Motorbikes / Expressways

[Steve_R]

Assuming you could ride the expressways legally, how would this change your riding? For example, what trips would you make if you were allowed on the highways that you wouldn't choose to make otherwise? I'm thinking it would be easy to cruise to Huangshan or 1000 Island Lake, heck even make it to the beautiful areas of south Zhejiang province from Shanghai.

The expressways have the main advantage of fast traffic flow with little obstructions, and they are safer. The surface roads seems to take 1.5 times longer, even more, and there is more danger with more obstacles to avoid.

Another way to look at it, would you still make the long-distance trips if restricted to surface roads? It seems that the majority of ride reports on this forum involve exactly that and it's a reality that most have accepted, however begrudgingly.

On the other hand, there is practically zero risk of being stopped by the police with unplated bikes or fake plated bikes if taking surface roads. The tradeoff seems to be you can ride wherever you want illegally, but the expressways are truly off limits.

[soberpete]

Good points Steve. The expressways would be mostly useful for a high average speed, convenience and 'safety' TIC but not much fun; I personally enjoy twisty mountain roads more than anything. Simply having access to the expressways would be a valuable thing though.

I commute 160km from Zibo, where I work, to Mengyin, where my wife and baby live, almost every Friday then 160km back again on Sunday morning. The only reason I take the bus in the winter is because it's too cold to ride; in the summer I take the bike down the surface roads each time except on weekends with heavy rain. The ride isn't all great but I love to ride, it has plenty of fun parts, it costs less in petrol than the bus tickets do, it's faster than the bus is and it saves me from a coach often laden with things I find very annoying:
-Beijing opera and Chinese comedy on the TV at full volume
-People snoring, farting and burping as loud as the TV or louder
-People answering their phones and talking so loud that you could hear from 100ft away.
-People who's phones begin to ring and they just look at it for a while; they don't pick up or silence the ringing, they just stare at it while it rings with a really horrible ring tone for what seems like an eternity .

This isn't my country. I respect most of the traditions here but the ones above and things that I'll never get used to.
Basically, getting my motorbike on the expressway for this commute would be lovely; almost door to door even.

[Barry]

It's good to have access to the expressways, if they can get you to the twisties faster. So you can spend more time in the enjoyable areas.

[felix]

Assuming you could ride the expressways legally, how would this change your riding?

While i'm doubtless that every recreational biker in china would appreciate the use of expressways, i think it would change some people's lives more than others. Eg:
- For the shanghai bikers, being allowed on the Hangzhou Bay bridge would put zhejiang province's great mountain roads within a couple of hours' riding.
- For us in Xi'an, we're 25km away from the base of the Qinling massif which i'm discovering to be an amazing playground. I'd have no use for expressways even if they were open to me.

Still, it'd be nice to have the option...

[TB-Racing]

G'Day,

Would be brilliant to be allowed on the expressways in greater Shanghai region and blast up to Beijing or over to Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, etc....
Like today, had a lunch meeting in Suzhou and would have been great to go one way on the expressway and play around through the country side the other way.

Now, around Kunshan area (country side - not city district) they restrict road use to Kunshan plated bikes.... what's next in this lovely country?