The rewarding us with punishment tour

**kingdm54** · 07-03-2010, 01:43 AM

Amazing!! thanks for taking the time to write this report and taking us along. China is amazing and has so many hidden wounders everywhere you turn.

Enjoy your trip to the USA and get you fill of all the differant types of food while you are there.

Ride safe.

Darren

**ZMC888** · 07-03-2010, 02:39 AM

The best ride report on this site ever, possibly the best ride report from China on the net, I studied every picture and read every word, surely a 'how to' guide for anyone wanting to write a ride report.

On a separate note what was the collective distance covered by those little Galaxy bikes? How many issues did you have with them?

**euphonius** · 07-03-2010, 03:10 AM

Echoing the accolades of others, this was armchair riding at its very best, and no better motivation for those of us in China and beyond to get off our asses and out into the true wilds. Great, great report. I have a couple questions too:

1) photography: as Jape intimated, there are surely many outtakes from your brilliant photography. Your composing and editing skills clearly are top drawer. can you estimate how many pix you made in total to yield the amazing selection that we enjoyed? How selective were you in the edit that you showed us? Were there instances where you wanted to shoot, but because of descending darkness or other imperatives had to leave your camera in its bag? And did you download pix to a computer every night?

2) transport: Was this the first time you've transported bikes at one end of a ride or the other? What were the arrangements? Did they need to be cartoned, or just lashed to a truck bed? Did they all arrive safely at their respective destinations (lord knows you'd given them plenty of hell already, especially you in that little white-knuckle show early on)? What, if I might ask the classic Chinese question, did it cost to truck your bike back to GD?

3) any plans for further publication?

thanks again for a brilliant and inspiring adventure. You've set the bar very high for the rest of us, which is good. Here's a well-deserved round of applause!

cheers!

**bikerdoc** · 07-03-2010, 03:23 AM

excellent write up and ride report... bravo!!! as has been written... so many great highlights with very few lows... once again... thanks for the sharing of your ride...

**ChinaV** · 07-03-2010, 05:44 AM

Here are some numbers for anyone contemplating this kind of ride.

I didn't really keep track of our daily costs, but I don't think we averaged more than 250 Yuan ($37.00 USD) per day in food, gas and lodging.

Galaxy XTR250 motorcycle, including complete paperwork and 13.5 liter tank. = 14,000 Yuan ($2070 USD)
Extra Parts including seat, luggage racks, drivetrain components, handlebars, handguards etc. = 2,500 Yuan ($370 USD) +1,300 Yuan ($190 USD) for the fancy hard cases.
About 12 hours per bike in pre trip maintenance.

There were almost no problems with the bikes during the whole trip, only one issue was a manufacturing flaw.

#1 All three of the bikes developed problems with the kickstands, although none of them broke, parking and loading always required careful attention. Galaxy needs to improve the mounting tab on the kickstands.

#2 Felix had a loose coil wire and some spooge in his carburetor. These problems were not related to manufacturing and they were easy fixes that didn't require parts.

#3 If I was headed up above 3500 meters again, I would like to figure out a better mixture for the carburetors.

#4 We carried a giant can of chain lube and hit them regularly. The high end chains I purchased in Hong Kong really paid off and we only performed one chain adjustment during the entire trip. Don't risk your trip on a Chinese chain.

#5 Because Daniels bike was new, and Felix had a new motor, we all started the trip with PJ1 Silverfire 20W50 (non synthetic) oil. When we reached Panzihua, we changed to Motul 15W40 synthetic.

Fuel: We purchased 93 octane at all of the stations.
Cruising Range: 350 Kilometers (217 miles) average distance between fill ups.
Price: Low 6.64 Yuan Per liter / High 6.84 Yuan Per Liter (Roughly 3.70 USD Per Gallon)
Average Consumption 28 Kilometers Per Liter (67 Miles Per Gallon)

For GPS tracking data, I carried the QStartz SRQ2100. For navigation, I used the HTC TouchHD mobile phone running Google Maps enclosed in a waterproof Otterbox case.

The chart bellow gives a good idea of what you can expect traveling in China on small bikes. Note: On Day 5 I didn't run the GPS while trucking my crashed bike to Kunming (Daniel & Felix did ride bikes). Day 6 was the repair day in Kunming, so no data.

135 hours of riding, 4010 kilometers covered, the average moving speed was about 52 kph. I have 35,000 kilometers of China riding on my V-Strom and the average moving speed is only 64 kph, so a bigger bike is not going to get you that much further in a day if you're riding in the mountains.

Originally Posted by jape

That was a remarkable accomplishment guys and thanks particularly to ChinaV for the photos and the effort in sorting and posting them and writing the stories. You have kept us amused and enthralled for a good while now. Felix in his undies with the cow was the high point!

where is the pic I just KNOW you took of that?

It seems you all spent a lot of the trip travelling separately while riding from point to point, just meeting up at rest stops and overnight. Was this by design, does it work better that way with just yourself to think about and be conscious of? Did you have FM radio contact or was it too hilly for that to work?

This last day in particular with the snow photos and that incredible rutted, muddy bit of road with the traffic jam show us what was really going on behind your humour and light-hearted approach. Some seriously real travelling. Thank goodness the gods were with you on that first 'off' so near to the bridge, they must have wanted you to continue and show us all so much of that beautiful region and the varied folk who live there. Much appreciated.

Sorry, no undy pics of Felix.

We didn't have radios and that is something worth considering. China has very good mobile phone coverage so it's usually pretty easy to stay in contact. We had an agreement to make visual contact every half hour or regroup anytime the route wasn't painfully obvious. This worked well as it gave each of us the space we needed and we could all catch photos of each other going by.

Originally Posted by kingdm54

Amazing!! thanks for taking the time to write this report and taking us along. China is amazing and has so many hidden wounders everywhere you turn.

Enjoy your trip to the USA and get you fill of all the differant types of food while you are there.

Ride safe.

Darren

Thanks Darren, you know my wife and I went through Hubei last summer on the V-strom. That's her home province, so the next time we come through I will find you.

Originally Posted by euphonius

Echoing the accolades of others, this was armchair riding at its very best, and no better motivation for those of us in China and beyond to get off our asses and out into the true wilds. Great, great report. I have a couple questions too:

1) photography: as Jape intimated, there are surely many outtakes from your brilliant photography. Your composing and editing skills clearly are top drawer. can you estimate how many pix you made in total to yield the amazing selection that we enjoyed? How selective were you in the edit that you showed us? Were there instances where you wanted to shoot, but because of descending darkness or other imperatives had to leave your camera in its bag? And did you download pix to a computer every night?

2) transport: Was this the first time you've transported bikes at one end of a ride or the other? What were the arrangements? Did they need to be cartoned, or just lashed to a truck bed? Did they all arrive safely at their respective destinations (lord knows you'd given them plenty of hell already, especially you in that little white-knuckle show early on)? What, if I might ask the classic Chinese question, did it cost to truck your bike back to GD?

3) any plans for further publication?

cheers!

#1 Total Photos Taken = 2020
I carried my 13" MacBook Pro and we downloaded every couple days. 243 of the pictures made it into the ride report. I tried to balance out scenery with bike pics and some were just thrown in as part of the story line.
Daniel took a lot of HD video and I had a CountourHD helmet cam that died after day 5.
The selection and editing was a very long task, maybe 40 hours of photoshop work. We were always snapping pictures regardless of light etc. The beautiful thing about digital is you can take thousands of shots and your bound to get a few good ones. There were a few times when we were a bit stressed and the cameras stayed in the bag, those are the times you usually don't take photos and wish you had. My advice Take pics, just do it, photograph everything so you can relive all the little details later on.

#2 This was my first China transport. I think we paid about 1500 Yuan to have our bikes "crated" and sent back. Let's just say that the next time I will try to work more closely with a motorcycle shop to ensure the bike is crated correctly and reduce the cost. Make sure you have a reliable source with a proven track record if you're going to ship your JH600.

#3 Publication? Never thought about it much as my writing is weak and I kind of assumed it was only nuts like us that enjoy reading this stuff. I enjoy writing the technical stuff about working on bikes, but writing stories is exhausting.

I will post the maps and GPS tracks tomorrow.

Cheers!
ChinaV

**ChinaV** · 07-03-2010, 05:51 AM

And by the way.... Thank you...everyone... for the kind words. About half way through writing this I contemplated throwing in the pics with just a few words. I could tell from the comments and questions that people were actually reading and that gave me a lot of motivation.

Ride on brothers and sisters and be sure to share it all here

Cheers!
ChinaV

**euphonius** · 07-03-2010, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by ChinaV

#2 This was my first China transport. I think we paid about 1500 Yuan to have our bikes "crated" and sent back. Let's just say that the next time I will try to work more closely with a motorcycle shop to ensure the bike is crated correctly and reduce the cost. Make sure you have a reliable source with a proven track record if you're going to ship your JH600.

I live in a high-rise apartment, and have commandeered an unused corner of the underground garage to park the Jialing. The pig iron platform and frame that Jialing used to ship it to Shanghai is still in a downtown shop, but they want me to fetch it, so I need to find a place to store it. (Perhaps hung from hooks high on a wall in the underground garage, and locked.) Sounds as if it's worth keeping, as I'm sure I'll eventually want to ship the bike out to Chengdu or Kunming to save four or five miserable days on the G320!

#3 Publication? Never thought about it much as my writing is weak and I kind of assumed it was only nuts like us that enjoy reading this stuff. I enjoy writing the technical stuff about working on bikes, but writing stories is exhausting.

Your writing is spare (unlike my overloquacious style) but anything but weak. I think CrazyCarl could be persuaded to adapt your ride for AdventureMotorcycle.com. And then there's ADVRider....

thanks again!
cheers

**jape** · 07-03-2010, 06:08 AM

Look mate, take the time, even if it is in a few months, to do a DVD of that trip. If you can get the video edited and the helmet cam material from the first few days that would be excellent.The stills and narration in the style you already have naturally would be fine as a slide show. You don't need fancy effects. Sell a few for $20 and your trip is paid for. You would have to talk to CC about whether it is a profitable enterprise to produce such DVDs but I would certainly buy one. At the very least you can earn from magazine articles with this quality material, don't underestimate your ability nor your writing ability, it is certainly adequate and I think better than adequate. Send me a PM if you want some help.

Edit, Euphonius posted as I was writing this, see, two of us (and I am sure many more) agree you have the skills and material we all want to read. Maybe do the DVD and then an article to help with marketing.

**bikerdoc** · 07-03-2010, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by jape

Look mate, take the time, even if it is in a few months, to do a DVD of that trip. If you can get the video edited and the helmet cam material from the first few days that would be excellent.The stills and narration in the style you already have naturally would be fine as a slide show. You don't need fancy effects. Sell a few for $20 and your trip is paid for. You would have to talk to CC about whether it is a profitable enterprise to produce such DVDs but I would certainly buy one. At the very least you can earn from magazine articles with this quality material, don't underestimate your ability nor your writing ability, it is certainly adequate and I think better than adequate. Send me a PM if you want some help.

Edit, Euphonius posted as I was writing this, see, two of us (and I am sure many more) agree you have the skills and material we all want to read. Maybe do the DVD and then an article to help with marketing.

hear, hear... ChinaV, as Jape and euphonius say -you've got the skills, and more importantly the content which I along with others have read every word of... more than once. Check out this www.globebusters.com and you'll find your post is as good as what's been written about by others...