JonnyF

I think this would be a good thing if enforced. I used to enjoy sitting in the outdoor section of pubs to get some atmosphere, people watch, have a chat etc. I prefer it to the echoing noise, TV's and freezing air con inside.

Now however, it is basically a smoking section. Either the smokers sit out there and puff away, or patrons from inside come out every 5 minutes to furiously puff away before going back into the air con stinking of smoke so I end up going inside.

I used to smoke and was always pretty considerate of non-smokers but unfortunately a lot of smokers don't give a toss if your meal has just arrived, they'll sit/stand a metre away and spark up - not even making an attempt to blow smoke the other direction. So feckem they can go down the street as far as I'm concerned. 

If you're really stuck and have a computer UPS you can remove the battery from that and charge your motorcycle battery with it.

Bang Na Trat is the worst road in Thailand IMO. The only place (touch wood) I've had an accident, about 8 years ago when I hit some idiot reversing up the road to visit a food stall.

Much better to go on the back roads near Chachongsao. Still not great (and adds 50kms to the trip) but far more enjoyable and safer.

Some nice tech here. The dash and mode selection etc. looks awesome.

6 hours ago, taninthai said:

Yep don’t disagree people use them for all sorts of things that don’t make it right though million bht + on a sports bike to commute to work on thatbyou can’t reall get out of 2 nd gear seems pointless to me,,,same on tight twisties a good rider on smaller bike would leave this bike behind on tight twisties.

nothing agaisnt sport bikes I have one ,it hasn’t gone on the road for 4 years track only,,,,,,,personally I prefer something more upright for roads and touring etc etc...Ducati hypermotard/strata,versys,s1000r,cb650........

If I had the money yes I’d have one and pose around on the road a little with it..why not it definitely has feel good factor, but there is much better options available for mainly road use.

Some good points. 

But I would argue that just because a good rider on a small bike could beat a crap rider on a s1000rr is not really relevant. In boxing we say a good big 'un always beats a good little 'un and the same applies to bikes given a rider of equal ability.

In terms of why people commute on a million baht bike (outside Bangkok type traffic) I would say why not? Maybe they enjoy it? Why drink decent wine when you can get pissed on lao khao.? Why buy a bed when you can sleep on the floor? And I say that as someone who has been known to sleep on the floor after copious amounts of crap booze ????

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

You should check your speedometer. I rarely see anybody driving faster than 140 and would say the typical speed is in the range of 100-120 even a CB500 does have quite some power left at this speed ????

I often take the 344 to Klaeng and I assure you loads of people do over 140. Lots of Benz and Bmw from Bangkok heading down to the beaches doing closer to 180. I've been tailgated beyond that speed.

Of course you could sit in the left lane plodding along at 120 if you want and that's fine, you're OK with a 250 or whatever if that's your preference. I prefer to be able to choose where I am in fast moving traffic rather than being a sitting duck being overtaken by idiots who leave me 50 cms of space as they blast by while scrolling through Facebook.

Plus lets be brutally honest it's much more fun on a nice fast bike.

1 hour ago, taninthai said:

Great bike for the race track ,,complete over kill and pretty much waste of time for the roads,,great posing value though and looks mean as <deleted> on the road but what percentage are you gonna be able to use on road 20% to 30%.????

I disagree. They make excellent all round bikes and a lot of people tour on them. Others commute to work on them. They are probably the most street based of the superbikes with the benefit of being excellent track bikes as well.

I would much rather take a s1000rr for one of my weekend trips to the beach in rayong or the twisties in Kanchanaburi (200 km of mainly dual carriage way) than one of the bikes people often quote as practical such as Ninja 300, Cbr500, crf250l etc. No comparison in terms of safety and fun when surrounded by Thais in trucks doing typical real world Thai highway speeds (140-160).

48 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Where exactly will you do that?

On a racetrack and maybe on the German Autobahn, and that's about it.

I had a croatch rocket with the red line at 14,500RPM. Yes, great fun for a few seconds. And then I was way too fast for my surroundings.

Yes, primarily on the track but there are lots of good roads in Thailand where you can open up a fast bike in relative safety at the right time. I wouldn’t be riding this bike to the 711.

11 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Me being an old fashioned Luddite as most of the forum users know in this section, sorry but i just don't get any of it.

None whatsoever.

I mean it's a 2 cylinder 1250 fer chrissakes. The thing should be pulling trees out of the ground at tickover!

It's called having a bit of flywheel....

I saw a tech vid a few months back about the latest & greatest 1200 Ducati sportsbike, the guy is waving this crank about in one hand and it looks like it's out of a 250. No, a 125.

 Shit, proper crankshafts - you need two hands just to lift them off a bench...

Gosh, is that meant to be good?

Serious question.

14 and a 1/2 k? Horrible. Ghastly.

Back in the real world, i was testing various air cooled 803cc Ducatis at our local dealers today, a measly 75 bhp and 50 Ib ft torque (never have figured the new money metric version out), point being, pulling away from traffic lights on a dry road in the middle of the city with obvious diesel impregnation the back wheel was spinning like a good 'un... And another part of the city, locking the back wheel up with too much brake due to the same cause.

Carry on with your 207 bhp....

Er, VVT? or variable valve timing, but in BeemerSpeak?

Gotta respectfully disagree with some of that. 100nm between 5500 and 14500 is a lot of torque across a lot of rpm. Keeping an in-line 4 howling at the 10, 11, 12k sweet spot is tons of fun.

I also like twins (and triples) but there is also something about riding a turbine smooth inline 4 that really does it for me. I miss my gsxr but don’t really fancy dealing with Suzuki Thailand with a “big bike” so this might be the ticket if it’s as street friendly as the previous generation of s1000’s.

Looks good. They've redone the cbr650f to have dual front lights as well, looks loads better, very similar to the Fireblade now.

I Like it! Heard talk of 14,000 pounds for the base model so possibly 850,000 ish in Thailand given the week pound, strong baht and Thai import tax ?

I actually prefer the red, looks like an inline 4 Panigale and that subframe on the motorsport color looks awful.

I think the 2 indicators turn red to make a brake light. I'm quite tempted.

Very sad incident and the silence is deafening as surely they/he would say if he wasn't on there.

I don't see why he wouldn't be if he attended the game. I guess several family members were on there as well and maybe other VIP's. 

I hope casualties are as low as possible. 

Very brave guys. I was pretty surprised with the verocity of the lyrics, they certainly aren't pulling any punches. Very powerful images at the end as well, with the infamous lynching from a tree incident that The Dead Kennedy's used for their "Holiday in Cambodia" album cover despite it being in Thailand.

As Thai music goes it's not a bad song either. Better than some makeup wearing prettyboy crooning "kidtern terrrr" like 95% of it.

2 hours ago, taninthai said:

Shame the exchange rate is so shit ,so it makes it £13,000 in my money☹️,but still good to see it available here.ooppps no sorry that s the r6 price ,,,,,kawa comes In at just over£10,000 in my money .,probably not far of actual U.K. price????????

Yeah, but if you take the panic over Brexit out of the equation (personally I think the pound is undervalued at the moment but that's another topic) then you'd probably be looking at around 52 to the pound making it 8400 pounds and probably cheaper than the UK price. 

As a reference, in March we bought 10 Rai between Korat and Chaiyaphum for 950,000 Baht including a simple but solid 2 bedroom bungalow which needed renovating (needed about 100k spending on it). My farang face didn't make a showing until the deal was done to prevent any last minute price hikes.

That's with road access (our road access is a 70 metre long driveway that's 4-5 lanes wide), electricity and water. The rest of the land is set back from the road between 100 and 200 metres. About 60% of the land was filled in with dirt and 40% was rice field. 

The locals reckon the going rate is 70k a Rai if it's just rice field and not filled in, but we've been trying to buy a bit more either side of ours (pieces with no road access) and been quoted stupid amounts, so actually getting it for that price is a different matter. Could be my farang face but my gf just thinks they don't really want to sell so they're trying their luck with a high price to see if we bite. For example, there is a piece next to our driveway (about 1/2 Rai) and the owner approached us asking 300,000 for it, after we politely turned it down she reckons she sold it for 400,000 to her cousin the following week, although we've never seen him and suspect this is BS to save face after we didn't show any interest. 

So in my opinion it's very easy for locals to quote any price they like (they tend to quote very low prices if they don't have anything to sell to make it seem like you paid too much and they're much smarter and could get a much better deal if they had the money), but actually getting it for that price is a different matter. If they actually have any to sell (or can make commission by putting you in contact with someone who does) then the price is very high. 

If you buy, make sure you lease it back (an official contract) from the owner even if that's your wife.

7 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

You've got an MT09? Excellent.

I must get down to KK someday (nearest Yamaha dealers to me) and test one. Just for the motor, absolutely every journo in the whole world raves about the motor. I would not buy an MT as i prefer a motorcycle rather than a transformer ie if i was buying, it would be the XSR.  The MT in your pic looks soooooooo much better with that front light. They transform a Speed Triple too.

 The XSR in the pic i posted is from some American forum (possibly Adv Rider - XSR 900 owners or similar) and that bike has a dart flyscreen over a cheapo version of the Motodemic (have you seen the price?!), and the seat cowl is genuine Yamaha accessories. Yeah, can't beat yellow & Yamaha & speed blocks...

Edit.

 Remember now, it was a topic on the Graves (spelling?) ECU flash and 3:1 full ex system which this bike has. Possibly a Graves show bike....

Yeah I got the mt09 about 14 months ago. It's a great bike, I use it primarily for hooligan rides in Bangkok but I also did a tour of the North on it with a passenger and panniers. Chiang mai to Pai was a lot of fun even in the wet.

I'm not in love with the look but the combination of comfort and that torquey triple makes up for it, tons of character. If I had time I'd probably change the exhaust and the headlight but at the moment I'm lucky to find time to ride it, let alone modify it.

I'd buy online. I got one for my MT09 for just over 3000 Baht including delivery from Ebay. Didn't get charged import tax. Seller was SD Moto Parts but not sure if they sell for the HyperMotard. If they don't, someone else will.

If you buy one here, they'll have bought it for a similar price I paid and will probably want 50% more.

21 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

rather than transformers....????

 

Yeah those Speedblock graphics are awesome but there's something a bit wrong about the rest of the bike IMO. Seems a bit contrived.

Motodemic do a headlight conversion (shown below) for the MT09 which I might do to mine if I get bored of the modern look although so far I'm happy with it.

Looks good, much like the bigger brothers in the MT range. Guess the MT07 will be the next one to adopt the new front end.

MT is pretty much synonymous with Yamaha these days (for anyone not stuck in the 80's). Yamaha nailed it with this range of bikes, they even made the XSR900 from the same platform for the guys who like their brand new bikes to look 40 years old ????????????

Nothing to see here.

No doubt envelopes will change hands to make this appear to be another big misunderstanding. This NACC official will continue in his "job" and continue driving around with a gun and believing he is untouchable. Which he probably is.

Instead of getting involved in twerking dancers, the PM should get involved in serious issues like this to prove he is sincere about cleaning things up. But he won't, he will continue being sanctimonious and doing absolutely nothing of note.

A great way to pretend to address the stray dog issue, while in reality collecting loads of cash from the public and doing nothing.

I'd second RedBaron, they're supposed to be quite competent.

They used to charge a 10,000 Baht "joining fee" before they'd do any work on your bike, but that was back when they were one of about 3 shows in town. With all the big bike places opening up I'd imagine they dropped that nonsense but best to check.