How my girlscout fiancé got her ADV riders badge

[fahni]

I first got the idea to get a DL and a bike to tour China together with my girl friend when we still were back in Germany. It took us a while until we had everything in place but since then we had the chance to only once take a trip together to Qinghuangdao (Dragons Head, where the Great Wall meets the sea) in 2011. And back then we were going on one bike and staying in hotels. Besides that we did a lot of weekend rides around Beijing, checked out some amazing camping spots but never had the chance to do a longer ride together. Then we stumbled upon the story of the ancient capital of Xanadu (shangdu) of the Yuan dynasty and we decided that would be the place we want to go together. Alas, everything was planned and prepared last year for the October holidays when in the last minute she had to go home for some urgent family matters. Thus I did the trip together with Barry and Lobotomous last year and we had great fun (did we?) in the sand, wrecked Barrys’ clutch and finally broke the walls of Xanadu for a few minutes before Lobotomous and I got escorted out of the premises of the imperial capital (for all who are not familiar with the story, you can check the RR here).

Then I returned to Xanadu together with Lobotomous this summer as a leg in our Heilongjiang to Beijing tour. (RR here). But I still did not have enough and I still had to do a longer trip with my now fiancé. So we decided to try it again. Up to then, she had done maybe 6000 km on her own bike and was ok in most of situations except for off road. Thus this time I planned for some better roads (emphasis is on planned) than last year, got her a decent sleeping bag and saddle bags and on the 29^th of September we saddled our trusted (really?) Jialing 150gy-3s and set out on our trip.

This is the route as planned for four days:
3 and 4 day route.jpg
Since I was not 100% sure how much holiday I was gonna get, I prepared for a 3day trip as well (excluding Xanadu). That is the one with the west-east traverse further south.

I knew most of the roads in the western and northern sections. Only the one northeast of Fengning was new to me.

We left home almost on time and first headed for the Ming tombs north of Changping. Then we continued along the S212 which is very nice and curvy. The weather was so so. Warm enough but always cloudy and misty with some drizzle time and again. But not enough rain to really take out the rain gear. I had been on this route on the easter holidays with my neighbor so orientation was easy on day one. Almost from the beginning my fiancés bike started acting up. Most of the time when we had a break it would not start again. What is more, the entire bike (dashboard, controls on the handle bars) had no juice. The contacts at the battery were ok. Finally I identified the culprit: a contact box hidden deep inside behind her front lamp. I could not be bothered to fix this for good on the roadside so after wiggling the contacts a bit and getting the bike started we headed for Yongning, the next bigger place on the route, gave the bike to a mechanic, explained the problem, asked for an additional oil change on her bike and had an early lunch next door. When we came back, the bike started ok, oil was changed. 70 kuai all in. We continued north to the Baihepu reservoir where we turned left and maybe 15km later we took a turn to the north onto the X405 which is not in peak condition but still ok.
After the G112 we followed the X404 in northern direction almost exactly to the point where I had to turn back on easter because everything was still covered in snow and ice and it started snowing. This time my plan was to continue a little bit further but we had been on the bikes for quite some time and there was no rush so we looked for a camping spot nearby and found a place not visible from the street. We had to cross a little river (more of a creek) and my fiancé being her could not be convinced that this was the ideal situation to try a river crossing. Well, gentleman as I am I rode both bikes across and we settled for the night. But not without my better half dropping her bike and herself while turning slowly and hitting her head on a rock. Luckily she was still wearing her helmet but she still suffered a mild trauma and had neck pains for the rest of the ride. Camping that evening was nice. Of course, we received a visit from a herder that was tending to his cows somewhere close by.

Dinner at first camping spot von dieBegga auf Flickr

Sausage and Spagetti for Dinner von dieBegga auf Flickr


Next morning, I first had to scare away the electrical gremlins from her bike. As it turned out, it was not the contact that I had initially suspected and that the mechanic had fixed but one next to it and probably all the wiggling had affected this one as well. Anyway. After taking the front lamp of and tying the two parts of the contact box together with my help-all-fix – cable binders - we followed the X404 northwest to Guyuan. And I swear to god, I did not know that only two or three km later this road would turn into a sand track that zigzagged the river more than five times.
Crossing the river von dieBegga auf Flickr
But that is how it turned out to be and that is how my sweetie learned to cross rivers.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjI1MzIwOTcy.html
After some time she seemed to enjoy it and when we reached the longest and deepest crossing where some Beijing Jeep owner was bathing his beautiful Munsterlander purebred hunting dog, she did not want to show any weakness but steered right through without even stopping and checking the waters. We reached Guyuan where we had lunch (no roubing again)

Lunch stop in Hebei von dieBegga auf Flickr
and then went on the S244and later on the X402 north. It was nice weather, still no perfect sunshine but good enough. After we passed the Mengniu dairy production center that is located there and battled the pothole route that follows and later on the washboard dirt track that leads towards it, we finally reached Xanadu:

2km until Xanadu von dieBegga auf Flickr


Biking through Xanadu von dieBegga auf Flickr








Rain clouds where closing in fast when we left Xanadu and we rushed to get to the camping spot I had discovered in summer with Lobotomous. This time there was lots of wind so we settled for a spot not at the top of the mountain.


Grasslands von dieBegga auf Flickr

It started raining so we had a quick dinner without a camp fire and snuggled in the sleeping bags.
Wind had been blowing all night but as a reward we were greeted with the brightest of skies in the morning.

So macht reisen Spass von dieBegga auf Flickr
Our first goal was Duolun this day but this time we took a shortcut to the S308 that will be an astonishing 4-lane link – once it is finished. We had the famous on the road, off the road into some muddy construction site, on the road off the road kind of thing going on for quite a while and were pretty happy when we turned south in Duolun and found some more brand-new tarmac under our tires for some km.

We've got the road ahead von dieBegga auf Flickr


But then we had to take another turn onto the X506 which was not brand-new but the scenery there blows your mind. Lobotomous might remember this stretch even though we had to rush through it last year on our 550km dash to Beijing (including a visit to the Xanadu site!). The road is decent and you don’t want to ride fast anyway because of the great views. At some small village called Heishan we stopped at a restaurant with a glass covered terrace and lots of flower pots and had great food and great company by the owner and her daughter.

Heishan Village Beauty 黑山村美女 von dieBegga auf Flickr
Later in the afternoon we were disappointed and slowed down by lots of road construction that is happening in this little valley.

Indian Summer von dieBegga auf Flickr


The whole X506 will be redone in a modern way (expect a more straight route with less twists). So attention everybody: ride this road next summer before it disappears and the valley is swamped by tourists! It is a very nice ride even further south where we met up with the G111 north of Fengning and followed this one further east over another incredibly beautiful pass where there is another X506 going south. We were running late and kind of tired so we did not look long for the perfect camping spot but settled behind a non-harvested corn field where we enjoyed one of these amazing star-filled skies that seem to be so plentiful in northern Hebei and Inner Mongolia.

Campfire on our last night out von dieBegga auf Flickr

When we crawled out of the tent the next morning everything was covered with ice and we felt really cold until the the sun came up over the hill tops.

Last night was below zero von dieBegga auf Flickr


My fiancés bike did not like the cold as well and would not start. The start button produced only a very weak sound and the starter turned maybe 1 ½ times. Even trying to jumpstart it did not work. I was pretty desperate and the only option I saw actually worked out: first start my bike and have it idle for a few minutes until the engine was warm. Then swap the batteries between the bikes – and it worked. So after some more time than expected we were on the road again riding down south and west towards Fengning and from there via the horrible construction section most of you probably know back to the Jing.

Back in old Jing von dieBegga auf Flickr


So after 4 days and 870 km we rolled back into Beijing and my girl scout fiancé had really earned her first ADV rider badge.

[SabineHartmann]

Grear RR! You made lough with joy!
All thumbs up for your girl friend. She is way ahead from me. I am still on the other side of the "river crossing". I know, my bike can but my mind is not brave enough

[plorf]

Great report, really looking forward to doing the same soon now!

[felix]

Rain clouds where closing in fast when we left Xanadu and we rushed to get to the camping spot

That was on purpose right?

Nice report man, and great job teaching the lady to cross rivers and generally follow you through all that stuff. You guys make a splendid team.

[ShuBen]

great report!

for X404 you didn't read my RR .... see on my maps the #1 off road section

http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...GuYuan-Beijing

[ahernandez74]

Impressive. I think your gf has experienced more adventure riding than 99% of people out there. Great write up, I'm going to read your previous one as we speak :p

[Lao Jia Hou]

Great stuff Fahni! More JH150 "cred". Soon, the two of you will be ready to cross the moat outside the Forbidden City!

Oh wait ... that is probably not a good idea these days.

[futianshenzhen]

Great ride and I'm very impressed with your girlfriend! Mine is also the adventurous type, very hard to find in China, but has yet to move forward from the pillion seat! kudos

[futianshenzhen]

Where did you meet this famous Hollywood star? (from Cheers) Anyone?