The rewarding us with punishment tour

[moilami]

Day 3



ChinaV

Impressive photograph and monument. This is part of the "Real China" people so often happen to cry out loud with desktop background quality landscape photographs. Thanks and hope to see more pictures and text from your journey.

[felix]

funny you speak of desktops the photos from this abandoned water park make great backgrounds with a little help from photoshop, here's what's on my desktop now:

[moilami]

Works greatly in B&W

[humanbeing]

Day 3
Felix's bike is running with the choke open, but close the choke, and it just won't take throttle. Obviously we need to pull the carb and I'm just hoping the problem is a clogged main jet or something else that won't require parts. I have to mention at this point.... I hate his motorcycle. I've never had a bike draw so much blood sweat and tears from me. Despite my best efforts, and replacing almost every part, she still manages to bring pain. I lovingly refer to her as the **** (rhymes with hunt). Fortunately, there's a tiny motorcycle shop directly across the street from the binguan. Felix and I quickly pull things apart and the shop has exactly what I need, air compressor and carb cleaner. I pull the main jet and see a nasty chunk of spooge blocking it. A few strategic squirts and everything looks good. Get her back together, fire her up and all appears well again. Thank goodness! ...
ChinaV

Refilled in Guangxi? Almost ALL chinese biker know that's the "end result" of GX's "ethanol"ed gas for "outsiders"

[ChinaV]

Refilled in Guangxi? Almost ALL chinese biker know that's the "end result" of GX's "ethanol"ed gas for "outsiders"

We did refill in Guangxi, as it is over 700 kilometers across. Daniel and I didn't have any problems, but I'm sure ethanol wasn't helping things on Felix's bike. We usually stopped at Sinopec stations because they generally have the best gas in China. I've heard of what they put in the milk here, can't imagine what goes into the gas

Humanbeing, in your collective opinion from the Chinese bikers, what petrol company has the best reputation?

Cheers!
ChinaV

[ZMC888]

refer to her as the ****

Same as my best friends ex-wife!

Interesting about the fuel, although I always fill up where I am allowed to straight from the pump, regardless of brand. I often wonder what percentage water is in it! I find that the China Rock Oil (literal translation) sometimes have good gas
but they are really anal about it being 'strictly prohibited' to fill up any bike at the pump.

[RANT] This is because in 1987 a bike blew up in Hebei province at a service station. Of course there have been hundreds of car fires at service stations since then and it's perfectly OK to use a crap excuse like safety to leave the pumps free for cars who are better and have more money. Please do not attempt to use logical arguments that start like....."But in every other country in the world.......my bike is new......my bike is insured etc"[/RANT]

[ChinaV]

[RANT] This is because in 1987 a bike blew up in Hebei province at a service station. Of course there have been hundreds of car fires at service stations since then and it's perfectly OK to use a crap excuse like safety to leave the pumps free for cars who are better and have more money. Please do not attempt to use logical arguments that start like....."But in every other country in the world.......my bike is new......my bike is insured etc"[/RANT]

Must restrain myself.... oh fug it... YES this is THE most retarded thing I've ever seen in China (trust me, seen some strange shit here). Let's pour gasoline into open containers and force motorcycles to fill from them. Try filling up a 22 liter V-Strom from a teapot with a garden hose attachment that will not fit inside any DOT specked gas cap. Thank god I don't have to drive in the retard provinces that enforce this stupid rule. We were fortunate enough this trip did not involve any locations with teapots. I mentioned this to Dan and Felix somewhere along the way and they thought I was kidding.

Sorry to disagree with your choice of petrol companies "Z", I would rather push my bike than fill with the crap at "China Rock Oil". Could be a provincial thing, but every tank I've gotten from them in GD has left my bike or car sputtering and pinging. It only took a combination of China Rock and BP about 25,000 kilometers to completely destroy my fuel pump in my V-Strom. So far I'm having better luck with Sinopec.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[chinabiker]

Must restrain myself.... oh fug it... YES this is THE most retarded thing I've ever seen in China (trust me, seen some strange shit here). Let's pour gasoline into open containers and force motorcycles to fill from them. Try filling up a 22 liter V-Strom from a teapot with a garden hose attachment that will not fit inside any DOT specked gas cap. Thank god I don't have to drive in the retard provinces that enforce this stupid rule. We were fortunate enough this trip did not involve any locations with teapots. I mentioned this to Dan and Felix somewhere along the way and they thought I was kidding.

Sorry to disagree with your choice of petrol companies "Z", I would rather push my bike than fill with the crap at "China Rock Oil". Could be a provincial thing, but every tank I've gotten from them in GD has left my bike or car sputtering and pinging. It only took a combination of China Rock and BP about 25,000 kilometers to completely destroy my fuel pump in my V-Strom. So far I'm having better luck with Sinopec.

Cheers!
ChinaV

It seems to be regional if a brand is better than the other, or, in other words who sells the better crap.

There was a guy from a German auto maker, who bought me a dozen fuel filters for my bike, which I had to return to him every month (back in 2007) for examination.
After one year of their testing and analyzing of thousands of samples from all over China, it showed not much of water but more other unwanted substances, particles as well as non conformity with specs (93 wasn't always 93 )

However, it seems Sinopec is overall the better choice.

At some gas stations, even in the capital, you have to fill up by means of the tea pot, so I just use others.

[/THREADCAPTURE]

[ZMC888]

Yeah I kind of agree with Sinopec being marginally better, but nearly all their 93 is E93 in this area, so has ethanol, sometimes Chinese fuel just doesn't smell right, I worry that Sinopec put in more ethanol than they should because it's cheaper.

One time I was at a service station and the teapot attendant put 2 liters of fuel across my fuel tank and down the side of the engine and exhaust header after I'd been running up and down mountain roads for a few hours and the bike was almost glowing hot, I was like 'F*** everyone RUN!!! Luckily we were spared the raging inferno on that occasion!

[ChinaV]

Day 4

We're off to a very early start at 6:30 and I mention to the guys we've already left Guangxi and we're now in Yunnan. It's time to ease up a bit and take in the scenery, unfortunately it looks like rain will be on the agenda today. It's slow going as we make our way through the fog and less than ideal road conditions of G324 in eastern Yunnan.



We stop for a quick breakfast and route discussion for the day.



There's a motorcycle shop next to the restaurant with some peculiar brands being sold. I wonder if "YMHMNA" also makes pianos?



I reached a beautiful overlook and grabbed a photo. As I was taking it all in, a few young kids came by and gave me the usual "hello" "hello", "ha ha ha", and then they ran off.



Felix came by a few minutes later and managed to grab this perfect picture of the kids.



A giant cave in the karst hillside.



Around 2:30 the sun finally breaks through and we're happy to get out of the rain. We had heard about the draughts in Yunnan, but so far everything was just green and wet. Felix and I joked, "give us a vacation and we can end any draught". We never saw another drop of rain or much water for the remainder of our ride in Yunnan. You can see the soil in the following picture is still fit for growing, but the further north we went the worse it got.



Sunshine always makes for better pictures and it's nice to see a little blue sky again.



I was a bit ahead of the boys and came around this turn to see the following breathtaking view of amazing terraces and a beautiful road twisting and turning its way down into the valley bellow. I plopped onto a rock and waited for Felix and Daniel to show up. Daniel was first and Felix was a few moments behind, I watched each of them come around the turn and you could immediately see their reaction as they caught their first glimpse. We stood there with stupid grins on our faces, each of us thinking the same thing. This was the Yunnan we were looking for.



After soaking in the sights, I mentioned there was a major town in the valley bellow, Kaiyuan, and we could probably find a good place to stay there. It was only 5:00 so we had plenty of time. I also gave a little lecture on the dangers of the particular road surface we were traveling on. Although it looks like black asphalt, it's actually a bit different in that the heat seems to make it sweat oil and the trucks going down the hill would be dripping water off their brakes to keep them from overheating. I should have paid more attention to my own words as little did I know I would be sliding across the road in about 10 minutes.

Before we get to the bad part, let's enjoy a few minutes of quality riding. I had the helmet cam running, and we were having a lovely time making our way down into the valley.



The accident:
You ride, you crash, it happens. No excuses to be made. Maybe a little too much speed, maybe a little lapse in concentration, maybe a little unfamiliar with the road, maybe a little oil spot.... maybe I just suck at riding motorcycles. Whatever it may have been, it doesn't matter. All I can say is that in the blink of an eye, I went from watching my buddy Felix, to watching my motorcycle fly off the road. There was no warning, no slide, no braking, just an instantaneous slam on the ground and the vision of my bike going bye bye. I jumped to my feet, ran over to where I thought my bike would be, and my first reaction was, shit...trips over for me. The bike was mangled in a crevasse about 2 meters off the side of a bridge. I ran over to the other side of the road and starting waving my arms in the hope that Felix would see me and stop. He did, and starting coming back, Daniel was soon to follow and they both had the same reaction. "Where's your bike, oh no, shit, are you OK, shit, are you sure you're ok"?

So here is my moment of glory. Not every day that you crash, and almost never happens when you happen to be filming, I hope you all enjoy.



There was no place to pull the bike out, and the only thing keeping it from dropping another 3 meters was the handlebars being wedged between two rocks. I couldn't really find any way to get a hold of it and the small tow line we brought would never be able to take the weight of dislodging it from its current position. I think this video will give you a good idea of just how crappy the situation was.



Here's a good photo showing the area where the accident happened.



Not such a good landing but looks like my luggage system is pretty tough.



We were hoping that maybe we could flag down a truck with some rope and tow it out, but nobody seemed interested in stopping and helping us out. After about twenty minutes, an off duty police car came along and we waved it down. Two very nice guys assessed the situation and told us not to worry, they would make a few calls and the traffic police would come sort things out. Eventually the police showed up, asked a lot of questions, checked all documents pertaining to our existence on the planet, and photographed every little detail of the accident scene. These photographs and details were posted in a Chinese forum within 24 hours, where most people commented that because we were foreigners we were treated like kings by the police. I would just like to point out. #1 we were one-hundred percent legal with our bikes and documentation. #2 I paid about 500 RMB to get the bike pulled out and trucked to Kaiyuan. #3 The police were very nice people and made sure that we arrived at a hotel safely. I really don't think the situation would have turned out differently in most any other country in the world. The police are there to serve and protect, maybe a lot of Chinese people feel differently, but in my opinion they did a good job and don't think it had anything to do with us being foreigners. If one single document had not been in order, I think the situation would have ended much different.

The "tow truck" was an old 4x4 of some kind with a long steel cable. Felix, Daniel and I all got involved with the rescue, I was sweating bullets that the bike would be torn apart.





Eventually we managed to get it out and into the back of the truck. Felix and Daniel followed into town as I enjoyed my first ride in the back of a Chinese police car. We dropped the motorcycle at a small shop and the nice police officers took us to a hotel and showed us a place to get some food. As I got to my room, the only thing I could think about was the crash video. I really wanted to see what happened and quickly unpacked my laptop only to fine the screen shattered. It still managed to fire up and the LCD still worked so I pulled the SD card from the camera, only to find the last film clip was corrupted. I was seriously bummed out, and it wasn't until just a few days ago that I finally found a way to resurrect and rebuild that film clip.

We all headed to a small restaurant and tossed down some beers and reflected on the days events. I was pretty sure that my trip was over and I would be sending the bike home in the morning. I told the guys that continuing on was the right thing to do and not to worry as I could probably get everything arranged by myself. The boys tried to keep my spirits up by saying we might get her fixed in the morning, and they didn't mind hanging out to see if I could get back on the road. Damn fine chaps Felix and Daniel.

Tomorrow.... can we rebuild her?

Distance 400 Kilometers - Time 14:00 Hours - Average Moving Speed 55 kph

Cheers!
ChinaV