Hold on to your hats! In this exclusive collaboration with Beijing Sideways (the sidecar tour company) we bring you the Beijing Time Chase – a grand scavenger hunt through history (and the city’s lesser known sights). In a Back to the Future-style race against the clock, teams of two will board their time machine (a Chang Jiang 750 People’s Liberation Army Sidecar) and have just 4 hours to find the answers to clues that will slowly reveal the city’s quirky history. This Beijing sidecar tour is your chance to discover the smallest city in the world, discover barely-there murals, damp underground bunkers and even a temple made of rice… With snacks, drinks and a celebratory finish-line lunch/dinner included, we suggest you get your family or friends together (2 people per sidecar) and take each other on. Whoever wins is guaranteed some serious kudos…and perhaps even a prize or two. Note: If you’re short on time or want to head out of the city, we can also arrange 2-hour city tours, nighttime tours and Great Wall trips in sidecars – ask us for more information!

From 1,300RMB-2,000RMB per person depending on group size. How safe is it? Each sidecar has a fully licensed and experienced Time Pilot (don’t worry, we wouldn’t expect you to drive!) and of course helmets are provided. Each bike’s maximum speed is just 35mph so you can relax. How long will it take? When can I do it? Any morning or afternoon you like, subject to availability. Start Point: The Drum and Bell Tower Squaremotorcycle repairs eastbourne End Point: Dali Courtyard in Gulou or The Big Smoke in Sanlitunyamaha motorcycle repair seattle Getting there: Transportation to and from the start point is not included in the cost.motorcycle tire shootout 2013

Children: Will love this experience! Smaller children can ride in the sidecar with their parents. We do not recommend this experience for children under the age of 5. Any other costs I should know about? How far in advance should I book? What to bring: A look of grim determination (this is a competition after all) – and a camera. Our favourite bit: Realizing that you are seeing a Beijing other travelers will never get to see as you race into yet another tourist-free hidden gem.motorcycles for sale in yakima waYou may recall me telling you to get over to See See Motorcycles (Portland, Oregon) back in December to check out 21 Helmets. motorcycle for sale longview txRewind: 21 white Bell helmets were custom-designed by noted weirdo artists, including photographer Ray Gordon of Throttled fame. harley davidson for sale greenville nc

Well, Thor Drake and company are putting on another event– The One Motorcycle Show (February 10th-11th) where the the helmets will be displayed again along with 10 new helmets added to the mix– one of which is being done by pinstriping legend Mitch Kim). There will also be bikes by Deus, 4Q Conditioning, and more. Admission is free, so shit– get there! 1642 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR Also, check out the video at the end of the post on how 21 Helmets came together and the many talented artists and wonderful weirdos behind it.Update 2013: 10 Things I’ve Learned From 10 Motorcycle Crashes >> In the ranks of embarrassing pictures you could have posted on the Internet of yourself, I’m going to guess this one is close to the top. Yeah, that’s my butt, clearly visible through my shredded Y-fronts, rubbed raw and bleeding from sliding down the road. Those undies provided about as much protection as the Levis 511s I was wearing, which is to say none. This happened at around 35 to 40 mph.

Now this photo, this is of my left knee, which enjoyed a similar amount of protection: none. I’m not really sure what poked the hole, but it’s about an inch deep. A little bit of leather, a little bit of armor and neither injury would have occurred. I won’t argue that, you can’t argue that, it’s simply a fact. Really, it was no big deal. Riding home from dinner around 11 pm, I had a green light to turn left on a city street, so I turned left. I wasn’t practicing for an MSF course, but I wasn’t riding fast either. Just normal guy-riding-a-bike stuff. Just as I apexed the 90-degree corner, the bike started leaning over really far, then it was sliding away from me on its side. Once I’d stopped sliding, I ran over, picked the bike up, put it on the curb, then went back to see what had caused the low-side. Turns out there was a patch of car safety glass, the kind that turns itself into little marbles when it shatters, all over the middle of the corner. I hadn’t seen it in the dark and it was literally like hitting marbles.

No warning, just slip. At that point, I realized my jeans were torn to shreds, my leg and butt were hurting like hell and, man not again, my left arm was broken. I needed to go to the hospital, but I needed to get the RSV4 someplace safe first. It’d be gone in 30 minutes if I left it unattended on a curb in Hollywood. So, instead of calling an ambulance, I pushed it two blocks to my old house. Once I’d stopped in the driveway and gotten my old roommates to unlock the gate, push the bike around back and lock it up, I laid down on the couch while they fed me shots of vodka. A quick once over revealed that my knee was bleeding pretty badly, as was my butt. The arm was still broken and there was a growing sense of hollowness in my left chest. Adrenaline wearing off, this was all beginning to hurt. Mark offered to drive me to Cedars Sinai hospital, but not before grabbing a towel so I wouldn’t get butt blood all over his seats. I got the peculiar experience of strolling into the ER and checking myself in with my butt hanging out of the hole in my jeans.

Five hours later I got a bed and a couple hours after that I got painkillers and then everything was alright. After much head scratching from doctors, cat scans and X-rays, it turned out there was no actual damage to the bones or ligaments in my knee. Giant sigh of relief, I’m paranoid about injuring my knees. But, my tailbone was bruised (along with the rest of my butt and thighs), there was the road rash, two fractured ribs and that stupid broken arm. I’d suspected for a while that the metal I had in my arm from a crash back in 2008 was making the whole thing weaker, not stronger. There was no medical evidence to support it, but I know what breaking a limb feels like and I know what kind of force is required, so it’s been my theory that the metal was to blame when I broke my wrist (exactly at the end of the plate) last summer. That crash just wasn’t big enough to break a healthy bone. Now, the Cedars ortho team was agreeing. I don’t have the X-rays to share yet, but this plate basically popped its screws and pulled pieces of the Ulna with it.