Martino, the Hero, the Inspiration

Patrick Martino. You have probably never heard this name before, but neither had we before deciding to venture across China on motorcycles. Patrick traveled from Lanzhou to Urumqion a motorbike, taking a similar route to the one we are taking on the second leg of our trip. However, he didn't stop there. He also traveled even farther West and also south to Tibet. Even after having an accident on his Feiying bike he continued to travel. He didn't travel with two other Americans like we will. He traveled alone.

After many Google searches using phrases like "motorcycle china" and "across china" we found Patrick's blog (click here to view), full of information about traveling China on a motorcycle, specifically the Northwest. Perhaps the most helpful information on the blog, was his recounting of how he stumbled into a sponsorship with Feiying Motorcycles. One day after finding his blog site, we went to the Feiying dealership in Harbin and our trip became much easier. Feiying was willing to 'sponsor' us just as they had sponsored Martino: giving us good prices on the bikes, finding us places to stay and food along the way, supplying helmets, gloves, license plates, and, maybe most importantly, free repair and maintenance for our bikes during the trip.

P (edited by T)