6th Annual Sheperd's field Langfang Charity Run aug22-28

[Shanghaifingers]

Day 2: Lin Yi- Tian Jin. 487KMs

Early the next morning....
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We eat our breakfast at the hotel resturant ( the usual, tea eggs, Congee, noodles, bread and butter, and COFFEE).

We again set off early around 8:30, although today is relatively short with only 487 kms to complete before reaching the Radisson, Tian Jin. The route was simple again heading north. We wound through the cites of Yi Shui, Yi Bo, and Bin Zhou. The only real excitment was the expressway adventure which lay ahead and we wanted to leave sometime for any possible delays assoicated with attempting Expressway entrance and usage.

BTW Tian Jin does not allow motorcycles downtown in the city center, so it is advisiable to pick a hotel outside of town. The Radisson is SMACK dab in the middle of Tian Jin and directly across the street for the Tian Jin goverment offices. Do to our connections with the Marriot hotel group they were able to secure us special permission to enter the city to reach and depart the hotel ONLY.

After a lunch of Donkey meat soup:
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we headed toward the targeted Expressway, (actually we just took the first one that came up along the route.) The expressway was the new, very new and the GPS's did not have it on their maps.... All I know is that it headed straight to the port of Tian Jin (the Elis island of motorcycles, here in China). The night before the arguments were prepped and debates had about the legal use of Expressways by motorcycle, we were ready for the argument of our lives... as we approached the toll gate to begin the verbal joust..... The toll booth lady.... opened the gate and we rode striaght thru.... We didn't even need a card. There we were all 8 of us sitting on new, smooth and empty Expressway, with nothing but a ribbon of black top under and in front of us. We begin to pull away from the tollbooth and head towards the Port of Tian Jin. The road captin not completely sure on where to go (not on the GPS) ventured forward with caution... about 80kms of caution (slow for the expressway). I did my best to follow and stay in formation but our speed demon road captain just became Miss Daisy on the one road speed is allowed. Then I had had enough and the CF moto 650 TR under me screamed to be let loose, I wound up the throttle and pinned it. Now mind you the bike is fully ladden with the addition of a 50ltr topbox, but she still got up in a hurry and soon hit her max which was just shy of 210km/h. 210km/h is a 5 more Km/h then my previous top speed even with all the gear weighing her down.
As I was enjoying my full tuck moment one of the Ducati MTS's flew by me as if I was parked the rider effortlessly passes me with a big sh@t eating grin on his face. Later he would tell me that at 235 km/h he backed of as he felt it was plenty fast but that the throttle and the bike had more to go....
Soon the others were a faint memory and we slowed down to allow them to catch up, then we stopped and waited, and waited. While sitting on the road side we began to wonder what was keeping the group, we feared they had exited at one of the ramps we so happily zipped by. We decided at the that point to turn around and drive back to try and find them (first rule of group riding, stay as a group and don't pass the road captian). We did not get far, all of 5 meters before it was obvious that I had a flat rear tire. During the time it took to repair the flat the rest of the group caught up, with the highway patrol in tow. Its a good thing we stopped when we did, had that flat occured at 210 km/h I not sure if I would be writing this blog right now. No nail was found in the tire, just a clean hole, the expressway however was clean and clear of debris. We assumed that I had picked up a nail on the local roads and the speed while on the expressway dislodged the nail which then went flat quick. The highway patrol very firmly stated we were not allowed up on the expressway after all and the tollbooth operator made a mistake by letting us on.... Dang after on a few sweet Kms we were back down on the local roads. But since we didn't really know where the expressway would end up we exited at the next exit peacfully and without fuss.

As we neared the out skirts of Tian Jin, we came across a traffic jam on a limited entry road. The interesting thing about this was that 1. the road was to narrow to filter through traffic and 2. there were thousands of flies every where. As we apporached the epi center of the traffic delay and accident we all suddenly realized that the flies that were EVERYWHERE in the thousands, were in fact Bees. Now that made the odd dance to avoid what was thought to be only buzzy flies became a bit more dramatic as riders with 3/4 helmets and loose fitting clothing soon realized that a stray Bee or two might make it was into ones riding gear or helmet and cause and unpleasant sting!!!
At the next gas stop the bees had diminished but still present, we asked the attendant at the station "why are there so many bees" she replied that trucks hauling bees use that road and bees do escape from time to time allowing them to build huge colonies. It didnt help that the truck invovled in the accident also was hauling bees.
We arrived Tian Jin unstung and without any other incident, ready for that cold beer....
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