Preparing for my motorbike trip up north – the place we will go is Weichang, which is in northern Hebei provence (north of Beijing). ~200km direct, probably more like 300 by road. Have a look at this link for pictures of past trips: Beijing Dragons’ Photos Here is a list of spare parts I need to bring: distributor cover and rotor. points 6 volts condenser(not the 12v !) ignition coil spark plugs and plug cable regulator generator cables coupler for the gearbox and the final drive carburetors rebuilt kit Not to mention the helmet, goggles, gloves, etc…

RMB 65 to fix the bike. Boy does it run well now! :-) Thinking of going on a 4 day trip this holiday. There is a group of (mostly foreigners) in beijing who own the bikes that occasioanlly go on these trips. Here is the email: It’s been a while for a real road trip. Now the National Day Holiday is fast approaching which is almost the last big ride of the year due to weather conditions.

Had a good weekend - Saturday was quite relaxing/fun - started by going with a friend to a xinjiang restaurant for lunch (had yang rou chuan) mmmm… We then went for a drive and ended up at a french outdoor cafe near the french embassy (in the sanlitun embassy/bar district) - there we met a few more friends. We sat there for a few hours enjoying one of the last nice days before the winter comes.

Had to get my bike fixed again on Saturday - it was making strange noises when I opened the throttle - it would choke and cough and make other whining noises - a slight exaggeration, but… so I drove it to the shop. The guy made some adjustments for free, mei wenti. I drove off, but after ~30 seconds, when I went to switch to 2nd gear, the clutch broke - couldn’t do anything… I pushed it back to the shop… Basically, he had to fix something inside the engine which took several hours - I picked it up the following morning.

Here is an interesting article concerning the IT job market in the United States… No Americans Need Apply - CIO Magazine Sep 1,2003

Yes, I had the bike fixed, it costed a heafty US$ 13.25. They replaced the ball bearings and the brake shoes (for the rear wheel). Click on the photo below for a larger one with captions. This is a photo of the broken parts. Click on the second image for a diagram of the assembly for that section of the bike - the part numbers correspond to the numbers I refer to in the photo.