Cangyuan To Mohan

Cangyuan To Mohan

Cangyuan saw us leaving in the wet again, actually the next few days were wet with the very occasional dry spells so not much to show through a wet lens.

We did spot this cool bridge on the way.

Rubber trees lined the road for a good portion of it.

Our travels took us to Mohan which is the border to Laos, Saturday 10^th we hop over the border for 4 weeks if we can, we personally get a 30 day VISA on arrival no problem but the bike can only get 14 days (or possible 30 day if the border guard is in a good mood or had a shag that morning, totally at his or her discretion) and you have to apply for an extension somewhere in Laos.

Yes…just fucken stupid with no logic attached, furthermore we have to pay a $20000 Yuan ($5000.00 Kiwi) deposit as we are foreigners, Chinese only have to pay $10000 Yuan. This will be refunded in full as long as we do not overstay and bring our bike back which we will and we kinda need it.

Bureaucracy plus communism is a sure way to bring a country to its knees and it appears to be working well.   

Xiao Lyu, ok we started to have a problem of a shuddering front brake, because we had so much rain and dirt/fine mud I could not see much if there was an issue, the shudder/pulsing got worse and arriving almost dry at Mucheng I took a closer look while we were under cover.

I discovered the right front fork seal had let go and was leaking oil into the disc pads and onto the front brake rotor, I made a fork seal cleaner out of a plastic bottle and ran it around the seal to see if anything came out but only clean oil appeared and it didn’t fix the problem in the end, sometimes a small bit of grit can get stuck and hold the seal open but not in this case.

Some discussions with Moto Morini as to organizing replacement parts as there are no dealership over here they sent everything we need ahead to Mohan so on our arrival the parts were waiting.

We found a huge yard full of trucking repair shops, riding up to one we asked if we could do our repairs there and we need some tools, they said no problem and come into the workshop to see if they have the tools, actually, they were working on a motor outside and everything we needed they had right there, it was almost too easily handed to us.

We replaced the front disc rotor, front disc pads and the rand hand side fork leg complete, the whole job done in less than an hour.

A big thankyou to Moto Morini for sorting us out, it is a little unusual for the KYB forks to have an issue but that is motoring it would seem.    

If watching the job smokes your tires then here it is.

We had the whole day on Friday to kick back and relax before our crossing to Laos, this allowed us time to have a nice coffee at a small shop, the coffee was great and the young lady wanted a photo with us, she went red in the face and said she was so nervous, we (Ellen) explained he (me) is just a normal person of a different look and no need to be nervous, after that she was fine.

While in Mohan Ellen had developed hives, poor little bugga was itchy as hell and struggling to sleep, we think it was bought on by the stress of the border work etc as it seemed a relentless task which didn't want to end, some hard drugs and she is good to go.

 

The border crossing…grab ya popcorn.