Second best couldn't be better

[zhu]

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10678959472

clegg if you are looking for some better ones , these are not bad quality, just dont set fire to them.....

201 by johnnyfast, on Flickr

[MissRose]

I am interested in your experience with the saddle bags you are using. How was it for Ms Clegg? Is it convenient or are the saddle bags in the way when riding two up?

The bags were no problem at all! My legs fit right around them, which in turn prevented some sliding around. The only thing is that they had two big plastic clasps that weren't very comfy for my but, hence the adjusting. The middle was felcro which made the seat a bit harder but that was no problem at all.
Shame that the exhaust burned through one of the bags and my favourite pants....

[fahni]

Thanks for the feedback on the saddle bags. I have seen them on Taobao and am thinking of getting these cheapos first before I find time to produce my own ones. Was already wondering how they will hold up against the exhaust. You put some wood to the back of the left bag?

[MissRose]

The thing with those bags is that they don't have a hard cover, so they kind of fold around and thus make contact with the exhaust. We ented up putting a thin wooden sheet inside the bag to prevent it from folding. It wasn't ideal, because it only worked (keeping the wood in place) when the bag is a bit stuffed and thus putting more tension on the seams (which had already started tearing). If I'd known before, and had time I probably would've made little holes in the corners of the wood and then sown it to the inside of the bag to keep it in place. But how much Macguyvering is acceptable with sadle bags (or anything for that matter)?
With the QingGi the exhaust is quite high up and exposed, I don't know how that is with other bikes, so maybe it's not a big problem on others...I think a criteria for the next set will be that they have hard covers...

[MissRose]

Day SIX → To Yin Xian
Okay, so I've been asked to take over writing the report. I'll do my very best to make it entertaining and legible, but you'll have to forgive me for not adding all the roads for I didn't pay much (read: ANY) attention to them. I also hope that I'll be able to decipher Clegg's terrible hand writing and short hand...
(Clegg made a note of the following road: 328...)

On our way the next day we soon went looking for off-road opportunities. Personally I find straight roads boring and the more bored I get the more my sore buttocks bothers me. Unfortunately the county-side didn't give any except for endless fields of crops. We did find an enormous rock, of a small but very good road (with corner mirrors!), which we climbed. After descending the bolder we continued on the road further and further up a mountain. Suddenly the road ended on a small plateau with a restaurant (of all things to find on a mountain). The family running it offered us an apple (one of those apple-pear things) and shade for a rest.
The woman was cleaning freshly slaughtered chicken and on inspection of the disembowelled corpses we saw an egg yoke. We asked what that egg yoke was doing there and she explained that the chicken was making an egg before it was killed but wasn't finished. I'm telling you this because of the conclusion: which came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken!
Okay, back to to riding. After we finished our apple-pear things we hopped back on the bike and drove back to the main road. After a few miles we found another lovely looking road, but it was closed and the guard wouldn't let us through. We would probably have raced through if the opening between the lever and the guard house wasn't so narrow we almost got stuck, giving the guard to run up to us shouting from out of nowhere.
So on we went to Yi Xian only to be welcomed by hotels who wouldn't take us. Tired, overheated and immensely grumpy I persuaded Clegg to haggle for a room in an expensive tourist hotel. The asking price was a staggering 488 RMB, my personal hero got it for 180 RMB! The room was nice but no different from the cheap ones...
It occurred to us that the whole town is stupendously expensive after a disappointing dinner of three plates (one of which was almost inedible) for 80 RMB.
Still not willing to give up hope for relaxation and fun we went for a massage, we got a good one, and more beer. We found a great little terrace on the side of the river, where we were chatted up by a group of kids under the watchful eyes of their mothers. Clegg was so elated with the town showing us it's (affordable) secrets, he bought fireworks and set them off somewhere in the centre at two in the morning.
Back in the hotel we drifted off into a deep sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows, only to rise the following morning covered in little spots that where so itchy I thought I'd go mad! There must've been bed bugs in the bed, there you go for getting a tourist hotel! I have to admit I don't do very well in the morning, growing attached to the bed within a second and having to separate from it not helping my mood for the better. The bed-bug-spots made it worse and so did the breakfast, thank god there were boiled eggs!

Day Six when Clegg dropped the bike and I had a good laugh

Big Rock

Clegg taking a piss of Big Rock

The nice road up the mountain


In the background: the woman with her dead chickens

And the fireworks, because we're oh so very very happy!

[MissRose]

Day SEVEN → To Shitai

After a breakfast of two boiled eggs and some rice gruel we went for a ride, objective: find off-road fun! We found a small area where Clegg could drop the bike again, other than that no luck.
When we got back there were three police cars parked in front of the hotel, so as casual as we possibly could with wet washing in our arms we packed up the bike.
By now we really felt a bit sick of the mountains (Mind: The Netherlands are very flat and I like it that way!) and we just wanted to get out.
The road was narrow and Clegg was racing, flying through it and in turn scared the living daylights out of me! After what seemed like an eternity I gave a yelp (as he calls it) and made him slow down (for some reason dashing of the side of a mountain and crashing to his death hadn't occurred to him being a possibility).
Around four o'clock all the dragonflies came out, hundreds flying in battle formation, bouncing off our helmets, forcing us to close every bit of our gear that could be closed... The invasion has begun!!!
We had a break at the shore of the river we'd been following and made a dam (Clegg is not very good at this) with the river stones. A refreshing dip, juice and some tofu later we were back on the road.
Further on the road became broader and better paved, cutting its way through the mountains, forming cliffs searing up from the sides of the tar. Here high speed was exhilarating!
At about 25 km (according to the signs) from Shitai I spotted rubber dingies floating in the river and I shouted “Iwannit! Iwannit! Iwannit!” It turned out to be “wild” river rafting (in a dingy?), it wasn't very wild, but great fun. Peddling the thing in any (wanted?) direction seemed almost impossible...so we mostly swam, much to the surprise of the river faring and shore-bound Chinese especially since I had refused to wear my life vest. Four km downstream, a dingy filled with water, at the end of the dingy route, it turned out that the 80 RMB entrance fee didn't include a ride back up, so we walked (by road a mere 1 km) too cheap and principled to hash up the 10 RMB taxi fee.
After this wet adventure our hungry bellies made us practically fly to Shitai, where we easily found a hotel, good food and a massage.
By now our shitty saddlebags were falling apart, quite literally...

[corporal_clegg]

Some pics of yixian



our hotel grounds, probably worth 488



MY house



Me posing



Not so cool



Off-roads







As Liza said we had kindof tired of the mountains at this point but had were pretty soon back in the zone. The road to Chizhou was the best of the trip. Nice big roads sowly winding through the mountains. No real tight corners, perfect for beginners who have not yet satiated their need for speed













Cool rope bridge



Where we stopped for a dip



When we got back to the bike the villagers had dutifully gathered to have a look-see. Check out this little kid



Coming tomorrow: The Last Straw (blood and mechanics) and Redemption (Best city in China)

[corporal_clegg]

Further on the road became broader and better paved, cutting its way through the mountains, forming cliffs searing up from the sides of the tar. Here high speed was exhilarating!

Bear in mind max speed, two up, on the qingqi is 110-120kmph so not as dangerous as it sounds... on the bigger roads at least

[lightend]

sounds like a good ride so far :-)

so im guessing you are brining your laptop with you all this way? and dropping it x amount of times? damn.

i am planning a trip over the winter (new year holidays) but a camera and some paper will do me, then write about it when i get to my destination (1,000k away + getting lost = 2,500km)

[corporal_clegg]

sounds like a good ride so far :-)

so im guessing you are brining your laptop with you all this way? and dropping it x amount of times? damn.

i am planning a trip over the winter (new year holidays) but a camera and some paper will do me, then write about it when i get to my destination (1,000k away + getting lost = 2,500km)

Hey man. Never seen you on the forum before. Where you plannin to go for your trip. We did the same with the paper actually, we wanted to travel as light as possible. Back home now doin the ride report from notes and pics. Would've done it in hotels along the way but forgot the camera cabels. Our trip after we modified (will post the route at the end) was 1400 on paper, ended up being 2000 with offroad and being lost almost every day. Just got oruxmaps on my phone now tho so that'll never(rarely) happen again.