Newbie in Shanghai !

**Fred** · 10-04-2010, 11:04 AM

Hi all,

I'm quite amazed to have found such a community, exactly what I was looking for !

I'm in the process of buying a small motorbike, a Honda SDH125 A, my first 125, and maybe to join you guys in trips around Shanghai to start with, before considering longer trips in China.
I live near Jing'an in Shanghai, and I do have quite a lot of questions for you gals and guys if you're kind enough to reply :

- the bike I'm buying is a 2nd hand, and the current owner doesn't have licence plates. I want to ride with plates (even waidi, I dont care), driving licence & insurance, but it seems quite hard to find a place where they can help you to get waidi plates if you're not buying a new bike. Went to the CJ sidecar shop, but they cannot help either. Does anybody know how I can do and the prices ?

- with waidi plates, could anyone confirm that I cannot ride in the inner ring (neihuan gaojia, or waihuan (A20) ?) except the evenings after 8pm and on the weekends ?

- for trips to Suzhou, Taihu lake, Hangzhou, what are the best routes I can take (except expressways), not too crowded and quite nice to ride on ? I'll take whatever pieces of info you guys can share !

Thanks in advance for any replies I could get, have safe rides for the October holiday all !

Fred

**humanbeing** · 10-04-2010, 12:30 PM

Just DON'T buy it UNLESS it's super cheap. NO licensece plate indcate some "hidden" story: stolen / Police confiscated bike from wrecking yard "backdoor" ...

**Fred** · 10-04-2010, 03:05 PM

Thanks for the concern, but naaah, his story seems to check out, as it's the same on different forums, he is a foreigner not living in China, just bought this bike in another province in the middle of a Europe-China trip. The bike has only 4,000 km and he has the purchase certificate. He did the 1,000 and 3,000 km maintenance at Honda dealers. His brother leaves in Shanghai and kept the bike for now.

Thanks again anyway. ;-))

**Fred** · 10-07-2010, 11:54 PM

A small bump on this thread...
I searched and found some answers on this forum, but I still have quite a lot of questions (being a newbie and all :-) ) and Ithink this forum is perfect for them.

One more : could you guys in Shanghai tell me where to find protective gear : helmet, jacket, gloves, pants (or knee protection) and also back protection. Until now I only found the CJ sidecar shop with limited options for helmets and jackets, but no back protection...
Thanks again !

**Nuhaus** · 10-08-2010, 02:28 PM

Hi Fred,
Dragonriders on Wuzhong road has some decent gear. You can get Nolan helmets (only ones I've found that fit my Canadian noggin) and some good jackets and such at not too expensive prices. There are also a few places at the shops on Jiaoji Lu off Xincun Lu. I bought a leather jacket there that actually fit me, and then got a friend to send me some "real" pads for it from Canada. Xincun Lu is a fun place to go take a look for a day anyhow, highly recommended. There is both really expensive gear and the fake stuff.

**Wrangler** · 10-08-2010, 04:44 PM

I'm a newbie here too. I found a lot of good stuff here:

http://www.suite101.com/content/its-...-market-a88899

Sorry, a repeat. Nuhaus just mentioned it. =)