The rewarding us with punishment tour

[moilami]

Day 4


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




ChinaV

Epic photograph, especially so since the driver walked away unhurt!

It sounds like there was some very nasty and very slippery area on the road. I can't unfortunately see the video now, but thanks big time for sharing it. I will for sure study the video when I can and try to learn something of it.

And please keep reporting on, it is the only way I can feel motorcycling in China.

[ZMC888]

That was a weird crash...looked like the front wheel went over something odd, an oil patch loose stones, dry dirt, or indentation in the road surface.

[felix]

I would like to add something that surprised me about Yunnan truck drivers:

They are very courteous to bikes on the road. Honestly they stick to their side of the road and give you lots of space. A few times a big truck coming the other way started to overtake another vehicle and then aborted the maneuver and pulled back in when they saw me coming. No truck in the rest of china has ever done this for a motorbike before. Normally in that situation you can choose between a ditch or a face full of truck.

Thanks for the great report ChinaV, i was there but i'm still impatient to read on!

[chinabiker]

.. You ride, you crash, it happens. No excuses to be made ..

I had a couple of near crashes on Yunnan roads, surfaces there are unpredictable.

It seems, except from some scratches to your riding pride , you went away unharmed - most likely thanks to good gear and thoughtful riding.
Can't wait to see if you made the bike going again

[ChinaV]

Day 5

I was up very early the next morning and tried to snooze a little longer. I knew the bike shop wouldn't be open until 9:00, but something just made me feel like waking up and getting on with the day. I wrestled with the idea of trying to fix the bike or to just go home, but it was still too early to make any decisions. We never really got a good look at the damage having arrived so late the night before. I was feeling a bit stiff and my left hip was sporting a huge bruise from slamming the pavement. Wearing good gear definitely minimized the damage, and other than a small rip in my pants, everything held up well.

I walked out of the hotel and was greeted by the most beautiful sunny day I had seen in a long time. Crystal clear blue skies, birds singing and a cool morning temperature, perfect motorcycle weather. My mind was made up, life is too short to miss riding days like this, let's hope the damage can be fixed. Felix came round and we headed for the bike shop to survey the situation.



When the bike went off the road it must have turned upside down as it went over the edge. The tail section and console area looked to have taken most of the impact.



It didn't look too bad, but most of the damaged items appeared to be Galaxy specific. The local shop wanted to help, but it was obvious they didn't really have the kind of stuff needed to get me going. I grabbed a couple wrenches and moved the handlebars back into position, then hot wired the bike to get it started. It came to life instantly and I rode it up the street to see if anything was seriously tweaked. It felt OK, so I went over to the car wash and gave everything a good cleaning so I could clearly see all the parts. My main concern at this point was getting going in 24 hours or less. I wasn't going to let any well intentioned person get in the way of us making it back on the road. There was a local TV crew filming Felix, and I could just see that people wanted to make this into a huge event. That was not going to work for me, so I quickly started making other plans.

The first thing I did was call andre555 in Kunming. He had invited us out for beers before the trip but I unfortunately had to decline as our original route was not near Kunming. Let me point out here that MCM is cool because you barely know people and they immediately treat you like a long time friend. "Hi André, Lorne here, still want to have a beer?" "Sure, are you coming to Kunming?" "Yes, I crashed my bike and need parts." "Oh, hope you're OK?" "Yes, I'm fine but I need Galaxy parts, do you know anyone that can help?" "Give me five minutes and I will send you a number." True to his word, in five minutes I have the number for a Galaxy shop and I tell Felix that if we get to Kunming today, I can probably get what I need.

The first problem Chinese people will create for you is time, they just never seem to understand the importance of it. The second problem is money, they never consider that sometimes time is more important than money. The third issue becomes personal profit, how much can be made regardless of time and common sense. We are 250 kilometers from Kunming and I am guessing 4-5 hours should get us there. Let me cut this short. Truck to Kunming 1500 RMB, pre negotiated to only take the highway. 8 hours later I arrive in Kunming with my bike, we didn't take the highway, the truck was overheating the whole way and we never passed 60 kph. Although I have paid 3 times the market rate for a 250 kilometer ride, I have lost money, time, and each of the Chinese people involved have profited nicely. This is not an isolated incident, TIC.



A few photos from Felix and Daniel's ride from Kaiyuan to Kunming. They arrived about two hours before me as they were able to weave through a major accident scene. I was not so lucky and got to spend two hours sitting in ten kilometers of backed up traffic.









The fun part of the ride is that I had my laptop, 3G internet, camera, photoshop and QQ. The Galaxy guy ends up being about 1.5 hours North of Kunming in Dongchuan, so I'm taking pictures and messaging all the things I need via QQ. After three hours, a lot of confusion, and the longest QQ chat of my life, I think I have it arranged to get the parts. I give him André's address and contact info and get a call an hour later that the parts should arrive in 3 days. Here we go again with time vs money. Long story short, we are sitting in a bar at 10:00 that night and the parts arrive. Total for the parts 600 RMB, plus 150 RMB taxi fee Dongchuan to Kunming. This time I have paid a very fair price, gotten incredibly great service from the Galaxy guy, and he's probably made little or no money on the deal. Again, TIC. You can start the day getting screwed over and then have the nicest person go out on a limb and reaffirm your faith in the kindness and honesty of Chinese people.

A special thanks to the Galaxy shop of Dongchuan

A massive, super huge thanks to André and his wife for giving us a place to work on the bike and helping us with everything in Kunming. You are truly fantastic people.

A long hot stressful day ends with cold beers, great company and awesome Mexican food



Cheers!
ChinaV

Distance 250 Kilometers - Time = Forever - Average Moving Speed = Felt like going backwards

[andre555]

Welcome

I want to see how you guys went on...never took the road you took towards Chengdu! Hurry

[ChinaV]

Day 6

It turns out that after the great food and company last night, Felix and Daniel aren't really that disappointed about loosing a day of travel. Daniel had a day to recuperate by going to the gym for a workout, and Felix managed to connect with some old friends now living in Kunming. Crashing wasn't so bad after all.

I take off from the hotel and head over to André's house to begin the repair work. One of my travel cases was punctured in the crash and Felix sets off to the local photo market to see if he can find one. Unfortunately no luck, so I decide to make some support pieces and hope they will hold.



I only need to replace about a half dozen items to get the bike going again, but I end up taking a lot of stuff apart to be sure there's no hidden damage. Seems like the right thing to do, and gives me a little piece of mind that the bike will hold together for the remainder of the trip. I'm short a large allen wrench and Daniel heads out on an adventure to locate one. Sounds like a small thing, but it's little stuff like this that can be difficult to find and eats up time.



The handlebars I was sent have no rise and will be torture for the rest of the trip, so I decide to man up and bend the old ones back into shape. Not perfect, but good enough, and far more comfortable than riding with straight bars. I'm kind of amazed that after what the bike has been through, I only have to replace the headlight, instrument console, license plate bracket and taillight. Heck I didn't even break a turn signal. We finally manage to get it all back together and put the finishing touches on around 6:00.



Having completed all that hard work, we had quite an appetite. Felix and I decided to head back to the same place we had dinner the night before, Salvador’s. We never planned on going to Kunming, but it's funny how fate steps in and takes over. I crash, which takes us to Kunming. Kunming brings us to André. André brings us to Salvador's, and it's here that I meet one of the owners, and fellow Galaxy rider, Colin. He's interested in our bikes and trip, I'm interested in picking his brain about northern Yunnan and southern Sichuan. I tell him about our planned journey and he informs me there's a much more remote way to get to Litang and G318. It's a rough journey and we may not be able to get through, but it will be very rewarding if we manage to make it. He bolts off to get an atlas and shows me this ride he did in 2008. If we head north out Luguhu lake, there's a road that runs with the Litang river. This is basically a big hydro and mining area, so almost nobody would think of heading there. If you look at most maps and GPS's, not much shows up. The atlas page that Colin gave me indicates a lot of roads, but I can assure you, most of these are barley more than goat trails. You would think that a major road like S216 (big orange line) would exist, but a lot of it didn't.



We have another fine meal and a few beers before bidding thanks to Colin and calling it an early night. I would again like to give a big thank you to Colin and his fine establishment Salvador’s. If you're ever in Kunming, be sure to stop in.
Salvador's Coffee House 76 Wen Lin Jie, Wen Hua Xiang, Kunming, Yunnan 650031, P.R.China Tel & Fax: 86-(871)-536-3525 昆明市文林街文化巷76萨尔瓦多咖啡馆650031

Repairs are done, bellies are full, completely new route has been planned. Tomorrow we're back on the road.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Distance 0 Kilometers - Time = All Day - Average Moving Speed = Zip, Zero, Walked to the bar

[moilami]

Day 5

Very interesting rocks, I wonder what kind of story they hold

Day 5A long hot stressful day ends with cold beers, great company and awesome Mexican food



Cheers!
ChinaV

Distance 250 Kilometers - Time = Forever - Average Moving Speed = Felt like going backwards

Who is this lady with blue mascara? Would had sucked if she was reserved I bet she is to the man on her left.

Your trip is getting to reach epic proportions with the route change and fixing the bike. Now I really wish I were there. Please do keep posting!

[felix]

Who is this lady with blue mascara? Would had sucked if she was reserved I bet she is to the man on her left.

That is my dear friend Marika and the nice man on her left is her boyfriend Steve, whom i had the honour of sharing a flat with for 2 years here in suzhou. A massive thank you to ChinaV for wrecking his bike and reuniting me with my friends! You sir are a gentleman and a scholar.

[moilami]

Ok cool thanks, one mystery less in this world for me. On a side note: Marika is a Finnish name, but I bet she is not Finnish.