Guangdong ??'s

I will be in Ping Hu, Guangdong (about an hour north of Shenzhen) for 10 weeks starting in May. I will actually be staying in Shenzhen but know they have banned motorcycles there.

I'm interested in doing an Ironbutt ride 1610 kilometers in 24 hours and was hoping I could find some like minded person who is familiar with the area. Basically one must average about 68 kph including stops.

What are the requirements for getting a motorcycle license?

What would I need to do to obtain a bike? Would I be able to rent? Would I be able to purchase and then resell? What about insurance?

It seems traffic laws are mostly ignored in Ping Hu. Is this normal in this region?

Hello AL2000, welcome to the site.

I live about an hour southwest of PingHu, in Dongguan. Try my best to answer your questions.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

I'm interested in doing an Ironbutt ride 1610 kilometers in 24 hours and was hoping I could find some like minded person who is familiar with the area. Basically one must average about 68 kph including stops.

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Sounds like fun, but average 68 kph, in China? That's going to be hard because the highways are off limits and high speed on the local roads is an invitation to disaster.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

What are the requirements for getting a motorcycle license?

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Will you have a residence permit & working Visa? If not, it may be impossible to get a motorcycle license in Guangdong. You might find some help from other guys on the board that were able to get them in other provinces.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

What would I need to do to obtain a bike? Would I be able to rent? Would I be able to purchase and then resell? What about insurance?

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No rentals here that I have ever seen. You could arrange for a Chinese "friend" to purchase, register, and insure the bike. They could then transfer ownership to you. After you're finished with the bike, you can sell it.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

It seems traffic laws are mostly ignored in Ping Hu. Is this normal in this region?

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Yes

Cheers!
ChinaV

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Originally Posted by AL2000

I will be in Ping Hu, Guangdong (about an hour north of Shenzhen) for 10 weeks starting in May. I will actually be staying in Shenzhen but know they have banned motorcycles there.

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What you going to be doing there?

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Originally Posted by AL2000

I'm interested in doing an Ironbutt ride 1610 kilometers in 24 hours and was hoping I could find some like minded person who is familiar with the area. Basically one must average about 68 kph including stops.

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I have to advise against an Ironbutt anywhere in Eastern China and most of Western China. The one province I would suggest it is Xinjiang but then you'd have to add extra time for checkpoint stops. LOTS of good open flat road runs around the desert but be warned, the desert can hand you your ass.

Also, I'm not sure how you would do an official SaddleSore since you'd need some sort of verifiable source (like another IBA memeber) to sign your start. Too bad I'm not there! :lol8: Then you need to keep docouments of all fuel stops that give the location of fill up, time and all that normal documentation stuff.

Even if you could do all that stuff, ChinaV is right... averaging 68kph on rural roads in China is not recommended and has a very high chance of you and/or some other people ending up in the hospital. We already had a fellow rider expire on us in 2008 and really don't want to see it repeated in 2009.

That said, there's no way to really stop someone from doing what they really want to do. Maybe someone will come along with some more encouragine words but I'd still say do it at incredible risk.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

What are the requirements for getting a motorcycle license?

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You need at least a one year residence permit and a lot of elbow grease.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

What would I need to do to obtain a bike? Would I be able to rent? Would I be able to purchase and then resell? What about insurance?

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When a bike is purchased new, it goes through the process of getting plates and registration as well as paying the sales taxes and insurance at the same time. If you buy a second hand bike you should get the plates and registration with it but the insurance will likely be expired. Cops don't check for insurance if they stop you though.

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Originally Posted by AL2000

It seems traffic laws are mostly ignored in Ping Hu. Is this normal in this region?

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Not just in this region but pretty much most of China. The only way to get away from it is to get away from traffic which is why I always suggest heading west!

CC

China is certainly one of the worst places to do an iron butt. Your average speed will be more around 40/50 km/h than 100. Riding at night is a sure way to look for big trouble. If you hit somebody or being hurt yourself, you'll be in deep shit.

If you have some money to burn, you can come to Zhuhai International Circuit, rent the track for 24 hours and ride one of the race bikes they rent here (600cc). You'll be the first guy alive to have tried an iron butt in China.

:lol8::lol8::lol8: An IBA ride around a racetrack!!! Would they even count that?

Brice man! How's the ride going!?

CC

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Originally Posted by CrazyCarl

:lol8::lol8::lol8: An IBA ride around a racetrack!!! Would they even count that?

Brice man! How's the ride going!?

CC

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Howdy Carl,

The trip is over since Yesterday afternoon. I'm far from an iron butt even if mine hurts a little bit (wife is taking care of it :naughty:). 5 weeks, 6500km, 1 accident, tenth hits avoided, 2 breakdowns, bike is leaking from everywhere and looks like a wreck but she did a fantastic job.:thumbsup:

Let me few days to sort out the mess and I'll start my ride report.

Cheers Mate

Brice,

Glad you made it back safe and sound. Can't wait to see the trip report.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Thanks to each of you for your input. It sounds like the Ironbutt ride is not feasible. I had saw a couple of bikes on the highways and was not aware bikes were not allowed on the highways. I agree trying this on local roads would be insane.

Not sure the IBA would count one on the racetrack. LOL

Sounds like I'll be sticking to the subway as I'm not sure my traffic skills are up to those of the local riders. LOL.

I will not have a working Visa and am not sure at this point what kind of Visa I'm going to be able to get. I will be bringing four undergraduate students to China to work projects. We will not be getting paid.

Any clue what kind of visa you'll be there on? Any one year visa which gives you a residence permit will work.

CC

I think I'm only going to have a 6 month tourist VISA.