JonnyF

17 hours ago, Kf6vci said:

Had a 150 cc 2-stroke Serpico. Badly maintained. From wheel bearings to a leaking 2-stroke oil tank. The issues were forcing me to take it to the shop weekly.

 

Thai mechanics love to mess with carburettors and use the wrong hoses etc., I had enough horror experiences to last me a lifetime.

 

A mass-produced semi-automatic would be my choice if you are on a tight budget.

Same here with my CR125R. Even bought a carb rebuild kit which I gave to the mechanic, god knows what he did with it because when I had a look a few weeks later to see why it was still running bad it still had the old broken gaskets, the wrong jets etc. 

If you're going Chinese I'd go GPX. They are fairly decent quality and the Legend 200 doesn't look too bad if you're into the Hipster retro thing.

1 hour ago, kekalot said:

I did have a USB lighter charger adapter plugged in for the whole 10 days or so that it was parked, that included a USB cable but nothing charging on it

everything else turns off as soon as you put the peg down, lights, UI and everything.

 

however, I wouldn't be surprised if the guy that lives next door didn't screw around with it because he hates me (for no good reasons).. if he went and pressed  that keyless button nonstop to trigger the key check it probably would have killed the battery. (that's technically the only thing you can do without the key in pocket)

 

 

 

Yeah Thais love pressing the buttons on other peoples bikes. The number of times I've found full beam on, adjustable levers adjusted etc. it does my head it.

If you're really stuck you can use a computer UPS, remove the battery from that and replace with your bike battery and leave it on for 24 hours. They constantly charge at a slow rate.

1 hour ago, likerdup1 said:

The Train from Pattaya station doesn't take bikes. I went over there yesterday and asked the station master.... Mai Dai !! Mai Dai... oh well. Yes the Post will do it but the bike has to be shipped out of Banglumung Post Office in Naklua... too much hassle because has to be packed etc... but the price is not bad 1200THB + packing 300THB

By the time you've messed around at both ends, packing and unpacking etc. you could have ridden it there for about 150 Baht petrol. Why not just do it early on a Sunday morning when Bangkok is quiet, leave at sunrise when it's nice and cool, take it steady and have Brekkie in Bangkok about 9am. I did Bangkok to Korat at Songkran last year on a little KSR110 (so I could cut through the traffic), about 250 kms and it was pretty enjoyable.

Edited.. Too much dumb here to waste my time on ???? 

24 minutes ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

Looks like a very playful pup.  You Pitbull haters should be ashamed.

What a silly argument. Maybe we should ban Labradors as well. I mean, if they can bite "The Dog Whisperer" they can bite anyone right? Imagine if this was a child's face! Ban those evil, devil worshiping Labradors immediately

On 2/18/2019 at 9:12 AM, VocalNeal said:

 

Google maps is good enough for touring. Downside it will lose signal in really remote places but you will find all the interesting places when you are lost and the scooter make not get you up bad dirt roads to places with no signal.

 

If the bike is in generally good nick and has been recently serviced just get on the bloody thing and ride. Everything else is part of the adventure.

 

 

Google maps allows you to download the map to your device for a month now (offline maps) so you can download before you set off in case your internet connection goes down. The GPS should work anywhere but if in the unlikely event that it doesn't you still have a map downloaded on your phone so you should never really get lost.

Back to touring on big bikes/scooters - I have done both and big bikes are way better for this. More comfy, more stable, better brakes, more grip, power to get away from tailgaters, more road presence, more fun etc. Big bikes can go slow but scooters can't go fast (especially up twisty mountains). No fun for me going up a steep hill at 40 kph on a scooter with the throttle wide open as pickups blast past me a metre away. There's nothing wrong with touring on a scooter, it's just more fun and easier on a big bike.

13 hours ago, jackdd said:

20-30% discount on a bike where people will have serious problems getting anything repaired in the near future? Doesn't sound like a good deal

It says they'll continue to provide after service care. How true this is I don't know, but KTM have an excellent reputation for standing by their products in the event of recalls etc. so hopefully that will extend to keeping some service centres open here. Of course, we have to remember where we are...

Personally I'd take a 250 SX-F or a 150 SX at 30% off but I doubt many bikes will have that type of discount and almost certainly not the off road range. I might go check out the festival anyway just in case. There's a few new bikes (not KTM's) I'd like to see in the flesh anyway.

On 2/8/2019 at 4:49 PM, findlay13 said:

I've mentioned before The New Triumph Speedmaster is 645,000 bht in Thailand and 21K in Australia.The Aussie dollar being very weak ATM,that's less than 455,000 bht.

The strong baht and weak AUD / GBP is definitely making bikes seem comparatively expensive here, but in the case of the Speed Twin I do think Triumph Thailand has overpriced it by about 10%.

Maybe due to high demand in other regions so they can afford to chance it with a high price here, if it doesn't sell then they have customers lined up elsewhere...

On 2/8/2019 at 3:15 PM, BKKBike09 said:

You sold your Ducati? 

 

+1 to JonnyF's comment: I bought an FZ09 in May 2014 and still have the bike. I love it. It was 435,000 when first introduced here; now as the MT09 it's under 400K, and also has all the goodies that the original FZ import didn't have (e.g. ABS, slipper clutch, traction control, quickshifter). For a CBU import I think it's hard to beat. The triple crossplane engine is a beauty. Like JonnyF I mostly ride it in BKK and I find it as easy to filter as my PCX (I'm 6'2"). Slightly narrower bars though are a good call. The main negatives for me are:

 

1. The original seat was bone hard (I had it re-shaped and some more padding added)

2. The tank capacity is on the small side

3. It used to be hard to find aftermarket accessories - I don't know about now 

4. It's quite hard to keep the front wheel on the ground in first and second gear (Ed. - this is not a negative)

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Still got the 899 but I use it only for what it's intended i.e. 2-3 hour blasts out of the city (Rayong, Kanchanaburi etc.) and track days. Love that bike, 22k kms so far and the biggest issue was fork seals!

Good point on the small tank on the MT09 but I found that it's not too bad in terms of kpl. I can easily get 200 kms between fillups if I'm touring at sensible speeds. I find the seat ok but I made a detachable pillion 'cushion' for the gf as it's pretty much a slab back there.

Good helmets. They're my preferred choice for Street helmets in Thailand. I have 3, a Spartan Carbon, a Speed-R and a S600. The S600 is in the 5-8000 range (or it was when I bought it) and I use it in Bangkok as I don't like leaving a 20,000 Baht helmet on the bike when I park up somewhere. It's held up really well, still looks pretty much new after 3 years of medium/lightish use.

They do well in safety ratings.

I ride pretty much the same as normal with ABS or no ABS although I am very conscious when riding my non ABS bikes that I don't have it.

If you have it, it's really nice to have adjustable ABS. I have it adjustable on one of my bikes and I keep it set to level 3 of 9 (1 of 9 being the lowest). On the bike that has non adjustable ABS I find it kicks in too early and the rear pedal pulses quite a bit even when braking reasonably hard, it would be nice to turn it down a bit especially on the rear where locking up momentarily is no big deal.

15 hours ago, Hupaponics said:

 

Pardon my poor English, but is a private restaurant included in this?

I really hope so. Outdoor seating areas at restaurants are basically a smoking convention now and pretty much impossible to use if you're a non smoker.

1 hour ago, Bluespunk said:

Swapping one addiction for another isn’t quitting. 

You are missing the point. 

1. E cigarettes are safer. You can refuse to believe it but many studies have shown this. So even if people don't quit altogether, their health is better than it would be smoking traditional cigarettes.

2. They DO help to quit altogether as they are a step towards removing the addiction. I quit with the help of them, I moved to E-Cigs for about a year, then stopped altogether, it was much easier that way as I was less addicted by that point. It would be a bit like an alcoholic swapping 40% Vodka for 6% Fruit wine for a year and then cutting out the fruit wine. Similarly, smoking cigarettes I'd always smoke the whole thing, whereas I might have only wanted a couple of puffs. With E-Cigs you can have a puff or two when you really want it then put it back in your pocket, thereby cutting down your intake. Really useful if you are trying to quit gradually.

3. No dirty ash, butts, smoke for others to contend with.

They are a positive step towards removing nicotine addiction.

Not sure why they made it so ugly. Looks like the Honda Vultus' pet dog.

I can see some benefits in terms of being able to print off spare parts at a moments notice but for 2000 pounds (82,000 baht) you can get a fairly decent conventional scooter like a N-Max. Even if they could halve that price I'd probably rather have a Honda Wave for 40,000. 

I can see huge potential of 3D printing for lots of applications but I'm not sure it's best suited to making complete motorcycles, at this stage anyway.

12 hours ago, jackdd said:

If you want to transfer it in Bangkok you will need a certificate of residence from Bangkok, which you will only get if you do 90 day reports there. Maybe they would accept a work permit from another province.

I can confirm they accept work permits from another province. I did a transfer in Chiang Mai with a Bangkok work permit.

I would do the transfer in the location you buy it. You don't want to pay the money, take it to Phuket and then find out they won't transfer the bike to your name for some reason.

When you get back to Phuket (with your name in the book already) you can change the plate to a Phuket plate if you wish or you could just leave it as a Bangkok plate. Neither will be an issue.