Chiang Mai, Thailand to Vladivostok, Russia

[bsacbob]

Is that the KTM chap having a foot push ?

 

[KTMphil]

570km from Jing Hong to Kunming, but good fast roads. All the tunnels bored through the mountains keep your average speed up.


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Gas is every 60km on the highway


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Into Kunming city, we've got a hotel booked on the ring road so there's less chance of losing someone in the conjestion


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This is a brand new hotel, looks like there's something going on there when we arrive


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We're not sure if its a strike or what yet






As far as we could tell, the story was that a man borrowed money from his local rural village to build the hotel, he then leased the hotel out to someone else without paying back any of the money to the village, it was the villagers that had surrounded the hotel and closed it. Riot police in place







One of the village elders arguing with hotel manager








Lots of confusion, we give up on this hotel and find a new one around the corner

 

[KTMphil]

Yep

Is that the KTM chap having a foot push ?

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[KTMphil]

A good nights sleep in Kunming and off towards Lijiang- praying we dont lose anyone in the traffic


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About 200km north Robert's KTM 690 "dies" - no power


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We take the seat off, the ECU is steaming, it could be that or the battery.







Whilst waiting i notice a huge ding in my front rim, probably from R 3 in Laos











We pull the battery out, its bulging. By a stroke of luck, the CB 500 x spare battery is exactly the same size as the KTM 690. WE fit that, the bikes fires up and we're off

 

[KTMphil]

Off we head westwards towards Dali, some more civil engineering masterpieces

 

[KTMphil]

Its a great fast ride this way to Lijiang, looks like Rob's 690 is going to make it


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About 2km out of Lijiang, Rob's bike dies again











WE're pretty sure its the battery, we dont have another spare, so we decide to tow it to the hotel








Chinese guys are worried about this, they say they can do the foot push







This should be interesting







Ok so far






Made it to Lijaing's old city










A final push to the old city's hotel




















Cars are not allowed into Lijiang's old city. A bicycle with a cart has to bring the luggage

 

[KTMphil]

The next day, we pass through one of the most beautiful places in the world - Tiger Leaping Gorge. Some complications in the morning hit us with a 2 hour delay, a quick snooze while we're waiting


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Down the steep hill out of Lijiang & it was a little slippy to say the least - no damage


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Taking the local road so that we can get to the Yangze River viewpoint


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The toll road above


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What a view


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One of the group in the red on the walkway


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[KTMphil]

We follow the Yangze River all the way north to TLG

















The few more hickups with the CB 500 X aux. lights






August is the busiest month in the Yunnan holiday region & Tiger Leaping Gorge being one of the most conjested. Here the turn off to TLG










Tickets in hand, in we go in to the gorge (note the leaping tiger)

 

[KTMphil]

Pretty cool riding your bike into one of the most beautiful places in the world







Wowzy











Jack getting ready
















How cool is this guy?

 

[KTMphil]

Robert had changed the rectifyer on the 690 in Lijiang, it seems to have been the problem.... overcharging the battery and causing the fueling problem...bike is running sweet now

 

[KTMphil]

Tiger Leaping Gorge - So near to Thailand, its well worth a visit












Lunch & noodle soup in the Gorge

























Tibetan barley cake
















..

 

[KTMphil]

The back way from TLG to Shangri-La. 180km and always a smashing ride






















Into the clouds






Roberts KTM running fine

 

[KTMphil]

Gas stop waiting for the others - Locals taking an interest in the F 800 gs





















Lets hope they see me






Found them - last fuel station before Shangri-La








Getting cold up here now ... lowest i saw above 3,000 meters was 9C

 

[KTMphil]

Everyone's hands are getting cold now, almost into Shangri_la









Distinct change in the culture, much more of a Tibetan feel now













Finally into Shangri_la


















Even with the late start we made it before dark



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.... more to come (of course)

 

[KTMphil]

Rob in Lijiang changing the rectifyer... it fixed everything

 

[prince666]

Great pictures, will post a Google map of Entry to TLG. and is only 800 Km from Chiang Rai as the cow flys or about 1300km by road

 

[KTMphil]

Some photo's of Lijiang's old city from the other camera (sorry to backtrack a couple of days here)























Bugs























Could be barley cake

 

[Rob7711]

Ni Hao Everybody,

Well I am Robert and I am the orange KTM 690 rider on this trip. Just wanted to fill you guys in on the problems I had with my 2010 ktm 690 enduro R.

My problems started just outside of BKK where my bike FI lights started to flash and my exhaust note seem extra loud with lots of deceleration popping. As the bike was still rideable and I kept a constant eye on my temperature gauge but it seemed fine. I made an overnight stop in Ayuthaya instead of further north so that I can try to nail down my bike issue.

At my hotel I went through my owner's manual and my repair manual which I had in pdf format on my hand phone. Well I had 9 flashes on my FI but was unsure of the cadence .. was it short flashes or were they long flashes. So I videoed the sequence and had it sent off to my ktm dealer for analysis.

More later ..

 

[KTMphil]

Shangri-La north to Xiangcheng


Taking the local mountain roads north from Shangri-La, some beautiful valley scenery is immediately around us







The view of Shangri-La city as we head out in the photo below







Riding behind Jack again up in the clouds






























Tibetan writing on the signs now








Pee break at the viewpoint









What a view













Then off again on the great valley road
























more to come

 

[prince666]

I think that is the S217 road you are on.

 

[KTMphil]

Across the bridge and eastwards from Yunnan Province into Szechuan






Nasty unmade sections are everywhere here







Watch out for the falling rocks






























...

 

[KTMphil]

This poor guy on an overloaded bike, hit a pothole, snapped his front fork and went skidding along the road












Dragging it to the side of the road







All done and off NE, pagodas along the way








More grease







Then some beautiful twisties















Most locals are shy, you can catch a photo riding by if you're lucky















One of the CB 500 X's in need of a bath








...

 

[KTMphil]

Beautiful towns litter the valley's








Szechuan is famous for its mushrooms and fungus worms. Thye fungus worms are extremely expensive and supposed to cure everything. Being mushroom season, a local camp has been set up to do some picking

 

[KTMphil]

The KTM 990's fuel light had come on - The KLR was the only carb bike so was easy to get fuel out

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We pulled the fuel hose off and nothing came out of the KLR tank.... WE found out that the ignition needs to be on so that the fuel pump is energized



Some mushroom pickers watching us


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Up we go into the clouds and above 4,100 meters ....6 centigrade



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Got down to 4 centigrade at the top


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Down the other side and some more cool villages the other side of the pass












Approaching Xiang Cheng,


























Probably the fanciest hotel we've stayed in so far

 

[KTMphil]

More to come.....

 

[nikhuzlan]

Yet to see blue skies Phil. Is this the weather throughout?

 

[KTMphil]

First time today Nik

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

 

[KTMphil]

A damp 8am start in Xiang Cheng

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A wonderful ride out of the valley


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[KTMphil]

We seem to have found a natural riding order, the 990 adv seems to be in front of me most of the time


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Out of this mountain set and up towards the pass


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[KTMphil]

Half way up the next mountain pass and some interesting traditional buildings

















This is the highest pass we've been up to so far, over 4,600 meters, the temperature down to 4 centigrade







Freezing!!'

 

[KTMphil]

More to come.....

 

[CraigBKK]

Great shot Phil!

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[KTMphil]

Pretty bleak up here














The houses now are no-nonsense, rugged stone. It must be a brutal place in the winter, this is their summer!

 

[KTMphil]

There's some interesting history around Litang, 12 years ago there were horse racing festivals here but no more..... We are now in the area of the nomads who live in tents high in the mountains. The nomads are yak herders, one yak is worth around USD$ 1,200, so it can be a good business. Around 12-13 years ago a man related to the nomads was protesting in Litang about free speech/ freedom of rights etc... The police captured him, tortured him, killed him and hid the body. Word got back to the nomads in the mountains about this, some of the nomad men came down the mountain, shot the police officers and recovered the dead mans body. Since this incident this has been a very sensitive area, with Chinese army stationed in the area. Here, you are also near the Tibet border & there's still lots of problems related to the Dali Lama. All around this area, 2 months around the Dali Lama's birthday, ALL internet data is blocked from wifi and phone data.... no internet at all for 2 months.




There's also been problems with Tibetan monks setting them selves on fire in this area, so its illegal to sell gasoline/ petrol in buckets here!







A couple of nomad / yak farmer tent photo's below

 

[KTMphil]

Real rugged landscape, here at around 3,500 meters, it must be horrible in winter time by the signs of nothingness here


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The main highway has temporary Tibetan style lunch spots every km once you get down to about 3,000 meters


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The local boys was fascinated by the big bikes


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Girls too


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...

 

[KTMphil]

At first, riding along, these looked like more nomad tents. As we got closer, we saw that it was a huge Chinese Army camp / base. There must have been several thousand soldiers based there, looks like the nomad situation is still pretty volatile with so many soldiers nearby keeping an eye on them

























Headed for Ya Jiang, some Tibetan Monks near a temple on a pass






































...

 

[KTMphil]

Into town for some fuel, it was chaos with the roadworks




















Jack's hydraulic clutch had failed on the KTM 990. All the oil had leaked out of the reservoir, through the master cyl. seal, this was not good news with 7,000 km to go. He went to hunt down some vegetable oil to see if we could get it working again








The local kids were very confused by us waiting there







10 RMB and they were gone


















Jack had a little bit of clutch control so we pressed on















Yaks








Back up at a pass, Jack's clutch resvr. was leaking again, he had no way to disengage the clutch now







Rob inspected it inside to see if there was any obvious seal damage, we couldnt see anything














We manage to bump start Jack with no clutch, he rode in 3rd gear all the way then. Getting close to Ya Jiang now, looks like Jack will make it




















Jack made it as far as town, he was then pushed the last bit to the hotel.







After dinner, more vegetable oil was added & the clutch started working again - not leaking, all very strange.



What we think happened was at 4,600 meters the different air pressure, forced the hydraulic fluid to blow passed the seal. Think of a bag of potato chips you take up high and how it looks like its about to burst, we think the same thing happened to Jacks hydraulic clutch system. Once it had been opened and the pressure equalized, the seals could then cope with the climatic pressure again. It's now working fine. All very unusual, would never have thought that would happen.



All fixed and time for a good nights sleep in Ya Jiang

 

[KTMphil]

More to come -- teaser from the Labrang Monastery


View attachment 39339

 

[KTMphil]

Leaving Ya Jiang, some unusual corkscrew links between mountains, which were quite fun



















Then off through the mountains







Back up at 4,200 meters






& Jack's clutch starts playing up again







Magical toilets at this pass






















Down the other side towards Danba & some nasty unmade sections














Some more well built, traditional houses

 

[KTMphil]

We're now getting near the region where religion will change from Buddhism to Muslim. Here Buddhism is still quite evident.













Tibetan scripture on the rocks






Headed north, this might be one of the last Buddhist temples we'll see before we hit the Muslim region



























































Looks like it gets slippy here








Getting near to Danbar, our intended destination for the evening