nikster

These things usually take a few days or a week to arrive in the TH Apple store.

You didn't say how much it cost last year, and I don't know, but 30,900 for the cheapest configuration compares favorably with USD 899 in the USA.

The Thai price includes 7% VAT, the US price doesn't so that model is actually cheaper in Thailand than it is in the USA.

Just got back from the BMW dealer no r 1000 adventure as far as the guy in the shop knew. He did know about the small displacement bikes to be built in India after chatting a bit he mentioned a new retro bike, I ask got one here he says I think in the back off we go. Well it is the BMW R nine T 1,100ccs 110 horses of cafe' racer. Inverted forks, one open head light, and only a speedo and tach. sorry boys I am no good at posting photos I am sure one of you can do it. It has a old style air cooled boxer engine. It looks very small but with this huge engine, very interesting

As far as I am concerned The r-nine-T is the best looking classic style bike on the market. It's classic, but not retro - it has modern lines too. It's not trying to look like an old bike, it's its own design. Gorgeous. Sadly, more than 1M THB in Thailand.

*drool*

I don't know anything about small displacement bikes made in India?!

I do know about the Thai factory currently making the F800R. Hope they'll expand to more interesting models soon. Like that R-nine-T... excuse me while I go change my pants.

^^ Yes, it's all hearsay as far as the 795 is concerned. I have never tried the bike myself. That's what I heard. Doesn't mean it's true. And it may very well work great for you.

On the Hypermotard, lots of forum people were complaining about the hard seat. I love the seat! It all depends...

There's a dirt road from the Nan border crossing direct to LP. However last time I checked motorcycles were not allowed to cross that border.

Motorbikes can cross in Chiang Kong. Then you go up around Oudom Xai loosely following the river, then LP. If you're fast you can make it in a day.

Speaking of fast your top speed in Laos should be 100kph. Never go faster. The roads are bad and there are unexpected things happening - when I was going it was a nice asphalt road but some bits were missing so we were hitting dirt/rocks every kilometer or so. You never know when these come so you need to go more slowly so as to not get caught off guard. Parts of the road also featured very low hanging power lines!

Go slow. Stay safe. Laos also doesn't have good hospitals etc. Much less developed than Thailand. You're definitely going to spend a lot of time on dirt roads. A dual sport is IMO the ideal bike for Laos. You're never going to be able to open up the ER-6 on Lao roads anyway.

Does anyone have a definite Thai price on this hot ass bitch by now? She's gonna be a popular one over here, I can feel it!

If it's made here, and we can assume that it will be, it'll cost around the same as the Hypermotard. Price between 480k - 500k Baht. US price is nearly the same as well.

Looking at those pictures the white one looks the best. The red one is awesome too. Black is a little boring. Then again in real life these might look different - always hard to tell from photos.

hmmm looking a bit better than the 1200s, for sure a great bike but the monster charme is lost a little. For city riding i prefer the air cooled Monsters anyway.

I agree but for me the increased performance and less frequent service intervals would tip the balance towards the new bikes. If it's the same motor as the Hypermotard that's a positive thing, all the reports are that it's a beast.

Confirmed - It's a beast.

Monster 821 will be a beast too, seems to have the same engine and ECU with the same riding modes, so this bike is going to kick up some serious fun. Basically the Hypermotard set up as a naked and styled as a Monster.

Undoubtedly WAY better than the previous "cheap" 795 and also the 796 which had very mixed reviews. It's much heavier than the previous Monster but honestly the lightness of the previous one didn't do it any good in the reviews and such. By all accounts it did not handle very well at all. You'd expect better handling from a lighter bike but apparently that wasn't the case. Price in the USA is very close to the Hypermotard as well so I expect same quality suspension and other components. So this is awesome.

Looks great, if not quite as great as the Hyper

This thread is missing some pix

Facebook back up

Selfies confirmed.

I am willing to bet there will be retro styling on that bike. After Ducati was hitting the retro trend way before its time (and those bikes weren't produced for very long) it would make sense to get serious about it again now, as retro is a huge market.

It's not gonna look like any of those renderings either, especially the one in the OP - Ducati isn't going to design something fugly like that. All their bikes are gorgeous. So chances are this one will be too

Great news it will get made in Thailand! What's the rumored engine size? Is it going to be small?

touched one at last Motor show and bike is great man. Looks great and quality is perfect with the new cluster and plastic parts, it looks upmarket.

My dream scooter and worry free bike but 10 k USD is pricey

Ah I see - so this is Honda's 750cc scooter. In that case, it makes sense. Can't tell from the pix if I'd like the design or not.

From the looks of it I thought it wants to be a Diavel competitor, but clearly not at 750cc.

Honda is totally off with "young urbanites" wanting this - apparently Honda missed the whole hipster / retro thing going on right now. But maybe some other ppl will buy it?! Or they're waiting for the retro trend to be over ...

BMW is kicking ass right now, they are doing a lot of things right. Looks great. I do not dare to hope that it'll be made in Thailand though.

Way cheaper than the Ninja 300... 650 looked better in pictures than in reality IMO.

There's a Yamaha Bolt for rent at POP Chiang Mai. I think it looks great but then I'm not really into cruisers so it doesn't count.

As for price, unless you plan on totaling it, consider the lifetime cost. HDs have such a fanatical following in Thailand that you can probably sell it for not much more than you bought it for, no matter which model you get. I know various Thai harley gang members - anyone who can afford it, really, so usually that means well-off Thais of one sort or another. All super nice guys. But dedicated to the brand until the end. Even if the Harley is 200k more it will lose much less per year than a Yamaha. The HD might very well end up being the cheaper option.

This is what makes buying bikes in Thailand a sensible investment BTW

A friend had a Ducati Monster, sold it a year later for 50k less. He was riding a Monster for what it costs to rent a scooter. HD will lose even less.

Test rode both hypermotard and mt09 and hypermotard runs and handles much more better. And in Thailand with these prices, if you want to choose between these two bikes, hypermotard is no brainer. Only 65 k thb difference! And duc has all those electronics and sex appeal.

Front suspensions of mt09 were softer than cbr650f - but of course they need to handle more power - and throttle was twitchy but it was twitchy with hypermotard too. besides, I think mt09 feels faster.

Nit-picking but the throttle isn't twitchy on the Hyper, you just have to get used to it. Ride by wire means there is no delay, lag, or play on the throttle - wrist straight to the engine. It's also set to be very sensitive, especially in sports mode - definitely takes getting used to but once you are you really don't want to have it any other way. It allows for much better throttle control. People who try the bike for 10 minutes complain about it, and so did some reviewers. I had quite a few embarrassing starts from the red light too in the beginning. But now - it's just fine, in fact it's more than fine, it's perfect.

So when they say the MT-09 has a twitchy throttle I believe it when I see it, until then benefit of doubt.

The Hypermotard isn't the FZ-09's competition- the Street Triple is, and the price difference is about 300K. There's a new kit from Hyperpro that includes both a rear shock and fork springs for less than $1,000. If you can source it (even with 40% import tax added) it's a cheap way to fix the suspension and end up with a great bike under 500K.

http://www.dealernews.com/dealernews/article/upgrade-yamahas-budget-friendly-fz-09-hyperpro-termignoni

Good to see there are upgrades!

Of course it's competition. At least RideApart thinks so in their FZ-09 review "Perhaps the nearest competitor in terms of fun is the Ducati Hypermotard, but that thing is a whopping $11,995."

As with so many bikes in Thailand, prices here are skewed by import taxes and as a result bikes that are awesome overseas mainly due to their low price aren't so great over here where they lack this advantage.

PS: The bike has no ABS? Or is that just the US spec? Ugh. Edit: I believe it does have ABS in Thailand. Not that Yamaha Thailand would put the specs on their web page or anything...

They have a few at Yamaha Square Chiang Mai. I think all customer bikes but not sure. Looks nice in person, a little brutal.

Except somebody at Yamaha should be fired for putting that exhaust on - what were they thinking? Exhaust is the most boring ever; Triumph and MV Augusta have shown so many just gorgeous triple exhaust designs, you'd think they could have just copied that? Instead it's a single pipe... ugh.

Personally I think this bike is overpriced in Thailand, at least 100k too much. It's a cheap bike in the USA. The suspension was described in one review: "As delivered, the FZ-09 wallowed through corners like an '83 Cutlass with blown struts."

I think it's naive to think that would be an easy fix. I only mucked around with suspension setup once but it was enough to realize it's actually a science. It's really hard, and lots of experimentation needs to go in it. I guess if Ohlins or whatever come out with a shock specifically for the MT-09 it could be good. But once you've spent the money on suspension you're going to be very close to 500k or even over, and at that point you might as well get a Hypermotard. The Hyper has a rock solid stock suspension - sex appeal thrown in for free, basically.

So yeah nothing against this bike I just think it costs too much. And I wouldn't really want to deal with a suspension that needs to be replaced right from the get-go.

Interesting I wonder how someone like me when I was working in Singapore and flying back on the weekends to Thailand would be treated under the laws mooted for August.

Offshore workers and many business people also fly in and out regularly and don't have tourist visas.

It would seem a bit silly if they were denied entry on the basis of coming to Thailand too often.

Off shore workers is another pretty good example. Other countries have restrictive visa policies to prevent large scale work migration. I find that questionable in general but Thailand doesn't even have this issue - so what's the reason here? I am trying to put myself in their shoes - what do they get out of it? Immigration perhaps a greater sense of control - but that's about it. Thailand's going to lose money, a small sum perhaps, but still lost. Is there a point?

This is pretty bad for all the backpackers. Especially once Airlines are affected too.

When I first got here, I did quite a few visa runs like that.

Sure backpackers can go out and get a tourist visa and that's probably long enough to do all the traveling they like to do. But it's an additional hassle and I know I myself - back then - would not have put up with it, I'd just have visited Laos or Vietnam or whatever.

So this will prevent some legitimate travelers from traveling in Thailand. Is that the intention?

Many thanks guzzi,

I would love to have the Hyperstrada, but it is a lot more expensive than the Diavel here for some reason. I am stretched with the Diavel already. I figure I will change the handle bars on the Monster and see how the sitting position is then...

Hyperstrada is great but IMO will not be easier to learn on than a Diavel. It might look small but it's pretty radical...

Don't get the Monster - doesn't have good reviews, and people are often not happy with them. Something about handling etc. Diavel and also Hypermotard/strada are rock solid bikes that get pretty much 5 star reviews everywhere. They're just great bikes.

I was riding the Streetfighter 848 by comparison recently and was really disappointed. Such a beauty of a bike, but ridiculous seating position - you sit like on a racing bike, but it's a naked, it's very heavy, it seemed to have less low end torque than the Hyper, and impossible to turn. Yet it costs way more than the Hyper too. Going forward, I expect Ducati go more and more in the "practical" direction. They're now owned by Audi, and in the end you want a good bike, not just one that looks great and has high HP. Example the new Monster 1200 has excellent reviews - all their new models are really good...

So - get a Diavel. Fantastic bike, and it will take you a long while to use all it has to offer, which is not a bad thing, is it?

Tough call to wait or not to wait - it should come really soon. Get friendly with the dealer, pre-order, and go visit every day. Resale value will be better, and they look really good.

I was in last month for the steering head bearing seal recall, and the Thong Lor dealer told me they hadn't received registrations for any new bikes bought after October. They blamed the political crisis for slowing down DLT processing times. Not sure I buy that reason. Anyone know if other brands/dealers have experienced the same kind of delays for new bike registrations?

I'm just guessing but I bet it's a tax issue due to the assembly being here now, comparisons with the higher cost of the previous model etc. Could be way off but there must be a reason that no one seems to have got them.

On another issue, I got the head bearing seal done too, it wasn't recalled I just popped in the shop and they said 'oh while you're here....', most 2013 HMs needed it, think it was ok from January 14 bikes, so other owners if you've not had it done check to see if you need it. There is also a software update but they don't have it yet - it is supposed to cure the idle fluctuations and make the throttle less jerky from what I have read.

That is very good service from Ducati Thailand I must say.

I think poster Nikster had a new starter motor fitted to his Motard?

Yes had a new starter motor installed, under warranty. The new one seems to be an entirely new model, it feels different and much stronger. I also had the front fork bearings replaced. And added some 'strada parts: The windshield and the grab handles, now I have a semi-motard & semi-touring bike. I kinda miss the old red rear end even though it's super unpractical - I might go back to that. Still have the parts.

There's some more of these cosmetic differences - the Hyper got the full on "sporty" treatment, the 'Strada the practical parts. The strada has: Rear grab handles, a full front fender, and a longer rear fender, too. Hypermotard fender in front is "half" - which looks sexy if you happen to spot it, but it also results in dirt being thrown over the front headlight and sometimes onto the rider when it's raining. The rear fender is very short, same reason, for the looks, and same effect, riding through any puddle throws dirt all over the back... 555 nobody ever said that this was a reasonable bike, right?

Same here, 2006 Fortuner. Ours also started doing this after a service, that was 1 or 2 years ago. We tried to have it fixed twice but nobody knows how to do that and it's very much intermittent. Sometimes it's fine the whole night, sometimes not.

We found a simple solution which is to lock it with the key rather than the remote. Can still use the remote to unlock of course.

To be honest if I could be bothered I'd simply have the shop disable the alarm altogether. Then I could once again use the remote to lock the car... car alarms are not very useful after all. Either you live in a place where you absolutely don't need it, like Thailand. Or you live in a place where you might need it but where car thieves get around the system easily.

Either way the only feature your car alarm provides is to go off when it shouldn't.

Man that R nine T are cool man, I hope they will start making that here one day.

You guys all seems to know Anniie, how come I don't know her, that's not fair man, what's her phone No??? Pleeease.

That R nine T is very cool but if I was going to spend1,090,000, I would take the New Monster 1200S with 145bhp. I do expect both bikes to be assembled in Thailand in the future which will lower the price by about a third.

R nine T is definitely on my list in the years to come, esp. once they make it here. Such a beauty. I'm not normally into classic bikes but that one has a sort of classic/modern/timeless styling. You just know it'll still look good 20 years from now.

No doubt the red one provides more excitement ... 1200S in particular looks to be yet another just great bike, unlike the current 795/796. But I have a red one already...

Yep got a recommendation for you: Just got Scocyo gloves for 750 baht. It's the "top" model for this cheap brand and figures an actual kevlar palm protector, and carbon fiber knuckle protectors. And some sticky stuff on the inside that make for a good grip. Had them for a week and now they're perfect, super comfortable, light, and cool. And you can't beat the price.

Prior I had Revit leather gloves - they looked nice but never broke in to the point where they'd be comfortable, and they fell apart after 6 months, quite literally.

I also had Icon leather gloves which were fantastically comfortable but I lost them and can't find them anymore in Thailand. The shop that had them doesn't anymore. Icon Pursuit. They were a bit hotter than the Scocyos but very nice to wear.

Is it this? Looks interesting. Are they available in "really big sizes"? I wear RevIt gloves in XXL and they fit me very well. Most local brands are too small for me. I already tried a lot.

SCOYCO GLOVE MC14B

I have a pair of RevIt Sand and after two years their still are strong and OK. But with the leather on the down side they are also hot. The new Sand Pro should be much cooler, but at 3500Baht much too expensive.

Yeah this appears to be it. MC14b.

There's an official website too but it's really light on actual info as well, LOL

http://www.scoyco.com/en/displayproduct.html?proID=525730#.U2QkOl5CJBA

Of course I got the red one, it's faster

Looking at online prices I guess I got a deal at 750. That's the shop opposite Suriwong Book Center in Chiang Mai. Quickly becoming my favorite. Yesterday the shop owner gave me some tips on helmet shapes of all things - I commented on him being such an expert on that, as it is a rather obscure topic; I mean try talking about head shapes at any of the big shops - they won't know. He said he's no expert but he's listening to what customers tell him, both farang and Thai. He recommended me helmet models where the Thai customers complain about them being too narrow...

Wearing size L, XL was too big. L is slightly larger than a Revit L as Revit seems to be cut pretty small. L almost always fits me.