15th August

Bike trip started as badly as it could have. I narrowly avoided being seriously molested by the rampantly gay cabbie that took me to guangzhou airport. As it was he stroked me a couple of times then was content enough throwing me strange glances and grunting under his breath. It was horrible, I just felt like a piece of meat, he didn't care about my mind or what I had to offer intellectually at all.

Arrived late and pissed in Chongqing and the guys took me out for dinner and beers. Left the factory at 10 this morning and headed north. As far as google maps was concerned I was a pedestrian so ended up doing 50 kms of nice enough dirt with decent scenery but wasted a lot of time. Also went the scenic route through tiny alleys in most towns which was interesting but a waste of more time. The rear exhaust bolt vibrated out again, every trip the same.

My phone did its usual trick first thing and refused to connect to edge. Luckily I had the first 1000 kms worth of maps downloaded so was able to continue as normal. Phoned China mobile in shenzhen and they sorted it, not sure how but great service from them.

Fairly nice roads towards wanyuan but a bit polished. Met a load of local bikers by the side of the road, all jap bikes. Gsxr, zzr a great big BMW etc. Still, they were impressed by the length of my journey if not by my engine capacity.

The bike is going great, smooth as silk after an extensive 20,000 km service. Had to put new front shocks on as they'd been slightly damaged in the crash on the last trip. I hadn't actually noticed but the new ones are great and now match the paint scheme!

Pulled into wanyuan at about 7.40, 430 kms today. Xian tomorrow and hopefully a few beers with Felix.

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Dirt detour due to pedestrian setting

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Not a bad spot to reattach exhaust


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Local bikers

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ZZR

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BMW - ugly or what?