Aloha from Tianjin, China

[thedannywahl]

howzit?! I grew up riding some chop-shop bikes that my Grandpa pieced together (he was a mechanic): dirt bikes, trail bikes, etc... Learned how to ride on a "restored" (read: running) Honda Trail 90.

By the time I was able to get my own bike I managed to get my hands on a "converted" Suzuki from the Big Island that had somehow been plated. It had a plastic tank, bolt-on mirrors, a head light and only rear signals. Needless to say when it came time for safety it failed miserably!

I sold that bike and bought a Honda something or other 200 enduro, rode it around for about a year before I was able to get a deal on a used BMW F650GS from a rental company. That was, and still is, my dream bike. Specifically the Dakar model, which I didn't have, and they don't make any more.

When I left Maui to chase a girl (now my wife) I bought a Yamaha TW200, first new bike I ever bought. Loved the bike, hated the service. The whole top-end seized and had to be replaced after 2 months. Fortunately under warranty, unfortunately they yanked me around for like 2 months before it finally got fixed. After it got repaired I sold it and bought a JEEP - Phoenix was just too hot to ride and all the trails nearby I couldn't ride on from environmental protection.

3 years ago we moved to Tianjin, China. I looked into getting a motorcycle straight away and was told 2 things:
1) you're crazy!
2) it's illegal

I continued to look into both of those issues for 2 years. I determined rather quickly that I am a little crazy, but most other people just aren't crazy enough. Finding the legality of riding in Tianjin was another issue. I finally found out that (more or less) in Tianjin it is illegal to ride motorcycles inside the outer-ring road (though some think it's middle ring road). Well maybe it's large engine. Definitely anything under 50cc is okay. Or is that 100cc? Anyways, the surest answer I got was talking to some baoan (security guards). It's illegal but there's a class of bikes/scooters that are legal because they are classified as bicycles still, albeit "gas assisted" bicycles, and so I bought one of those.

So I settled on taking the risky side of the legally gray area and bought a chongqing (su)lida LD30-3 last April. It gets me to work at only about 85-90kph (not bad for 100cc), and I've only put 4500km on it, but they're all city kilometers. I haven't seen this bike (or parts, unfortunately) anywhere else in Northern China but it's wildly popular in Tianjin, though it's sold under 3 different brand names I think. It's either this or a knock-off R9 that everybody has.

"Blue Boy"

95% of my commute is on the outer ring road, so legal. But now I'm ready to upgrade to an enduro, as I've always been a fan of that style, and a 250. I've also decided to pursue getting fully legal (as possible) - registration (if possible), insurance, and plates (if possible) and that's actually how I found this site.

[euphonius]

Welcome to MCM, Danny.

Couple of pointers:
--I think you are not the only MCM rider in Tianjin; check the member roster and see who is nearby. The very best thing you could find is a circle of Tianjin riders, and I'm certain there is at least one, as I've read about them in the Chinese boards. Baidu or Google will find what you need, assuming you search in Chinese.
--You appear to be relying far too much on hearsay and rumor (bao'an guys don't know jack). Find the Tianjin 车管所 (cheguansuo i.e., DMV), and get your information from the horse's mouth. If your Chinese isn't up to it, though it seems you are getting good, take a bilingual friend. Even if Tianjin is a banned city (there's a master list somewhere in MCM, try advanced search), there should be provisions for registration somewhere, perhaps in a suburb.
--I doubt you'll find any specific displacement restrictions, apart from (possibly) a regulation that bikes under 50cc needn't be plated. Bikes of 50cc and above will be subject to standard rules (one hopes).
--In megacities like Tianjin, motorbikes exist primarily for getting out of dodge. OK, that's a personal opinion, but in my view urban riding is nowhere near as interesting or fun as rural riding. There is a lot of good rural riding within hours of Tianjin, and we in MCM hope that you'll find it all and post lots of ride reports complete with pictures and routes. Please consider the value of getting a dual sport bike that won't floss your ass, but will accept panniers and give you great flexibility and riding comfort on multi-day adventures.

Cheers!