Since the Wuyang is such a popular topic, I should say a little more about my experience with the bike. Shortly after I arrived in Luxor (about 500 miles south of Cairo) I decided I needed my own wheels if I was going to to keep my sanity. The Egyptian taxi drivers in the tourist areas are relentless, and you can go crazy avoiding their constant offers for a tour. A bicycle was a possibility, but some of the sights on the West Bank are too far apart to make that feasible. Since the place recommended by the Lonely Planet had closed, I started asking around and eventually found a couple of guys tinkering on a beautiful old Vespa in one of the many alleys of the market street. Egyptians are some of the friendliest, funniest, and most hospitable people I have ever met, and if they cannot help you, they generally know somebody who can. A cousin's second cousin's friend's brother eventually escorted me to a paint store where an old man knew a guy who would bring around a bike for me to rent. I negotiated the price for a full two days, which ended up around $18 per diem, and about an hour later, a guy comes tootling up on the most absurd two-wheeled contraption I have ever seen. I had been promised a Honda, but delivered a Wuyang. The bike had no front brake lever and the back brake was negligle; the tires looked like the kind of plastic you would find on a child's 1:3 replica, and the horn consisted of two loose wires that you pressed together with your left thumb (whereupon half the current went directly into your hand). The helmet was a round piece of hard plastic with all of the inner foam worn away, and much of the felt torn to reveal the hard inner shell. When I would get the bike up to a good clip, the helmet would vibrate so much that the top of my head was literally sore from the impact with the helmet.
As far as ridability is concerned, I was actually quite pleased with the Wuyang 125. The bike could not have weighed more than 250 lbs, and the single-cylinder 4-stroke was actually rather peppy. It would start rattling pretty hard around 5000 rpm, but I actually came close to the redline of 12,000 several times without detonation. Gearbox was a smooth Honda copy, with 5 speeds taking you over 100mph (downhill, with the wind at your back). At first I was extremely ginger with the thing, ready to spill at any moment and fling myself from the bike, but after a day I got the spirit up to stick my boot out supermoto style and crank the countersteering hard enough to really lean the thing over. To be honest, I had a blast. The horn stopped working almost immediately, which can be a problem in Egyptian traffic, but most drivers are actually quite attentive to motorcycles, particularly since most of the traffic consists of motorcycles. Offroad, the Wuyang showed its weaknesses. I had to drive 8 miles south to cross the bridge to the West Bank, then 8 miles back, mostly over 'lightly paved' surfaces with enormous speed bumps that sent my teeth rattling into the back of my throat. I think that one of these roads ultimately proved to be the Wuyang's undoing. At one point on the last day, I was running the bike flat out on my way to West Bank when the bike lost most of its power and the exhaust note started to sound like a Russian tractor. A quick stop at a service station confirmed my fear: the exhaust stud had broken off of the cylinder and the vibration and nearly undone the remaining nut. A couple of newfound Egyptian friends helped me crank down the nut, which held the pipe on provided the roads remained relatively level. Apart from this metal fatigue failure, the Wuyang never let up. I had a few near misses involving donkey carts, bicycles, a fire set in the road by a group of children, and many near-death experiences with the shared taxis that routinely stop without any warning whatsoever, but I managed to get through it all and had a blast doing it. In short, I recommend a vacation Wuyang to anybody and everybody!
Linda, the best way to keep track of your vacation photos is to keep a simple photo diary, just marking down the places you visit and approximate times. When it comes time to review the pix, you can simply reference the timestamp to your notes and you are all set. I also recommend assembling your photolog as soon as possible on your return so that you can get your memories down before they fade. Hope this helps!
