JonnyF

I like it, but agree that the MT07 and MT09 are way more practical for Thailand than this beast. If it follows the 09 and 07 pricing it should be around 550k here (i.e. about 10% more than the UK price).

Looks good in black.

^

think he means financially ,however the ducatis of today are pretty reliable unlike the ones in years gone by.plus if you buy new have warranty so no matter if it breaks.

You are joking right a friend's Multistrada spent most of a year in the shop for them to figure out the problem, if you cannot ride it what is the point of a warranty. Italian engineering ride it 10 miles 10 days in the shop

9700 kms trouble free on my 899 so far. Done the lot. Touring up North, track days, Bangkok city riding etc. Couldn't be happier with it.

Looking on the positive side, at least it means they do their job and confiscate it. If there was no profit in it then they wouldn't be the slightest bit interested.

I didn't even know the game was banned in Thailand, I bought it here very easily.

It's a great game (not for kids but then it has an age rating to reflect that) and banning it would be ridiculous. If someone watches Scarface and then goes out and does a professional hit on someone should we ban violent movies? Someone watches an erotic movie and then rapes someone, ban that as well?

I've got loads of friends who've been playing these types of games for years, none of us have been in any serious trouble and most of us are pretty successful people.

These kids were idiots, simple as that. Hope they go to jail for such a cowardly assault.

A strictly enforced annual maintenance test and emissions test would work (assuming you couldn't just buy the certificates after failing the test).

Similar thing happened to a friend of mine as we messed around on a Tesco roof aged around 14 (fortunately no selfies in the 80's). He stupidly stepped onto a skylight and fell through it. Luckily he was able to grab the ledge as he fell through and was left hanging there petrified so we pulled him up to safety. It was around a 20 metre drop onto the concrete warehouse floor had he been unable to cling on by his fingernails.

Hope this kid is OK. A stupid thing to do but who hasn't done stupid stuff in their teens?

What old man line. Simple fact. If you can not handle a large bike - get a small one. Coming home from work I came around the corner and there was a bright yellow Gold Wing, trailer attached, blocking both lanes of the road. Guy was the size of the Michelin man, his wife not far behind. Road was damp but not wet. He could not pick it up, and they were both standing there staring at the bike, but their levitation skills were not working. I weigh 80-85kg. Went to the bike, used the technique described above, got it upright, started it, and parked it on the shoulder for them. Do not know what all this talk of CofG, mud, etc means. Use the proper technique and it can be done. And that Honda weighed more than the AT I think. Google says 410kg - no weight for the added trailer. So over 50% more.

I'm impressed, I trust you were wearing your underpants outside your trousers while this daring rescue unfolded!

I'll try to explain. It's designed to be ridden off road, so if you're using it for it's intended purpose there's a good chance you won't be on the tarmac near your work place like your damsel in distress. You might be half way up (or down) a slippery slope, standing on an uneven surface, gravel or wet dirt, the bike might be caked in 20kgs of wet mud. You might be exhausted from a full days off road riding, you might not even be able to get to the correct side of the bike to apply your Ninja technique if it's just fallen in a tight area.

There's a very good reason that companies try and make their off road bikes lighter, it makes them easier and more fun to ride (plus easier to lift if you drop them). Just saying "you can't handle it" is nonsense - if we all did that we'd be standing around thumping our chests, looking at our 250kg sports bikes. I like this bike a lot, but for me it would be a lot more appealing if it was lighter like the original Africa Twin which was a touch over 200 kgs (dry).

Of course, if you just want a rugged looking bike for touring, a few fire trails, adventure trips to Amazon (the coffee shop, not the jungle) then the weight won't matter too much and it will be a solid, dependable, comfy tourer.

The CG on a HD is way lower than a loaded AT.

If both are laying on their sides I hazard that there is not much difference in CofG. HD way more heavy, and as said - if a 60kg girl can do it I would be ashamed to wait for help. Maybe buy a smaller bike if you can not handle a large one.

30 kgs less is better than 30 kgs more, whichever way you spin it. I could lift my CR250 from its side very easily in my garage at 10am. Could probably do it 20 times before getting tired. After a long days riding, when it was covered in heavy mud, on a slope, with poor grip underfoot, arm pump and tired legs it was a different story.

Less weight off road is good, especially when we are talking about a 240 kg bike (without mud, panniers etc).

The old "man up" line doesn't really cut it. I'd prefer a lighter bike.

The torque and HP curves illustrated above are so close as to be nearly identical. Would have a hard time telling them apart on the street, unless one of the bikes was 100kg lighter

The mt09 tracer is "only" 30 kgs lighter than the dct Honda, but 30 kgs is a lot despite the "mass centralization" in the Honda brochure.

Those Yam triples sound sweet, and 70-100k baht is a substantial saving for the Yam over the Honda. That covers tyres and servicing for several years.

4th biggest? According to Wikipedia Thailand was 25th in 2014. It would take around 500% growth in 2015 to see them jump into 4th spot. Must have been a good year, well done

I may be wrong, but this may be the ex-judge that was once a crazy judge, reported a while back blowing her top with police at another location.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/654074-thai-judge-to-face-judicial-discipline-after-going-berserk/

suwan-chidchanok.jpg

You be the Judge.

Yes that's her, why are Thais afraid to confront these so called hi sos? Arrest her an put her into the nearest mental institute.

A hiso driving a Camry? Please say it's no so. She won't be back in Thai Tatler anytime soon.

The 'ex-judge's' car is a silver Toyota Vios. The Toyota she abused by throwing food on it was a police department silver Camry. She is a no-so.

Actually it's an Altis, status wise between a Vios and a Camry. But certainly not a car a genuine Hiso would drive.

This video is great. The huge loss of face is more punishment than a small parking fine could ever be

The difference between Laura's experience and the Miller's experience is astounding. Polar opposites. If you really think about it, it's quite troubling.

I got the Honda CBR650f ans find really it has more than enough power as the roads are so freaking slippery here when bone dry that the back wheel is often slipping under hard acceleration in 1-2 gears, dread to think what more powerful bike would be like.

ZX10R has an excellent traction control system and multiple power modes, as well as top notch ABS. Unless the rider has self control issues it's safer that a CBR650.

It's also an excellent price here in Thailand, by far the best value litre bike available with excellent support from Kawasaki. Personally I'm waiting to see what Honda does with the CBR1000RR in 2017 but if they do nothing again then I'll have a serious look at the ZX10R, that will give Kawasaki a year to sort out any first year issues and avoid any potential recalls such as the 2015 R1 gearbox issues.

Why are they not pointing at the snake? Have they concluded its not at fault ... like the Turkish guy they arrested over a bag of tea?

Maybe from a connected family of civil serpents.

I'm still looking for an alternative. It is far away for me and the price of 720 THB per liter is quite high in my opinion.

Yikes ! That works out to almost $30.00 per liter. Excellent quality oil is available at a fraction of this cost.

Out of interest, what do you use?

An oil change using Putoline Nano Tech fully synthetic will cost around 2500 baht in oil, on a (almost) million baht bike. My GSXR ran noticeably cooler and the gear changes were silky smooth with this oil. I don't think it's worth saving a fraction of 2500 baht on oil changes on such an expensive bike. Of course I'll use whatever happens to be on the shelf at the time on scooters etc.

Edit ; PS 720 baht is 20 USD not 30.

The Nanotech I bought is 720 THB per liter. Not sure if the 4L bottle is not cheaper. That is a significant price when taking into account that you have to change the oil in Thailand around every 7000 km whereas in Europe you would do it every 12-15000 km. On top I have to calculate an oil filter and the high charges of Ducati for the service. That adds up to nearly 5k THB.

Otherwise I agree with you. The setup I'm driving was over a million and sure, cheaping out on service does not make much sense. But I'm still convinced it should be possible to find a quality oil for around 400 THB per liter.

The filter and labour costs the same no matter what oil you use. Just buy the best oil you can.

Oil changes everywhere other than Thailand are 12,000 kms intervals for modern Ducatis. For some reason in Thailand they halve the service kms to 6,000 kms, not sure why but I guess because the heat and dirty conditions are not friendly to engines. However, these additional service intervals do not affect warranty so you can do them yourself i.e. No labour cost. Personally I like the extra service interval as I like to change oil frequently, it's cheap insurance against wear and tear.

But whether you do it at 6000 or 12000, if you're trying to save a percentage of 2500 baht then I think you probably bought the wrong bike. If you save 1000 baht every 6000 kms you have to be doing some pretty serious kms before that makes a dent on the cost of ownership of a Diavel compared to depreciation, insurance, tyres, fuel etc.

Edit ; PS 720 baht is 20 USD not 30.

Was not quoting US dollars. The rate is around $25 Canadian now,

Ok maybe better specify if you're Australian, Canadian etc.

So what fully synthetic are you buying so cheap in bangkok?

I'm still looking for an alternative. It is far away for me and the price of 720 THB per liter is quite high in my opinion.

Yikes ! That works out to almost $30.00 per liter. Excellent quality oil is available at a fraction of this cost.

Out of interest, what do you use?

An oil change using Putoline Nano Tech fully synthetic will cost around 2500 baht in oil, on a (almost) million baht bike. My GSXR ran noticeably cooler and the gear changes were silky smooth with this oil. I don't think it's worth saving a fraction of 2500 baht on oil changes on such an expensive bike. Of course I'll use whatever happens to be on the shelf at the time on scooters etc.

Edit ; PS 720 baht is 20 USD not 30.

I get mine from the shop next to Dainese on Pradist Manudharm Road (between Central Eastville and Honda BigWing). Good quality fully synthetic oil in there.

There's 3 bike related shops next to each other there. Dainese, a helmet shop and one other shop. It's the other shop. Also good for brake fluid, chain lube etc.

That is the one I went yesterday. Luckily they open opened up again after a few days closed. 1452242171644.jpg

I'm still looking for an alternative. It is far away for me and the price of 720 THB per liter is quite high in my opinion.

That's the oil I bought as well. It's expensive due to the fact it's Putoline Nano Tech, not really due to the shop you bought it in. It's just expensive oil, but excellent quality IMO. My gsxr ran fantastically well with that stuff in it. See how you go with it, you might decide it's worth the extra.

I get mine from the shop next to Dainese on Pradist Manudharm Road (between Central Eastville and Honda BigWing). Good quality fully synthetic oil in there.

There's 3 bike related shops next to each other there. Dainese, a helmet shop and one other shop. It's the other shop. Also good for brake fluid, chain lube etc.

Buy one second hand for 15k baht, you can sell it for half that easily in 6 months and it's still cheaper than renting.

Or maybe you'll decide to stay longer. I was in exactly your situation 9 years ago (planning a short term stay, couldn't decide to buy or rent). I decided to buy and 9 years later I'm still here and still own the bike and it still runs great .

^ no idea but it's a 30-45 minute job. Takes longer to remove the fairings than it does to disconnect the canister... I got Ducati to do it in case of warranty issues if I did it myself...

No issues with my 899 so far except the hot start issue that's fixed free and easily under warranty by removing the charcoal cannister which is just a Euro emissions thing. Approaching 8000 kms now on a tour of the north and it's not missed a beat.

I agree with Nikster though, these are not bikes to have as an only bike that you rely on daily through rain and shine. They're awesome, beautiful and loads of fun but it's best to have a cbr150/Ninja 250 or whatever in the garage for the dirty day to day stuff IMO. Then have a blast at the weekend on the Duc.

Same thing happened to me last year. We didn't put money in it, it came with money in it already as we bought it from the stall. It hadn't floated more than 2 feet before some kid grabbed it, pretty much ripped it up to scavenge a few copper coins and tossed it back in. His mother was stood by instructing him what to do. I gave it a miss this year and went out for a nice meal instead.

The girl I deal with at Ducati told me the Panigale 959 will probably be released in Thailand in March at the motor show. No idea of price.

No surprise here. They told everyone a couple of weeks ago that it needed a different name for people to accept it. And here we are [drumroll], the "National Internet Gateway" controlled by a state run company. They're probably hoping that putting "National" in the new name will make all Thai people love it.