Finding a motorbike in Kunming, the YBR250?

[Maux]

Yeah, it sounds like they had a shill or ringer customer, though it does seem very excessive.

As far as riding gear goes it depends on what your talking about, a rainsuit or equipment like bags I would buy online. You should probably both try your helmets on before you buy them. What you could do is buy one medium helmet first and see how it fits both of you, and buy a size larger or smaller depending on whichever you need. Like, if it fits both of you fine, buy another medium, if it's tight on you, buy a large. You would have to pay shipping twice.

I got myself a HJC IS-MAX recently and it's a nice helmet. I tried one on in a local shop and figured out what size I wanted but thought that paying 1,499 kuai was a little excessive to say the least and bought mine on TB for just under half that after shipping.

If your wondering about any gear, or anything, just search around here, it's always got lots of good info.

[bartez88]

Today we finally did it. This morning we went to the Yamaha dealer to buy the bike. Luckily we had a different guy behind the counter this time, not the grumpy one anymore. Finally somebody trying to help us. We asked him for the price and he marked it 1000 rmb less! Now the YBR250 was only 23800. After counting the money, getting the bike prepped we were on the road an hour later. Finally something different than the public transport! :D Its great!
Last Wednesday I took my girlfriend to the parts market to buy some gear. Helmets, pants, gloves and a jacket for her. Unfortunately it was a bit hard to find a proper helmet for my girlfriend as all the shops only stock sizes M and above. There is alot of cheap gear around that place but there is definitely good stuff too, for a reasonable price I'd say. Maybe its possible to get a bit cheaper on taobao, but you'd never be able to fit it before you'd buy it.
Today we also managed to get the insurance at CPIC, like andre described in his 'getting your motorbike registered' post. No problems so far. Monday well get back to business as everything is closed over the weekend.
Have a nice weekend guys!

[slabo]

Today we finally did it. This morning we went to the Yamaha dealer to buy the bike. Luckily we had a different guy behind the counter this time, not the grumpy one anymore. Finally somebody trying to help us. We asked him for the price and he marked it 1000 rmb less! Now the YBR250 was only 23800. After counting the money, getting the bike prepped we were on the road an hour later. Finally something different than the public transport! :D Its great!
Last Wednesday I took my girlfriend to the parts market to buy some gear. Helmets, pants, gloves and a jacket for her. Unfortunately it was a bit hard to find a proper helmet for my girlfriend as all the shops only stock sizes M and above. There is alot of cheap gear around that place but there is definitely good stuff too, for a reasonable price I'd say. Maybe its possible to get a bit cheaper on taobao, but you'd never be able to fit it before you'd buy it.
Today we also managed to get the insurance at CPIC, like andre described in his 'getting your motorbike registered' post. No problems so far. Monday well get back to business as everything is closed over the weekend.
Have a nice weekend guys!

Congrats, but please try to buy the most expensive insurance possible. Also, the best place in the market for gear, especially helmets and jackets, is at the top left corner taking the main entrance as a reference point, or south west corner of the market looking at a map. At least they had the best gear a year ago.

[bartez88]

What a week! It all started about getting the residency registration outside the second ring. Nobody had a clue what we were talking about. We even had to move to a bigger hotel. Finally we got some receipt from the hotel that said that we were residents in the hotel, but no way this was enough for the registration office. So we had to get a little paper from the police office which had several red stamps on it to make sure the paper we got from the hotel was real. we drove back to the registration office to find out that we can only get a temporary registration for the bike because we have a tourist visa. Basicly they were telling us to get lost because they didnt want to do alot of paperwork and to get the proper license in a smaller town. Apparently there are more rules in bigger city's... So now we are driving around, still without license plates but with a temporary registration. Its a little piece of paper with a registration number and the date untill its valid. Only a month, but i hope time enough to find a better place to try. Any suggestions?
We also left kunming by now, we settled in Dali and going to try our luck here next week. The bike seems te be handling well, but there is a weird knocking sound coming from the enginge when its warm. My guess is that the valve timing is out. Ill go see the yamaha service dealer here in dali soon.
Our plan is to head up to lijang after this, anyone any tips for routes after that?
cheers!

[bartez88]

Follow my trip further here:
http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...ight=amsterdam