After Kathy’s class we decided to visit Big Bill’s Sidecars to see his ChangJiang workshop. This is the second one we will visit. Hopefully we can talk to them and make them understand what we need. And no, this would not be a language problem…
The owner has three (3!) fairly new Mercedes Benz. Well, that was not expected. Kathy even assumed the guy in the red QQ would wait for us. We arrived in the shop and there were a lot of really really interesting motorbikes. Everything you can imagine for a lot of money… And in the back of the shop there were some ChangJiang.
After we talked about all the details, we discussed the license plate issue. This is a hot topic in Beijing. It is possible to ride a motorbike on Beijings roads. But there are restrictions. Basically there are “A” and “B” license plates for bikes.
- A license plate = no driving restriction + very expensive + very hard to get
- B license plate = restriction + expensive + hard to get
Basically the B plate bans you out of the city center and is only allowed outside of the 4th ring road. And yes, that is a big area.
Beijing ‘A’ license plate for Motorcycles
Not very satisfying. The owner told us currently we cannot get any. Point. Huh? “Not possible!” is no answer we would be satisfied with.
The only way to get a license plate is to get it from a different province.
- Price: Also not cheap
- Restrictions: Even worse!
- Legal: Maybe!
So who cares about ‘legal’ or ‘restrictions’ in China anyway? Well, since we want to travel through a lot of countries, we will have to proof that the bike is ours. If we get a license place from another province, the owner in the papers would be a different person. Not such a good idea… Now we are looking for possibilities. Maybe I need to move to a different province …temporarily. So I can legally apply for a license plate. But this is only my idea.
However, without a really license plate we cannot start the trip. This is hard requirement and if we find no solution, we will not be able to travel to Germany…