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  1. #1 Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    C-Moto Guru MotoKai's Avatar
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    With the Summer temps cooling I used the opportunity of a Beijing business trip to arrange a last-minute ride to Inner Mongolia.

    On Aug-8th I rode the JH600 to the Shanghai South Train Station where I emptied the tank and handed the bike over to CRE for about RMB 550 (which included RMB 5,000 insurance in case there were any damages during delivery).

    I arrived Beijing a few days later, then on Saturday I taxied to Beijing Station to collect the bike. I pushed her to the nearest gas station for a fill-up and then rode back to the hotel to pack the new Tourfella boxes with supplies for the next 9 days and off I went.

    Sticking with the philosophy of Steinbeck that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, I didn't have a fixed route. The general plan was to first head to Chengde, then just ride up into Inner Mongolia following the S-Roads (省道) and take as many off-roads as possible, which would allow the opportunity to keep testing the JH600 on as much different terrain as possible. At one point Time's evil head would appear and remind me to start making my way back to Beijing thru Hebei, enjoying the mountain twisties along the way. But road reality is always the best of trip planners, and on Day-1 out of Beijing the JH600’s stator fried which landed me a 2.5 day stopover in Chengde. At times there were thoughts of trucking the bike back to Beijing, but alas new parts arrived from Hefei via China’s mystical kuaidi express system and back on the road to Inner Mongolia I was.

    So, time has come to do the Ride Report. I’ll post some of the highlights soon enough, but in the meantime here is a compilation of photos and video clips from the ride.

    WARNING: For those who do not like to watch trailers before seeing a movie that is just released, DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO!
    I’ll get to the RR soon.

    For others who dare watch, grab a coffee or a beer....it's a long one (20mins).



    Route: Beijing Train Station – Chengde – Weichang – Xilin Hot – Sonid Youqi – Zhangjiakou – Dishuihu - Beijing Train Station
    Duration: 9 days (6 days riding + .5 days pushing + 2.5 days waiting for parts & touristing in Chengde)
    Distance: 2,300 km (2,290km riding + 10km pushing)
    Mechanicals: 1 fried stator
    Flats: 3 (2 patches, 1 tube replacement + 1 big surprise)
    Last edited by MotoKai; 09-13-2011 at 04:52 AM.
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  2. #2 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    Hurry up, I want to see the full sized version of this one





    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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  3. #3 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Senior C-Moto Guru ZMC888's Avatar
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    Cool video, worth watching and loads fast!
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  4. #4 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Danger, Will Robinson! Lao Jia Hou's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChinaV View Post


    Hurry up, I want to see the full sized version of this one

    Heh heh ... I agree! I noticed that too.

    "fried stator"? I'm thinking something else may have overheated that caused him to spend a couple of days in one location.

    Fantastic video production Motokai. Really top quality stuff. Thanks!
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  5. #5 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Yes, she can fry my stator any time.

    Awesome shooting, and awesome editing, MK. If the NBA season truly is lost, you can freelance as a video producer. Thanks for a fantastic Dokument.

    cheers
    jkp
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    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  6. #6 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Duct tape savant felix's Avatar
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    That was a class watch motokai, seriously great stuff! Your best yet. You really put some forethought into it too, like the shot of you riding past the camera. I guess you had to set that up with a tripod and ride past it once or twice!

    That shot where you're on the hard shoulder riding past the miles and miles of trucks is mind boggling. Poor bastards...
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  7. #7 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    C-Moto Guru MotoKai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChinaV View Post

    Hurry up, I want to see the full sized version of this one
    Here you go....


    EDIT: Oh, sorry. Uploaded the wrong photo

    Anyway, the backstory on 小Motokai was.....
    As you can see from the video, this little guy was enjoying being the subject of Motokai's camera for the first few shots. After flashing a few V-signs with his fingers he demanded I process the pics on the spot and give him the photos I just took. I explained the limitations of my camera and its inability to process photos, which was the catalyst that turned him into something that more closely resembled Motokai!
    Last edited by MotoKai; 09-10-2011 at 06:34 AM.
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  8. #8 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    C-Moto Guru MotoKai's Avatar
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    Thanks for the comments guys. There were so many amazing and beautiful moments on the ride, so this was the ideal format to preserve the memories.

    Quote Originally Posted by felix View Post
    That was a class watch motokai, seriously great stuff! Your best yet. You really put some forethought into it too, like the shot of you riding past the camera. I guess you had to set that up with a tripod and ride past it once or twice!
    First time I shot myself riding. After riding on these long-ass straightaways thru the desert and grasslands you start to play a bit. This was one of the activities I came up with. I didn't have a tripod so I laid the cam on a highway marker (those little concrete stubs protruding out of the ground - hence the low to the ground angle). For the 2 shots like this, I just did one fly-by then back to pick up the camera. There's absolutely nothing out there. It's moon-like, so no worries about traffic or someone stealing the camera!

    Quote Originally Posted by felix View Post
    That shot where you're on the hard shoulder riding past the miles and miles of trucks is mind boggling. Poor bastards...
    Yeah, I was the poor bastard for about 2 hours riding on the G110 which sits a about 200m to the north and hugs the Expressway thru the valley and hills. This road belongs to Dante's Eighth Circle (Fraud): The fraudulent—those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil—are located in a circle named Malebolge ("Evil Pockets"), divided into ten Bolgie, or ditches of stone, with bridges spanning the ditches.

    I was too busy navigating the Bolgie, coal trucks, potholes and ruts to truly capture how evil this road is. It's completely filled with trucks. You can't get angry at these guys (this is their world where they're just trying to make some cash to survive and you are a visitor). But nonetheless the pollution, the bottoming-out, the strips of construction with even deeper tire ruts (pits) and increase in fumes inhaled due to the lower speeds of the trucks which you need to navigate past can drive you mad.

    So for me, escaping this hell and getting onto the Expressway to witness another hell (for the truckers) was a certain ironic sympathy. From the video, you'll see I was making good progress on the Emergency Lane, but this soon ended and I was forced back onto the G110 for another 2 hours.
    Last edited by MotoKai; 09-10-2011 at 07:25 AM.
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  9. #9 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    Duct tape savant felix's Avatar
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    Sounds perfectly in line with ChinaV's 'rewards and punisments' theory of china riding. You have to pay for the good stuff with equal amounts of hell.

    Except in zhejiang of course.
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  10. #10 Re: Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011 
    C-Moto Guru MotoKai's Avatar
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    Days 1-4

    Leaving Beijing on Saturday morning was another reminder of the 2 Beijings:
    1. Inside the 6th Ring (The City Proper)
    2. Outside of the 6th Ring (Beijing Countryside)

    The horseshoe of mountains that wraps around the city proper which is quite flat can trap the air and pollution from all of the cars purchased over the last decade. But as soon as you pierce this enclosure of smog you enter another Beijing. It's a Beijing that is filled with rolling mountains, countryside, fresh air and sunshine. Amazing.

    So I jumped on the expressway to move quickly beyond the borders of city, and zig-zagging thru countryside heading towards Hebei. I stopped along the way at 玻璃台 (Bolitai) which was rather uneventful. While the road is picturesque and the nature that surrounds is astounding,

    Bolitai


    the concrete road that leads up the mountain does not provide the surface for good riding, nor do the over-tight corners which require too much navigational input on a surface topped with loose gravel to really enjoy. After making my way back down, I was enjoying a bowl of noodles noodles near the entrance gate and saw a group of Harleys pull up. They stopped for a photo session at the gate entrance then moved on a different direction without riding up.

    I continued on thru Hebei on my way to Chengde (passing more parts of The Wall which is always so cool), when the bike stalled in a small village and wouldn't start. It was the battery. Looking for a quick fix, I planned a trickle charge that would get met to Chengde where I could further investigate the issue with a proper mechanic. Unable to find a charger I was successful to pop-the-clutch and get moving again. About 15kms later it died in front of a steel factory, luckily close to a small shop with a charger.

    After about 60kms, 5 hours, and 2 trickle charges later there I was. It was 9:30pm and I was still out in the countryside at 9:30pm without juice.

    Trickle Charge #3 ("Should I stay or should I go now?")


    The decision was to stay put there for the night or ride the remaining 30kms to Chengde and risk breaking down again in the dark. I banked the 60min trickle charge would get me to Chengde so I moved on. Using the full moon as much as possible I rode slowly with the lights off to save the battery. I moved onto a dirt road (must be construction but couldn't see clearly), so stopped at the next gas station to confirm. The kid inside (who was busy watching porn) said I was moving the right direction - it was another 15km. Right on.

    I finally crossed the bridge into Chengde and the battery died right then and there - lucky! So back to pushing the heavy machine from hotel to hotel (first 5 hotels were full) I finally found a room for the night.

    As Felix said: Sounds perfectly in line with ChinaV's 'rewards and punisments' theory of china riding. You have to pay for the good stuff with equal amounts of hell.

    The next 2.5 days were spent sourcing the problem (the stator), sourcing a new stator from Hefei, and sourcing the history of Chengde as a tourist.

    The Fried Stator


    Special thanks to euphonius and Lao Jia Hou for armchair/roadside support. They were able to access the key docs (to discuss the parts with me in both English & Chinese) and provide TIC support!

    Then it was back to "the good stuff"
    Last edited by MotoKai; 09-12-2011 at 03:14 AM.
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