DualSportBiker

16 hours ago, fxe1200 said:

That means for a SR 400 with 21HP you will need a license and a Yamaha MT-03 with 42HP you do not need a license. Thai logic.

Most countries around the world use engine capacity for grading licenses. There are exceptions where smaller displacement bikes produce more power than bikes slightly larger. It's hard to set policies for all situations. What would you have them do? It's great that you take any and every chance to tout your superior logic through where you parents made out! You might want to look in the mirror when it comes to questioning reasoning skills.

2 hours ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

are there more death with big bikes or the regular 125CC whatevers on the road...

 

can you go onto highway with big bike ?

I can't find any publicly available data. Certainly more deaths on bikes under 400 cc, even under 150. However, as a percentage of bikes, hard to tell. Big bike accidents are more newsworthy - the bikes are usually traveling faster and make more of a mess. Given the relative rarity of big bikes, they are good 'examples' of how big bikes are dangerous... 

Big bikes have no special road privileges here. Highways and tollways are off-limits as are tunnels and bridges sign-posted 'no bikes'. Having said that, I crossed the Bhumibol 1 and 2 bridges a few years back. Stopped at the lights for Phu Chao road with a Snoopy. The cop in the booth walked across and pulled the Snoopy over - let me go...

This is the correct approach as it is understandable to your GF and her kid. It is non-confrontational which is how a Thai would handle it.

If the kid is studying still, you just need to pay the apartment. If not working, play the responsible father role and state your goal is to create a responsible and sensible adult. If the son is working, sweeten the pay-package with just enough to be persuasive.

Do not think that the solution is cost-free...

1 hour ago, AndyAndyAndy said:

You have to make him financially independent at first. So make him find a job. In front of your GF you can play it as "I'm being a father to him and caring for him/raising him right". First you will start encouraging him to find a job. He sleep all day and play games on telephone. So you will come with some consequences. Start cutting him off money/sources etc. If GF doesn't like it you can always play "being responsible father". Sooner or later his life will be so unbearable that he will find a job. It usually involves in living in different city (you see 90% of working thai traveling at friday/sunday home). So he will move out as a result of finding a job. Or he will find local job and once he is financially independent it is easy to kick him out. Again you can play responsible father card with helping find him a rent apartment "so he start his new adult life" and taking him for a furniture buying trips.

 

You can play it as ''kicking him out' and GF will make your life hell for hating her family. Or you can be responsible father figure raising her son and caring for her family who is trying to give him good start to his new life and it will be OK.

On 7/27/2020 at 10:45 PM, Acrylic said:

I agree with you. Many blame China because China is convenient scapegoat for their falling. We know white people is racist toward Asian especially Chinese. Having Trump as President doesn't help either because China dare to rise to challenge America hegemony. That's given they won't let this chance to bash China and Chinese until the end of the world. 

If China was the paragon of virtue its awful government claims to be, people would look for another bogeyman. I make the small effort to separate the Chinese people from their despotic government. The CCP is the chewing gum on the world's boot...

18 hours ago, node said:

Something is off with this maths. Interviewed 1459 folks, 90% have this option, that is 1313 said this, of a population of 70,000,000 Thais, that is .00188% of the population;

not 90% of Thai people, as the headline stated

Can you spell clueless? A poll is a representative sample, so when 90% of a sample states "x", it can be extrapolated that 90% of the population at large will also say "x". There are constraints attached to the percentages called margin of error and confidence level. You can learn about them by using this Internet to read stuff wat cleva people wrote for you to improve yourself and learn a little about stuff you should have learned about at high school...

Which muppet told you that? Dig below the surface of the bike accident stats and you'll see a pattern of early morning commuters and after-work riders rushing home. The vast majority are scooter riders on local rides riding with scant attention added to their severe lack of skills and abject lack of road strategy.

People who take riding bikes seriously don't get painted with the same brush, especially by people who can't be arsed to understand what they are talking about.

14 hours ago, rwill said:

No matter whose fault it is if you enjoy living it is best not to ride motorbikes in Thailand.

22 hours ago, colinneil said:

Yes of course the truck driver was driving properly.????????????????

Had to be the farang in the wrong, when have you ever heard a Thai admit they were wrong?

Sure have. Most times I get bumped into they admit they are wrong. Perhaps you wear your attitude so visibly they react to that...

1 hour ago, visacrack said:

Why did you quote me? You said a lot there, much of what seems right, but failed to address the point made in my post, which appears to be crucial: ie the role that excessive bodyfat plays in each individual development of this disease, and what every obese person can and should do to become slim again. 

Why did I quote you? It would be because you said "I'm convinced they're right" about politicians falsely stating Covid-19 is just a flu. 

Let's start with some basics. Genetic cross-over from animals to humans is a given; it happens. Given enough time and opportunity (accumulated time exposed to animals), moves closer to a certainty. That it happened in China does not make China responsible. The authorities in China delayed the flow of information for sure; they screwed up. However, the chances that they could have curtailed its spread and kept the outbreak in China is small, very small. Blaming China for the disease is ridiculous, blaming their system for failure to address the issue is appropriate, but a global outbreak was inevitable as it took weeks to discover carriers could be asymptomatic.

Blaming China for the lack of fun having a massage with a masseuse in a mask is pathetic on two counts. China can't really be blamed and genuine massages are not impacted by the wearing of a mask.

Now for the conspiracy theories. Covid-19 is not the flu. No doctor, virologist, infectious disease expert, or immunologist has said so. Politicians and armchair 'researchers' aren't qualified to comment. The great sadness of the internet is the false belief that having the capacity to state an opinion means the opinion has some validity. Most don't.

It will take months before the true transmission characteristics of Covid-19 are understood. Those will only be understood after the collaborative work of hundreds of learned medical professionals - not a bunch of self-proclaimed genius armchair researchers griping that their liberties are being stolen by some global conspiracy to rebrand a common flu as a dangerous pandemic. If doing nothing for months and allowing 130,000 to die in the US is not a clear sign that such thoughts are patently wrong, perhaps you'd be better off looking for aliens, Elvis and Hitler partying on the moon in broad daylight. I know another genius who has the coordinates if you're interested...

During a two hour massage I spend over an hour face down or on my side. Why do I need to see the masseuse's face? When some muppet talks too much, either to the masseuse or on the phone, most decent shops will ask them to shut up so all the other customers can relax. If you want more from your massage, fine. That is your choice. Don't conflate a sub-standard massage and a happy-ending with a real massage.

4 hours ago, SuwadeeS said:

First of all, the so called "new normal", I hate it, many people hate it.

Wearing a mask unnatural !!!!!

I like to see the face of people, I like to see the expression when talking to them.

 

For all the discomfort and disadvantage, somebody has to be responsible.

As a matter of fact, its China with all the lies and disinformation.

Why everybody here ignores it?? 

Massage is not fun anymore.

We all have to pay a price because of China.

2 hours ago, visacrack said:

We know this saying of some politicians: Covid is just like a flu. And after following covid developments for months, I'm convinced they're right - provided those affected do not suffer from excessive body fat - or possibly even lifestyle diseases due to it, like diabetes or high blood pressure. 

 

I've read that bodyfat excess prevents the immune system from working properly, in a sense that its agents are being 'prevented to really get there fast to join the action' (or something in that sense). Another aspect was that while eating 'traditionally', we inflict more constant damage on the body's cells than most of us are aware of - and thereby, we keep the immune system busy trying to repair the cells affected, while its full capacity would be needed to fight off an aggression like covid (or flu, for that matter).

 

How do we avoid excessive body fat - in the first place, or reduce it to a healthy level once it's there? Simple: Eat the right diet, and do sufficient sport. The internet told me that a low-carb diet will probably be effective, and my personal experience shows that this is true. That we should do sports five times a week, half an hour each, is probably known - swimming is useful, if you swim with an effort (thus have a raised heartbeat, pulse and breath frequency).

 

If you now ask yourself if all these important covid-related measures that leaders are taking, and on a global basis, are headed in the wrong direction (because they fail to address the true cause), not to mention the untold damage they keep on inflicting on the economy, then there is some evidence that you are right. But due to the classic ignorance of those in power, plus herd effects (and it's not 'herd immunity'), and undue economic considerations (like protecting McDo & co), it is hard to imagine that we will begin to see the light anytime soon. Stock up on masks, and keep your TV in good working order (or what else you spend your homeoffice time with). 

 

PS: Ironically, some of the 'flu' political protagonistas (Trump or Bolsonaro come to mind) are not exactly delgado themselves...

 

2 hours ago, GeniusFarang said:

What’s sad about this is the government will continue to take freedoms and rights away and turn us into lab rats where we will need to wear masks wherever we go, force businesses to install expensive useless medical equipment, walk through unvetted chemicals, get a vaccine that will be useless (flu vaccine is around but yet we have 65k deaths a year anyways) and no one questions what’s in the vaccine even though is runs through our veins DURRR. They won’t stop until they destroy business and individual freedoms all in the guise of “your safety”. 
 

It’s easy to see that all this is big corporations stepping in to take over and destroy their competition (the small business). Big corps have the funding and the likes of Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Walton’s etc begins their push. When you have that much power, you need more. 
 

They use words like “new normal” and “Covid era” because the want to program the idiots into thinking it’s normal to not have human contact and wear a mask and be afraid of your shadow. It works on many idiots (many commenters I have seen in Thai visa actually) and the low IQ. 
 

If people are actually scared of a Covid flu over Tuberculosis which has killed over 1.5 million last year (without the help of extra hospital funding and lenient CDC guidelines like “guessing the cause of death”) then we have bigger problems heading our way when it comes to government overreach. 
 

The really sad part of this, is that so many who are driven by fear and scared of their own shadows don’t have the ability or basic intelligence to research on their own so they just accept the airplane of pea soup fed by the government and swallow big like they are told.

 

Moral of the story, don’t be an ignorant “Maskhole”.

3 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Agreed - its easy to blame the roads here, because lets face it, there is often stuff spilt all over them, oil, grit, sand etc...  then there is the quality of the surface itself.

 

Time to get bored: The UK actually as a ‘British Standard’ for road aggregate - based around abrasion and ‘polishability’ only aggregate which meets a certain ’standard’ is allowed to be used (yes, I know, its boring that I know that) - Thai roads get polished, they are not at the same standard. 

 

That said: the ‘B’ roads in the UK are atrocious and have loads of pot-holes. My father in the UK has to change 1-2 tyres per year due pot-holes damage to the tyres. 

 

Thai roads seem to have fewer pot-holes than the UK, but in general, they are more slippy.

 

 

 

You can see the polished lines when at the right angle.

More interesting is you can see how the majority cut all corners. You will see the 'average line' shines a path into the emergency lane in left-hand corners and creep into the oncoming lane in rights. Obviously that smacks of being total retards, but try explaining that.

Driving here is not taken seriously. How often do you see the elder of a pair on a bike on the pillion? It's amazing to me how somebody would should take responsibility would put their life in the hands of the less experienced person. Now, that is somewhat of an assumption, but it can't alway be that the younger person is more experienced and it is almost always that the younger is riding with an older pillion.

8 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Now try that in a corner - or better don't try it!

Don't try it?? 

Practice it in a car park. Straight, single turn, double turn, dry, wet. That's the difference between car drivers, casual riders and bikers. I've not ridden seriously in a few years - first thing I did was find some empty space and and recalibrate where the edge is. Not because I ride there intentionally, but because it makes me safer. What do you do when you need to brake in a corner? Just hope?

I understand there are a large number of casual riders here. Their riding standards and ethos are their own choice. That is not me. I don't commute or ride to buy some noodles or a couple of bottles of cheap beer. When I ride I ride all day; sun, wind or rain. I retake lessons every so often and I practice so I don't become the subject of a discussion here by people second-guessing how they'd have done it differently - like they ever know what actually happened.

4 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

Never ride my bike on wet roads or bad weather if possible.  2-wheels just do not get enough traction to be safe...

Twaddle. Unless you think this is fake: 

Wet roads require lower speeds, but to say there is insufficient traction is simply wrong. I've ridden with GS1200 riders on TKC80 tires in the rain and they had their panniers on the road in corners. I'm not good enough to get my panniers on the ground (mine are a little higher...) but still there is plenty of grip.

18 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

Amazing the official statistics of the unemployment in Thailand showed an unemployment rate of only 1% in March 2020. Obviously something wrong somewhere!

Thai unemployment has been around the 1% mark for decades. I saw a speech by Aphisit to combined chambers of commerce while he was PM. The regional chief economist at ING asked him how Thailand would power the growth he forecast when there was nobody to fill the roles. It's been well known for years that Thailand faces a choice to open up to immigrant workers or to automate various processes so that those employees can do other tasks that are harder to automate. The lack of automation and the belief that throwing people at a problem has been a restriction on growth here since the early naughties.

On 6/3/2020 at 5:25 AM, bkk6060 said:

No.

Waste of time especially if you travel around the country.  The dialects are different Thais lets say in the north, cannot understand everthing a Bangkok Thai says.

Utter twaddle. I've ridden around the entire country multiple times. I have never had a problem making myself understood anywhere with my perfunctory Thai skills.

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

If I know that I am going to be in one place for a few months or longer I will make sure to learn the basics, ie How much is this ? how do I get to ? etc, but one very sad aspect of learning Thai (and I have not experienced this phenomenon in other languages) is that you will pick up many disparaging things they will say about you, thinking that you know not one word of Thai. Many Thais are taught at school from a very early age that they are the world,s superior race (honestly, not joking) and many of them actually believe it, even though the educational standard here is extremely poor. Yet an uneducated Thai will think nothing of calling you stupid because they can speak Thai and you cannot ! Also on many occasions a Farang will go into a shop and order something. The sales girl/waitress then calls the cashier and say "IT wants a cup of coffee" ! Using a term normally used for dogs ! Mun ow cafe ! Whenever this happens I just say change of mind and leave ???? I know many people who deliberately do not learn Thai because of this.

This happens quite often for sure. I push back, "Which dog are you talking about?" "Maybe you like dogs as you have the manners of one." That usually puts them on the back-foot and depending on the mood I am in I will let them know how disappointed their fellow Thais are at their lack of respect.

2 hours ago, aussie11950 said:

brakes didn't slow down much. Bald tyres maybe?

Possibly. Most pickup drivers here over-inflate their tires reducing contact patch size. He locked up instantly which suggests he jump on the brakes too hard instead of easing into them. Easing brakes on transfers weight forward more slowly, loading the tires, widening the contact patch and increasing total braking potential. It is something that gets drilled into you at any serious rider training school.

It is more important on a bike, but not unimportant in a car, especially with normal profile tires at proper pressures where more flexible side-wall allows for spread.

I am guessing this does not extend back to licenses that expired 4 years ago - checking for a friend... ????

No statistically significant change in this collection since posted on April 10 to a related thread. Had a shot of Talisker last night while I watched Wild At Heart. Might go hunt a crate of tonics so I can have a G&T this weekend... get my monthly quota done early! LOL

15 hours ago, Inn Between said:

It seems to me that this approach could add more to the spread of covid rather than helping. If they are going door to door having some type of close contact with people and their homes, doesn't that create the potential to carry the virus to the next person when they'd make contact with someone who is not showing symptoms but has the virus? If there are 3000 volunteers running around from house to house, I can see the possibility of some problems with this approach. 

Not if the process is quick and hands-off. The Singaporean contact-tracing protocol is to trace all people who were close to a carrier for 15 minutes or more. Transient passings are of no concern. The same is true of Taiwan's protocol. 

The message from countries that have excelled at containment is Test, Test, Test. Obviously the testers can't be carriers - that would be... what's the word? Bad.

3 minutes ago, MaiDong said:

And that's the problem, with prices high the demand is low, with low demand comes expensive unsold stock, and with that comes just a handful, and eventually none. ????

 

So true. But now that I have a new job I will be doing everything I can to support their endeavours! I might even clean my truck!

9 minutes ago, MaiDong said:

I've been bombarded with adverts for Punk IPA, and whilst I love the taste, B111 for 330ml(B666 for 6 bottles) isn't worth it. 

Each to their own old boy. I'd rather have 1 or 2 tasty brews than a belly full of water. Especially as I drink 3+ litres of real water everyday! I have a large collection of aged single malts, the odd rare tequila and some parochial gins. I will be just fine...