Tibet Day 2, Lhasa to Lhasa

My roomy, Martin Mueller, finally arrives after a difficult journey caused by not having the original of his Tibet Permit and having to spend a night in Chengdu with the guy flown out to deliver the original to him. These bloody permits are a right pain and can only be delivered to addresses in China apparently (hence my night in Beijing). Luckily Martin is just in time for our first ride. There are two others in our group still to arrive - yesterday their aircraft was set to land, aborted and went back to Chengdu!

We get our bikes. Mostly brand new Chinese made 400cc(?) twin cylinder Zuumavs with an odd Benelli four and a Suzuki twin. The Zuumavs look the part with their aggressive naked styling. They are physically quite small though and some of the bikes look a little lost under our enduro layered bikers. But they have two wheels and an engine and that's what matters.

Today's ride is a short 60km familiarisation ride. We're introduced to our local riding guide, Wang. He looks experienced with all the right kit and a decent looking off-road style Chinese bike rather like the old BMW Funduro. We get a briefing from Alex who tells us it's all much more civilised on the roads here and there's less tooting; sacre bleu! Alex explains the system we'll use to stay together and it's not the corner man method. The first rider following the leader will replace the lead rider on a corner and when the guy behind him reaches the same corner he then replaces him, and so on. There's stirring from the ranks, it's sounds iffy. Alex is convinced it's a system that works.

We set off and, no big surprise, a few of us get lost. We stop a few times to regroup before leaving the city.

Once on the open road we open up the throttles and unleash the power... then we open up the throttles to unleash the power...... errr..... We change up, we change down, up and down the rev range searching for the elusive horses. And then, we find something.... ahh, but it's just a downhill stretch. Yep, these Zuumav are no way 400cc feeling more like half that; they definitely do not zuuuum! The lucky Benelli riders don't have the same problem, their four cylinders seem to have ample power.
But power is nothing without control and our Zuumavs have great looking twin disk radial caliper setups. Yep, they look great, but perform no better than single disk brakes. They stop us, which is always a nice feeling. The suspension is ok, not overly hard for a road oriented bike and the upside down front forks and rear shock soak up most small bumps, but feel a bit harsh on the sharp edges.
Later on, I get stuck in fourth gear as my gear linkage falls off, Neil's chain comes off and Matt's fuel line comes, loose spraying him with fuel. Teething troubles and to be expected in brand new bikes and our resident mechanic soon has them patched up.

The asphalt road winds upwards in a familiar way and we stop a few times to admire the views of the mountains, take pictures, and also be pictured with the locals, rock star style. It's on these winding roads that we discover the unusual handling of our mounts. Leaning into a bend there's resistance to turn, but on leaning a bit more, it suddenly tips, prompting us to navigate corners in a rather ragged 50 pence piece style. Initial impressions are that they are not the best bikes we've ever ridden, a bit buzzy and we long for that chug chug chug of the long stroke Enfield. My bike overheats, reaching 112C, and promptly spills some of its fluids all over the road. We'll get used to all these foibles as the days progress.

We reach Zha Yabasi and the road sign says 4800m. A quick check with GPS shows we're actually at 4300m. It certainly doesn't feel like 4800m as I can still breath. Hot, sweet tea is welcome and then we head back again winding our way down the same roads, getting used to the 'unique' handling.
Returning to town and back to base, Alex compiles a list of mechanical issues to be resolved before tomorrow's ride to Xigase. There we will obtain our permits to ride further into Tibet as our guide says they will be easier to obtain there. It's around a 360km trip and we'll be leaving around 7am. Gulp! Not looking forward to that.

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