RidersCorner

Check out the Chedi - low season, they should have some good deals.

I think Baan Thai apts on Nimanhieman / soi 6 (Nimanhieman opposite starbucks/miguels) is the best bang for the buck in Chiang Mai

1. 5,200 baht a month plus utilities

2. Building B (west facing) has amazing views of Doi Suthep

3. Beautiful free swimming pool

4. Security guard with covered parking for bikes and cars

5. Tesco Lotus, banks, diners all right next to the building

6. Located on the end of the superhighway - easy to get out of cnx

They were doing 3 month minimum contracts, low season maybe they'll be more cooperative.

I've heard recording the police interview with a video camera on your phone can have interesting results

My vote would go for

1. Dukes

2. Beccofino (near monkey club)

Mr. Chans and Ms Pauline's. True Thai/New Yorkers. Great pizza.

Ate there a few weeks ago - Standard Thai-pizza with stingy topping and under-cooked dough.

Get REAL NY-pizza, go a further down Canal rd to the Samoeng intersection and try Pizza & Pasta - BEST

"Mr. Chans and Ms Pauline's. True Thai/New Yorkers. Great pizza."

Uhhh New Yorkers??? This is a partnership with the family that owns Pizzamania. I'm relatively certain that the other partners are Thais as well. Nothing "New York" about it. The pizza is fairly typical Thai pizza. It's not bad but nothing to write home about. The owners are very nice people.

There seems to be 4 mechanic businesses that most of the farrangs use in Chiang Mai

1. Joe - Joe's big bike team (1/2 km east of thape gate)

2. Nat - Piston shop (1/2 south of the Tesco Lotus on SH)

3. Richie - Richco (Harley and custom chopper)

4. Tu - Near Rider's Corner , (NE corner of the moat)

Sure, there's more mechanics that are as good, be these guys all have a good track record . I've been hearing good things about SA motors too, they have the diagnostic and remapping software for KTM twins now.

what brand and model and then we can give you the right advice

You cannot beat having a gps in Thailand if you travel, there are several maps available ,on memory SD card all reasonably priced

Big congratulations to Luke, 1st time on the track with the bike and beat them all amazing job mate.

More pics here: http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__4443063

Jonny was showing us his head cam the other day in Chiang Mai, looks like its better then the go-pro

Woohoo! Johnny has put together a pretty cool vid from the tour-

Ride On!

Tony

because he's made a business selling aftermarket parts specifically for this model of bike, he promotes the hell out of it to get customers

Promote what? They are just talking about the Versys bike. I believe you could learn a lot from Tony. He has been sharing a lot of good info on many bikes on this and many other forums.

Yes he sells parts but I also know that he has solved many people's problems when they needed parts for their bikes.

Come on man be positive :jap:

i think you only promote this because you sell aftermarket parts for it, loaded content me thinks.

Back to the point here... The Versys might not be the best offroading machine out there (how much does the BMW cost?), but for what you pay it is probably one of the best buys you have out there. It is not a sports bike- or a streetfighter- or a muscle bike--- guess it leaves touring then, does all things well, but nothing perfect- kind of a jack of all trades...

^ +1 Exactly!

The Versys, weighing just over 200kg, is certainly not a dirt bike, though people have modded it for off road use:

It's a bit tall and underpowered to be called a sports bike though it does surprisingly well on the track:

As the name implies, the Versys is a versatile general purpose touring bike. Up to you what you want to do with it.

If you want a Kawasaki adventure bike then the KLR650 is probably a better choice, but as mentioned earlier it's not sold in Thailand.

Here in Thailand with limited selection of models and imported motorcycle prices being what they are the domestically produced Kawasaki Versys, priced at 285k Baht costs less than half of similar bikes like the BMW F800GS and Triumph Tiger 800 and many reviewers actually choose the cheap Kwacker over the pricey European imports.

How lucky we are to be in Thailand at a time when the bike scene is growing by leaps and bounds and more and more brands and models are becoming available every year.

Let the Good Times Roll!

i think you only promote this because you sell aftermarket parts for it, loaded content me thinks.

Back to the point here... The Versys might not be the best offroading machine out there (how much does the BMW cost?), but for what you pay it is probably one of the best buys you have out there. It is not a sports bike- or a streetfighter- or a muscle bike--- guess it leaves touring then, does all things well, but nothing perfect- kind of a jack of all trades...

^ +1 Exactly!

The Versys, weighing just over 200kg, is certainly not a dirt bike, though people have modded it for off road use:

It's a bit tall and underpowered to be called a sports bike though it does surprisingly well on the track:

As the name implies, the Versys is a versatile general purpose touring bike. Up to you what you want to do with it.

If you want a Kawasaki adventure bike then the KLR650 is probably a better choice, but as mentioned earlier it's not sold in Thailand.

Here in Thailand with limited selection of models and imported motorcycle prices being what they are the domestically produced Kawasaki Versys, priced at 285k Baht costs less than half of similar bikes like the BMW F800GS and Triumph Tiger 800 and many reviewers actually choose the cheap Kwacker over the pricey European imports.

How lucky we are to be in Thailand at a time when the bike scene is growing by leaps and bounds and more and more brands and models are becoming available every year.

Let the Good Times Roll!

"Seeing that a few Malaysian guys rode their Versys from KL to London, I am sure that they are capable of some hard use... "

several people have ridden Honda wave's around the world

Seeing that a few Malaysian guys rode their Versys from KL to London, I am sure that they are capable of some hard use...

My main concern these days are the low exhaust, how will that cope with the flood season? can it be modified to be higher?

I think of the Versys as a long touring machine, not offroad, but touring... for that I am sure it is better than the ER6N- and Ninja...

Nice to see you here to Tony,

The short thing wasn't referring to you by the way, i hope no offense taken. It wasn't a racist comment a factual one about demographical size.

I think a couple of guys in Chiang Mai have already sold their Versys as they were disappointed with performance and its Adventure ability and bought Triumph Scramblers and are very pleased with the choice they made.

" that can handle a bit of rough stuff along the way. ' - er, this surly means adventure biike!

If they'd put a 21" front wheel on it, it would have been a 1/2 decent adventure bike. It's needs a conversion to be useful as an adventure bike, a pretend adventure bike in its current state. the KLR 650 makes much more sense here, but kawa wont market it as the Thai's are too short.

Hey Phil,

Nice to see you on ThaiVisa.

The Versys is not an adventure bike, it's a road bike. In fact Kawasaki calls it a sport bike. Really it's just an ER6n / Ninja 650R with upgraded suspension that can handle a bit of rough stuff along the way.

FYI the KLR 650 isn't sold in Thailand because it's still carbureted and won't pass Thai emissions.

The 35 inch seat height of the KLR is 2 inches taller than the Versys which may prove daunting to the vertically challenged, but as with the Versys there are many solutions for lowering the bike so your racist "Thai's are too short" argument falls a bit flat.

Happy Trails!

can they get scratched on the train?

had my bike railed surat - Nakhon Pathom, planning a 4:30am start to Nakhon Phanom b4 Saung Kran. I arrived, no bike, no-one spoke any english, but managed by my rough thai to get that bike coming later. 5 bloody hours later, and bike with a free layer of chicken fertilizer. it's like pissing on a power socket - try it once and you'll never try again!!!!

mmmm bike by train..... no comment from the old fart

can you think of another way to get from samui to Nakhon nowhere in a day?

Ummm... you could perhaps RIDE the bike?

A couple of new GPS maps have been launched we're in the process of getting an AD up on thaivisa.com

Yes 3 cheers for Eagle GPS in Chiang Mai - great guys, excellent service & knowledge. GT Rider have been using them for years. Check out GT Rider info & discussions on GPS here.

I can explain it to you, it's quite simple.

If they opened up the friendship bridge northbound at Nong Khai, Thailand into Vientiane Laos, they would have 400 Honda Wave's customs paperwork too deal with each way every day. That then leaves open the door to smuggling motorbikes through customs, the extra staff needed to manage this would be astronomical for no revenue.

For reasons that have never been well explained bikes are allowed to cross INTO Thailand but are NOT allowed to exit Thailand on the Friendship Bridges UNLESS you arrange for permission AHEAD of time via the Lao Embassy.

That's why most riders cross at one of the numerous land crossings and then cross the Mekong on a ferry- here we are buying our tickets-

On the ferry-

Riding off the ferry-

When I went to Laos in December we crossed from Nan province at Thungchang / Nam Nguen-

Thai side above, looking back towards the Lao side below-

Took a while but everyone on both sides was pretty friendly and easy going and there were no scams or requests for tea money. Here I am, all papers in hand, after successful entry into Laos-

I think a bike has got to be the best way to explore Laos.

Hope you won't give up just because of a few restricted bridges! Laos is definitely worth a visit!

We exited back to Thailand via the Friendship Bridge at Vientienne.

Happy Trails!

Tony

If they'd put a 21" front wheel on it, it would have been a 1/2 decent adventure bike. It's needs a conversion to be useful as an adventure bike, a pretend adventure bike in its current state. the KLR 650 makes much more sense here, but kawa wont market it as the Thai's are too short.

i would agree that the 60 csx is an excellent choice it works well with all the thailand and laos gps maps that we use.

garmin have done away with the distance to the next turn function on the 62s which i find crazy, on the other hand the ability to trf routes wirelessly between 2 garmin 62s's is an amazing function that we used a lot in laos last week in the jungle when the rain came and we needed to alter the routes

Agreed its not the cheapest.. But I would say the price (outside of Thailand) is only a small level up from the lowest end models and a far far cry from the Zumo pricing. Can be found for a couple hundred bucks online (outside of thailand).

I love mine, its the perfect balance of good battery life, easy to find AA batts, small non touchscreen screen (hence the battery life), ruggedized and weather proof, etc etc etc travel partner and bike unit. I know lots of riders agree with that. Its not the cheapest, but neither is it 'that' much more.

There's a guy that comes in my restaurant in Chiang Mai that has just bought one of these for 46,000 bht.

We do probably more adventure riding in Thailand and Laos than anyone here, all through rainy season as well & i must admit for the money with its 2 year guarantee its something to think about, i never thought i'd say this.

The riding position and wheelbase look good, as someone else mentioned Isaan tuk tuk get good milage out of Lifan engines.

we're looking to buy some Chinese registered bikes in China to keep in kunming, Kunming, China as its just an hour's direct flight from Chiang Mai, that way we can ride in China semi-legally, so the Lifans are something we're considering.

7 Lifans = 1 Kawasaki versys!

As we are visiting Chachoensao in a week or so I ask the dealer in Chonburi if they had any of the 200's in stock. At first they denied all knowledge of the bike!

Then said they had none in stock.

Asking the price I was met with 40, maybe 50 k bht.

Hardly confidence inspiring but sadly the norm in my experience of dealerships over here.

Does anyone know where I can view the Lifan 200 GY in Bangkok? Failing that I am in Chiang at the end of February and will hopefully be able to check one out there.

I sent you a PM with shop info from Chiang Mai

Wow- you had a party?

If i don't get called in for work i'll be there.

Great stuff, Tony? Dave? Nick? Wits? Joe?

Aldro can't make it.

Keep those good times rolling

Sorry dudes- it was one of those weekends

I've got the Garmin 62S

apart from it does not show the distance to the next turn, which the 60 csx does, its a fantastic mapping gps, the wireless data transfer function is very useful if you have at least 2 62S's in a group ride

Gary A, you are correct in commenting that the current Garmin (NAVTEQ) S.E.A. map shows highway 7 only going as far as route 3240, a few km short of highway 3 mid Pattaya. I've been waiting for NAVTEQ to correct this before I update my Garmin map. However, both the ESRI and Rotweiler maps have the correct highway 7, Pattaya connection shown. FYI the Garmin S.E.A map is the only map that shows the small roads in the wife's village south of Phetchabun.Thailand GPS maps and turn-by-turn guidance are a give and take, as you've so often pointed out.

For Laos you're better off with a mapping GPS such as a garmin 60 csx or the new Garmin 62s as there are so many dirt roads. There is a new Laos gps map that has been released with 50,000 points of interest and all dirts trails

I've had several gps's all garmin badged. Just recently i took delivery of a Garmin 62s mapping gps & have fallen in love with it. The sensor finds your location very fast and it has the ability to record all your tracks automatically on and off-road. The only downside of the 62s over the 60 csx mapping gps is they have done away with the distance remaining to the next turn function, which i think everyone finds very useful. The older garmin 60 csx model has this function and this model can still be bought new.

One huge plus of the garmin 62s gps is the wireless transfer function. If one person has the route on his 62s, he can send the routes/ waypoints & tracks to others who have a 62s gps wirelessley, we found it to be a very useful function last week in laos when the route in the jungle kept changing due to the rain.