Learning the clutch in Hanoi Traffic
Each Summer growing up, my family would head to a lake cottage in Eastern Canada built by my grandfather (as in he literally constructed it, mostly by himself) to spend a month swimming, biking, and playing board games in the August sun. My Canadian uncle Jim was the first to expose me to dirt bikes. He'd bring small, automatic dirt bikes to the cottage. My brother Tim, young cousin Krys and 11 year old me would spend hours riding back and forth on the bikes, down to the end of the cottage road. I loved the feeling of riding fast - the concentration required. But these were small, automatic dirt bikes. Basically heavy bicycles with a throttle.
Fast forward 15 years
26 year old Cory is now sweating in Hanoi traffic, sitting on Honda dirt bike that just stalled out, grasping the clutch, a half hours ride on busy city streets away from the open dirt 'practice area', as hundreds of motorcycles race past me through the red light ahead. How did I get myself into this situation you might ask?
While traveling in the last few months, I've tried to center my trips around an activity that I'm interested in. In Japan, I snowboarded in the powdery North, in Thailand, I became an advanced and rescue scuba diver, in Vietnam, I wanted to see the country while riding on a motorcycle. After doing some research, I found a company to guide me on a motorbike adventure in the North of Vietnam. I was looking for a trip that was mostly off road (dirt biking), didn't require a motorbike license (seems like a very important requirement, I know), and had a trip scheduled soon that I could join. Vietnam Motorcycle Tours based in Hanoi had all of these, I highly recommend them if you're interested in doing a similar trip - they also have an awesome Instagram with > 3 million followers.
The planned trip was an 8 day loop out of Hanoi, riding Honda 250cc dirt bikes, mostly off road.
Map of 8 day route
Question: Briefly explain how to ride a motorcycle with a clutch.Answer: To ride a motorcycle with a clutch, here's what you must do:
- Familiarize yourself with the controls, including the clutch lever.
- Start the engine and ensure the bike is in neutral.
- Pull in the clutch lever to disengage the power from the engine.
- Shift into first gear using the gear shifter.
- Slowly release the clutch lever while giving gentle throttle to start moving.
- Balance the bike by keeping your feet on the footrests and body centered.
- Shift to higher gears by rolling off the throttle, pulling in the clutch lever, shifting up with the gear shifter, and releasing the clutch lever gradually.
- To stop, squeeze both the front and rear brakes simultaneously.
- Practice in a safe area to gain confidence and improve clutch control.
To capture video from the trip, I mounted a Go Pro that I had picked up in Thailand to my motorcycle helmet. Through the course of the trip, I made short edits, cut to music, of the many GBs of footage I captured. I've been getting into video editing - short edits are a great way to share memories concisely, without wading through hours of footage.
Go Pro helmet mount setup
Out of Hanoi and into the mountains
The four of us started our engines and followed Spring in a line as he led us through narrow side streets and into the Hanoi traffic. I'd had one day of practice on the busy streets already, but you really can't prepare for the motorbike traffic in Hanoi. At stop lights during rush hours, hundreds of motorbikes will swarm, nearly touching knee to knee, as the red light counts down, the bikes speed away criss-crossing and steadily flowing like a river. Right out of the gate, Spring set the tempo - fast. There were no bikes, cars or trucks that we didn't pass. There was no speed limit.
Spring's Banana
A story based on observation - warning, this contains explicit and offensive content (I don't condone this behaviour)
Spring is a man of strong convictions. For him, things are either 'bullshit' or 'not bullshit', China is the enemy, women, which he refers to as butterflies, are conquests, the bigger the better in Winter time he explains, in detail, and the state of his banana, is always on his mind. He leads off-road motorbike trips in the North of Vietnam. A dangerous job - racing every day. Driving on steep, muddy, cliffside mountain tracks, up rocky gravel quarries, and through rainy mountainous highways. He lives his life like a soldier on the brink of battle. Convinced that this is his last day, he has little concern for feelings, danger, or manners of any kind.
Spring is like a villain from an old western movie. Rolling into town covered in dirt, he speaks in rapid fire Vietnamese, ordering for the entire group, he takes off his shirt, walks to a nearby table to pluck food off of their plates, then yawning loud enough to wake a dead man, he sprawls out and lights up a thin cigarette - one of the 'healthy' ones he says.
Every women Spring sees takes his full, often offensive attention. He honks his horn, swerves his motorbike dangerously close to get a better look, and later recounts the story of exactly how it affected his banana. He’s conflicted. His ex-wife, the mother of his children, is almost as bad as China in his mind, causing him to doubt the morality of all of her gender, but his banana has a mind of it’s own.
China, however is without out a doubt his mortal enemy. COVID came from China, he reasons, which caused him to lose his apartment when the tourism industry fell off. The connection is crystal clear in his mind. Without prompt, 'f**k China' will blurt out of him at seemingly random intervals. At the China-Vietnam border, he yells, at the top of his lungs, ‘f**************k China’ while flipping off the general direction of China with both his middle fingers.
Vietnam is developing fast. New concrete roads are being built all through the North. Many of these construction projects are minor obstacles in Springs mind. Sometimes, he just drives right through the wet cement. When he encounters, a mountain of rock chunks, in the early stages of a new road project, he doesn’t even consider turning back, instead, he leads the dirt bikes up the mountain of stone, sending baseball sized rock chunks flying, as the group behind, drenched in sweat, trying to push their dirt bikes up, considers the life decisions that led them to this moment.
Mountain of rock chunks
One day, Spring comes upon one of these minor obstacles in his chosen path. The dirt road he’s leading the bikes through changes to fresh, wet cement. The road crew is sitting next to the wet path, lounging and smoking cigarettes. They signal for Spring to turn around. Without a second thought, Spring revs his engine and pushes ahead into the narrow space on the side of the wet cement. He nearly knocks over one of the crew as he kicks aside construction tools and forges ahead. With no other option in sight, I follow.
I'm far out of my comfort zone. I swerve to avoid one of the crew and his wheelbarrow in my path, falling sideways and sinking my foot shin deep in the wet cement. I look sideways to the construction crew who is torn between laughing and yelling at me as spring yells back, “it doesn’t matter!” If this doesn’t matter, what does matter? This isn’t even the first time I nearly fell head first into wet cement while trespassing through a fresh road project in the last few days.
Foot in wet cement
Because of the development, Spring needs to search farther and farther into the spider web of small roadways in the North of Vietnam to find dirt roads that are worthy. One day, he decides to try an entirely new track, assuming we’re up to the task solely due to the fact that we haven’t died yet, I imagine. We take wrong turn after wrong turn, turning our bikes around on thin single track roads. Spring has loud, lengthy conversations with each local farmer we pass. Shaking from the exhaustion of climbing steep rocky tracks that would barely qualify as hiking trails, we emerge onto a flat section where a group of locals, two or three to a scooter, are about to ride down the route that we just came from. I stare in disbelief, wiping the sweat from my eyes as they casually drop their scooters into the path. After passing through a number of cattle gates in the literal mountain tops our route takes us up a small but steep dirt hill. I try to ride up the path, but fall over sideways out of sheer exhaustion, unable to keep my bike upright. We finally rest, all tired to the bone, as Spring mutters “never again man”. There’s a trial and error the pathfinding process.
On the final day of riding back into Hanoi, Spring leads the group through traffic as if we’re on the first lap of a formula 1 race. We swerve through cars, trucks, and scooters in an attempt to beat the flowing traffic beast of Vietnam. At one intersection, two scooters collide sending plastic flying, then both race off in different directions. There's little time to stop and stare as we're all focused on avoiding that exact situation.
Friday April 21rd, 2023 - Journal Entry
Today I rode over 200kms on a Honda 250 CRF dirt bike. About half of the ride was off road. Portions were on single track trails through the winding mountains. It was exhilarating and at times terrifying. It was difficult, even on dirt bikes with full riding gear. What's wild is a lot of these trails are used for farmers to transport goods on their scooters. And here we are, geared up for extreme sports, hearts racing, dripping in sweat, passing locals on street scooters riding the same tracks.
Our backup guide Hoa, in contrast to Spring, is the kindest and most laid back dude in the world. I didn't realize the intensity of the off road tour I was signing up for. It's now day two of eight on this trip. Each day we ride for about eight hours, mostly on small, winding farm roads and trails that I can hardly believe are possible on a bike. We always find a way to make it through.
On day one, I dropped my bike at low speed while trying to cross a dirt ridge in the trail. Both me and the bike were ok, but it made me realize the true weight of these bikes and the danger in what we're doing. This is the most dangerous thing I've ever done. I just need to stay at speeds I can control and keep laser focused on the road ahead.
I'm riding with an older Australian dude named Ben. He's a really cool guy. He's much more experienced with motorcycles than me, but still fairly new to this type of off road riding. We're in this crazy adventure together.
One of the coolest parts of the trip so far has been the bright smiles and waves of the local children in the small villages we've passed through. I'm convinced that Vietnamese children are the cutest on the planet. The most adorable little girl I've ever met is at the homestay we're staying at tonight. She was very shy at first, judging us from a distance, but soon she was playing with her Vietnamese spin off lego blocks next to us. Then she began climbing all over me and giggling in the most joyful laughter I've ever heard. I tickled her to keep the laughter coming and joined in with her lego building. When we were gearing up to leave early the next morning, her face was screwed up in a why are you leaving? expression, eyes wide and concerned. She kept bringing me small plums as I was strapping padding on and just as we were about to start our engines, she brought a small, beautiful flower she had found and gave me a hug. I tied the flower to my handle bars as a good luck charm, tears in my eyes from the kindness of the gesture.
New friend at a homestay in Yên Bái
Sunday April 23rd, 2023 - Journal Entry
Bắc Hà, Northern Vietnam
April 23: ride through the mountains towards Bắc Hà feat. BagBak - Vince StaplesDay four of the motorbike trip done. Just got to the homestay for tonight. Had a tall Hanoi beer and showered off all of the dirt. I feel like a new man. Today was the most difficult riding, by far. Our guide Spring, a man with no boundaries, took us on a 'new track' because he gauged Ben and I were good enough riders. After about an hour of steep, rocky switchbacks, wrong turns, spinning tires and precarious bike stalls, we came out onto a slightly wider road. A group of locals was passing by, all of which were riding at least two to a scooter. A couple of the street scooters had a baby sandwiched in between the adults riding. After an entirely too lengthy conversion with Spring in spitfire Vietnamese, while the group stared and giggled at our big red dirt bikes, goggles, pads and riding gear, the group proceeded to turn down the steep, rocky trail from which we'd just emerged. I stared in disbelief after them, feeling like that trail had taken all of my ability with a single rider dirt bike.
Soon we were back on thin trails of rock and loose dirt. It took absolutely all of my concentration and energy to keep the bike moving forward. Momentum is key in off road riding. I began to feel exhausted and kept mis-shifting into neutral rather than first gear at the start of steep inclines, slide-rolling backwards. On one sharp corner, I lost traction and spun out my back tire. Hoa, our trusty rear guide, came to my rescue, pushing me out of the trench I'd dug myself into. Soon after, nearing complete exhaustion from the hours of intense off road riding, I misjudged a path up a steep hill and slowly fell off my bike and set it down, far too tired to resist the 320 lbs of metal. After a second failed attempt at lifting the bike and freeing myself from the situation, I'd (with the help of our fearless leader) gotten myself into, Hoa again came to my rescue.
April 25: rainy ride off the beaten path of the Hà Giang loop feat. Ramen & OJ - Joyner Lucas, Lil BabyWe were at the top of a mountain on a path that few mountain cattle ventured, with bikes blinking red with low fuel. Fully exhausted, shaking from the effort and drenched in sweat, we collapsed onto the ground. I ate an entire bag of Haribo gummy bears, refueling my shaking body with pure sugar.
On the ride back down the mountain, I got in the groove of riding standing upright, butt back, like riding a downhill mountain bike. On a section of fine, loose dirt near the bottom, my rear tire lost traction and I oversteered. I slid and hopped off the bike as it skid to a stop on its side. Hoa came to my rescue again - he'd also fallen in the rear a few minutes before and was sympathetic to my situation.
When we finally reached the homestay for the night, we were all covered in dirt and tired to the bone. Ben fell asleep on the concrete driveway soon after we parked our bikes.
Tonight, at the homestay dinner, our host poured corn wine out of plastic water jugs. The tradition seems to be as follows: when anyone gives a cheer, everyone drinks; when the host cheers you specifically, you shake his hand and both take a shot. This means of course, that the host drinks a lot. Ben, the engineer, informed us that the corn wine was ethanol - saying we could probably refuel our bikes with it. It tasted strong enough.
During dinner, one of the three or four young boys of the family was playing chess on a table nearby. I asked about it and the father explained, via Spring's translation as he spoke no english, that the boys play in school. After eating, I sat down with the boy, maybe 7 years old, to play. He played with extreme focus, castling early and beat me in the first game, after I missed that I was in check, moving a different piece instead of moving out of check - he took my king. To be fair to me, he didn't say 'check' and full of corn wine, I missed it entirely. To be fair to him, he was seven and spoke no english. He won fair and square. I was very impressed by him.
Wednesday April 26th, 2023 - Journal Entry
Ba Bể, Northern Vietnam
Ben's shoulder x-ray (no fracture, but something isn't right..)Every wifi password in Vietnam seems to be either: 88888888 or 66668888... I'm not sure why they set the password at all. I've guessed multiple passwords correctly by trying one of those two. It's now day seven of this motorbike trip. One more day. Goal now is to ride back into Hanoi safely and get there without injury.
Yesterday, Ben went down on concrete. We were riding on a concrete path through rice fields when we came upon an old man walking in the middle of the small road. Spring, in the lead, gapped the grass to his right onto another concrete patch to pass the man, I followed gapping the grass at a steep, nearly perpendicular angle, Ben, behind me, tried to follow, but hit the grass nearly parallel to his original direction. His wheel went down into the trench hidden by the grass and he flew forward off his bike, landing shoulder first on the hard concrete. Luckily he was wearing scorpion armor and hard plastic shoulder pads, as the concrete chewed almost all the way through the pad, but he still hit the ground hard and fast. His arm was scraped up, but we thought he got away mostly unharmed, until we stopped for lunch shortly after. He took off his shirt. His right shoulder had a v shaped bump sticking out of it. He could barely lift his arm. At a clinic nearby he got an x-ray to check for broken bones. Nothing was broken, but his shoulder was injured, maybe dislocated or torn. Bravely, he got back on the bike and decided to continue the journey.
April 26: ride towards Ba Bể feat. pride.is.the.devil - J. Cole, Lil BabyToday, we loaded the bikes onto a bamboo raft to cross a river. We finished the ride by loading the bikes onto a metal long tail boat and floating through Ba Bể National Park. It's been a wild ride.