Rapeseed Blossom

**milton** · 04-11-2011, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl

Nice report Milton, and nice photos too!

You get the funky wire permanently fixed?

CC

Glad you enjoyed my report.
Jialing in ChongQing is the only source of parts for JH600. So our Jialing contact in Shanghai is ordering a new wire for me from ChongQing. In the meantime my funky wire is held together by a few pieces of duct tapes. Motokai just had a bad wire fixed in the same nest of wire at the front underneath the instrument panel. Need to get more duct tapes.

**CrazyCarl** · 04-11-2011, 10:35 PM

How long did it take for the problem to occur?

CC

**milton** · 04-11-2011, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl

How long did it take for the problem to occur?

CC

Mine started to occur after 8000KM. Motokai is at about the same mileage.
There is a big bundle of wires hiding between the ignition key assembly and the instrument panel, which moves around when the steering wheel turns. Apparently some of the wires don't last well after many kilometers of stresses.

**CrazyCarl** · 04-12-2011, 12:03 AM

8k miles isn't very much for a proble like that. Makes me think either the wire/harness is too short and/or the plastic shielding gets dry and brittle. I guess something rubbing or snagging the wire could cause that as well. Either way, sounds like something to watch, even with a replacement.

CC

**felix** · 04-12-2011, 05:16 AM

Thanks for the report and pictures milton! Looks like a nice spot this shitan place, i'm tempted to include it in my next ride!

That annoying wire is a perfect example of the scary thing about riding chinese bikes: being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a shitty little problem that you can't fix. Ugh.

**ChinaV** · 04-12-2011, 07:05 AM

Nice report and pictures Milton, great to see more ride reports showing up now that the season has started.

Cheers!
ChinaV

**moilami** · 04-12-2011, 08:57 AM

Thanks of the report.

**milton** · 04-12-2011, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by felix

Thanks for the report and pictures milton! Looks like a nice spot this shitan place, i'm tempted to include it in my next ride!

That annoying wire is a perfect example of the scary thing about riding chinese bikes: being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a shitty little problem that you can't fix. Ugh.

It was both annoying and scary this time. My little problem occurred at the worst possible spot, on the mountain top in the middle of a tiny road only fit for one of those smallish vans (小面包车). Some locals came out to help and quickly concluded that nothing in hell would have worked for me. To begin with, they couldn't even load that JH600 monster of over 210 kg onto the van. Luckily I managed to get it started after many many tries. Quite stressful.

**euphonius** · 04-15-2011, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by milton

Mine started to occur after 8000KM. Motokai is at about the same mileage.
There is a big bundle of wires hiding between the ignition key assembly and the instrument panel, which moves around when the steering wheel turns. Apparently some of the wires don't last well after many kilometers of stresses.

Milton, now you are making me nervous, as my JH600 recently rolled over 8k km too! So far, no such issues, however....

Thanks so much for posting this picture report and adding so many thoughtful comments. Your narrative is as good as your pix, and they are excellent! I saw your post in India, but declined to read it till I got back to Shanghai and had a bit more time. ryanjpyle and I passed through Anji last summer on an ill-planned trip to Huangshan for BMW Motorrad Days, but we rode west out of Anji rather than south the way you did, and missed those lovely roads. Probably wouldn't have made much difference, given that it was p*ssing rain the whole time.

Mechanical problems aside, you really scored with the weather and your timing of the rapeseed flowering! Thank goodness that nature is so persistent amid all the squalor of urban China!

Thanks again for a wonderful report.

cheers

**milton** · 04-15-2011, 02:11 PM

Jeff, glad you enjoyed my report. Actually I am not in the habit of taking pictures while on my motorcycle trip. The path I took to reach ShiTan is also the same one that I have been on many times before. However I noticed that most of you Lao Wai in Shanghai are not familiar with that part of ZheJiang or the path leading to it, so I decided to document my last trip and make an introduction. Along that path there are many interesting motorcycle routes with beautiful scenery and never boring twisties, and they are not far from Shanghai either. I will take more pictures to share if I revisit them or organize some trips with you guys together. This is the least I can do to pay back for all those nice ride reports and posts put up by you, ChinaV, LJH, Felix, Hans and many others on MCM. Reading MCM has been the heightlight of my day since my discovering it a year ago.

Cheers.