One station will be strict, whereas the next one won't be. I had one female Chinese rider tell me her trick is to find a gas station that is really busy with cars - the gas jockeys can't be bothered with paperwork - just flash the blue book and you're good. Of course, she is also quite pretty - not like my ugly, big-nosed, face.
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Re: Beijing gas station refueling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
bikerdoc
Green book (FYI) = 车辆登记证书 vehicle registration certificate that are issued by the 交警大队车辆管理所 traffic police and vehicle administration bureau
i was told that i don't really need to bring the green book with me all the time, the blue wallet is enough with the insurance card and ofcourse your valid DL.