jackcorbett

I would like to comment on this 150 baht ATM charge.

Personally i think its an annoying but very bearable charge. One poster put it well when he said (summing up in my own words here ) people don't mind spending thousands of baht a night on overpriced drinks but begrudge paying ANYTHING on an ATM charge . If the charge were 50 baht you would all still be whingeing. Its the fact that you don't want to pay anything at all thats the issue , not the 150 baht.

However a possible solution to minimise this is if you stop taking trivial amounts out and take one whacking lump out , then surely the 150 baht becomes trivial?

Part of the problem , and it applies here in the UK especially i've noticed, is that people walk around with almost nothing on them in cash. For Christs sake why?

In the UK, I always have a couple of hundred pounds in my wallet and feel naked if that drops to below 50. In Thailand i usually think between 10-20, 000 baht is about right , never letting it drop below this .So when i take money from a ATM its usually about 100,000 worth so a 150 baht charge , whilst annoying in principle , is nothing at all. But if you are amounst those who go to the ATM 25 times a week and take out 200 baht (just like the thousands who queue in the UK at ATM's for 10 minutes to withdraw a tenner and then do the same thing the next day) then i think you are overcomplicating your lives and costing yourselves unneccessarily.

Part of the problems in this modern day life is that people have been brought up to rely on credit / debit cards and lazily don't carry cash. I am the opposite , i carry cash , buy almost everything in cash , and whilst i have loads of credit cards i rarely use them even for big bills. I am driven to distraction queueing in a shop behind someone who buys £3 of goods and whips out the credit card . No wonder people have so many money problems.

To summarise ... my solution to getting round this 150 baht insignificant charge is ... carry loads of cash , withdraw rarely and in big amounts .

Problem solved ... No??

Problem not solved. After never being pick pocketed in four years here I have now been pick pocketed twice in a three week period of time. The last time what happened is I was carrying my wallet in my front pocket, not my back pocket. I had gotten on a baht taxi and a woman sat next to me on my left. I spread my legs a bit and the Thai woman sitting across from me started to mouth off at me for spreading my legs. While she was distracting me the woman sitting on my immediate left pulled my wallet out of my pocket. Five minutes later she got up and went over and sat with the other woman. The two women soon got off the taxi together. Five minutes later I got off the taxi and as soon as my feet hit the pavement I knew my wallet was gone as the front of my shorts felt much lighter.

In this same period of time, my neighbor Gus, had his motorbike stolen close to the condo where we both live, in a good area of town, Wongamat Beach. And then just last week while riding his new motorbike Gus had a gold chain snatched off his wrist by two guys speeding by him. Want more? A few months ago a Norwegian pal of mine told me how he had just been pick pocketed on a baht taxi. Same thing happened to him as it did to me except the immediate culprit was a ladyboy who came over to sit close to him while two other women sitting across from him distracted him by conversation. All three got off the baht taxi together. So I had been warned. I just thought I'd be safe by putting my wallet in my front pocket instead of my rear pocket. Since then I've had zippers sewed onto all my front pockets of those shorts that don't already have one already. As for ATM cards, I try to be more disciplined now about putting them in a safe a.s.a.p. after making an ATM transaction.

I do agree that it is best to make large ATM withdrawals. But the crime here is out of sight and it's going to get a lot worse. So my advice is to take most of the cash from an ATM withdrawal and put it in a safe. Then carry just enough to get yourself through the night. If you barfine a girl, pay the barfine but pay her what you owe her from the safe.

I think these are bullshit statistics. The initial post here was dated yesterday. Well here in Naklua last night there was a lot of Songkran still going on. Traffic was barely moving on Naklua Road up to something like 9 p.m. last night. And today we are having the biggest Songkran day in Pattaya itself. So when did we start counting and when did we end it? So.......will the number of people killed or injured yesterday and today be included in the official stats? And if today's numbers are added in the first day's should be chopped off. Which would give us a larger or lesser number? By the way the water throwing started a couple days early here in Pattaya. And I hear that tomorrow is Jomtien's turn for Songkran. I think we will have to put a few more deaths, accidents, and injuries to "the official figures as reported.

Okay...let's just say the number of deaths is just 400, and I think this figure is too low. Most deaths are on motorbikes or motorbike related. Thailand has a population of around 60 million. The U.S. around 300 million. That's 5 times more people in the U.S. Multiply 400 deaths by a factor of five and ask yourselves what would happen in the U.S. if there was a holiday in which 2000 people were killed in a single week to nine days most of them being motorbike related deaths. That holiday would stop right now. The water throwing would be halted. Incidentally just up the street from where I lived there was a group of massage girls throwing water on everyone walking and driving by. The girls were for the most part plastering mud on the faces of everyone going by. But a single Westerner was with these girls with a large squirt gun. And he was aiming straight for the eyes of every motorcyclist who passed. In the U.S. he would have been jailed.

People don't seem to talk about HP laptops much here...but there are tons on sale. Anyone got feedback on their reliability?

Maybe I spoke too soon about the Thinkpads...we killed our first one last week, but it had been a bit of a 'problem machine' since day one.

I will never buy another Hewlett Packard Computer. The company's Notebooks are unreliable to the extreme. And the company has screwed its customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars recently because it along with Dell and other companies put an 8400 series Nvidia graphics card in many of its notebook models. This series of chips causes the Hewlett Packard notebook to run hot and after a time the system board has to be replaced. This happened to me and I sure let Hewlett Packard's customer support know about it. The one year warranty was just over five days past its expiration date when the graphics card went schizo. I sent the notebook into H.P. in Bangkok and after not hearing from H.P. for two weeks I got a computer shop here in Pattaya call them up. The offer from H.P. customer service was it would replace my system board for 13,600 baht. The tech at the shop told me even if I replaced the system board it was likely to fail again so I paid 24,000 baht for an Acer having the same basic specs as the Hewlett Packard which I had paid about 44,000 baht for.

I then emailed H.P. Customer service and got two phone calls from them. I told the rep on the phone that I knew H.P. knew it had been putting defective graphics cards in many of their laptop models and that I knew this was a multi hundred million dollar mistake of H.P.s. I told the rep that I knew that H.P. was extending its warranties from one to two years for their Canadian customers. The rep told me H.P. would give me a 10 % discount on the repair that would have originally been 13,600 baht and I just told the rep that I wouldn't pay one cent for the repair, that I had already bought an Acer to replace it and that my shiny 44,000 baht H.P. notebook was now a useless piece of junk in my safe H.P. was quite satisfied with the level of customer service it had given me.

I just got an email from a good friend containing this article H.P.'s several hundred million dollar Nvidia graphics card mistake I have not heard again from H.P'.s worthless customer support but I will be contacting it again. I will explain that I can understand why H.P. wrote off its good will to thousands of its loyal customers as this was strictly business and that H.P. felt it was more prudent to cheat its customers out of several hundred million dollars than to make good on thousands of defective notebooks it had knowingly sold them, and that now I've made my business decision that having been cheated by H.P. to the tune of a 44,000 baht defective notebook my goal was to cost the company at least 100 times this amount in the bad publicity i could personally generate for the company. The continued existence of a company that is this disdainful of its customers can no longer be justified.

Honda has to come up with a new model Airblade to continue competing against Yamaha because right now as good as it is, it is seriously outgunned.

I seriously diagree. The new Nouvo only beats the Air Blade in CC's. The Air Blade is better than the Nouvo in every other aspect including styling which IMO is the most disappointing aspect of the new Nouvo and one of the main reasons I didn't buy one.

Fully agree! I am very happy with my Airblade even it is not Fuel injected. Great City Bike. Stable, fast, never any problem!

I agree that the Airblade is a great bike. I now have around 700 kilometers on my new Nouvo and as good as the Airblade is, the new Nouvo either equals it or trumps it. Others here have stated the Airblade has better brakes than the old model 115 c.c. Nouvo. True but from what I've seen out of my new Nouvo the brakes are flawless and definitely the equal of the Airblade's. I've mentioned before that the Airblade seems more agile than the old 115 c.c. Nouvo in that it turns more easily and quickly while still being stable. The new Nouvo now turns more quickly than before, yet it feels just as stable. The new Nouvo is a very precise handling piece of equipment. that feels so so right. People here have criticized the colors of the Nouvo 135 c.c. Elegance. However, just recently Yamaha introduced new colors on its new models and in my opinion Yamaha came up with stable of winners this time. In the engine department the new 135 cc. water cooled Yamaha engine is every bit as quiet as the Airblades. And lastly that 135 c.c. liquid cooled engine of Yamaha's will seriously outrun either the old Yamaha 115 c.c. air cooled model or the 110 c.c. Airblade. I used to like my old 115 c.c. Yamaha Nouvo a great deal and I liked the Airblades about as much. But the new 135 c.c. Nouvo, I don't just like. I love it. It's the new king of the hill of all motorbikes in my book (I am distinguishing here motorcyles from what is refered to here as a motorbike since motorbikes resemble a scooter in many ways)

'safety awareness to "set in" with the younger generations...;

I don't see this happening when the Thai governments don't really see it as priority. I know a family where the auntie had a very serious accident was in hospital weeks and had part of her skull removed (she had a flat part on the side until reconstrutive surgery) and still some members of the family will ride without helmets. when i asked why "to hot" was the answer. And these are not dumb people (well ok they are in this aspect of their lives, but not usually)

Every time i am there and either my friend or her 13 year old daughter go out on the bike, I have to remind them to put the helmet on. I tell them i do this because i like their heads the shape they are now, NOT flat.

More training and awareness need to happen at a grass roots level. Take this stupid alcohol ban at Songkran.... educate, educate and educate about it don't bloody ban it.

Also thanks Lickey i will introduce that website info into my school lessons.

Allan

I have a neighbor from Switzerland who drives helmet less every chance he gets. If he thinks he won't get stopped by the police he won't wear his helmet even after I constantly remind him. That said......many Thais here in Pattaya do not wear helmets. They don't stop for red lights and they drive on the wrong side of the road. THey have no concept of spacial awareness and their road manners are terrible. I don't think our female Thai manager will drive like that and I doubt if our male Thai maintenance guy does or our engineer at this condo either. In fact my last gf insisted I get her a good full coverage helmet and I don't think she had more than a sixth grade education. I just think a lot of Thais here in Pattaya have brain dead itis. But a sizeable percentage of them don't. I think it's because the police does not enforce the rules of the road here. If they did and leveled stiff fines and other punishments on offenders I believe medical science will find that the brain dead itis will have gone by the way side for the most part just like leprosy has in developed countries. Because of politicians and a police force that is not doing its job I've noticed that Brain dead itis has been spreading very rapidly among Westerners here as well.

Pattaya46,

I understand what your are saying. For me, I was on a scooter on Koh Larn with my gf and we couldn't make it up a steep hill. I can see that for the most part BKK and out in Pak Chong (where I'm building a house) is flat, but I'd like more power if I have a passenger.

I currently have a Piaggio MP3 250cc in San Francisco (lots of hills here)

That must have been a scooter that's either 100 c.c's or less or there was something wrong with the engine or you and your girlfriend are pretty heavy. I've often rented scooters at Ko Larn Island. Once rented a 125 c.c. Wave with no problems on the hills but every other time (six times or so) I've rented the 110 c.c. Airblade and always had my 44 kilo girlfriend behind me. I weigh about 78 kilos so combined that's 132 kilos. All the Airblades i rented handled all hills at Ko Larn just fine with my girlfriend and I going up them two up. I now own the Yamaha Nouvo 135 c.c. Elegance that's good for about 25 % more power than the non fuel injected Air Blades and 115 c.c. Nouvo's and I'll sure it would handle any hill at Ko Larn with aplomb.

Hi GungaDin,

on my model, which is a special edition, the wheels are silver.

to Jack,

sorry to reply late. I don't look each day in this forum. I will enclose a picture, which I took at the dealer (before buying it).

After 3 weeks now, I like it very much. It has enough power to quickly slip through the traffic. I like the seat and the large storage compartment. The engine is very quite due liquid cooling, I think.

What I dislike is the small digital milage and thermometer display. It is very difficult to read.

Helmut

Actually I like the new instruments, especially the blue color of their lighting.

So what kind of fuel economy are you getting? My new Nouvo Elegance is not broken in yet. Ross tells me his gained a fair amount of power as well as better fuel economy once he had his well broken in. I think I'm getting around 35 kilometers/liter here in Pattaya which is mostly stop and go miles and that it's doing substantially better than my 115 c.c. bike I'm about to pass onto my neighbor. I need to keep an eye on this as time gets on but my initial thought is Yamaha came up with one helluva engine in the 135 c.c. watercooled Elegance and felt that fuel injection was not necessary. Ross rented the 115 c.c. Nouvo for a month, then the Airblade. He preferred the Nouvo and then he bought the 135 c.c. model soon after it came out. He keeps on saying, "I love it. I love it."

Hi GungaDin,

on my model, which is a special edition, the wheels are silver.

to Jack,

sorry to reply late. I don't look each day in this forum. I will enclose a picture, which I took at the dealer (before buying it).

After 3 weeks now, I like it very much. It has enough power to quickly slip through the traffic. I like the seat and the large storage compartment. The engine is very quite due liquid cooling, I think.

What I dislike is the small digital milage and thermometer display. It is very difficult to read.

Helmut

Update on my new Nouvo 135 c.c. Elegance. First off, I don't think anybody here has commented on this including myself as I just noticed it around 10 days ago. The 135 c.c. Nouvo's most definitely handles more quickly than the old 115 c.c. air cooled models such as the one I've owned for three years. My new machine is noticeably quicker steering and is more Air Blade like. I was wondering why. One thing I noticed is I seemed to be sitting closer to my speedometer and my knees would often nearly jam into the back of the little faring in front of me. So I got a measuring tape. The Nouvo Elegance is 2 inches taller than the 115 c.c. model. That is the seat is 2 inches higher. The seat is also two inches closer to the cowling. So sitting closer and higher over the instrument panel not to mention the front wheel of the bike adds quickness to the steering and makes the bike more agile without making it less stable. The Nouvo Elegance doubtlessly has the same wheel base as the old model and it has the same tire size and wheel diameter of 16 inches as compared to the Air Blades 14 inches.

Which I think is an interesting comparison....that is how does the new 135 c.c. stack up against its main competitor the Air Blade and the 115 c.c. Nouvo? Being water cooled the 135 c.c. Elegance is much more quiet than the 115 c.c. air cooled model. It also seems to be smoother on takeoff and my brakes seem to be substantually better than on my 115 c.c. Nouvo. Brakes are so far very smooth and they seem to be more powerful as well. The engine doesn't seem to rev up nearly as high either so I don't think it has to work nearly as hard which could well translate out to better fuel economy even though we are talking about a signficant power increase of close to 25 % due to its watercooling and appreciably larger displacement. Much of the time you are simply not very high up in the rpms and yet you still get plenty of power. Twist the throttle up and the bike has excellent acceleration. All in all this is one very refined piece of machinery that is utterly smooth in all departments.

Appearance wise in my opinion the new color schemes of the most recently introduced Nouvo Elegance are vastly more attractive than the first series of Elegances that came out. My pal Ross has the black model but it came with bright red springs in the back on the shocks which looks awful in my opinion. I nearly bought one but I had gotten the dealer to agree to swap out the red colored springs that came with the bike for the chrome colored ones that are used on the other colored machines. Also on this first series of Nouvo Elegance there is in my opinion too much writing across the machine below the seat. This clutters up the appearance of the bike while tending to make it look too long.

And speaking of the Nouvo's longish appearance, I think this first series of Elegance models is also 2 inches higher than the 115 cc models with its seat positioned 2 inches farther forward just like mine which I would categorize as the 2nd generation 135 cc Elegance. I think the mechanics are the same and that it's only in the color schemes that the two generations differ although there might be a small mechanical improvement here and there. When you think about it, if you increase the height of a motorcycle while keeping its wheel base the same length the bike is now going to appear chunkier or more squat. That's the appearance of the Air Blade. It most definitely has a shorter wheelbase than the Nouvo and its got fatter tires as well which gives it more of a motorcycle appearance and more balanced look. But I think when Yamaha first came out with its new 135 c.c. Elegance models changing the seat height while moving it forward did not make the bike appear more motorcycle like due to its paint schemes and overuse of writing which by the way, I think is overdone on the majority of the motorbikes models regardless of manufacturer. For instance Honda was pretty guilty here with its earlier Click models but I think Honda has recently reduced all that clutter with its latest version of the Click which is now fuel injected as well. The current edition of the Click is a nice looking machine in my opinion.

My Nouvo is black but its got an off white colored fairing. Its seat and the inside of its console or fairing is tan colored and I think this two colored scheme where the colors sharply contrast with each other makes the bike appear to be shorter than it actually is. So the new color schemes of the latest Elegance models work in tandem with the 2 inch raising of the seat to make the overall appearance of the bike to seem less lengthy and more balanced. This makes sense when you consider that warships have often been painted certain colors and in certain patterns to change their overall appearance. For example battleships could be painted in a certain manner to make them appear to be much smaller than they actually were or a Cruiser could be made to appear much larger --- as a battle ship just to confuse the enemy.

I do want to emphasize that all of this is subjective of course. Some might find a longish looking bike to be more elegant than one that appears shorter and more closely coupled. All in all, I do think that Yamaha's now once again at the top of the heap and at the very cutting edge of the current crop of automatics. The difference between 110 or 115 cc bike such as the air cooled Nouvo and non fuel injected Air Blade compared to the 135 cc. new water cooled Nouvo Elegance is very pronounced. As far as Honda's fuel injecting its Click and Air Blade models, I think that was a good idea and the prospect of 15 % more fuel economy which means 15 more miles before one has to fill the machine up was pretty appealing to me. How much more power the fuel injected models produce is only a guess. Perhaps there's hardly any although I got it from Dave here that he feels there's a noticeable power difference. I'll know more later on as I start to break in my new Nouvo more and get a better feel for its fuel economy but on preliminary fuel economy checks with the bike still not broken in, I'd say that is probably getting the same kind of fuel economy improvements Honda's getting on its fuel injection models (around 15 %) by using a carburator simply because the engine doesn't have to work very hard. To sum up the new Nouvo 135 c.c. models I feel it is excellent in all departments and that it represents notable improvements over the 115 c.c. air cooled models in overall smoothness, engine quietness, braking, power, and knock on wood (because I'm not sure yet) fuel economy.

Well, I just had to get one. Here's five pictures of my new Yamaha Nouvo 135 cc. To view the five pictures click here which I just put in my web site's showcase directory. This is the black color scheme and the first Nouvo Elegance I've actually seen with the new colors. There's a sister dealership the salesman and I went to where we set the price and there they had the new white model which actually looks better than it does in the picture in the new Yamaha brochure. I think the new red color scheme will be possibly the most attractive of the lot but I was torn between the black and the red, and not wanting to attract too much attention to myself I went for this one.

As I mentioned here before my buddy Ross's Elegance goes like a bat out of hel_l now that it's broken in. I'm just babying this one--so far. But it runs very quiet. And although the specs seem the seem except the engine size and type, this one seems to drive differently than my old Nouvo 115 cc. aircooled model. When I sit on it it feels more compact, more like an Airblade. It also drives like a more compact machine compared to my old one I'm selling to my neighbor. It also seems quicker to turn. All in all it's a very smooth and refined machine that I think I'm going to like very much.

How about this one then? Just several days ago I had a motorbike hit me while I was a pedestrian. I was exercising by walking and running from Naklua down to Walking Street and back. On my return, and by this time I was only walking I was coming down the sidewalk on 2nd Road approximately one or two blocks North of Soi Six on the West side of the street. There was a little street in front of me and everything being clear ahead I started to walk across. I got halfway across when I suddenly got hit by a motorbike, not hard thank god but hit nevertheless. What had happened is two Thai gals were on a motorbike driving North on 2nd Road and the driver suddenly decided to turn left. I could not see the motorbike while crossing the little soi as they were to my right and a bit behind me. So I wound up with this motorbike up against my right side after striking my right arm. We were almost tangled up together. I just stood there for several seconds or so with a very sour look on my face. I got a brief glimpse of the two gals and detected from their general demeanor that they considered me at fault for being a foreigner who should not have been in the space they wanted to turn into in the first place. No apology. Nothing from either girl. There were a couple motorbikes following them. No reaction from anyone on either of the other two bikes. I suppose running down pedestrians in this quarter of Pattaya is normally accepted behavior. Had this happened in the U.S. the driver of the motorbike would have had her gonads removed on the spot even though she didn't have any. This is a new first in the annals of my personal experiences of getting around in the Pattaya area, even topping the time a Thai woman driver of a motorbike rear ended my motorbike while I was crossing a speed bump.

The new models are still 53000 baht with the spoked wheels. Out the door with insurance and registration they are close to 56,000 baht however.

I paid 57,000 Baht. Incl. mag wheels, registration, helmet, jacket, home delivery, english manual and other excellent services

Helmut

Helmut, if you have the chance can you post a picture of your new bike. Right now I'm about 50-50 on trading my three year old Nouvo in on a new one. But I haven't seen any of the new ones yet, only the pictures. This is the best I've found as of yet of the new red model.

The new models are still 53000 baht with the spoked wheels. Out the door with insurance and registration they are close to 56,000 baht however.

I will have to look at it to decide if it's still ugly or not as the picture doesn't tell the whole tale. However from what I can see, and from another picture I've seen as well, I like the deep shade of red and again, the omission of the excess wording on the previous models. As I posted a few months ago about the ugliness of the first 135 cc. Elegance models, they were obviously ugly so I then stated that we can be fairly sure Yamaha will drastically improve the appearance before long. After all, whether we prefer Honda or Yamaha, it was Yamaha and not Honda that came to the market first with the new automatics. It took Honda a long time to wake up and to shake the cobwebs out of its eyes. So I think we will be seeing a race between these two companies with first one coming out in front, then the other matching and surpassing it, only to be outdone the next time its rival upgrades its models. But I expect for the most part that Yamaha will continue to lead in this market segment. I think when I see the new paint schemes up close and personal that I will be well pleased, especially with red colored model. If it's as pretty as the red and black Airblade, it will be hard for me to resist trading in my 115 c.c. model for one.

Here's a picture of the red model. I have the brochure with all four new models pictured on it. Dealership on Sukamvit Road on Pattaya Klang told me I could have one in two weeks.

Here's the four new color schemes for the new Yamaha 135 c.c. Nouvo Elegance models. four new color schemes for the Yamaha Nouvo Elegance

I stopped into the dealer I had bought my Yamaha Nouvo at three years ago and inquired about new color schemes. All the Nouvo Elegance on the showroom floor were in the old colors but my pal who had bought a Nouvo Elegance a few months ago told me there was a new color out now. I think the old color schemes for the Nouvo Elegance were terrible. There was even a black and silver model that had bright red springs in the back for shocks. Talk about bad taste. Had I bought one in those colors I would certainly had the dealer swap out those goddawful red springs for chrome colored ones or black. Also.....the Yamaha Elegances simply had in my opnion too much writing towards the rear of the bikes. The bikes were identified as Nouvo Elegances. Too much clutter and busyworks spoiling the paint schemes. I've noticed that the new Nouvo Elegances have replaced all of that with just one word. "Nouvo."

I've said before, after riding Ross's Nouvo Elegance, I was amazed at how much more power his bike has now that it's broken in over my 115 c.c.model. I've also said many times that the difference in power between the new Airblades and the Yamaha Nouvo is a moot point here in Pattaya. However, today on my way to immigration I decided to pass a slow poke in front of me. Another bike was coming head on at me. It was no big deal as I think the other driver was alert and as it was my 115 c.c Nouvo had enough guts to get around the slow poke car and still give me enough time to tuck back into my lane. However, the new 135 c.c. Nouvo Elegance would have much more easily handled that little bit of acceleration thus giving me an extra margin of safety.

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't thinking so much of manual vs auto (but I guess its a consideration). More in regards to the riding position and the ability to weave between and around stationary cars. I watch some of the messengers on CBR 150's and I swear it looks like they have a harder time than the auto step throughs..

On topic.. Any thoughts re airblade vs nouvo? Which is quicker/better? I believe the new Airblade is a 125 right?

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I find they are a complete tossup depending on what you prefer. The new Airblades are pretty much the same as the old Airblades being 110 c.c's. However, they are fuel injected and reputedly good for 15 % better fuel economy. As I've said before this means you are going to get 15 % more range so if you are getting say 100 miles to the tank with the old model you will get 115 miles on the new models. They are reputedly more powerful and faster than the old models.

I have the old model Yamaha 115 c.c. Nouvo and I think it's a great bike. Much better than the smaller automatics such as the Yamaha Fino, Mio and the Honda Clicks. But I will oftentimes rent an Air Blade when I'm away from Pattaya and find it to be a great bike too.

Yesterday I once again drove my buddy's Yamaha 135 c.c. Nouvo Elegance. The engine is water cooled whereas mine is air cooled. The new model seems smoother and it's quieter than mine. However, Ross's 135 c.c. had a tad of vibration in the grips. I've driven Ross's bike before but now its engine is fully broken in. It's got a lot of power. I worked out the math and concluded its got around 15 % more power than the old model, but yesterday while riding Ross's 135 c.c. model I felt it had even more than 25 % more power than mine and mine will slightly outrun the old model Airblades so there's nothing wrong with the performance of my Nouvo. The new model just definitely has the guts. It's overkill for Pattaya driving conditions but that extra power still feels very nice. I think any Airblade has all the power one needs here in Pattaya so the new fuel injected models would really be the berries. But i think the 135 cc's of the new Nouvo make it an entirely different kettle of worms. It's fast.

All I gots to say about this is in the 1970s I had a Honda 450 twin that was rated at 45 horsepower and it was good for about 100 miles an hour and that's about it. But it accelerated pretty hard until it got to 90 or so. Later I got a BWW R-65 horizonal twin and it was rated at 50 horsepower. I'd say about 105 miles an hour would catch it. So what's the Euro version of the Ninja rated at---33 horsepower? American version at 27? Ah.....let's see........my BMW twin weighed only 408 pounds.

I've got the new pgm fi air blade and I highly recommend it.

It has more storage that the non FI model under the seat and it has 2 compartments with lids in the front.

Thanks for the heads up. Didn't know they changed it that much.

One huge point in favor for either the Air Blade or the Nouvo that I don't think has been focused on here enough is compared to smaller bikes such as the Click, the Fino, and the Mio the tires on both these bikes are substantially larger. And for that matter there's a big difference between a Honda Wave with its standard tires versus those on the Nouvos and Airblades. A Honda Wave has a measurement of just 60 mm for the width of its front tire. The nouvos are 70 and the Airblade measures 80 which his 33 % wider than the front tire of a Wave. They are also a bit heavier so all in all they are substantially more stable.

Right now I'm nearly tempted into trading for that new fuel injected Air Blade like Dave's got which should get me 15 % further down the road without having to refuel because of the fuel injection. Only thing is my Nouvo, now three years old, is still driving as if it's brand new and the biggest problem so far has been having to replace the rear brake pad for 180 baht.

Here's an update re the Hewlett Packard dv 2626 notebook I sent off to the Bangkok repair center. So, while I am extremely upset with Hewlett Packard for apparently buying el cheapo parts for at least this model of laptop and for faulty standards of workmanship (see my link to the blog at the end with accompanying videos, having full knowledge that its put a real lemon in the hands of its customers, then trying to rip them off for expensive repairs and want as large an audience as possible to know about it, my experience with the two shops at Tuk Com in Pattaya has been quite good and I've felt the two techs I've dealt with at both shops have high integrity and are most capable.

Here's an update on my problems with the Pavilion dv 2626 after my last post.

in a Hewlett Packard Support Forum I found someone who had the exact same problem I've had with the exact same model. Here's my reply to him.

"You have the same problem I've had.

But first off, I now reside permanently in Pattaya, Thailand. I bought my Pavilion dv 2626 in Bangkok a little more than one year ago at a huge computer mall, Pantip. Normally I buy all computers and computer related items here in Pattaya at a smaller computer mall called Tuk.com which is roughly 2 hours from Bangkok. When I bought my 2626 in Bangkok it was the most beautiful, latest and greatest thing going, at that time the only laptop model offering a standard 250 gig hard drive with 2 gig of memory. Wanting the power, I paid substantially more than I would have from other companies---around 44000 baht which is aabout $1300 U.S.

One thing I had always noticed about this laptop is it seemed to run very hot. And then about three weeks ago when I rebooted my machine it exhibited the little mini screens on the display. There were horizontal lines in the display that had never been there before. In short order the machine would refuse to boot up as it would turn black and suddenly freeze. I tried everything. I even had a recent backup on an external drive on which I had backed up the entire system and data. That didn't work either.

So, I took the machine in to the shop I do the most business with at Tuk Com here in Pattaya and had this shop's number one technician look at it. He soon agreed with me that the problem was not software. It was hardware and although he was not sure he felt the system board had gone out. So we sent the notebook to the Hewlett Packard repair center in Bangkok. The deal was I would have to pay 1000 baht for an estimate and then it would be up to me to decide whether or not to have it repaired. Two weeks later, with no word from HP's repair center Manop (the top tech I deal with at this first Tuk Com shop called the Bangkok Repair Center. To get the machine repairs I'd have to pay 12437 baht which is about $375.00 U.S. And Manop was right. It was the system board.

In the meantime, having lost confidence in HP's laptops I started looking for a replacement laptop. So I went into a shop (Pattaya4U) I had bought a Toshiba notebook from two floors down from the large shop Manop worked for because there's a technician there who I have a lot of confidence in as well. This technican told me that a number of Pavilion 2626's and similar laptops had come into his shop for repair and they had exhibited the same display problems--failure to boot that mine had shown. This technician told me that H.P. had sold a lot of very problem prone laptops and that my model was a lemon. I bought an Acer from this shop for around half what I had paid for my Pavilion 2626 and it has similar specs. The technician at this shop told me that when I got my H.P. back from the Bangkok repair center that he'd like to take a look at it--that there was a good chance he could repair the system board.

Three weeks after sending my dv 2626 into the Bangkok repair center it came back to Manop's shop and I paid this shop 1000 baht after which I promptly went to the 2nd shop and gave it to the techician I was dealing with there. He told me he could repair my machine. I then went back to my condo and just two hours later the technician called me. My laptop was ready to be picked up. When I got back to this shop I asked the tech to show me exactly what had gone wrong with my dv 2626 and what he had done to it to repair it. Well, this must be the only full notebook repair shop in that entire Tukcom building. We went into the back area where the tech pointed out a repairman. The two men showed me a system board this repairman was working on. He was soldering a chip into that board and then they showed me the chip they had taken out of my system board. This was a graphics chip, part of the chipset that had been put on my system board.

I then asked this tech about my laptop running hot. He pointed to a small shop right across from his, so I just left my laptop with him and checked out a little plastic device that one puts a laptop on. It has a small fan that runs off the USB of a laptop. I yelled across to the tech I had been dealing with and he said to me that this device would help a little. Meaning not much. The woman at this little shop also had the large H.P. replacement battery that is known to give the 2626 more than half the battery life for around $150 U.S. This battery also props up the rear part of the notebook thus allowing more air to circulate underneath. I nearly bought the battery, but when I went back to ask the tech about it, he told me that his shop's replacement of the graphics chip that had gone bad would probably be good for several months and then he shrugged his shoulders and said to me, "Who knows after that. If you have the Bangkok repair center replace your motherboard, there's a very good chance it would go bad after a few months. He advised me not to invest $150 in a larger battery for a notebook that has a proven History of being very unreliable.

The last 24 hours I've been restoring my programs and data on the H.P. Pavilion 2626. It seems to be working just fine now. It is a beautiful machine and seems much more substantial than the Acer I have recently bought. But there you have it. Two, not just one. But two technicians at two different computer shops have told me they have little confidence in the reliability of this particular series of H.P. notebooks. I have a high regard for the ability and integrity of both of these technicians. I love the look, the feel and the attention to detail to the exterior appearance of my H.P. Pavilion 2626. Unfortunately I have little confidence in its reliability or in H.P's support of its customers. Mine lasted just 1 year and 10 days, just in time for the warranty to expire. I believe H.P. knew it had created an entire series of lemons (with pretty faces) and apparently feels that a pretty face and a rotten heart is good enough for HP."

But there was a link I uncovered as soon as I replied to the customer's post. When you go to this link Big problems with H.P. graphics chip sets you will probably determine just as I have that what the two Tuk Com technicians told me about weak motherboards in many of the H.P. Pavilion model laptops is more than justified. It's nearly unbelievable that such magazines as P.C. Magazine, P.C. World, ZDnet, and Computer Shopper will rate these computers so highly just because they offer a lot of power for their size, are pretty to look at and so on. Apparently when it comes to their innards, they are junk. The second video by the way shows exactly what my display started to act like so my dismal experience with the H.P. Pavilion is apparently normal.

I was running Bitdefender on a laptop while at the same time running Kaspersky on my two Desktop Machines. The day before Bitdefender had downloaded its latest virus definitions. In the meantime I got a message stating that my Bitdefender was out of date. Well, no way, I decided after seeing that my virus definitions had just been updated. And then the virus hit. It hit my Desktop machine making repeated attempts but each time Kaspersky let out a howl that sounded like a V-1 World War II buzz bomb and each time Kaspersky killed the virus. But not Bitdefender. The virus got in and made a wasteland of my laptop. Afterwards I discovered that the message from Bitdefender was telling me that a new version of Bitdefender was available to me as a free download. I had assumed I was being falsely notified that my virus definitions were out of date......simply a little matter of defective English from the Bitdefender people. SOB's should have specified, "New Updated program free to you". But what the hel_l, good Engish or the art of saying or writing what you mean is no longer important in this world. Finallly I downloaded the new version of Bitdefender and guess what? Oh yeah.......the new version now successfully found the Trojan Horse that had infected my system. Wow!...The old Bitdefender that P.C. World rated number one didn't get it even with the latest virus definitions, but Kaspersky sure nailed that Trojan Horse. My solution is to NEVER put Bit Defender on another computer I own. Not ever.

Back to Firewalls. Here's what "P.C. Magazine" had to say about them in its review of the latest Norton Security Suite P.C. Magazine's take on Norton's latest Well, in the last two days I've replaced that heat generating H.P. laptop that just fried its system board with an Acer and the shop I bought it from put on Kaspersky Internet security with a 365 day licence which suites me just fine. I have the latest Norton product reviewed in P.C. Magazine on the two desktop machines (it was also on the H.P. laptop) but I suppose this eats up my three machine license. I'm sure Norton's support would allow me to put this product on the new laptop but I figured Kaspersky's product and Norton's latest and greatest are now a tossup, but for some reason in my gut I feel Kaspersky's still got a bit of an edge for catching the bad guys. I do want to mention that Norton now has excellent online support where you contact a tech and he will chat with you and with your permission even take over your computer while he performs his magic.

The problem with the highly rated (and free) Commodo Firewall program is that it requires a great deal of user interaction and knowledge about what he is doing. I was running Kasperski antivirus and the Windows Vista firewall (which I've read is not half bad) and somehow I still got taken down by a virus. Thankfully I had a full backup of all programs and data on an external hard drive that was ten days old. I then tried the free Commodo Firewall program and I got a request from Windows to let a file through which I did, and bang....crippled again. My next step was to try an integrated firewall--intivirus solution that did not require a lot of user interaction and knowledge and feeling Kaspersky was number one I tried the free 30 day trial of its Internet Security Suite and for over 20 days not a whisper, and no problems, Kaspersky handled every intrusion attempt in the background. I had been running its antivirus program on all three of my computers and now I wanted to replace the antivirus program and whatever firewall programs I had been running with the fully blown Kaspersky Internet Security Suite. Meanwhile my English neighbor who one year ago I helped install for him the Kaspersky Internet Security Suite on his computer needed to renew his license with Kaspersky.

Well here I was already a paying customer of Kaspersky's and I wanted a 3 computer license for its Internet Security Suite but when I tried to purchase the fully licensed version my credit card failed. I e-mailed Kaspersky with no reply. I kept trying to run it through for 2 days and wound up in total failure. Then when I helped my English neighbor try to renew his license once again...same same....credit card failure. We both knew there were no problems with our credit cards.

Meanwhile I was reading security suite reviews at P.C. Magazine, P.C. World, Computer Shopper, etc and found that athough Kaspersky was very highly rated, Norton was oftentimes rated number one again. The reviews stated that Norton had slimmed down considerably and was no longer using anywhere near the computer resources it used to take. So my neighbor and I bought two licenses from Norton, my license being for three computers and considerably cheaper than Kaspersky's. We are both now running Norton. I think it's pretty good but still regard Kaspersky as number one. The problem is that Kaspersky won't let me pay for it thanks to its German middleman handling its financial dealings with international customers.

Just take the 20 baht ferry to Ko Larn Island, then as soon as you get to the pier on the Pattaya side rent an Air Blade for 250 baht for the day or whatever other bike you choose and cruise the entire island, while taking in whatever beaches you wish. You will be away from the traffic and noise of Pattaya while enjoying terrific scenery. I can get off the ferry, pay for my rental and be off before the taxis are even loaded and on their way. It's that painless.

Hi, my personal recommendation would be Toshiba, I bought one of those massive 17inch ones when they first came out about 4 years ago, excellent sound 3.4 gig desktop processor and added an extra gig of ram so it gave me 2 gigs.

I did kill it but it was entirely my fault, I was messing with overclocking the Nvidia FX5700 G-Card on it and fried it playing Need For Speed Carbon. It played very well BTW for about 40 mins but then froze and the graphics card is now dead, smoke was pouring out of the vents and a very bad smell. It still boots up and runs the display in VGA mode which is Microsoft software graphics driver. The unfortunate thing is, it will only do 1024x768 res unlike the original native resolution of 1440X900.

But since it still runs and the problem was no-ones fault except my own I remain very impressed with Toshiba.

Remember also that this is a 4 year old machine still running Vista very very well even without a graphics card.

Cheers.

For what it is worth, I had bought a very modestly priced and equipped Toshiba Satelite from the same Pattaya shop at the Tuk com it center over a year ago but that was an interim solution and I wound up buying the Hewlett Packard dv tx 2626 at Pantip in Bangkok for its replacement. Which I paid around 43,000 baht for. However, it was the best equipped laptop in the entire place sporting then a standard 250 gig hard drive, a fast processor, and 2 gig of memory. The fact that it came already running Vista did not appeal to me because I felt Vista would wipe out much of the advantage of the extra 1 gig of ram.

But as soon as I took my H.P. notebook to the large shop on the top floor of the Tuk Com IT center I had figured out it had suffered major hardware damage. The leading tech at first thought the problem was software related but he quickly agreed with me. He suggested system board failure to me as his first guess what the problem was and off the cuff this tech thought I might wind up paying around 10,000 baht. I went two floors down to the shop that had sold me the little Toshiba and asked about Toshibas from the man I had bought the little Satelite from. This tech who I also have a lot of confidence in, suggested that i'd be much better with Acer and that his shop was now selling primarily Acers' It was at a third shop I had not done any business at all with whose owner suggested to me that he sends fewer Toshibas back for repair than the Acers he handles. Once I got the final word that my system board had taken a big dump I went down to this 3rd shop to once again check out the owner's Toshibas when I spied the Lenovo Thinkpad R61 T off in a corner of his shop with a price tag of just 20,000 baht.

So I'm listeing to you guys loud and clear when you tell me about the service and parts availability of the Acers here in Thailand. But both Toshiba and Lenovo are in the running. I would think after I get the H.P. Pavilion back that the 250 gig hard drive can be taken out and put in a Toshiba or Acer and possibly the memory chips as well. But for the most part I'm thinking of sending the rest of the Pavilion up to Chiang Mai where it can better be used to help heating a family's home during the winter there.

First off, the system board of a one year plus 10 day old H.P. Pavilion dv2626 went el crapo and it took 10 days after sending the machine to the Bangkok repair center to find out that it would take nearly $400 U.S. to repair the machine, so I can add this to the original cost of ownership of 42,000 baht. Both myself and others including at least one tech here in Pattaya thinks H.P. created a lemon with this series of models so needless to say I'm royally pissed at H.P. and will not buy another laptop from this company.

My number one consideration in its replacement will be reliability with service being another prime factor. Here at the Pattaya IT center I've found a Lenovo R-61 T Thinkpad with a 120 gig hard drive at a very good price and it has a 3 year international warranty. But it's a bit of an oddball because it only has the red IBM joystick and no touchpad whatsoever. Its processor is only 1.66 ghz. (Newer models run at much greater speeds) but once again I'm looking at reliability. I'm wondering why this particular machine (has a 15 inch display) has only the joystick as nearly all Thinkpads and other Lenovo machines have both the joystick and touchpad. I am also concerned about what kind of service I'd get from Lenovo in Bangkok if I'd have to send the machine in for any reason.

I can go to Panthip in Bangkok and pick out practically any model from whatever company I want as I will soon have to make a short trip to Bangkok anyway. Or I can just buy a new laptop at the IT Center here in Pattaya. The place is loaded with Acers' Nearly every shop has them and even a shop I once bought a small Toshiba Laptop from is advising me to get an Acer because of serviceability and easy access to parts. There are a few Toshibas available in the IT center here so a Toshiba is under consideration. Hewlett Packard and Compaq are out of the question. The number one tech in the shop I do the most business with is very high on Asus but I'd have to go to Pantip to get one or have to order one. This tech claims the motherboards are quite strong.

Still, the idea of the very ugy Lenovo Thinkpad is most appealing with its 3 year warranty (the 1 year warranty of the 43,000 baht H.P. Pavilion together with the notebooks overheating sure let me down) as in some quarters at least Leonovo's have a great reputation for reliability and their keyboards are the best. I just wonder if the 3 year warranty is so much hype and when you have to send the machine in it will take weeks to get it back.