An epic Harley ride in Tibet’s highlands
Print Edition
IT is said that life is incomplete if we haven’t been to Tibet once, mentally or physically, in our lifetime. With its mysterious Buddhist culture and wide range of great mountains and sacred lakes, Tibet is becoming more and more popular among travelers.
The Harley Owners Group (HOG) Shanghai chapter arranged a Tibet ride event with Harley-Davidson Shanghai’s technical and service support. To help make the travel experience unique, the group even prepared a power generator and coffee machine, just to have a cup of hot, freshly brewed coffee at the Tanggula Mountain Pass.
The group’s entourage included: 35 Harley-Davidson motorcycles; 38 Harley riders, including three women; one support team consisting of three vehicles, two technical specialists, seven service assistants; a doctor; a camera unit with three cameramen and one photographer.
We set out on our journey to Lhasa from Xining. On the first day, from Xining to Dulan, the busy traffic allowed us to barely move during the morning rush hour. Our road captains played a huge role, using riding gestures and radio commands to lead the team out from the chaos.
From Dulan to Golmud, we rode through the Gobi Desert for a whole day amid high temperatures. There were no restaurants or service areas during this stretch of road. But Harley-Davidson Shanghai arranged a picnic with a table full of drinks, cakes, fruits and of course the freshly brewed coffee in a Petrochina gas station. Most Harley owners had never experienced this kind of picnic before. “That’s a really wonderful experience!” was the sentiment of many riders.
From Golmud going south was the beginning of a few nightmares. Some sections of the road to Lhasa were under repair, and rutted dirt roads and bumpy roads made the riding difficult. Occasionally our riders tumbled down, and others stopped and came immediately to pull them up. This is what we call the brothers’ friendship.
Some riders had serious altitude sickness when we reached the Tuotuo river town, which sits at an altitude of 4,570 meters (15,000 feet). Symptoms included headache, loss of appetite, insomnia and shortness of breath. Our doctor was the busiest man that night, as he shuttled from room to room dispensing medicines, giving injections and arranging oxygen inhaling the whole night.
The next morning, none of the riders who suffered from altitude sickness was absent. Harley riders always want to challenge themselves. With this belief, our rolling wheels cannot be stopped.
When we were riding up Tanggula Mountain, we encountered heavy rain, and nothing could stop the water from flowing into our riders’ boots. The riders had to control the shift pedal and brake with their feet in the cold water, which was tough but nothing could beat us.
When we reached the highest point of this journey, Tanggula Mountain Pass, 5,230 meters above sea level, our riders took group pictures and repainted the characters on the landscape stone in red. We saluted the Tibetan Plateau using our actions.
The view on the road is impressive, while the vagaries of climate are nightmares. We encountered extreme weather that included heat, heavy rain, strong winds, frost and hail.
Three of our riders were in their 60s, all of them with rich riding experience. Of course they came through fine this time, which really proved the saying: “Age is not a problem, as long as you have a young heart full of passion.” We salute the old riders!
The journey itself was great, despite its toughness. With Harley riders’ team spirit, after five days of riding 2,000 kilometers at an average elevation of 4,270 meters, we arrived at Lhasa safely and received a Tibetan welcome ceremony from the St Regis Lhasa.
This was a legendary journey, and there’s no such record of a similar one before it.
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