June 2010: Ningbo-QianDaoHu-AnHui return

[bikerdoc]

Despite the threat of rain, 6 riders and 2 pillions decided we'd saddle up and hit the road for the short 3 day June 2010 break.
We left Monday 14 June 2010. 6 bikes; 1 Harley Davidson V-Rod, 1 Yamaha Roadstar 1300, 4 Yamaha Dragstar Classic 1100's complete with 6 riders and 2 pillions. The guys left Ningbo, early Monday morning with me leaving several hours behind due to other commitments. The route taken was via Ningbo to Xikou towards Xincheng with a right turn taken midway before Xincheng that passes through a mountain and a 20 year old dark tunnel then out into the steps of Shenzhou before turning south towards Yiwu. Before YiWu at a small highway town called WeiShan I turned right to ride around the Northern fringe of Yiwu and the commodities zone. This is much less chaotic than riding through Yiwu proper (which I personally detest). Around the back of Donyang and Pujian before in through the mountain ranges that divides Pujian from QianDaoHu/TongLu etc. Great ride though from YiWu, PuJian onwards we hit rain which is where I rendezvoused with the guys before heading west in through the great mountain divide which even in the wet is a great ride. We rode into JianDe where we stayed the night in a hotel facing the river where Nongfu Spring water is bottled. JianDe is also where the first major Chinese self designed and built hydroelectric dam is located up river. That night it was a frantic use of the heat and aircon to dry out wet riding gear, boots and the like. Day 2 my boots were still a little damp, no worries, wrap the socks on my feet with a couple of plastic shopping bags, and we're good to go. It was a fine & a hot day, and the guys just had to go wash their bikes at a local car wash before we set out.

We rode via a south-west route around the southern fringes of QianDaoHu over into AnHui to a small city called SheXian close to HuangShan, where we stayed the night in a small hotel/motel that fronted onto a wide street carnival full of kids rides (rollercoaster, merry-go-round) as well as loads of street food stalls. Unfortunately the classic castle looking large 4 star hotel located on the SheXian hill across the towns river was fully booked, although they did offer me a room, but had none available for any of the other guys! After devanning our gear from the bikes and tidying a little -I had to shower to get all the grime, dust, dirt and days sweat off, before we went with the small hotel owners daughter to a local carwash that opened just for us, to once again wash our filthy mud soaked bikes. Professional set-up with all the wash gear and even blow drying equipment which saw our bikes look all bling, before riding back into the town for dinner on the carnival street in front of the hotel.

Day 3, the final day was an early 6am start which saw us ride from SheXian to QianDaoHu via the northern route. Unfortunately despite a great couple hours of riding, around 1000am the Roadstar 1300cc came to grief, hitting or rather being hit by an electric 3 wheeled tricycle (with canopy) on a straight stretch of wide good quality road with very little traffic. An elderly man and his daughter hooked a left turn into a sweeping acute left turn as we were proceeding straight ahead on the main section of road. This took out the Roadstar as I watched from vantage point as the "tail-end charley" luckily it was a low speed impact, with the Roadstar, rider and pillion spinning a short distance and the tricycle falling onto its left side with the woman being thrown clear and for all intensive purposes uninjured. Meanwhile the elderly man was trapped (as appearances go) under the overturned trike.

Checking on injuries and damage -all got off lightly really. The Roadstar rider and pillion suffered a few superficial abrasions, as did the elderly trike rider/driver. The Roadstar had bent crashbars which needed removing, a small hole up near a top mount in the radiator which needed subsequent plugging which we did some 30km further on with some AB epoxy resin/putty. The crash bars having been removed were thrown to the roadside, and basically only the two left indicators had snapped from the mount stalks, which we used some tape to repair. I was surprised out how little damage there was to be frank. Ofcourse the guys had to negotiate the damage settlement with the elderly trike rider, and after CNY5000 was asked for that slowly came down to CNY1500, which was given to the elderly man and his daughter. As most of us who have been here know the rules are f^cked. The pecking order goes, pedestrian> bicycle> ebike> motorscooter> motorcycle> other motor vehicles.

So if one higher up the pecking order "food chain" hits one lower down no matter who may have been at fault it's usually the one higher up the chain fault, especially with pedestrians, bicycles and electric bikes... As in this case, it really was the trike riders fault, he was on the right side of the road and turned left cutting across the lane/road (though he didn't get far) so he could take the side road to the left. Normally common-sense suggests that one would indicate, move to the centre of the road, though there was no centre line and then make the turn when there are no on-coming vehicles and when safe to do so. Not so in China, firstly there is no such thing as common sense, therefore the rest doesn't apply.

Anyway once we got the Roadstar crash bars off we rode on for another 30km or so, before stopping at a nice restaurant hotel on the western side of QianDaoHu. It's here where we waited for the Harley V-Rod rider to continue on ahead and find some AB epoxy to fix the small hole in the top of the Roadstars radiator. After waiting an hour we decided to have lunch here, and got given a tour of what was obviously a new hotel. They'd a great wooden deck that overhung the rear of the property and overlooked a small bay with some small long-tail boats. It was bloody hot and I was completely saturated in sweat. I ride with all the protective gear, while the others wore much less.

After the V-Rod rider returned and applied the AB epoxy and having lunch we rode around QianDaoHu and back into the fringes of JianDe. then crossed east into SanDu and took an old winding mountain route not well used now because of the new passes and tunnels built between TongLu - DongYang. Then is was east across to Weishan via a back country road route onto the main county highway then north to Shenzhou - Xikou -Ningbo.

This whole route took in some great roads that were fairly deserted. On day two around Anhui on a 40km stretched that was being reconstructed that best suited a trail or dual-purpose bike we came across about 2 dozen or so BMW GS's and a few others in staggered groups that were being tailed and supported by a large Cadillac SUV. Much later and some several hours behind I met a BMW 1150GS rider from Shanghai by the name of 'Garfield' who used to work for Harley Davidson Shanghai and then later Wenzhou.

Photos below...