I've browsed this forum for a long time but never signed up...until just now.

Where to start? Bikes! Yes, bikes. OK.

I started riding pretty late, about 17 years old, but managed to pick it up fast and loved it instantly. While at my home in London I was lucky enough that my best pal went through bikes like hot meals so I always had something nice to borrow and only actually ever owned one bike until I was 22 (that was a 2-stroke Yamaha RXS). The loaners, to name a few, included an FZS600, Firestorm (VTR1000), several Aprillia 2-strokes that went BANG!, CBR600R, various off-roaders; DT, YZ, KX(80) and so on an so forth. Never owned these bikes, just borrowed from my friend's garage when possible.

I moved to China in '09 and began actually owning bikes, with names like Tanky (Shinery Long March), Franky (something build from the parts rack at Yingang), Elise (Loncin custom dirt bike) , Shrek (another Yingang) and Little Red (World Record holding tour bike with a Zongshen lump).
Of course all of these bikes were small engined, air-cooled, carb fed, rides but none of them ever let me down given the correct maintenance.

After many short tours, in 2013 I started planning a tour of China which later became a Guinness World Record attempt which took from Feb '13 until April '14, from inception to completion, to nab my team mate and I the world record for longest distance in a single country officially at 35'511km, but in reality closer to 50'000km were covered. We we lucky enough to have Motorhead in Chongqing build two brilliant bikes with Zongshen engines that made the whole trip with very little in the way of problems.

Since leaving China for Thailand in May '14 (following a female, naturally) I've been riding scooters mostly with the only exception being a Suzuki Desperado 400 V-twin and a CB500X, neither of which suited my needs so were passed on.

It's fair to say I love bike and riding. I've ridden pretty much every terrain available; swamp, desert, mountain, rubble, tundra, glacial, polar, tropical, etc but my love still lays with the smooth black top. Nothing better to me than the right conditions on a twisty bit of mountain asphalt. I'm not completely confident on sand or gravel still and I'm far from considering myself an expert rider (compared to many), though I am well experienced.

I'm currently writing for China2Wheels which might be known by some of you as my father is the chief editor/ founder and has posted here a bit with the latest news. I'm hoping that our rag can be for the exact type of people who frequent this message board.

Sorry for the long post, here's some nice photos so you don't feel let down by the wall of text above. ;)

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That seems to be the site limit for photos but there are some YouTube vids as well of me out on the roads but I'll only bother linking them if any is interested.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to hanging around the forums and chatting with you all.

Cheers, Shem.