"Mr . Cai is a good guy and his shop is the only local Chinese shop that I deal with. He has a couple of new bikes for sale. If anyone wants to make contact with him they can contact me at hclayjones@yahoo.com

As far as bike repairs go, his shop is the most reasonable. Here they are replacing the dreaded "stator" for Devon, done in a few moments and the price wasn't bad."

This old girl appears to be on the verge of a restoration... we hope. Somebody has gone to the trouble of tearing it down and if we're lucky, we'll get to see it again after it's been put back together.

Bikes parked outside FHL.

I came across an old school wheel balancer and loved the look so I'm trying to buy it, but the old man who uses it is reluctant. He needs his tool to work. The last two pictures show a CJ with a little twist—the coil is mounted sideways. Changs—you gotta love all the configurations..."

"As the end of the May Holiday approaches, Peng Yie had a BBQ at this guitar shop near the Drum Tower close to the Forbidden City. It was a Chang affair with Chinese riders, me and Devin manning the grill which consisted of wire screen stretched over a metal box. I pondered what that box contained before being drafted as a grill box, but not for long as unrecognizable cuts of meat were foisted on the makeshift cookery.

In attendance was a Chinese fella with a water cooled. I was overjoyed when he handed me the keys to test drive the beast. The resulting putt was one of surprise at the speed and the performance of the carbs, the ease of the clutch and the shifting feeling as smooth as, well, not butter but smoother than most Changs. Well done, but the extra radiator hanging in the wind has me longing to get back on the CJ Project which was the darlin' of the evening according to the Chinese guest (thanks to the Harley taillight which took a year to hook up due to extreme laziness and the notion that I would rather be riding than working.) The guy with the water-cooled is the one in the red jacket in the "smokin with the boyz" shot.

Across the street was a car wash but no coin operation here. A guy who hands you a hose and takes 5RMB. A few of the Changsters decided to have a wash... their bikes that is.

The big guy cooking has an old school Type I frame from the sixties that he is restoring with earnings from his tattoo shop. Nice work and anyone looking for a tat should consider this skin artist.

After ten the shops in the neighborhood started closing. The street emptied of cars and foot traffic making the ride home fun as the usuall pedestrian suspects where not crowding the road home."

"Yesterday we went to the Midi-music fest with a friend of Devon's, another Chang rider to whom you haven't been introduced. The Chinese rider is named Peng Yue with an English handle of Xander. Of course Lao Tou (Marcus) has joined us for his yearly visit with Gerald at LRM. Introducing Jamie, Marcus's friend who came along for a extended visit to Beijing. The Midi Festival has grown steadily for the last three and a half years growing from a gym to now occupying an entire park."

[The picture file names contain the captions.]

Clay spotted this old gal somewhere in Beijing. He calls her the old grey mare.

Saying goodbye to the CJ900 as it leaves Clay's care with its new owner. That's a novel way of towing!

Old-school CJ750s in front of FHL in Beijing, China's first and only official Harley-Davidson dealer.

Oops.

A Beijing tool market with some great bikes in the parking lot.

Just act normal.

"Try as I might, this is the only bike I came across in Hainan, and owned by a Chinese. It had any part on it you could imagine. They thought at this shop that a foreigner could not own a "military" bike and only 150cc bikes were available. Funny, in my conversation with the owner he had no idea where he could get parts and no small shops had them, oh, except one shop they told me had Chang 6 volt parts only to find the parts they spoke about was a 6 volt horn new in the box and likely produced last week..."