Well went to the Blackbridge shop yesterday, (11th of May 2016) and we set about trying to figure out what was wrong with the front end.
There was a terrible front end wobbling that made it feel like the steering column would collapse if you applied too much front braking.
So anyway, Adrien tightened the 2 bolts on the top of the steering column and then realised even though it was better, it wasn’t completely better and found out later that the front axel and bearings had a lot of wiggle room.
So anyway, we just need to buy some new bearings….because basically they’re shot. And maybe a new axel, because the bearings were damaged so much that it began damaging the axel. Which is why it took 40 mins or so to get the front axel out.
A ruined bearing. 
The Smash sitting in the dark waiting for some parts to arrive.
So yep, time to order some parts, figure out how to use taobao.com (which is the pre-cursor to alibaba or T-Mall, where you normally get all the cheap Chinese online products from)
A little about taobao- basically it registers companies to sell on its platform but provides very little guidance…or much like the chinese gov. there probably is guidance of what you can and can’t sell, but it doesn’t enforce anything.
So in reality taobao and thus Alibaba made their money… and a lot of money off the backs of companies providing fake goods, copied goods etc.
Of course there’s a lot of real goods, like for instance its where everyone buys motorbike parts from.
Which is why I need to use it.
But you never quite know what you’re buying on taobao, because of the fact that there’s so many fake goods on there.
Its also why I was so surprised that Alibaba & T-mall was able to float on the US stock exchange. Its made its money essentially through illegal practices. So I find this very strange. But then again, its not like many American companies are any different with all their pushes for deregulation an what not.
So I’ve learnt that 轴 zhou2 = Axel, and 轴承 zhou2cheng2 = bearings. I would never of had to learn these words if one of the bikes didn’t break. So hooray!
Just as I learnt the word for ‘crank-shaft’ = 曲轴 qu1zhou2 (which apparently = bent axel….i guess that makes a bit of sense).. I learn that because a friend’s bike broke down in the country side and we had to order one of those to get it working again. …..What a terrible experience that was.
Anyway, so I will figure out how to order these parts and go from there.
Oh and because that bike wasn’t in a state where I could ride it home, I took the Shineray 250 (my dirt bike looking thing) but the plate still hasn’t come, and it seems that its developed more problems since dropping it in.
So…it only seems to start in natural now, and even though we adjusted the chain it still has a rattle. I was told by Monty, the guy that was at the shop the same time as me, that has the same bike as me, that he just bought a proper Japanese racing chain kind of thing…and he’s never had any other problem… So I might be doing that fairly soon.
But to be fair Adrien did show me how to move the back wheel back, so as to tighten the chain, which was very nice of him. But I have to go through that in my mind a few more times to make sure that it makes sense.
So riding back… no plate….proper illegal, and then it runs out of petrol. Finally found the reserve tank switch. (It’s really hidden away on this bike) and basically I’m just going to drop it back off at Adrien’s tonight because…otherwise I’m screwed.
I’ve got no plates, no documents.. I can’t get petrol. I may as well use the last remaining petrol to get back to the shop and go from there.
But to cheer you up from this story I leave you with a picture of an advertisement I took at a petrol station a few days ago.
It’s an advertisement for plastic surgery. Yep that’s right… at a petrol station.
So you’re advertising nose-jobs or whatever at a petrol station.
For those that a rich enough that they have a car in China, but insecure enough that they take notice of this.
And….what’s incredible is that the Chinese says ‘为美丽加油’.
So they’ve actually made a situational pun.
Because the English translation is something along the lines of ‘For Beauty, we hope it succeeds’ or ‘Come on beauty!’
But the word 加油 jia you ‘s literal translation = ‘add oil’ and they’re at a petrol station. Wow Wow Wow.
This is actually clever advertising. (for chinese companies)
Have a good weekend everyone
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