If I don't start, I'll never finish. Here goes.... this is our "rewards and punishment tour of China 2010". I've told many a fellow rider that China offers some of the finest motorcycling on the planet. However, she will make you pay for those kilometers of sweetness with an equal amount of hardship. This 15 day tour lived up to that expectation in every sense. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed each minute, and I'm sure everyone agrees, even the worst day on a bike is still better than any day at the office.

So, here are the players, from left to right.



Me / Lorne (aka ChinaV / Mr. Black), Felix (aka Felix / Mr. Yellow) and Daniel (aka twowheelsRTW / Mr. Blue).

Sometime during Chinese New Year, Felix and I came up with the bright idea of making a tour up the Nujiang river into Tibet. We quickly realized this was a pipe dream and would never happen. We weren't born into the clan of the Han, and those areas are off limits to us round-eyes. So we pondered other routes that would still allow us the opportunity of burning petrol and consuming piss warm beer. The main goal being, at some point we wanted to gaze at the snowcapped mountains of the Tibetan Plateau. I suggested a route through Yunnan and Sichuan, and thus a plan was born.

Here is the original idea for our Dongguan to Chengdu route. Things never go as planned.



In the meantime, Daniel, a veteran round the world motorcyclist, was making his plans for discovering China. I suggested tagging along with us, as it would be a good eye opener for riding here without the stress of navigation and dealing with all things China. Daniel accepted and headed for Dongguan from his home in Puerto Rico.

I won't bore you with the preliminary details, you can read about the bike prep in my Galaxy thread here. I will put out a quick thanks to the people at Galaxy (Tiger, John, and Lydia) for letting me into the factory to gather parts. I also want to thank Pfaelzer for giving me the motivation to think outside the box and create my own stuff. When I grow up, I want to be like Pfaelzer

Oh, one last thing... this story starts off really slow, the first section is rather boring, but once I crash, and the bike slides off a small bridge, it really does get rather good.

Day 1

Felix and Daniel have arrived, and bike preparation is in full swing. Everyone is busy trying to figure out how they're going to strap so much crap on to such little motorcycles. We plan on doing some camping, so tents, sleeping bags etc. are piled up on our 223cc wonderbikes. We're all riding the same model motorcycle, thus we split up the spare parts and manage to a carry a fair amount of extras "just in case".

Prep time.



Felix, ready for action.



Heading across the pearl river poo poo pit on the ferry from Humen. We're anxious to get the cities behind us, but there's much diesel to be inhaled before we will finally break free of the factories. A couple onlookers comment on the bikes and are surprised to learn they are made right here in Guangdong.



It's a rather unenventful day as we had a very late start so we only covered 200 kilometers. A nice gentle ride to get us familiar with the bikes and carrying all the gear. We reached the town of Zhaoqing, checked into the Hai Tao hotel and headed out to find some cold beers and food. Luck was with and we managed to find both and then called it an early evening. We wanted to cover serious ground the following day and planned on an early start.

Distance 203 Kilometers - Time 5:00 Hours - Average Moving Speed 54 kph

Cheers!
ChinaV