What's the biking like in Thailand? I am tempted to do one of the Vietnam bike tours one day.While at first admittedly not impressed, I did soon give you the benefit of doubt and assume you forgot a zero or two-- but 3 zeros that's pretty impressive. Some day I would love to go back to the States and take a cross-country bike trip. If I ever do most assuredly it would be on a Honda.
Anyone into motorcycles?
- Thread starter justarn
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Well they all have their warts. I remember when all the mid 80s Goldwings roasted the alternators.
My Hondas were great bikes but not perfect. The 450 suffered top end oiling issues. I tossed a racing cam in it, retuned the carb needles and drilled the mufflers a little, then sold it off.
The 350 had this dual personality but you had to change sprockets to see it. It was a road bike OR a dirt bike, but not both.
The Fuel injected, computerized Nomad has been great since 03, except for my hot-rodding. I roasted the trans output bearing. I built this quickie stand to hold the bike up so I could change tires and such.
There's the output box. The Nomad is too porky and you can overload the bearings. They use a standard size, but it is a special close-spec tolerance variant.
3/4" drive sockets required.
I put a heavier u-joint in the driveshaft while it was out. the one on the left has a heavier spider and needles.
Showing early and late model driveshaft. They both fit.
This is like setting up a car's differential carrier. You have to select the right shims and spacers and get the correct "crush", all so you have preload and a centered wear pattern when it's torqued down.
All together. Now I have to open this side and change the clutch.
My Hondas were great bikes but not perfect. The 450 suffered top end oiling issues. I tossed a racing cam in it, retuned the carb needles and drilled the mufflers a little, then sold it off.
The 350 had this dual personality but you had to change sprockets to see it. It was a road bike OR a dirt bike, but not both.
The Fuel injected, computerized Nomad has been great since 03, except for my hot-rodding. I roasted the trans output bearing. I built this quickie stand to hold the bike up so I could change tires and such.
There's the output box. The Nomad is too porky and you can overload the bearings. They use a standard size, but it is a special close-spec tolerance variant.
3/4" drive sockets required.
I put a heavier u-joint in the driveshaft while it was out. the one on the left has a heavier spider and needles.
Showing early and late model driveshaft. They both fit.
This is like setting up a car's differential carrier. You have to select the right shims and spacers and get the correct "crush", all so you have preload and a centered wear pattern when it's torqued down.
All together. Now I have to open this side and change the clutch.
I crashed my first one with 96K miles on it and bought an identical bike to it. When that one had 165K or so on it, I bought the Canadian as a back up as she was down for repairs almost as often as she was running. She now has 197K, almost 200! The Canadian bike is metric but currently has 174,000 kilometers on her. When she rolls 200,000 it won't mean as much as getting the American bike to 200. I have also bought a Yamaha FJR1300 about 4 years ago, but it only has about 35k miles on it as I really prefer my Hondas.
We have a situation where one huge dealer sells virtually every marque except HD and BMW.
But it's like a zoo to shop there. I don't like it at all. If I own a Kawasaki I don't want to be looking thru racks of other parts.
When you have so many models of bikes on the floor, nobody knows enough about what they sell or service.
But it's like a zoo to shop there. I don't like it at all. If I own a Kawasaki I don't want to be looking thru racks of other parts.
When you have so many models of bikes on the floor, nobody knows enough about what they sell or service.
Like a lot of places in SEA daily riding around the cities & towns can be a bit crazy, many locals don't follow simple rules like looking left and right before pulling out or over, stopping at red lights, etc. Also there's very little reinforcment by police, many drivers and esp. riders don't even have licenses (or are too young to even have one). As a result you just have to ride with an extra level of defensive precaution/awareness even higher than you normally would.
Anyway I'm thinking of getting me one of these local style helmets -- if you pay shipping & handling I'll send you one for free:
That said there are some great roads and really beautiful routes outside of the cities, particularly in the north around Chiang Mai, and also in the south around Krabi & Phangna).
I've never been on a Vietnam bike tour, and I'm sure there's a variety of styles on offer, but the most common ones I see or hear of visitors doing would be mostly on smaller, back country roads if not off road trails and single track (with mostly only smaller bikes available like 250's or maybe 400's, but still good fun). Quite the adventures but if you ever have a chance I bet you'll have a blast.
The Soup pot helmet 
reminded me of something from years back.
I donated some money to this guy in Thailand who was running a charity campaign to buy helmets for school children who rode motorbikes.
Almost none of the people wear helmets and yet you could buy a helmet over there for under $7.
I still have some photographs that he posted somewhere, and I will have to go look them up.
reminded me of something from years back.I donated some money to this guy in Thailand who was running a charity campaign to buy helmets for school children who rode motorbikes.
Almost none of the people wear helmets and yet you could buy a helmet over there for under $7.
I still have some photographs that he posted somewhere, and I will have to go look them up.
The Soup pot helmet
I donated some money to this guy in Thailand who was running a charity campaign to buy helmets for school children who rode motorbikes.
Almost none of the people wear helmets and yet you could buy a helmet over there for under $7.
I still have some photographs that he posted somewhere, and I will have to go look them up.
Yep, while the police/authorities have gotten stricter about helmet use it's still quite sad how many peeps still don't wear them (or put them on when they see cops then take them off 50 meters down the road. For young Thais it's a 'coolness' thing; for others I think it mostly comes down to a (* I can't say the word here *) and cultural related concept about fate -- if it's your time to go it's your time to go, a helmet won't stop that is their thinking.
And yep a majority of those who do wear helmets get the egg-shell crate level $7 jobbies you reference and pictured below -- better than nothing I guess, but I personally wouldn't even wear one of those on a mountain bike.
To be sure I'd rather wear (and have worn) the cheap helmet as compared to nothing. If you hop on the back of a motorcycle taxi in Bangkok 9/10 they will make you wear such a helmet because they don't want to get ticketed. There's more enforcement in the capital -- even passengers must wear a helmet. In the provinces though police only enforce that the operator wear a helmet (even if passenger is a kid), go figure.
Also believe it or not they don't enforce the helmet law after dark -- this rule is to discourage police officers from collecting bribes (as if it's significantly easier than during the daytime lol).
The world's cheapest helmet could have saved a lot of people.
These are my nicest ones. Living in the desert I rarely wear the full face.
It's from the BMW shop and is a little too Rocketman for me.
It just occurs to me that one reason I hated the full face is due to my eyeglasses. It was a PITA
BUT, I have not worn the FF since I had eye surgery, and I don't need the glasses to ride! I'm freakin' out a bit . . .
This is a sorta epiphany I'm havin' here!
These are my nicest ones. Living in the desert I rarely wear the full face.
It's from the BMW shop and is a little too Rocketman for me.
It just occurs to me that one reason I hated the full face is due to my eyeglasses. It was a PITA
BUT, I have not worn the FF since I had eye surgery, and I don't need the glasses to ride! I'm freakin' out a bit . . .
This is a sorta epiphany I'm havin' here!
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