Zhejiang to Fujian - JH600 home ride

[Pfaelzer]

Back on the S 228 - bigger road, I am taking a break and some nutritious food. No time for restaurants. I want to ride on and see how far I still can get on this day.





Playing around with the camera...:



Still nice mountains around - almost no traffic at all on this brand new road.



A waterfall, next to a tunnel:





There are tourist spots around. Hard to identify though... for me at least:

[Pfaelzer]

As I ride on, I open the visor of my helmet to get some air in, almost at the same time something hits me on my right eye and I just see a stone falling out of my helmet. Not a small one. Pain, tears, I think blood at first. Stop at the side of the road to check - lucky, first of all, no blood, not a scratch. But the vision of my right eye is totally blurry now, even after 20 minutes rest. I ride on, keep the visor closed, since the slightest wind cause the eye even more to itch.
I think this was a close call... It reminds you, how fragile everything is. Also this trip. In a moment you think everything is under control. Nothing can happen - you are the hero. A blink of an eye later, almost everything could be over. Broken skin, hospital, stitching, or worse... The trip would have been finished.

Lucky for me - not this time.

However, as it gets darker, the eye still in some pain and vision not back to normal. I realize there is no way for me to press on today. As all of you China riders know well, the night is dangerous on the road here and with all car driving on high beam at any time, my bad eye - it was almost impossible to get a clear sight.

Fu'an - a small town about 150km before my final destination comes just at the right time. After confusing the local police building - which was colorful illuminated - with a hotel, I finally found a decent looking place for the night. No English? no problem! With a little patience communication is easy...

Again, all the excitement - no pictures of the hotel taken. Just a final look at the parking spot besides the security booth and a picture (in case the bike would no more be here the other day......



This guy promised to watch out...

[euphonius]

Wow, AW, glad you made it back in one piece! Can't wait to see and read the adventure on your second day!

Hope the eye returned to normal with some rest. Sobering words you've written about the thin line between joy and disaster. Safety first. Always. All The Gear All The Time.

Now I'm more excited than ever about finally getting my JH600. I'll have a look through that moto8.cn thread.

Keep it coming!

cheers,
jkp

[Pfaelzer]

I had a great sleep. Good news, my eye is much better, even though still a bit slow on focusing (this improved over the day). Breakfast and off at 7:30. I don't understand, why I do not take pictures at those times - probably too excited or so.

Soon I am out in the countryside again:



Rain is pouring pretty strong now. I take shelter in a bus stop. Two more hours to go. I do not bother putting out the extra rain gear. It's fine with my jacket, the trousers are not too good and soon water is running down my legs into the boots. Nice. anyway, soon there will be a hot shower at my office.



It's still beautiful out there - a bit too cold for the season:
















I am pushing on now. Wet and cold - no more stopping (except for the short one where I decided to put the rain pants over to keep my legs warmer - even wet). Finally arriving at my place. Happy and wet. What a ride. Hope I can do this again soon.

The bike was running great. not any issues. It became more and more fun, the longer the ride went on. The new gear? Protection obviously did the job. Need to discuss on aluminum quality and check, if there is harder sheet alloy available in China. Panniers? 100% water proofed locks, easy to take off - some of you might know this system...

After lunch the bike gets a clean-up in the garage. Some office work. I have to leave to Dong Guan. It seems like nothing happened - but it did. I feel great!!!







Hope you enjoyed joining my ride. Please leave some notes here.

This is my first RR. I am wondering if the picture size I choose is ok for most of you or does it take too much time to open up? Any advice here welcome.

Cheers,
AW.

(Gonna have a coffee now...)

[euphonius]

Very sweet report, AW! Absolutely inspiring! The picture of you in your Fuzhou garage says it all -- grinning ear to ear (and no obvious trauma to your eye).

Pictures are a nice size for downloading here in Shanghai. No delays at all. (Not sure where mychinamoto is hosted, but sometimes it's slow, so I'm guessing it's offshore.)

What image size are you posting?

See you soon if you are indeed coming up for Chinaplas.

cheers,
jkp

[DanKearney]

Pfaelzer,

Thanks for the great ride report and photos. Every ride report I read on MCM adds fuel to my fire and makes me look forward to my next trip to China. I agree how it's possible for a perfect ride to go to sh*t in an instant. I've seen that happen before. I'm glad you're incident was not serious. Looking forward to more ride reports and updates on your bike modifications. By the time you have your JH600 perfect, I hope I'll be ready to purchase one and take advantage of all of your experience with it.

A question about your Zumo. Has Garmin corrected the issue that existed with units that were purchased outside of China having a 400m offset on maps purchaesd in China? Last time I was there, my GPSMap 60Csx was worthless in built-up areas because of this.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[Pfaelzer]

Pfaelzer,

... By the time you have your JH600 perfect, I hope I'll be ready to purchase one and take advantage of all of your experience with it.

A question about your Zumo. Has Garmin corrected the issue that existed with units that were purchased outside of China having a 400m offset on maps purchaesd in China? Last time I was there, my GPSMap 60Csx was worthless in built-up areas because of this.

Cheers,

Dan K.

Hi Dan,

guess the bike never will be really "perfect". The project will go on forever I guess. New ideas are coming up all the time. Looking forward for you getting your bike and seeing pictures. The more bikers in China the better.

The ZUMO is bought in Germany. I bought the China map from Garmin online, at that time not knowing about the "chinese government requested" off-set. I had to learn it the sad way...Why are those guys in the US not honest about it? I called them and they recommended me a "correction file" after several calls - but as I found out later, it does work on some devices, but not on the 660. Many are feeling cheated if you look around in the net. I also got a chinese Garmin, with a functioning map, but Garmin China does not sell any waterproofed devices. I enjoy things to be as good as possible - well no choice here for the ZUMO but to get another map from the net, where people have been playing around and correcting the off-set (among others). It's a little tricky to get that map running - bit it works all right now. Of course no updates.
I haven't checked lately on the Garmin page about news on this map. Last time I checked, I couldn't find the China map anymore.

Greetings,
AW.

[ChinaV]

AW,

Most excellent ride report , it looks like all those modifications are paying off nicely. I think many people would have turned around at that land slide , very brave of you to push forward and tackle it. Between the modification updates and ride reports, you're making it hard to get things done at work these days.

It's too bad about Garmin, they make some great devices, but they're probably doomed to fail in the coming years. Android and the iPhone OS will continue to take their market share as both devices (in a weatherproof case) are probably much better options as a GPS for China. The 400 meter offset is just a way to make sure that foreign GPS brands can't offer a quality user experience and thus, share a level playing field with their China competitors. Garmin can't talk about the China problem without negative impact on their business here, unfortunately many people are not informed of that when making a purchase. Hats off to you for having the patience to figure out how to hack it, many others have given up.

Your workshop is stunning , so many toys, and everything is so nice and neat, man am I jealous of a work area like that .

Heard you might be in Dongguan soon, please let me return the favor and buy you dinner or at least a few beers.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[euphonius]

AW,

You'll be happy to know your Garmin offset can be corrected. I've got the identical device -- Zumo 660, purchased in the US -- and took it to Garmin's distributor here in Shanghai to have the China map installed. The last step of the installation was to go "up to the second floor" and recalibrate to de-offset the offset. Ryan Pyle (of http://cnbmwrider.blogspot.com/) gave me this tip, having done the same with his BMW Navigator IV, which is a Zumo 660 with an extra 4-button slide mount. Price was 599 rmb for the China map (only available in pinyin) and recalibration; not sure what they'd charge for just the latter.

So bring your Zumo with you when you come to Shanghai next week, and we can get you sorted out.

cheers
jkp

The ZUMO is bought in Germany. I bought the China map from Garmin online, at that time not knowing about the "chinese government requested" off-set. I had to learn it the sad way...Why are those guys in the US not honest about it? I called them and they recommended me a "correction file" after several calls - but as I found out later, it does work on some devices, but not on the 660. Many are feeling cheated if you look around in the net. I also got a chinese Garmin, with a functioning map, but Garmin China does not sell any waterproofed devices. I enjoy things to be as good as possible - well no choice here for the ZUMO but to get another map from the net, where people have been playing around and correcting the off-set (among others). It's a little tricky to get that map running - bit it works all right now. Of course no updates.
I haven't checked lately on the Garmin page about news on this map. Last time I checked, I couldn't find the China map anymore.

Greetings,
AW.

[euphonius]

PS, is that your old Jialing muffler hanging from the ceiling?? Nice artwork. How did you like the ProDuro?

cheers
jkp