Bike on a Train?

[andre555]

Bike arrived in good condition. Somebody played with it as the indisctors, long distance light and gear's...no harm done everything fine. Probably disconect battery next time.

Train station called just after arrival and even offered to arrange delivery to my home for 100RMB.
Picked it up instead, paid another 9RMB for whatever and rode off...

[euphonius]

OK, fingers crossed and hope that my story -- like andre555's -- also has a happy ending.

I've just entrusted my 3-month-old JH600 to the Shanghai Railway Administration for shipment to Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province. The process could not have been simpler, though next time I'll know to bring my own siphon hose and bottle and save myself a trip back home to fetch them.

I simply rode six blocks to Shanghai Station, drove up the ramp to the shipping dock and was met by this friendly freight forwarder, a lovely lass.



Filled out some papers, showed my ID, and then took the required step of draining the gas tank. The Jialing has no obvious point of access below the tank, so I consulted with JH600B owner Daniel who recommended a siphon. This was unavailable there so I nipped back home to get one, hoping the tank wouldn't run dry on the way.

I did the siphoning myself and, though the reserve light had been flashing for maybe 30km or more, she still produced about 3 liters of Sinopec special. Minutes later everyone was happy. Plenty of folks on hand to help out.



A big freight scale registered her as 205kg, and we calculated the price based on weight and class of item. It was 3.069 rmb/kg. I splurged on 5000 rmb worth of insurance, just in case anything got badly damaged en route. And she disappeared into the maw of Shanghai Station.



Final fare: 694.60 rmb, including insurance and handling, and a bit of 97 octane in my mouth.

All in all, a very positive This is China moment, and in this case the bad taste it left in my mouth was completely forgivable. But like I said, let's hope this story has a happy ending when I go to fetch her at Guiyang Station!

[Lao Jia Hou]

This is a very useful & helpful thread, thanks! I'm looking forward to hearing what happens.

[euphonius]

OK, I was out in a rural village a couple hours outside Guiyang on Thursday afternoon when I got a call from Guiyang Railway Station. My bike had arrived, so come fetch it. I was pretty busy on Friday so didn't get down there till Saturday.

A friendly hospital administrator accompanied me down, I showed my ID and receipt, paid 30 RMB for the extra 48 hours' storage, and I was led inside. It's gotta be in here somewhere!



Yes, this must be mine. I recognize the Shanghai plate under the layer of railroad dust.



We checked it over for damage, found none, and pushed it out into the Guizhou sunshine. Someone more efficient than me would have brought along a Coke bottle full of 97 octane, but I thought I'll just push her to a Sinopec station. A friendly cop gave us directions, and we found it less than 2km away. Most of that was downhill, so it was an easy trick.

For other Jialing owners, please take note: The bone-dry empty tank (so empty it wouldn't turn over after I drained it in Shanghai) holds 19.55 liters. It took at most 2 seconds turning the engine before it caught, and the administrator pillioned with me back to the hospital hosting my visit.

It was a bit of a hassle to fly with my Tourfella boxes, but I found an easy trick for that too: I bought two of those "peasant suitcases" -- the red, white and blue striped zippered bags that you see migrant workers carrying their worldly possessions in. These were a perfect fit, with enough room to stuff my jacket and pants in the space between the bag and boxes to protect them from damage. One caution: Don't try to carry oil on a plane, even checked in your boxes/bags. I had a nice can of aerosol chain lube, and Pudong Airport would not allow me to check it with my boxes.

My Guiyang friends raised their eyebrows at the nearly 700 rmb train fare, but it would have cost more than that in petrol alone on a four-day ride to Guiyang from Shanghai, not to mention hotel stays, meals, etc. OK, my air fare cost another 1000 rmb, but I could have taken the train (26 hours) for half that if I'd really wanted to count every penny. The four-day ride could have been interesting, but in this case I really needed to be in Guiyang. Meanwhile the bike is here and I'm all geared up to go.

Conclusion: Based on this one experiment, uncartoned, roll-on rail shipping is a very viable and reasonable approach to getting your bike to wherever it is you want to be riding.

cheers!

[felix]

Good to see it made it there in one piece!

About train shipping, i would just like to add that it's only possible for direct trains. I tried to train ship my bike from suzhou to dongguan back in april and i was told i couldn't because they wouldn't transfer my bike between trains. The only option was to send it to guangzhou, but good luck riding it out of there!!!

[euphonius]

Good point, Felix. Definitely works only for direct city links. As for driving out of Guangzhou or other bike-unfriendly cities, I wouldn't hesitate to do it. "OK, I'm leaving already! Please tell me, which is the best route out of town?"

cheers!

[Lao Jia Hou]

Conclusion: Based on this one experiment, uncartoned, roll-on rail shipping is a very viable and reasonable approach to getting your bike to wherever it is you want to be riding.

What's that I see in the picture, peeking out from behind? Did your bike pick up a shy girlfriend on its lonely trip?

This is definitely great news that roll-on/off is a viable shipping method. Thanks for being a test case and giving us a report!

Richard

[euphonius]

What's that I see in the picture, peeking out from behind? Did your bike pick up a shy girlfriend on its lonely trip?

Yeah, well maybe that explains all the dust. They've been kicking it up behind the crates and boxes...

This is definitely great news that roll-on/off is a viable shipping method. Thanks for being a test case and giving us a report!

My pleasure. I'm sure I'll try it again, and would welcome similar reports from anyone else who tries this. You in Beijing have great riding in your backyard, albeit only after you extricate yourself from the traffic/smog hell within the 5th ring. But for us in Shanghai, this is a real breakthrough. I've made four trips out of the city, three in the saddle and this one to Guiyang. You can't imagine how good it feels to be starting my ride here in the mountains and fresh air and sunshine, rather than having to slog my way through "endless city" suburban chaos in 40C+ air you could cut with a knife for anywhere from one to four days to get to wherever the good riding is.

Yes, we've had some good rides around Shanghai, but, like I said, I'll be trying this again.

[jape]

For all those folks who say China is backward, I asked about doing the same, shipping across the continent via rail freight in Australia. Even crated and disassembled, it would be a NO. They allow nothing that has a petrol engine, even a NEW chainsaw because they think it will have had fuel in it for factory tests ... well that was my first inquiry; as in China you can get different stories here depending on whom you speak with.

I shall check road freight next but I get the feeling that as usual it will be ridiculously expensive and end up as a case of asking around amongst friends for a truck driver going where I want to go and paying the necessary couple of crates of beer to smuggle the m'bike!

It is 6 degrees here and sleet and storms, two trees down across my driveway, I need to get up to the sun quick!

[euphonius]

Jape, I did have to empty my tank of every last drop of petrol. I did this with a basic siphon -- 97 octane is definitely an acquired taste -- and then ran the engine for about 20 seconds till it "ran out of gas". Only then would they let me roll it into the receiving bay.

In broader terms, I have to say China's railway system is one of the very best things about this country. We now have bullet trains (up to 260kph in my experience) connecting most major cities, though I regret that a lot of the high-tech development is sometimes coming at the expense of lower-tech but very reliable train services. But that's a separate rant.

Bottom line: I love trains, and I'm delighted that there's a place on them for both me and my Jialing!