DualSportBiker

It's best to think before writing...

Thailand has always had a massively larger riding population than driving. The ratio of car to bike is changing as affluence increases, but it will be be a bike-riding society for years to come. Though I doubt much thought went into designing roads and junctions before the year 2000, bikes were not ignored or excluded.

Restricting big bikes to racetracks is a ridiculous idea. The accidents are not bike or engine-size driven, they are a result of scant skills, lax attitudes, poor policing, a general lack of a moral framework around road-use. Actually look at the stats. 88% of the accidents are small bikes. Should they be restricted to inside a gated community with speed bumps?

Bikes are as safe as the rider and the other users nearby. You can have a highly trained biker community and still have too many accidents from drivers who are reckless. Both rider and driver quality need improvement. Blaming or banning, a type of vehicle will only scratch the surface of the problem.

6 hours ago, MaxYakov said:

Big bikes should be restricted to racetracks. The ordinary motor vehicle infrastructure was not designed with them in mind. You don't see formula 1 cars on the roads very often. Big bikes are just splendid for dramatic, horrific demonstrations of suicide on ordinary roads.

I filter just fine on a 650cc and ride with so many others that do just fine thanks. Perhaps you are filtered by your own skill on a bike?

Few mature riders want to ride on expressways here, the pleasure of riding a bike is the twists, the views and the independence. These are not found on straight boring highways with large trucks and speeding minivans. I've ridden here for 28 years and only commuted for a few. Now I, like the many I ride with, only ride on weekends and on trips out of Bangkok.

Big bikes in Thailand are a wondrous thing; thousands of kilometers of mountainous roads with twists and rises and views of less-buggered countryside.

42 minutes ago, digbeth said:

I've done sportsbike and touring, unless Thailand got rid of the rules preventing bikes on bridges, expressway and motorways, big bikes aren't worth it.

Granted it's only affect getting out of Bangkok mostly toward the south and east like Pattaya and beyond. The non-expressway/motorway route towards Pattaya is atrocious 

 

For riding around Bangkok, anything bigger than 250-300 cc you can't filter between cars and will be stuck behind trucks or bus billowing heat and smoke at you.

 

Even as a rider, I dread the day big bikes become legal on the expressway and motorways, there's enough idiots on the road, and even on road that bike are illegal on like the middle of Bangna or Vibhavadi, there's idiots on sportsbike weaving between already fast 90+kph moving cars. Big bikes shoudn't filter between moving cars on highway.

 

Even if big bikes become legal on motorways, for sportsbike anything bigger than 600 cc is pointless, there's not enough road with good surface to enjoy a 1000cc race replicas. out in the mountain with curvy roads you can enjoy, 1000cc will get you killed. big 1200+touring bike laded with luggage is okay for touring I guess. 

2 minutes ago, intherealworld said:

Have you been drinking,

as i have no idea why you have quoted me ?

That would be a problem you need to solve, along with some grammatical improvements...

Can you all stop with the conspiracy crap?

These charity events happen all the time. The police are there, foundations are there, some charity run by someone looking to get cheap name-recognition is there. Free helmets of dubious quality are given away. It is not a fake picture, it's a fake impression. 

Giving away helmets is not a solution. You know that, the police know that, the foundations know that, the charity knows that. The sole purpose is to be seen to do the right thing as long as it is cheap and easy to do. Actual effort and a thought-out approach is not needed; just put parsley on the dish.

17 minutes ago, Nong Khai Man said:

Oh ! Yeah The BIB Must've been giving them away FREE On that day....

1 hour ago, pennine said:

I thought it was in Vietnam.

1 minute ago, nchuckle said:

But look at those helmets.... Cheap helmets for cheap heads.

1 hour ago, intherealworld said:

The truth is not required in Thailand.

it kind of messes the day up,  if they face up to it.

 

 

There have been statistical analyses of Thailand road incidents for many many years. They are only useful in determining if progress has been made and who to fire when progress is too slow. We all know how that will never happen. It is also of no surprise to anyone that there is variance in distribution of incidents in a country with variance in socio-demographics and land use. Can we have some actionable recommendations please? Can we have a government that will act on those recommendations? Can we have a government that will admit that after 30 years of failing to make anything better in any measurable way, a new approach is needed?

What is needed is concrete action, and that has never happened. More committees will not solve the problem. What is needed is total overhauls of

• The structure and hierarchy of all agencies that 'touch' the road systems
  • Police, tesakhit/tesabahn, highways department, water works and more
• How fines are applied and processed, how the funds are collected and distributed
• How all agencies are incentivised to do their jobs
• Rider and driver training
• Vehicle insurance law
• Pre driving-age training, i.e., get to them early

I know, dream on, it will never happen, they don't care... Doesn't mean it should not be said.

Safe riding/driving y'all.

3 hours ago, davidst01 said:

In your experience, do you think its a good time to buy USD cash and hold it as speculation? What about the gbp?

David old boy, I have no real experience to speak of. I was guided every step and missed heartbeat of the way by a team at ANZ in Singapore. Since I got a regular heartbeat back once I stopped doing that I have not given it a second thought! I must refrain from giving advice on a subject I am clueless on... I was just sharing how scary the whole experience was...

I played the currency market for four months in 2010. I just happened to have money in US, Sing$ and GBP at the time and was watching the variation in ER for a while. I've never been so stressed.

Even with a direct line to my bank's treasury team, it was painful to do. I traded up to 100,000 USD per trade and held one specific currency from between two days and two weeks (not planned, just that was the cadence.) Eventually I consolidated all in to one currency and tied that chapter of my life off never to repeat it. I came away 24% up having been 50% up and 10% down all within the space of the last three weeks. Remember the scene from Apollo 13 when they have to align the LEM without guidance computers? Every day was like that.

The stickers used to be round, some while back. They were called Bai wong-ghom "ป้ายวงกลม". The phrase has stuck. I wonder if there are other languages where well-known phrases don't keep up with the real world...

I like the system in Singapore. You get issued a fine for speeding or like me, parking a bike on the sidewalk. Pay within ten days or the fine multiplies by ten! Fail to pay within the second ten days and it goes up by a factor of ten again, and you will go to the clink for a while - no exceptions except for those out of the country. Any takers on what percentage of fines go unpaid during the first ten days?

24 minutes ago, wayned said:

Smaller inverter type unit!

Unlikely. If comparing unit to unit... he could easily have had a smaller AC before...

FYI

95% of an AC's cost is running the compressor. A small unit needs to use the compressor more than a larger one. Even though its rated consumption is lower, it will consume more power in total.

Inverters only save if they have spare cooling capacity. Their motors are variable-speed where at 80% output, they consume just 50% of rated power consumption. However, they can also run at 120% output which consumes over 150% of rated consumption. Put into too large a room and an inverter will cost more to run.

A school 200 km outside of Bangkok I tried to sell to bought 500 inverters of the same rated BTU as those they replaced. They regretted that decision; savings only came at the cost of comfort. Rooms were hot unless they set to lower temperature than before, but then the savings all but disappeared.

If you want to upgrade to an inverter, buy a larger capacity unit than that which you are replacing. 10 to 20% should prevent disappointment.

1 hour ago, cyril sneer said:

i googled the model number which comes up with this, my unit has the exact same sticker

 

 

the filters look clean already, cold air does come out, and the compressor does cycle on and off

 

I did another test through the night when the temperature was down and the room already at 28 degrees and it only used 0.5 units an hour

 

so your calculations of 1.4 and 0.4 seem close to how much it should be using anyway

 

i'm intrigued to know why my previous bills were so much cheaper, do newer aircon units save much more in comparison?

 

 

I sell energy efficiency technology for AC to schools and hotels. From anecdotal data from my customers, you could expect to save up to 40% if you replace a 10-year old AC.

3.8 kW cooling capacity is 13,000 BTU. Most AC engineers I talk here to use between 600 and 900 BTU per sqm depending on insulation, exposure to sun and walk-in heat (school have hot kids walking into rooms...) Your AC is slightly underpowered which means the duty cycle will be higher and therefore more costly. Having extra cooling capacity costs less to run.

1 hour ago, sweatalot said:

So how many percents is home made in Thailand and how much is imported?

 

Looks like Thailand cannot do much - except declare war and send water bombers (joke)

I used FIRMS data for the last week of March. 

There are 1040 red or orange dots in this image, 760 are not in Thailand. So 27% of the fires in this image are in Thailand, 73% are outside. 48% of the territory is Thai, so around a 3:1 ratio of external to internal fires.

I have archive data for the same area for the same week in 2010. I don't have the tools to go a proper analysis - can only eyeball it. To me it looks like a modest-to-reasonable reduction in fires within Thai borders and a massive increase in Burma. Laos and Cambodia are not much changed.

29 minutes ago, kensisaket said:

Hell yes.  In Thailand, no matter what lane you are in, when you see brake lights (assuming they have brake lights that work) you better be slowing down, getting ready to swerve/make an evasive maneuver, jam on your brakes, pray, and/or all of the above.  

You're on a two-lane highway at 90 km/h in the right-hand lane. Up ahead is a left turn into a smaller road. The car in front of you in the left-hand lane brakes. 

Do you slow down and stay behind that car all the way to the junction? Matching his speed as he slows to 30 or less to take the corner? Seriously? If you do, you are a major hazard.

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

To me it was clear that the truck on the left had his brake lights on as did the truck in the right lane. However, watching the biker's hands, he made no move to gear down (or brake) despite the path ahead clearly being blocked.

I'm guessing he was probably thinking he'd just dart between the black truck and the white truck  and then squeeze past the cargo truck, without slowing down at all.

Personally I would have been slowing down well before as it was obvious there was congestion ahead. However, in this case he'd have probably still hit the truck as it happened so fast and so close to him.

And just because someone has their "flashies" on doesn't mean they can ram their way through traffic. The tow truck driver should be held responsible for ALL the damage (and injuries).
(And yes, I am a "big bike" rider, as well as a former Driving Instructor (Military) and Defensive Driving Instructor.)

I tend to agree with you. It is always hard to pick apart a short clip like that. 

The 6-wheeler looks like it is going around an obstacle - that's the first thing I'd pick up on. Brake lights and a turn signal on the black pick-up combine with the previous truck to make a clear case to brake. Assuming an identical starting point, I doubt I would have avoided the pick-up, but I would have been going slower after two visual cues.

However, the tow-truck is fully to blame. His front-right wheel is on the line at impact - almost a full car-width wider than he could have been, and way too far out to be considered careful or appropriate. Throw the book at the tow-car driver!

I never pass a truck on the outside of a 'real' bend. I've never seen a truck flip like that, but I have never, and will never do it. They will swap lanes suddenly and leave you no room to pass. You can't see past them to alert you to obstacles that will force their hand. Once I decide to pass, I get it over and done with as quickly as is safe. There is nothing to be gained from being next to another vehicle when on a bike.

Thanks. I don't teach. I help companies sell complex technologies, the kind that need consultative sales skills and strong technical knowledge. Neither of the jobs is a full-months effort, so makes sense to share me...

What is the protocol for getting a second or third company added to my work permit?

I am effectively a contract technical sales person on a retainer. Two other companies want to replicate that. What do I need to proceed? I remember seeing something about getting a letter from the first company to sponsor my WP that 'permits' me to get a second job. I am unable to find that anymore...

My first job here in '91 started on 25K. By end of year 1 I was on 100K plus commission. I now work for 40K base! But I get excellent commission, however the sales cycle is at least a year...

My Mrs makes 175K as GM of a software company. She is 42 with a bachelors in IT from a better-than-average (but not excellent) uni. Her English is pretty damn good and she worked in Singapore for 10 years. Her classmate from high school and uni is call centre senior manager for an international insurance Co. and makes only 150K despite having a masters degree. Her English is poor to moderate.

7 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Strip the bed, vacuum the mattress spray mattress (and girl 55)with med alcohol,no long grass around property,spray whole place alcohol. they could be bed bugs also.

My house had ticks and my 8 dogs were constantly bit. Frontline did its job, but there were every-present. By faithfully cleaning all the detritus around my house I got rid of all the ticks. Dead leaves, grasses and such are where they hail from. I no longer need Frontline for my dogs - saves me a small fortune. I check them all the time and have literally only seen a handful in the three years since I started my new regimen.

Best of luck.

21 hours ago, atyclb said:

or switch to imported craft or belgium beer and you will run out of money to drink too much

An excellent suggestion. However, there are now great craft beers brewed in Cambodia that are 'only' 140 Baht a bottle (small)

I can't comment on a method to cut down. I can however simply state that I feel so much better now that I have cut down my intake.

I used to drink everyday, G&T @ 6pm. Couple of beers or glasses of wine and perhaps a single malt to accompany some Royce chocolate later... Weekends could get heavy. Anyhow, about 5 years ago my business started to fail and my funds began to dry up. I gave up for financial reasons. I refuse to drink regular beers (I am a beer-snob), so ended up on the waggon for 2 years. Since then I have probably only once drank more than 8 beers in a month, and normally that figure is more like 3.

I think better, feel better, and my bowels are in better shape. I don't exercise nearly enough, but recently ran 2.2 km between gates at an airport in China without breaking a sweat or breathing hard. (I am 50). I've lost around 8 kg since I stopped drinking on a regular basis.

I've become a cheap-date. I can go for beers with mates and be nicely toasty after 2-3 pints. And I am happy with that. 'Less is more' works for me. I'd rather have 2 pints of Guinness or three bottles of A Go Go IPA once in a while than any number of Leo or equivalent. And I'd rather drink water or tea most of the time.

If you want to feel more healthy and awake, a significant reduction will do wonders for you. I have to add, I drink around 2.5 to 3 litres of water per day and supposedly that is also good for you.

Passing the practical exam here has ZERO relationship to driving safely! The test is a total waste of time. All these schools do is teach people to pass the useless test. The qualifications needed to teach are a joke.

If you want to teach geography to kids here, you need a Masters degree.

If you want to teach driving skills you need a license for one year.

Few people have died from incorrect or incomplete geography education...

11 minutes ago, dallen52 said:

I think you are choosing to miss the point.

 

The intent was to express the benefit of having all bikes in the left lane on dual or more carriage ways. Yes their own lane.

Not weaving in and out, any lane is a good lane, going in the wrong direction. 

Riding on pavements. The list goes on..

 

Regards to modifications to the bike, it's purpose built for one or two people.

If you add a home made cage and bolt it to the bike.

Then sit granny in a unrestrained plastic chair. !!!

Or a mobile shop on wheels. 

Need I say any more? 

 

DLT and other test stations are a joke,  we all know that.

Start the engine, check the vin and turn the steering lock to the right,  is not a roadworthy inspection. 

 

I think you will also find no insurance company will pay out on modified vehicles, if indeed they are insured and the driver has a licence.

 

Maybe it's time to make that leap towards a more regulated civilised way of driving?

Somewhat clearer this time...

11 hours ago, dallen52 said:

When I think big bike I'm thinking big enough to get your leg over and throbs between your legs..

 

I did see 400 listed elsewhere for the bike size thought of as big. 

 

I went two years before my normal bike license up to 250cc was then revised to open or big bike.

Plus doing the Honda advance ride training. 

Had one since 1968.

 

Several steps need implementation here. Like yesterday. 

 

A minimum age to ride a bike. 

 

No selling bikes to unlicensed people. 

 

No rental of bikes without proof of license. 

 

Learner plates displayed for the first year, and no passengers. 

 

Probation licences after the learning process. One year.

 

Speed restrictions and zero drink until they are proficient. 

Off the L and P plates.

 

All bike modification must be registered and inspected. 

Roadworthy certification a must.

 

Motor bike taxis to have unique license plates to identify them. 

 

Insurance mandatory to register. 

 

Helmets compulsory. 

 

All bikes use the left lane, all driving in the same direction. 

 

Enforcement of all fines.

No wais or pushups. In lieu of. 

 

That wasnt hard was it... JFDI.

Pick a date and implement. 

 

Your idea to inspect "all" modifications is bogus. I add a top-box - needs inspection? I add a GPS mount - needs inspection? Not realistic. Have you ever really had to deal with subjective stuff at the LTD? They are not as honest as one might hope.

As for keeping left, for someone who has ridden for so long it beggars belief that you think that is safe. When one class of vehicles is ranked lower than others, especially in a society that is so anchored on knowing ones rank and enforcing it, you invite all other classes to consider themselves superior. And as we know, they already do. Drivers will hound bikes, run them off the road and consider passing a bike within a hair's breadth is acceptable. Either we have physically separate lanes for bikes under a certain size, or bikes are given equal status and allowed in all lanes under the generic model of keep in the left lane when not overtaking. Using the left lane should not the same as keeping as far left as possible as is current instruction.