Prep Round-China Bike trip, 2-up, April-May 2012

[euphonius]

You might dig into ryanjpyle's MKRide.com ride report here in MCM, which includes details about the ferry between the Shandong peninsula and Dalian. Or PM him.

Cheers!

[soberpete]

Nice. Thanks a lot Euphonius. Can't find anything specific about the ferry but if they got on and off without complaining then I'm sure it'll be alright.

[euphonius]

You'll find it here, on Day 4. Not much detail, but now you know you can get details from Ryan.

cheers

[soberpete]

You'll find it here, on Day 4. Not much detail, but now you know you can get details from Ryan.

cheers

Yeah... I found that. He only says that it was a good rest and was wonderful to watch the day go by. Not much specific there but he seemed happy with the trip. I may muster the courage to send him a message later. He seems like a really interesting fella.
Thanks again.

[Maux]

More on the ferry (sorry, my information is only about Dalian to Weihai. Again I would assume it would be similar whichever way you were going, except for the times may be backwards.

There are two ferries that run routinely. One named Bangchuidao is the "overnight" and leaves Daliangang (Dalianwan?, meaning the docks in NE Zhongshan, not sure though) at 9:30pm and arrives in Weihai at 4:00am and is the cheaper of the two (I think my first quote of Y170/person is this ferry).

The second is Shengsheng Yihao runs during the day and leaves Daliangang at 10:30am and arrives in Weihai at 5:30pm and costs more.

So the total trip is about 7 hours. I guess you could try and get a little sleep on the ferry (and a really early start the next morning you could take the night ferry and think of it like a hard seat on a train. If the weather is nice than I'm sure it would be a very scenic trip, so the ride might also make a good rest day, like the Pyle brothers did. It would be great to have a little pair of binocs.

Oh and we have a website where you should be able to book tickets. I'm not sure why the website is associated with Weihai.


PM'ed Ryan about the ferry just now.

[soberpete]

Fred,
How are things? How is the bike?
Just wondering, are you taking a GPS device with you to help navigate?

I've been considering something else:
I think that - if you were to visit Dongbei - then the ferry trips in every which way have been covered there but the ferry from Qingdao to Huangdao may be slightly more tricky; Qingdao police don't like motorcycles so...
- Travelling through at night is one option but... Fred, do you still want to stop there and see the sights?
- Do the ferries still run at night?
- Have the ferries even taken a motorcycle? Probably one or two, yes, but who else has done this kind of thing on a moto before?
- Will the ferries let Fred on? If he's on his way out of Qingdao then it would be the right thing to do, and it means more money for them but I'd like to be sure.
I've asked all these questions without investigating them first myself. I'll try and look up info on the QD - HD ferry this evening when I have time.

[soberpete]

A quick link before I have to go out of the house for a while.
http://www.qingdaochinaguide.com/lis...-terminal.html

I can't find anything on vehicle transportation so far. Maybe my eyes are bad though.

[Fred]

Heya Pete, thanks a lot to try to find all those info !
Hehe, you seem readier than me to do this trip !

As I wrote, I'm not yet to the road-maps of Shandong, for now, I'm doing the precise daily road-maps in Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. After that it'll be Ningxia and Gansu.
I have a 800 RMB taobao order coming up, with all the spare parts/chain lube/accessories I need.
I'll post some pics here later about all the stuff we're packing, and I think I'll post also our complete packing list, it may help or give some guidelines for future reference.


Update : ok, I'm up to Shandong now, spent the whole day on the road-maps !
Basically, because I just love mountains, we'll go from Beijing to Tai'An then Qingdao : the map .

BUT : we read what you wrote Pete about Weihai & Yantai, and depending on the time we have left at the end of the trip, we'll maybe go there, you never know...
We also noted the recommendation for Rizhao, we'll definitely go there after Qingdao, on our way to Nanjing.

Cheers !

Fred

[Fred]

Ok, a bit of an update here !
Taobao is a wonderful thing in China, perfect for example for ordering all the spare parts for the YBR250 in prevision of this trip, so here's the list of the spare parts I'll carry with me, you never know, it might help someone in the future for a trip preparation :
- 1 brake lever
- 1 clutch lever
- 1 spark plug NGK
- 2 oil filters and corresponding oil rings (I'll change one before leaving)
- 1 clutch selector
- 1 clutch cable
- 1 throttle cable
- 2 air filters (I'll change one before leaving)
- tubeless tyre plug kit + CO2 cartridges

And then of course you need to have the tools to do the job, I'm working on it now.

I'm used to leave for trips without worrying too much about spare parts, so this feels overkill for me... But hey, it's 10K km, and in China, so...

[soberpete]

Update : ok, I'm up to Shandong now, spent the whole day on the road-maps !
Basically, because I just love mountains, we'll go from Beijing to Tai'An then Qingdao : the map .

BUT : we read what you wrote Pete about Weihai & Yantai, and depending on the time we have left at the end of the trip, we'll maybe go there, you never know...
We also noted the recommendation for Rizhao, we'll definitely go there after Qingdao, on our way to Nanjing.

Cheers !

Fred

Fred!
Hey mate. Just noticed your update on the road maps. I think it's a good idea to skip the route through Weifang. Most of those roads are a hassle and not worth seeing. Jinan, however, will be a nightmarish labyrinth of jam-packed, dirty roads regardless of the fact that motorcycles are apparently banned there. I've no idea what the roads are like west of Jinan but ZMC888 and I have been up and down the mountain roads south-east of the city many times and they're a lot of fun. I therefore recommend swinging west of Jinan but I'd like to ask ZMC888 for the exact route: I've always just followed him on each ride and I'm not quite sure how to lay out the route on a map.
Rizhao should be good. Glad to hear your planning to visit it!