koratsteve

When you look through some of the pages of Thai Motor cycle magazines you can’t fail to notice that there is a lot of interest in customising the local bikes.

I own an NSR150 Pro-arm and I would dearly like to upgrade the brakes to the Brembo ones that I see in the magazines, and change the exhaust to up the power but every time I go to the parts shops etc they tell me ``no have``or pretend not to understand what I’m talking about (My Thai is pretty good) So I was wondering if anybody new where I can get these parts and what the fair price was.

I own a 2003 Honda civic 2.0 litre which on the whole I am fairly happy with (lets not talk about the suspension) I am not a big fan of automatic gearboxes in a small car but the 2.0 only comes with auto so I had no choice.

I see that the new 2.0 litre Civic comes with manual shifters on the steering wheel which allows you change up or down at will, as the new civic uses exactly the same engine and the same 5 speed auto box as my model I was wondering if it was possible to get a kit from Honda or anybody else to fit to mine, to give me that option.

As the car has only done 25,000km and as I’m still paying for it I do not want to change for a few more years.

I recently brought my self a second hand NSR150SP and its great fun, for about 30,000bt you can hit 180kph plus.

They are very reliable and very cheap to maintain, I used to own a TZM 150 before and that did over 50,000km on the same piston and was still running well when it got stolen by my ex-wife.

Parts are cheap and easily available (660 baht for a new back tire etc)

They do use a fair bit of fuel, I get about 115 km for 220 bahts worth of gas and about a litre of 2T every 500km

I have done 2500km since I brought it all trouble free, I would buy one soon as the good ones out there wont last forever.

P.S Does anybody know where I can get a race pipe for mine?

Hi Razor,

The UBC office is on the Yommarat road, Which is inside the main city moat; I don’t know how well you know Korat but if you do it is on the same road as that big Honda motor cycle shop.

To get there if you head south towards Ya Mo with you’re back to the IT Plaza (Nor East City) It is the second turning on the left go past the shell Garage across three sets of lights and it is on the left hand side before you get to the Honda shop.

Mike,

Very nice photo’s, you must tell me you’re secret, I spent a day there last year and apart from the monkeys and a very distant deer I didn’t see a thing.

Where is "Coyote Ugly Bar"?

Ask Ken he was there the other day.

Korat doesn’t really have any shops that rent bikes as there is not much of a market for it. I seem to remember that a couple of the shops that sell second hand bikes will rent them out but only short term and at pretty high prices.

You can find second hand bike shops all over town, used bikes do tend to hold their value and there is not a vast difference between the price of a nearly new and a second hand machine.

If I were you I would do a deal with a second hand shop where you buy a used bike and sell it back to them.

Failing that if you were to rent a bike say in Chiang Mai or Pattaya etc you can get a nearly new bike for between 2000/3000 baht a month and take it anywhere in the country.

Hey Ken have you got shares in Mikes bar or does he pay you to do his advertising?

I went through years of cold showers when I was living in the sticks, I found that if it was very cold I was better of using the outside pond where the water temperature was always a few degrees higher than the jar in the bathroom, not much fun when it was windy or when the buffalos had sneaked in for a quick dip and left there calling cards.

You don’t need to spend 20K on a hot water system for you’re whole house as the hot water is only needed in the bathroom

A cheap shower unit costs about 1,300 baht up to about 5,000 for a brand name, Don’t forget to get it earthed, If you buy from a big shop they will also fit it for about 200 baht plus wire.

Ken, yes there was but the moments gone now, or maybe I thought better of it.

How many last beers are you going to have today then?

All, thanks for the feedback, like always I ended up having a very short trip and never really got round to organizing anything.

I like the sound of the guy in Khorat and will be sure to check him out. As for the Sala, Ken, I totally agree, looks pretty nice but better be careful how you move inside it, I realised that you need to position yourself opposite someone of equal weight to be on the safe side.

Anyway, cheers again, another thing that will remain on my list until next visit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Looking at the picture of you’re snake I am pretty sure it is a Common or Keeled Rat Snake, these snakes are non venomous and very common throughout Thailand, they can grow up to 320cm in length, they are often mistaken for Cobras, I believe the Thai name is Ngoo Sing.

Just passed through the area twice within the last couple of days and the boys in brown seem to be lying low, I have been stopped there myself in the past and managed to get away with paying just 200 baht.

For future reference the offending Police stop is at km36 on the 304 i.e. 36 km before Kabinburi if you are heading south or 36km after Kabinburi if you are heading north, the Policeman that stops you has you’re number and the speed you were doing on a piece of paper so there must be someone hiding at the roadside a few km before so if you slow down a couple of km before you get to km 36 you should pass through with you’re wallet intact.