Wong!

It's like a blue book that Thais have to show where they live, but it's yellow for 'aliens'.

Or you can get ripped of and get a letter from your embassy (as if they would actually know where you live).

TM - I'm not saying this will help with your current situation, but I bought one of these off ebay and it's the dog's dangly bits.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTEK-MXS-5-0-Batterie-Ladegerat-12V-5-0-8-Auto-Motorrad-PKW-KfZ-Gel-AGM-MF-/231036052177?pt=Elektroger%C3%A4te&hash=item35cad262d1

Or search for "CTEK MXS 5.0 Batterie Ladegerät"

God, I hope it's horrible or pushed back, or expensive as hell...

Because I need to sell my Ninja in April and I don't want my wallet to take too much of a beating....

Honda don't have the required skills to make a bike as horrible as Kawasaki (thinking Z800), so I think you're going to be out of luck.

^ Correct.

I took my paper car license to the Thai vehicle test centre and showed them the paragraph about being able to ride bikes of up to 50cc if you're a learner or A2 class if you're over 21 and they gave me a Thai bike license. I had a medical cert, my yellow book and I took the colour blind test and the pedal reaction test.

I left with both a bike license and one for cars.

This was in Udon a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not going to upgrade for at least a year (got to pay the 500 off first) and I'm not so concerned about the power as the 500 is fine for road use, but I want a bigger bike to I can ride longer in more comfort.

^ Who would buy a Benelli anyway?

Hopefully the value of the 500s won't get hit too hard as I'll be trading mine in to get the 650.

The wife's Wave did the same. Sounds like the usual story of the local climate being unkind to batteries.

^ I can't see it not having a Pro-link swingarm. Maybe they are getting confused with a single-sided swingarm.

I am surprised nobody got excited about Honda replacing the fireblade

with a V4

If they make it here and it only costs about 400k then I'll sell the wife and get me one.

wonder how much the gladius will be.

Not sure, but I read a terrible review of it the other day. Or should that be a read a good review saying the bike was terrible?

Fair enough, it comes back to personal preference. I also looked at litre bikes and decided to go the other direction and settled on a 600. I figured 100hp and circa 250kph was enough for me in Thailand and there were benefits of the smaller bike that I could benefit from every day, whereas I didn't feel I'd really use that extra power/speed too much.

I guess we'll see how popular the Z800 proves to be. I for one am hoping it does well and encourages more releases from the big 4.

Yup

As always yes it is all about personal preference.

I personally like flick-ability & will take a better power to lower weight always.

Also I agree that depending on our ride & type of terrain "enough power" is subjective & depends on where we ride.

If I were riding 200kph plus on wide open roads of course I would not mind higher weight & it may even help

But I am not. Nor do I commute. I ride strictly for pleasure

I have a scooter & truck for the other things

As for popularity of the Z800 yes we will have to see how it sells.

I was a bit surprised that they have only sold 1 as CM Kawasaki is a big dealer

Maybe folks are setting up financing? But usually they speak of those as sold already.

I know there are a lot of Thai riders with big bikes, but I would think the seat height and the weight of the new Kawa would put some Thai buyers off.

Make sure your current license states that it is for motorbike, not for car otherwise you will have to take full test.

Not strictly true.

If you have a UK license (it's a paper one, not the Euro ID card license) then show them paragraph 3 (I think) which lets you ride an A2 class motorbike and they will umm and ahh before giving in and issuing a motorcycle license as well.

I know, I did it last week.

There's a bloke on TD who has a bike very similar to yours...

The problem for me is that I live about 400 km from either BKK or CM which means if I want 2 tyres for the bike, a Honda CB 400 it is about 6 hours travel either way and an overnight stop.

As I generally get about 10 or 11 km/lt it will cost me about 3,200 baht in gas plus the overnight, say around 4,500 baht in total.

He put some Dunlops onto my Honda Phantom a couple of year and around 15k km ago and there is still a lot of life in them yet.

He also sent by EMS a new front tyre for the Yamaha 535 Virago I had then which I got fitted locally and saved the 2 day trip and the extra fuel costs.

I will email him later this afternoon and report back.

Thanks for the updated information.

What's the nearest town? There's usually one or two places that can get tyres sorted for bigger bikes.

^ thinking doesn't seem to be your strong suit.

http://rideapart.com/2013/07/rideapart-review-2013-honda-cb500f-abs/

The multi-award winning CB500F

The more post i read about the honda 500 series the less impressed i am :/(

Two second places and a first in Motorcycle Magazines 2013 bike of the year awards.

Not bad for an unimpressive bike.

Have you tried riding one yet or are you just another typical TV barstool expert?

You've done a great job on that bike. Thanks for sharing.

^ The yellow rim tape looks good with the black panels. I would've cleaned of the infantile finger painting on the instrument binnacle before taking the photo though.

Better than the ZX-6R? Wow. The ZX-6R makes 112HP.

Probably better. Probably not as powerful.

I wanted the X, but the seat forced me to sit too far forward (188cm tall). The F fitted much better.

Easy to peel back the covering and carve the foam back and to shape, then have the upolstery guy restaple the cover back. You now have a $1000 Corbin seat! (Joking on the last.)

I found it better to go with the F. It's a much better looking bike and it's 10k cheaper. Win win!

There's an unofficial waiting list at Kawasaki Chiang Mai. T However, the dealer doesn't know price or available colors on release.

Sounds like a professional outfit. Not.

Not sure what you mean by that.

I think it's plain and clear - they don't know the prices and colors because Kawasaki hasn't told them what those will be. Same for the price. They still offer a waiting list for those who don't mind that. A queue of sorts. I think it's pretty good service.

I've been nothing but pleased with them. Kawasaki Chiang Mai - Saengchai Kawasaki to be precise - is the sole reason I am considering a Z800; if I went with Ducati I have a feeling I'd really miss the excellent service...

I think the fact someone within the industry whose job should be to find out stuff like this hasn't got a clue so close to the release date is piss poor.

Agree with all of the above - good service from Kawa.

There's an unofficial waiting list at Kawasaki Chiang Mai. T However, the dealer doesn't know price or available colors on release.

Sounds like a professional outfit. Not.