Tough Rides: China

Here’s another Amazon Prime television show and video review.  This one (as the blog title suggests) is on a series titled Tough Rides China.  It’s about two Canadian brothers (Ryan and Colin Pyle) who circumnavigated China on BMW F800 motorcycles, and you can either watch it on Amazon Prime (if you have that streaming service) on your TV or on your computer.

The bottom line first:  I enjoyed this 6-part series.  A big part of that was because Joe Gresh and I rode around China with the cult of the Zong and we had a whale of a time, so it was easy to relate to what these two fellows did.

I didn’t think this series was as good as the one I reviewed recently about the two German dudes who rode from Germany to India (Himalaya Calling, which was a stellar production), but I still enjoyed it.

Surprisingly, the Pyle brothers’ BMWs broke down a couple of times during the trip, which suprised me.  They were concerned about how long it would take to get parts and the lack of a strong BMW presence in China (now there’s a switch).   For the record, our ten Zongshen RX1 and Rx3 motorcycles didn’t have a single breakdown during our ride.  The Pyle brothers had breakdowns that mandated trucking the bikes significant portions of the trip (does GS actually stand for Go Slow?).

The Pyles also put their bikes on trucks when they wanted to get on the freeways because motorcycles are not allowed on some Chinese freeways.  When Gresh and I were over there with the Zongers, we rode them anyway.  It made me nervous that we rode around the toll gate arms (without paying the toll) and I asked one of our Chinese brothers about it.  “We’re not allowed on the freeways, so if we tried to pay, they wouldn’t know what to do,” he told me.

Tough Rides China has a long introduction at the beginning of every episode, and it was the same in every episode.   That became a bit distracting, and I blitzed through the lengthy and redundant intro after watching the first two episodes.

Tough Rides China featured the giant sand dunes and camels in the Gobi Desert around Dun Huang.  Gresh and I were there.  It was an awesome place, as was all of China.  It really was the adventure of a lifetime.

Tough Rides China is part of a series.  The Pyle brothers have done similar series in Brazil and India, too.  I’ll have to look for those.  While I didn’t think this series was as good the Himalaya Calling adventure ride we recently reviewed, it was still good and I recommend seeing it.

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Would you like to read about the Zong trip when Gresh and I rode around China?  Hey, just click right here!