Having just got my driving license back, the only way i was going to spend my weekend was on my bike. It's still pretty cold up here so it wasn't going to be 500km a day, but an easy ride to taihu seemed perfect. I also picked up a riding buddy at friday night's bike meet, Wrangler decided he was up for some out of town biking too!

Getting out of shanghai by the back roads is no fun, but i don't have plates and therefore no choice either. We took a breather at dianshan lake, which is on the border between shanghai and jiangsu.



Some lanzhou lamian just before we hit taihu...



And then on our way to the dongshan peninsula. The road has been repaved since the last time i went, it’s now beautiful black top that winds its way between the lake and the mountain. So good to be back on a bike!





I really to fix my sidestand.



After getting our fix (and a nice scenic shit) we head back to Suzhou to go catch up with some old beers. The next day it’s off to Mr. Wang’s shop to go pick up my CJ750. Though it’s a CJ building shop, Mr. Wang’s is always full of lots of exotic bikes that I can only dream of one day licking.





I leave the XTR at the shop, I’ll have to go back for it next week. I dearly missed my CJ!



For the ride back to shanghai we take lots more little countryside back roads. The quick way is just a never ending river of factories and trucks, to be avoided at all costs. The route I’d planned takes us through the ancient water town of Zhouzhuang, what I’d forgotten is that it can only be done on two wheels. We tried to lift the fucker on its side to wheel it through but it was still too big and all I accomplished was to put a big scratch on my tank.





The detour was enjoyable too, more tree-lined country roads. These roads do always come with their share of idiots who overtake on blind bridges however. On the way I stop to siphon some petrol into my spare can and stock up on as much as I can before we enter the city and they refuse to sell me some. This also gives us a chance to locate and extract a big piece of china out of Wrangler’s front tire and get that patched up!




We also have a few videos from wrangler's headcam. Very nice setup!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DwRsWvc_ts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YFz4t1C_94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRtIcQCDQQY


That's all folks, thanks for reading!