7 provinces in 7 days

[futianshenzhen]

I just completed a ride at the end of June from Shenzhen nearly up to Xian, then South to Chongqing on my yingang 250 with its new frame, seat and rack etc. It was mainly solo apart from an enjoyable 2 days with motokai and Milton on their jialing 600s. I kept a log and took videos using the 'go pikey extreme' chest mounting system, motokai will hopefully post a photo of me modelling the new device.

Tuesday 19

Bike wouldn't start at the shed due to flooded carb. Possibly because of the non yingang fuel valve that was put in in yangshuo. Got it going and went over to Winstons at 8 to replace phone charger. Left around 11 and rode to huiyang.



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Wednesday 20th

Left huiyang before 9, fairly boring but good fast roads in Guangdong that got more interesting towards jiangxi.


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Southern Jiangxi


Crossed over the border with about 340 on the clock and stopped for lunch. Immediately after a pick up truck came at me on the wrong side of the road, I slammed on the brakes and lost it in some gravel. No damage to me due to jacket and knee guards, which I'm glad I was wearing as they offer more protection than the riding trousers. Bike not so lucky, snapped left footpeg, shifter and bent handlebars. Could've been worse. Managed to get it into first and find a bike shop. the new slider saved the engine casing from any damage at all, 40 quai well spent!


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The guy at the bike shop has done a great bodge job, asked where I was from and said he had thought I was English as Americans were a little blacker! That's a new one!

Lovely people at the bike shop, very friendly. Conversation with two old dudes went as follows:

Are you American?
No, I'm English.
Are you sure? I thought you were American.
No, English.
Well, you look American. Are you American?
(2nd old guy) How would you like it if I called you Japanese! Leave him alone, he's English.
(Me)


Stopped to wait out a shower in banshi, gonna take slightly more direct route to xingguo through luojiangxiang to make up some time.

Short cut was awesome ended up going through a national park near tangcunxiang. Beautiful road and scenery, got some good vids with the new chest mounted camera.


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Tangcunxiang


Shitty road north of gangzhou, pulled into nantangzhen at 7.30. Pointless to go on in the dark on crappy road. 616 kms in total, 566 today. So far jiangxi roads have been great, mainly sweepers with the odd tighter section, through nice enough countryside


Have made good progress today, can probably take it fairly easy tomorrow and take some photos at jinggang mountain

[futianshenzhen]

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awwww

[futianshenzhen]

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The bodged foot peg and shifter

[futianshenzhen]

Thursday 21st

Disastrous start to the day, set off at 8.30 and kick stand spring fell off almost immediately. Then the zip broke on the tank bag while I was getting a cable tie to fix the stand. Have stopped in xingguo to fix it all.

Should be in jinggangshan at lunch time.

It's now 2pm, stopped for a break north of jinggangshan. Didn't go up the actual mountain as I couldn't be bothered in the heat but went up a stunning gorge with perfect twisties. Well worth the detour.



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Near Jinggangshan

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The next extreme sport - buffalo surfing





Everything has been distinctly average this afternoon. Some busy shitty roads around pingxiang. My choice of route was pretty shite a couple of times so I turned around back on to pretty nice but dull main roads to avoid some nasty dirt tracks that were like the surface of the moon.

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on the way to Wanzai

Arrived in wanzai at 5.45, could've pushed on but felt like a beer. Found decent bike shop to replace my handlebars, there is a hotel and restaurant all within 50 metres. Bike boss is letting me leave the yingang in his shop as hotel has no parking.
519 today, 1135 in total.

[futianshenzhen]

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This abandoned ferry toll booth was looking like home for the night...

[futianshenzhen]

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Bent old ali bars and new steel ones

Friday 22nd

Last night was pretty tempted, after a couple of beers, to ride to changsha and meet the jialing people because the roads seemed to be getting worse in jiangxi. Decided not to this morning, felt it was better to finish off the jiangxi job properly. Left wanzai at 8.30 in the pouring rain and immediately the roads were much better, nice pretty scenery with a reasonable surface. After a couple of (short) nasty dirt stretches came out on to a beautiful road at the bottom of a gorge, it stopped raining so got some good footage.

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Towards Xiushui

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After Xiushui


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Hubei twisties


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Towards ferry crossing



Soon after came into xiushui and on to a pretty fast big road then back off on to an x road for more great twisties. Then, in hubei, the road came to an abrubt halt and I waited with some truckers for a ferry, when the ferry came the bike wouldn't start! Pushed the thing on and drained the carb (it worked before) but no joy. Tried bumping it off the ferry but nothing. All the truckers and the ferryman were helping but it was a no go. The ferryman and I pushed it up the slipway and I took the tank off. No obvious fuel blockages, and there was a spark. Air filter also ok, maybe the spark plug is kaput. Just as the abandoned toll booth was looking like tonight's accommodation a man in a trike loaded with chairs pulls up and asks me if I'm French or German, not a good start. But then offers to ride the 3 kms back into town to fetch a mechanic. What a champion! There aren't many countries where random strangers would do that I'm sure. So I'm sat here waiting and hoping not to have to sleep in the booth!

Trike man returned with a mate who towed me to town. Turns out it was the spark plug, I'm kicking myself for not carrying a spare. Found a hotel/restaurant down the road from the bike shop.

Only covered 365 today, will have an early start tomorrow to make up some time.


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Northern Jiangxi


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My saviour on 3 wheels

[futianshenzhen]

Saturday 23rd

The pikey town I stayed in last night was bailuozhen. Got on the road at 7.15 with a duck egg, egg and zhongzi in my bag. It's dragon boat day I think so probably the first of many. immediately after leaving the overheating light came on, strange as no coolant had leaked out overnight, anyway I topped up and continued on but an hour later, red light came on again. Stopped in a truck repair place and found one of the hoses had become slightly misaligned, sorted that and nipped up the rest. Had to buy a huge truck size can of coolant but at least they threw in a bungee for free. Roads were absolute shite up til lunch time. Fairly broken up but the main issue was the traffic. There was an old city wall in jingzhou, 2000 years old apparently. The dragon boat festivities were in full swing on the river/moat by the wall. Continued on for a bit then got on another ferry which really wastes time, probably nearly an hour.

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Ferry crossing

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Truck stop crew

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Jingzhou city wall with dragon boat festivities

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Nice honda 150 and bicycle

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Cyclist on his way to Tibet - note how skinny he is among the portly motorcyclists!

After the ferry the roads improved immensely. The final 300 plus kms into enshi were some of the best I've ridden. Fantastic surface and scenery to match. There were quite a few cyclists on the road, one bloke on his way to Lhasa, a two month ride away. Also met a guy on a nice 150 honda, he tried to keep up but couldn't come close. Shame, as it would've been nice to have a partner in those twisties. It pissed down for an hour at one point so pulled on to the side of the road. An old crone started screaming bloody murder, saying that I couldn't under any circumstances put on my waterproofs under her lean to shack. I just smiled, waved and put on my waterproofs. Hubei is another province that employs anqian di yi tea pots in the petrol stations, I went on a mini rant at the attendant! This was the first real day in hubei, 300 kms of shite and 300 kms of near motorcycling perfection. A game of 2 halves Gary!
Arrived in enshi at 7 pm, I'm now sat in a bike shop waiting for the jialing boys to turn up.
600 kms today, 2100 total.

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I sschwear offisha, that ditsch jumped out in front of me


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Hubei gorge

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Bumping into fellow 2 wheeled travellers

[bikerdoc]

Bloody awesome, subscribed! Yep got a few photos of trucks in ditches in all kinds of poses. Must be relatives!

[futianshenzhen]

Sunday 24th

Set of at 8.30 ish. Headed north west through the enshi canyon, amazing scenery and great roads. Then north through more fantastic gorges and mountains. Craig slid off on a corner as the road was polished smooth but no harm done, and I got it on video! We ended up crossing the Yangtze and were quite near the 3 gorges. Went through a brand new town built 150 metres higher up the mountainside. enshi is a top motorcycling destination, there seems to be no end of awesome roads heading out in all directions. My bike started overheating again but there's no sign of any leaking. It's also becoming harder to start and the idle speed has increased. I'm a bit worried something may be seriously wrong, it may be sensible to head to Chongqing asap, as I doubt anyone here has any idea how to deal with it. It's done nearly 20,000 kms now so probably needs a proper going over.

We arrived in wuxi before 7, only 290 kms today. I'm in no rush now having completed the jiangxi ride and the scenery is so special we've been having a lot of photo stops.


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Motokai's best friend and purveyor of directions on his cb400

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The arrival of the jialing riders in Enshi


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Milton teaching the hotel staff how to register foreign devils

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The local booze in Enshi. The 'hao nan ren' bai jiu was particularly revolting


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Just outside of Enshi on the way to the canyon

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Leaving Enshi to canyon


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More canyon

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Even more canyon! (I was quite impressed with it)

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Near 3 gorges dam

[futianshenzhen]

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Motokai taking in the scenery


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More canyon


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Newly built town 150 metres up the bank


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Hot pot in Wuxi - great apart from the gizzard that milton sneaked in there!


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Check out the crazy eyes on the hot pot lady! Motokai and I ended up in a flirt off over dinner! (not with each other )


Monday 25th

Left wuxi at 9 am, bike was a pig to start this morning, I had to put in a new spark plug. These shitty 10 quai ones only seem to last a day and no-one has anything better. Rode north on ANOTHER great road! This area is a biker's paradise. It rained all morning which was a shame and we got stopped by the feds at the border with shaanxi. They just wanted to see our licenses and blue books, its hilarious that this happens a week after getting my license, having never been asked before in 6 years riding. Stopped in zhengping for lunch. I bought another spark plug (number 4) and jubilee clips to try and sort out the coolant issue as the red light came on again before lunch.

The quality of road and scenery continued in the afternoon with a couple of breaks in the rain where I took some video. Arrived in ankang at 7.15 after 50 kms of mud hell. It's a small miracle no-one fell. The red light came on again twice when riding slowly so topped it up each time. The extra hose clamps obviously had no effect on the invisible leak. I'm gonna start heading to Chongqing tomorrow while the guys will head west, destination unknown. There are some nice looking bikes near the hotel so I'm going hunting for spark plugs.
Did about 315 kms today.