Hubei, Sichuan and the Three Gorges of Yangtze River

[MotoKai]

_______________________________________(speechless).
....amazing ride report. Glad to know you made it safely out of all of those "moments"!
Can't wait to meet up and hear more!!

* Oh and after seeing a certain photo that referenced uncertain coordinates, maybe you want to change your MCM name to R3??

[euphonius]

Unfriggingbelievable, Milton. Good thing you and your fellow riders are all in your 30s. Guys my age can't do that shit....

thanks for sharing, and glad you survived the mud and abrasions and lived to tell the tale!

We all owe you a No-Bike Night!

cheers

[slabo]

Seems I'm not the only one. Just when you say to yourself "Ok, enough riding, I just want to get there now" China road gods come to get you, and it's always painful.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing an epic RR.

[milton]

...., Milton. Good thing you and your fellow riders are all in your 30s. Guys my age can't do that shit....

Yeh, right, in my 30s. If I were in my 30s, how would that leave you? 5? Now guess which one of us young riders has your inner tube?

I will accept the No-Bike Night anytime.

Cheers!

[milton]

Dear ChinaV, LJH, Motokai, Euphonius, Slabo,

My pleasure that you enjoyed my RR. It was fun to write it after the fact, but on reflection I am just very thankful that I finished it scot-free. I hope my next one won't have those "epic" moments of this trip.

Cheers!

[Fred]

Absolutely brilliant ride report Milton !! I was hooked from the beginning, thank you so much for sharing all this adventure !

I spotted your GDW saddlebags and meant to ask you about them, as I was planning to buy them to tour with the YBR 250 : how did they fare generally speaking ? Are they big enough for a long trip ? Waterproof ? Why did they go off the bike at the tollgate, a problem with them or did you scrape the gate with them ? ;-))

[milton]

GDW saddlebags were great. It is inexpensive, easy to get on/off the bike, waterproof, voluminous and acting as a reasonable protection to your bike when falling down. It came in 2 different colors with the black one looking better but not as waterproof.

The reason that my saddlebags went off at the tollgate was simply due to my laziness. After filling up with stuff and weight, they stayed on the bike pretty well so I did not bother tying them down to the racks. Ordinarily my Adlo tail box would have prevented them from getting dragged off. However, at the time of that incident my Adlo box was not mounted to the bike, which was damaged and discarded due to a previous mishap. I'd definitely do it differently next time.

Cheers!

[Fred]

Great, thanks for the bags review !

Congratulations again !

PS : you didn't share the story with those 2 girls, come on mate, what's behind it ? ;-)

[MGAlbion]

Thats an excellent adventure. Thanks for posting, and great to see Hubei in the forum.

I was wondering Milton, how would the JH600 be with a passenger and fully loaded with side-boxes etc?

[euphonius]

...how would the JH600 be with a passenger and fully loaded with side-boxes etc?

Dear MGAlbion,

Look no further than this delightful thread from Pfaelzer about a two-up ride through Fujian.

Now, there is a caveat: Pfaelzer's Jialing is easily the most modified JH600 on the planet, with a better shock and better wheels in particularly, so your mileage may vary. And I speak with almost no experience riding two-up.

But Pfaelzer and I are both in the 90-100kg range (more than a tad more than the lithe Milton and welterweight Motokai) with the same panniers, and I've ridden thousands of kilometers under load. The bike shows tremendous heart. She just gives and gives and gives.

Hope that's useful!

cheers