CNX2UZ2CNX – The Ultimate Motorcycle Journey

my daily (as often as possible) Blog

  • Day 5 April 22 Tuesday

    Shangri_la to Deqin
    The Ride to Deqen is simply the best way to
    view the great variety of landscape in the Great Rivers region.

    Ride 184km, Sunny, 2℃—17℃

  • Day 4 April 21 Monday Lijiang to Shangri_la
    Ride the third deepest Gorge in the world, Tiger Leaping Gorge. Ride to Shangri_la, is where the Tibetan and Chinese worlds meet. Ride 270km
    Alt. 3270M Warm to Cool 15℃

    ShangriLa

  • Another great riding day

  • Ride to Dali

    Ticketed for speeding. Seems it was all manageable.
    Dali street impressions
    1. Day ride in China. The border crossing was smooth and fast, done in 2 hours. Arrived at the hotel ready for dinner
    Good advice

  • The team made it to Boten in Laos, the last stop before China. All good.

    My bike is back at Honda and is waiting for the spare parts, while I’m exploring options, how to follow the tracks of the team through China and Central Asia.

  • Day number one of our tour. Started this morning after a quick coffee only to encounter a serious fault at my bike. The ABS fault light came up (again) and put the DCT in emergency mode, means I could not switch into second gear (DCT can do such things). This not the first time but Honda was telling me, they checked everything. Anyway, we decided the others ate going ahead and I try to get it fixed with the help from Bom and Tom from BTA. Guyy, from Honda joint the team and they took the bike quickly apart. The errorcod indicated a fault at two sensors, the rest speed sensor and the air intake sensor. They checked and cleaned everything only to get disappointed at the trdt drive, as the ABS fault came up again. I then drove the bike to Honda Big Wing where Guyy pit it on the diagnosis computer to identify a fault in the ABS module. After resetting all error codes, he made another test drive only to get disappointed again as the issue is still the same. It’s 3pm now and I will see where we end up today. All I know is that I need to be at the border to Laos tomorrow morning at 8 pm, to catch up with the others to make it tomorrow to Boten at the border to China. Once in China I cannot return, hence, I need a fully working and robust bike, managing the next, 20,000 km. That is the situation now. Not what I imagined but have to accept.

  • A while ago, I received a mail from Thomas (and his wife Jeanette), asking about Heidenau Tires, which unfortunately are stuck in customs in Bangkok, waiting for papers from Heidenau. Anyway, we stayed in contact and had dinner yesterday evening in downtown Chiang Mai. This morning, they dropped by for a coffee for further exchange of information about travelling through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and about the stretches along the Pamir Highway and further West along the Silk Road to Turkmenistan. All great information, which mainly confirmed that what we planned is very doable and also confirmed the feasibility of the planned day routes and destinations at the end of the day, including border crossing considerations and timings and so. All useful information nuggets to us. They are off today to the mountains along the border to Myanmar and the Golden Triangle before heading further south along the border ridges with Laos and finally crossing the Isaan deadpan to get to Cambodia at the Ko Kong crossing. We wish them a great ride and will stay in contact. Have a safe journey.

    Jeanette and Thomas from Zwickau, Germany, on a two-year Asia round loop

  • We are just two weeks away from starting the trip, getting to the border to Laos, to cross into Laos the next day and to get to the border with China at Boten. I’m still working on getting the packing and preparation right. The bike is also still with Honda, hope the last parts needed will arrive this week and the bike will be ready by the weekend or next week. I’m also detailing the schedule for the complete trip and double check it is all correct before I upload everything to the phones and Garmin GPSs, plus getting the latest mapping material for all the countries we ate passing through. I’m not really keen to update things on the fly while we ate on the road. I know it can get messy to fiddle around while on the way, what only adds to the uncertainty/excitement which will take away the positive moments. Off to Honda now, to see where things are with the preparation of the bike.

    Still waiting for the left fork cartridge as the current has a small scratch and the mechanic is worried might lose damping oil on the trip. We also still need to simplify the auxiliary electrics like day lights, heated grips, android display and USB charging adaptor.
  • Hazy days