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"Traveling by motorcycle proved an excellent way of seeing a large slice of China. Wide territory, warmly-hearted Chinese people, and booming economy give me unforgettable impression and touch me every day??" a New Zealander said, after his riding across China on Lifan motorcycle.
Michael Esdaile, Editor-in Chief of the fortnightly motorcycle publication REVS Motorcycle News, showed his intense interests in this oriental nation. It can date back to the year of 2002 that he and his friend of Mr. Michael Wu, a Chinese-born Australian designed to have an idea of a motorcycle tour through China. In July of 2004, two Michaels took a LF150GY-3A each and triggered their virgin journey in China. They experienced a 12-day, 2000 km adventure in Chengdu with a small band of Australians.
" It's an absolutely correct choice to ride a motorcycle to enjoy the landscape in China. Traveling through Manchuria into Inner Mongolia, we almost touched the border of the former Soviet Union. " Michael Esdaile recalled. " Under the dark green and boundless grassland, cows and sheep sometimes hide sometimes appear in the grass with a gust of wind. ' In the romantic and poetic green world, we stayed with the local tribesmen and lived in their tents, which are called yurts. Our hosts organized a dancing party with local girls that went till midnight." The hospitality of Mongolian warmed traveler's hearts and made them so happy to forget their homes.
" I well remember asking one 15-year-old boy if he could guess where we were from, and his reply, through our interpreter, was 'Russia'. Our explanation that we were from Australia was met with a blank look, until we showed him a map. He couldn't understand how we could have got from Australia to his village. " These episodes took us a lot of funs in the journey.
This May, they came to Chengdu and restarted their tour into the mountainous area of Sichuan Province.
"Fields lying in the tranquil nights with stars winking, and rivers running toward the sea with moonlight shining. " Just as the life described by the poet in Tang dynasty in China, the quiet life fascinated Esdaile and made him experience quite a different life style. All this should be related with the motorcycle, LF150GY-3A.
So far, this dirt bike has completed around 4000 km over a wide variety of road surfaces, from smooth concrete highways to not-so-smooth bitumen, rough, broken concrete roads, badly pot-holed roads and roads that were impossible for cars to drive over.
It's a surprise that they suffered no mechanical failure or breakage on the tour, with all the motorcycles returning to Chengdu running just as strongly as when they left.
The rough roads did highlight some short-comings with LF150GY-3A(I) machine however. That means the rear suspension is much too stiff and does not absorb impacts very well. (Remarks: For this model an improved rear suspension is available now. ) The seats were hard so that they got sore backsides after an hour's ride or so. The rough roads and too firm rear suspension also resulted in several bolts vibrating loose, but in each case they found them before they came completely undone. The rear mount for the exhaust muffler was one that came loose as well as the top engine mounting bolts. This last item made itself known by a strong increase in vibration from the engine in the 5000 to 7000 rpm range. Once we tightened the bolts, this bad vibration disappeared.
" Finally, you may be interested to know that in several places we stopped, there was a lot of interest in our motorcycles. In one place, the local Tibetan people wanted to buy them, and we had a similar experience at Wolong with a local motorcycle club from Dou-jiang-yan. Several of their members want to buy our motorcycles, which was declined by us. " said by Michael Esdaile. It seems that it's a good choice of Lifan brand.
For this reason, for future tours they would like to take a LF150GY-3A with the twin shock rear suspension and the well padded dual seat, but fitted with the 163FML 200cc engine. In that case, the journey in near future will be more thrilling and more comfortable and more attractive places can be available.
Article author:JERRY ZHI |
