The Galaxy's Last Ride: Shifting Gears in Rural China (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789888968039)

In 2020, Colin Flahive packed up his aging Galaxy motorcycle and rode 2,500 kilometers north through the changing rural landscapes of western China. Behind him were pandemic lockdowns, a friend's sudden death, and twenty years of life in China coming undone. Ahead lay the Sichuan highlands, vanishing villages, and a government-mandated scrap date for the two-wheeled machine that carried him through it all.

Part motorcycle memoir, part cultural meditation, The Galaxy's Last Ride is an unflinching reflection on loss, impermanence, and the unexpected grace found in riding straight into the unknown. Flahive's off-road bike takes him along horse trails and highways, retracing how village life has changed along a route he first explored over a decade earlier. Along the way, he tries to reconcile the journeys of his past with a present-day China racing forward at breakneck speed, searching for meaning in grief, fatherhood, and what it means to build a life in a place that refuses to stand still.