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Hey guys, nice to find a community like this with so many resources. It's been good to check out the posts and get an idea of what I could expect when I finally get myself a bike here in China.
I've been in China for about three months. I'm 28 and I've been riding for about 11 years. My first (and only) bike is this one in the picture. A wonderful 1981 BMW R65/5 that I'm sorry to say I've left in Florida, where I'm from. I would really love to have it here in China but it's probably not really the ideal bike for a road trip here anyhow, though it is quite a trooper. This bike was a regular rider and really my only vehicle, year round, for about 7 or those 11 years I've been riding. There were always yearly or bi-yearly trips, usually up the east coast to North Carolina or further along if the season was warm enough. I've probably logged about 80k miles on that there bike, and it took it with ease most of the time. Of course I've dropped it several times but I've never been in a two vehicle accident, I think mainly due to being a very defensive driver. I've also never had an accident in any of my cars, having been driving the wheeled coffins since I was 15. I'm not too much of a mechanic but I've done all the work that's been done on the bike since I got it and this has included rebuilding the front end (someone backed into it, cant tell you how fond I am of whoever did that) and rebuilding the transmission, clutch and replacing other random parts and of course all the random maintenance for the various systems.

Right now I'm going to be working for another 11 months or so and then I should have a little time I should be able to delegate to a nice trip around China. I'm thinking now that of course that's going to put me just about in the middle of winter and so of course I'm considering heading almost due south from Taiyuan here until it's not too bad.

I've had a chance to ride around a scooter here in China (a friends) for a bit and of course I've been observing the motoring habits of the locals. Naturally I'm used to maintaining a "bubble" that is MUCH larger than what is possible here, but I think with a few weeks I could get my nerves settled enough to not have a heart attack as soon as a taxi started nosing into my lane, etc. etc. etc......

Right now I've been checking out bikes and I'm thinking of a 200cc Shineray that comes with the decent racks and front/rear disk breaks. The nice size tank and ground clearance should get me where I want to go and the racks will let me take what I need, maybe allowing me to not load down my bags too much. I'm thinking I need about 10k for the license, bike, bags, and some other gear. I want to get the bike about two months before the outset to have a chance to run the thing around and get the kinks sorted out and have it set up about like I would like. Someone (forget the user name) has a really comprehensive post about their trip and that's got me pretty well sold on this Shineray, THANKS whoever that was, BrokenSpoke or something like that.

I have and continue to look around on MCM, and have found some clues and may find more but still would like to ask. My basic questions in no real order are things like: Does the bike come with any tools or will I have to get some kind of tool roll? Of course I can't put the thing together out of the crate until I get some. I'm considering getting a GPS, or getting a phone with GPS, any suggestions? I want to visit the more out of the way places, mostly places that are not really tourist destinations, are there any posts someone could point me to with nice minority groups and somewhat unspoiled scenery? How reliable are the maps, hardcopy or electronic for the less traveled areas? Is it possible to mostly camp out on these trips and is camping in random (I DO have reason and discretion) on the side of the road?

That about wraps it up for now, I'll post more as I think of it.

If you have answers, or find the posts with answers before I do, or if you have any questions for me, just message me or respond here on the thread.

Thanks all,