jackcorbett

BMW review I just found a couple of reviews on this bike, which is close to my concept of the all around bike. Weighs just 387 pounds, it has one cylinder and it's narrow as well as being light. Has an upright riding position but several configuratons of seating positions can be purchased depending on the rider's height. Gas tank is beneath the seat giving the bike a low center of gravity. Although having just one cylinder this bike's new technolgoy according to one rider, makes it as smooth as a couple of four cylinder bikes he's owned in the past.

In another review this is what one new owner concluded: "As a conclusion, this bike is awesome! It is really a bike for everything. Quick, nimble, versatile, rugged, efficient, and sharp. My brother and I both bought one and are talking about getting rid of our other bikes, and R1200 C, and an R100 GSPD. This bike offers big-bang for the bucks. An excellent warranty and legendary name round out the reasons to get one. I was very pleasantly surprised by this machine, after having to cancel orders for two R1200 GSA's my brother and I are both happy that we ended up with smaller, more manageable rides. Till we meet on the road, figuratively speaking, safe riding and happy trails!

In other words, smaller is better. And these guys were getting 60 miles per gallon while cruising easily at 80 miles per hour or even better. A low slung cruiser style bike it's not, and neither is it a crouched down crotch rocket with 170 horsepower with a four cylinder engine that's as wide as a football field. What would you guys rather drive around in Pattaya, the football field on wheels like you can rent all up and down Beach Road or something like this that you can still drive throughout the entire country? It's too bad I can't get one of these at U.S. pricing and have the dealer network I'd have in the U.S.

But on Thai highways, even rural superhighways, I think anything over 125 is like "Angels flying too close to the ground."

For what it's worth, my gf and I went to Bangkok a few days ago. On the way back to Pattaya on the bus I kept looking over at the speedometer to get some idea of what speeds the normal traffic flow is at. I noticed that when the driver was able to, he kept his speedometer at between 95 and 100 kilometers per hour.

BMW's do come with a high price tag. However, my 650 brand new was substantially less than the 1000 cc. horizontally opposed twin alternatives from BMW so it was not that much more than Japanese motorcyles I could have gotten instead. As for the K-100 RS, mine was a 1985 model. Back then they were selling for around $7000 brand new. I got mine for around $5000, it had around 5000 miles on the odometer and still a year and a half left on the warranty. As I mentioned, at the time it was very fast,and in the looks department to my eyes it was the dream bike. A couple of Japanese manufacturers soon came out with bikes having over 100 horsepower so these were faster, but what separated the K-100 RS from the Japanese models at the time was that driving the Japanese bikes I tried gave me the feeling of their having too much power for the suspension and overall design of the bike so that if you gave them too much throttle unless you were a really excellent driver the machine would get away from you in a hurry. Once perched on that K-100 RS the bike seemed small for its weight and displacement and when you really poured the coals to the machine it always remained perfectly composed as it got up to very high speeds in a hurry, unobtrusively with no dramatics. Except for the blurring of the scenery around you 100 miles an hour felt like 60 on lesser machines. Chief drawbacks to the otherwise excellent machine were that ever present high speed tingle in the handlebars and electronics that were more complicated than most other bikes had at this time and more trouble prone. Also at low speeds the bike felt top heavy and the design of the bike which imposed a crouched down riding position that did not afford the kind of erect riding position that is best for around town while its narrow handlebars did not offer the quick and easy flickability of say the 650 I had owned beforehand. But the bike was not designed for this. It was a rocket that could be easily and comfortably controlled at insane speeds. I suppose its being so good at that required its being very limited in low speed high traffic conditions.

I don't know what the horsepower is of the Wave vis a vis the CBR 125. However if I recall, the weight of a Phantom is about 305 pounds although it appears heavier, and the weight of a CBR 150 is about 250 pounds. My Nouvo weighs about 225 pounds, but it's automatic, whereas a Fino weighs just shy of 200 pounds but is also an automatic. I will suggest the Wave weighs about 200 pounds, thus being about 50 pounds less than the CBR 150. Also the CBR 150 fully fueled is going to have a lot more gas in it than the Wave which only holds about 1 gallon of fuel so that's going to add a bit more weight to the CBR. So it's definitely going to take a little more horsepower to get the CBR 125 to perform as well as the Wave all other things being equal.

But they aren't equal. The CBR has a six speed transmission? Most Waves have a four speed. So say you are on a hill. And you use 2nd gear on the Wave. Now that 2nd gear might be just about right for that particular hill. But with the CBR 125 you have to go up a gear, say to 3rd. That gear might be a bit too tall for that particular hill so the Wave will outrun it. Shift down to 2nd and you might be too low with the six speed on the CBR.

In fact, that six speed on the CBR might be too much overkill for Pattaya driving conditons as well. But it might be perfect for most other driving conditions. Say that most of the time I'm driving between 5 and 20 miles an hour in Pattaya. Could be that I can handle most of that driving using just 2nd and 3rd gear. But with the CBR I have to do more shifting. I really don't know as I don't have a CBR and have never driven one, and although I've driven a Wave all that much I did rent one for a day on Ko Larn island. At first glance that four speed of the Wave's might seem limited compared to a five or six speed and outdated, but perhaps in the real world of typical driving conditions found in specific Thailand locations it might be just the ticket.

jackcorbet;

I'm sorry, but I think you're underestimating how comfortable that bike is. From what I've read, that seat is VERY comfortable, and just looking at the width and thickness seems to confirm it. The pegs are very forward set compared to the Versys' close cousin, the Ninja 650 (which it shares almost all major components), which is a major plus for long distance riding.

I don't mean to be disrepectful, but I think nostalgia is playing a big part in coloring your comparisons. The reason you used to have to sit back and lean into the wind is that those old bikes didn't have any wind protection. Now a days, using wind tunnels and CFD, engineers have managed to get a fairly stable pocket of air for the riders. I realise this doesn't help if you're like me (i.e. similar to a chipmunk on acid) and can't sit in a single position for very long, but it is quite a bit less tiring than battling the wind.

Of course, I could be all wrong, since I didn't start riding till '95, but I'd accept that!

Here is my last large bike that I had back in the U.S. And here is the first BMW I owned, the R-65.

In fact, I had the same blue coloras the K-100 RS in the picture but my R-65 was black. My pulse still quickens when I think of the K-100 RS I owned. It's successors now develop something like 150 horsepower whereas mine had 90. Still, it would do zero to 165 kilometers in just 7 seconds. Drove to Chicago once with my wife (then) on the back, a trip that normally would take over four hours but we did it in 2.5 hours. But the electronics were much more complicated than the R-65's and much more trouble prone. There was always a high speed vibration tingle in the handlebars so I often wanted to get off for five minutes every hour or so. Not so with the R-65. It was dead smooth up to 58 miles an hour and then the vibration would set in but at 70 miles an hour and above the bike was smooth as glass.

Note the fairing on the K-100 RS. It did a lot to provide wind protection. With the R-65 I had a Qucksilver fairing put on, so believe me, I do understand what you are getting at as to the wind protection. What I am talking about is taking that little 650 R-65 500 miles to Green Bay Wisconsin from St. Louis and beyond in one day with a girl on the back. And I never got tired on that bike. But without the girl I'd want to stretch out and try different positions because I suppose I was like that chipmunk you are alluding to. I could do it on that seat even though it's not perfectly flat across.

Not how low the cylinders are. The Honda's are nice but they are vertical twins. If I were compare that BMW 650 to my old Honda 450....that 450 had plenty of power. It was rated at 45 versus the 36 I had on the 350 Honda that immediately preceded it. The R-65 had just five more horsepower.......50 so it felt powerwise about the same as the 450 Honda. But due to its low weight of just 408 pounds and the low center of mass of its engine, the bike actually felt smaller than the 450 Honda and it handled better in the city. It might be ugly (compared to the K-100 RS which at the time--1985--I felt was the most gorgeous bike ever conceived) but engineering wise I still feel it was way ahead of its time. And whereas the much larger (it weighed 504 pounds) K-100 RS was a speeding bullet that felt right in its element at 100 miles per hour and didn't even handle right until you got it past 80 miles an hour, the R-65 is the all arounder I am talking about, capable of negotiating busy city traffic with ease while also capable of comfortably handling hundreds of miles of interstate driving in one day. And look how simple it looks with nearly everything exposed so you can easily work on the machine. And you never even had to even tighten a chain on it. Lastly it had a 5.8 gallon fuel tank on it so you could cruise well over 200 miles without even having to think about filling up. But I think the bike's main problem is that in the early 1980's it sold for just $3300 while the larger models were selling at $6000 or so, which meant BMW wasn't making all that much money on it, but I could cruise right with the 1000 cc. horizontally opposed twin models and my bike was a far better handling machine

North

I forgot to add that if you are planning on riding 2persons on the bike alot the Spark135 is far superior the wave125, the differance in power REALLY makes a differance.

Basicly a spark with 2persons is quicker than a wave125 with 1 person.

I´ve only had my spark for a few weeks but i really like it - don´t understand why it isnt more common.....

Downside with spark is ofcouse the lack of storagespace...

I don't either. 135 cc's and over 11 horsepower to the Yamaha Nouvo's 8.9. I'd say it's pretty quick because the Nouvo seems quick enough for driving inside Pattaya. And the Spark is liquid cooled whereas the Honda Wave isn't. Sounds to me like the Spark one ups the Honda Wave in several key areas. I like my Nouvo because of all the reasons I've mentioned in my posts above. But I'd sure take the extra horsepower the Spark has over the Honda Wave anyday. And if it's appreciably more comfortable I wouldn't even consider a Wave.

In some ways that Kawasaki looks good. But again.........the seat is designed for style and not function. Get a long seat, like all bikes used to have. If you do not have a passenger you can crawl all over the seat to get comfortable---using the back pegs for instance, sitting towards the rear of the seat leaning into the wind for a change of position during a long cruise. Have a passenger, both can sit comfortably on these old style seats. But get one of these stepped up seats, the driiver must sit in a very restrained driving position that is just so large and that's it. Same same with his passenger. But it seems to me that out of all the Japanese motorcyle companies, Honda is the least innovative in many respects although it does make great products (eg....The Airblade might well be the best all around automatic going). Examples in point, Kawasaki has its Ninja motorcyles and I remember a good friend who had a 500 right after it came out. That bike was tremendous fun to drive, and even after twenty years, it's still available and will get up to 120 miles an hour out of 500 cc's, yet still possesses many all around virtues. And from what I've read Kawasaki has the Ninja in a 250 cc. model that is very fast for a 250, that outclasses the Honda offerings.

Still, I have yet to see a top all around model that possesses a great seating position with a versatile comfortable seat, that is easy to maintain, that is great in city traffic yet still capable of touring, that gives a great view of the road that instills a feeling of driver alertness and and "I'm in command of this bike" feeling instead of "This bike is taking me for a ride". Also four cylinders is overkill and adds too much weight and width to the bike. Closest I've ever come to this ideal is that BMW 650 horizontally opposed twin that weighed in at just 408 pounds with a shaft drive that required little maintanence. The balance of the machine was terrific for in the city driving and with the cylinders and much of the engine exposed to the air, cooling was excellent, the spark plugs could be popped out in a minute, you could adjust the engine's timing easily even if you are as hopeless a mechanic as I am. Electronics were so simple there was little to go wrong. There was good access to the battery for replacement or recharging it. There was little to go wrong with the bike so you felt confident about driving it hundreds of miles from home and it felt so small and controllable at low speeds in the city. That bike was a stupendous piece of machinery.

I'd like to add that a few nights ago, I drove my Nouvo back to the condo with a big Norwegian friend of mine behind me plus his Thai girlfriend who is taller and heavier than my girlfriend. Now that's a lot extra for a 230 pound 9 horsepower scooter type machine to cart around and I wouldn't do it for any distance but we got this job done and it's not the first time as I've had my girlfriend on the back with the same Norwegian buddy. Which all goes to show the versatitility of the Nouvo and what one can do with it thanks to its longer comfortable seat. Those stepped up seats on many bikes simply are not in the same league. Which again demonstrates that the motorcyle industry has gone downhill. And I do agree...the motorcycle companies make much bigger bucks selling us monstrous machinery we don't need and that won't even drive well in many conditions. A well designed 650 twin cylinder could most likely be sold for around $4000. If not, certainly a 400 could be and it could offer enough power to get the job done for most of us no matter where we were driving in the world. Instead the motorcycle companies sell us machinery that costs over $8000 which means bigger profits for them. And we suck up to them as they sell us image over what is really comfortable and practical and that drives well under a variety of conditions. As further evidence of what I am contending, consider the motorscooters that hit the U.S. Market. They still have those scimpy 10 inch diameter wheels and Americans are still buying this rubbish. They were dangerous and scittish over fifty years ago and they still are just as scittish and dangerous as ever.

In fact, in spite of much technological innovation during the past 30 to 40 years I think that in many ways the modern motorcyle has relapsed so contrary to being the superior machinery they could easily be, they are inferior. Okay.....start off taking a look at Honda's web site. Aside from dirt bikes, so called dual purpose bikes, etc there are several basic styles. First are the large cruisers headed by the large and very comfortable Gold Wings. Second are the cruiser style bikes, which we can basically categorize as Harley Davidson look a likes although their engine types might vary, some being four cylinder engines while others are V-twins. One typically sits low in the seat on this type of bike with a set of wide handlebars before you that are in my opinion placed two high to make the machine as easily controlled as they should be. I'd call this the lazy man's couch style machine as it encourages a laid back driving position that does not easily enforce the alertness I personally find to be necessary or desireable nor does it give one a good sense of overall driver control over his machine. The third type of machine is what I'd call the boy racer styled bike. Handle bars are narrow and the seat is positioned in such a way in relation to the machine that one has to crouch way over to drive the bike. They look fast and many of them are, but they appear to be much more at home on the race track than for everyday driving comfort.

Back when I got my first bike nearly all bikes had straight comfortable seats that allowed for two people to sit comfortably on the machine. My first bike was a Honda 350. Like nearly all Hondas it had this old style very practical seat. So did Triumphs and Nortons and practically everything else in those days. This bike was a lot of fun to drive, would do 90 miles an hour or so, and it had enough power to get the job done short of long distance touring. Then Honda came out with the 450 twin. It was basically a 100 mile an hour bike and it was considered Honda's big bike of that time. Those 450's seemed pretty powerful and would get up to 90 pretty dam_n fast. Now of course it would be considered to be very underpowered. Sure didn't feel like it back then however. Once again it had that long comfortable seat on which two people could ride very comfortably.

Closest thing I could find on Honda's web site is the 250 Rebel or Night Hawk. They get up to close to 80 but not quite. After that there is a considerable gap between models. Looking at the Suzuki web site I've found a 650 model. It's a twin so it's going to be narrow compared to the big fours. And it weighs just 370 pounds. So far so good. But take a look at that seat. Note it's the stepped up style similar to what you will see on a Honda 150 CBR. I pity the passenger having to sit on that.

I think we've allowed to be sold ourselves a bill of goods, a whole fleet of motorcyles offered by nearly all manufacturers that are overly large, overly complicated, overly heavy and just not suitable for all around driving and enjoyment the way many of the older machines were. In some ways that Suzuki might come close but that seat alone means no cigar. A Yamaha Nouvo's seat is far superior. And how about a machine that fills the gap between the larger more powerful than necessary machines between say 350 cc's and 500. And make even more 650 twins if one wants to go that large. And how about a bike for those riding in primarly urban environments that would be patterned off say my old BMW 650? It weighed just 408 pounds and those hoizontally opposed twin cylinders promoted maximum cooling while giving the bike a low center of gravity that made it a great handling bike in the city. Suppose if someone designed for Asian markets such as Thailand a 350 to 450 twin with the same horizontally opposed twin setup. The cylinders would be smaller so they would stick out less (and be less ugly). The manufacturer could make it belt driven rather than shaft driven like my old 650 had therefore saving weight. Such a bike might weigh in at between 300 and 350 pounds yet produce a lot more power than say a Honda Phantom while having better engine cooling and have better in town flickability due to the lower center of gravity of the horizontally opposed twin and meanwhile it would vibrate a great deal less. It could have narrower bars than the Cruiser types and it could impose an upright seating position where one sits high on the bike compared to Cruiser styles and feels like one has command of the machine while offering the best visibility over the road. The seat would of course be a long comfortable seat like the Nouvo has today and what the bikes of the past all seemed to offer.

Such a bike does't exist to my knowledge. So we are stuck with our racing style machines with their uncomfortable riding positions and the Lazy boy riding positions of the cruiser styled bikes and of course our heavy weight machines that although suitable for long fast cruises in the American desert while coddling the driver with fancy stereos, and other equipment, would be pretty cumbersome in the city. Now how did the public get sold on all this when it would seem that much better all around, more fun to drive motorcyles could have designed instead?

I

After riding on the back of a Honda Wave last night, then on the back of my Yamaha Nouvo this afternoon, here's some thoughts on Honda Waves versus Nouvos.

My neighbor who is an Englishman decided to hit a couple of go go bars last night so we decided to get there on his Honda Wave. Now, my first priority in this city is self preservation. So at night if my girlfriend and I decide to head to Walking Street or restaurants and bars on Soi 7 for instance, we will usually drive my Nouvo to the Leo Bar on Soi 18 and Naklua Road and the people there will keep an eye on my bike. Then we grab the 10 baht taxi and head down Naklua Road and then down Beach Road to where we are going. We both figure this is much safer as we are not exposing ourselves to all the idiot drivers out at night. But last night Gus and I were hitting these out of the way go go bars on Soi Bukoi, and Gus is an excellent driver and used to driving at night so we went out on the bike. When we had almost gotten to the go go bar Gus suddenly decided he had forgotten to buy bacon for his next morning's breakfast so he turned around and headed back to Naklua.

Well, by this time that narrow seat of the Honda Wave was killing me. My girlfriend had just fixed me dinner and I felt the craps coming on. But let me tell you that narrow seat combined with the rough ride of the Honda Wave really started to loosen up my bowels. Last thing I needed was to head back to Naklua, then head all the way down again because that seat was uncomfortable.

Anyway, turned out well after all and all had a great time. So today Gus and I both needed some computer supplies so we headed out to Tuc Com together. And since his girlfriend had already gone to work on his bike we drove the Yamaha Nouvo there. Once again I sat behind Gus although he met up with his girlfriend later on and I drove my Nouvo back to my condo alone. I found the seat on the Yamaha Nouvo to be infinetly more comfortable than the Honda Wave. Moreover, Gus who is used to having no more weight on a bike than he and his girlfriend riding double and who both last night and today had me behind him and I weigh considerably more than his girlfriend felt that my Nouvo was much more stable and controllable.

So, if you got the money, it's no contest. The Nouvo is a much superior machine to a Honda Wave. However,we parked at Friendship and after getting our computer supplies we went back for my bike. There were a number of Air Blades and Nouvos in the parking lot and there was an Airblade and a Nouvo parked side by side. As I've said earlier the Air Blade is a chunkier bike with a shorter wheel base than the Nouvo. It's front tire and rear tire are 10 mms wider than the tires on the Nouvo so its wider tires seem even wider still due to its smaller diameter wheels (14 inch versus the Nouvo's 16 inch wheels) due to its shorter coupled frame. The Air Blade seems more like a motorcyle than a the other small motorbikes as the tires seem in relation to the size of the bike to be more like a "real motorcycle's" tires. By contrast the Wave's seem to have the most spindly tires of them all. So, looking at all these bikes from an engineering standpoint, I'd have to say that the Air Blade is probably the safest small bike on the market with the Nouvo running second. Its brakes are better also. But my buddy Ross just rented a Nouvo for one month and he's now renting an Airblade for the second month. After driving the Air Blade for two days he feels it doesn't have as smooth a ride as the Nouvo. So I will be hearing more as time goes on from Ross about the relative merits of the two bikes.

But as I said earlier....my first consideration is self preservation and I do feel the Air Blade is the safest out of all the small bikes. The ride of the Nouvo might be superior to the Air Blades but for sure the ride of the Honda Wave is grossly inferior to the Nouvo's and the bike is not as stable. But all three will get the job done very well for getting around in Pattaya. The Nouvo and Air Blade are both better bikes but they cost more and one gets what he's paying for when it comes to these two top of the line automatics.

Macx---Thanks for your interest. However, I don't think my comments about the adult entertainment business are appropriate for either this thread or forum. If you like you might want to look at my web site at Alpha Pro

Done nothing to it for some time however, but there you will find a few articles, pictures of entertainers, etc but nothing for sale.

But back to some of my thoughts about bikes. There is for example the mechanism that gets the job done the best, therefore my comparison to digital photography. Back before it was commonly accepted in the adult entertainment world it proved to be the right tool. People, particularly women, have a tendency to either show off in front of the camera or to view their images because it is them, after all. Digital photography combined with a laptop provided the instant gratification that such people really wanted so the naysayers, those who stuck it out with film lost out when it came to shooting pictures of night clubs and entertainers. In the eyes of an entertainer wanting instant gratification the guy who could quickly produce a favorable image whether on a laptop or on the internet was the best photographer in her eyes even if he was inferior to someone who could show her a picture a day later that he had taken on a film camera.

I might be wrong but I view the CVT motorbikes in much the same way as I view them as the wave of the future. They are very easy to drive and because they are so easy to drive they permit their drivers to pay more attention to the hazards of the road than to thinking about shifting. They are small and lightweight so they are suberb at slicing and dicing through traffic. Example in point, the other day I was driving from South Pattaya Road to Naklua on Second Road and there were cars everywhere, but I was able to move easily through the smallest gaps between the cars and other vehicles due to the narrowness of my Nouvo, particularly the width of the handlebars. Had I been on a cruiser type of machine such as a Phantom or Steed the width of the handlebars would have not permitted me to get through some of the gaps. Now granted, I could have done the same thing on a Wave, but because of the automatic transmission I could concentrate more on my weaving and less on my shifting. Both the Nouvo and the Air Blade have large storage areas underneath their seats so one never has to worry much about where to put things. YOu just simply buy what you need and stuff it all underneath the seat. If it all won't fit underneath, you can just drap it on the hook in front of you. There things will do 65 to 70 miles an hour or whatever and that's far faster than one needs to be going in Pattaya traffic.

So in my opinion these are the perfect tools for getting around in Pattaya or a similar place. Now, I might like the looks of say a Honda Phantom. I might like the idea (and the raw power) of a Harley. And sometimes I really dream of bikes like my old BMW K-100 RS, bikes that are supremely fast and make short work of getting from point A to point B on a superhighway. But, none of these machines are nearly the equal of the Nouvo or the AirBlade when it comes to doing the most things well in a place like Pattaya. And as far as the technology, I believe it's state of the art (just like digital photography always had been but took some time evolve to the point where it could challenge film).that will continue to make rapid advances in terms of popular acceptance. As for the much more traditional manual shifting models such as the Wave, my girlfriend claims they are popular with Thais only because they are much cheaper to buy and most Thais do not have a lot of money.

This thread reminds me of my experiences during professional photography in the adult industry. I remember with a huge smile how many professional photographers in this industry used to scoff at digital cameras which they considered to be mere toys and how one of the guys used to constantly extol film as being much superior to digital media. Then I gleefully watched the digital cameras take over, especially once Nikon came out with its D1-X SLR professional digital camera. The guys who were hooked on film are today either out of business or carrying the finest digital SLR’s they can get their hands on. As far as the CVT motorbikes, I”ve never heard an owner of a Nouvo or Air Blade complain about reliability issues. And at the Honda shop up the street, a mechanic told me that Honda recommends that Wave owners replace their drive chains annually. Meanwhile Honda specs the drive belts for its Air Blades for a service life of 24,000 kilometers at a replacement cost of something like 400 baht for a new belt. By comparison a new chain for an Air Blade is around 300 baht he told me. I now have around 8500 kilometers on my Nouvo and it’s taken me around 20 months to put them on so at my present driving pace, I can figure on replacing my drive belt after I’ve had my bike for a total of five or six years if Yamaha belts have a similar service life as the Honda’s.

Just for shits and grins go out and get a “Consumer Reports or Consumer Guide” and see just how many CVT equipped cars are now being sold. You will be VERY SURPRISED.

Check this article out on a Honda 680 cc. automatic Honda automatic street bike

Or this one on an Italian 850 Aprilia 850

Lastly check what Wikipedia has to say about CVT (continuously variable transmission) Wiki's word

Do note at the end two points in Wikipedia: 1. CVT's are simpler to build and repair (than traditional automatic transmissions) and 2. Their torque handling capabilities are limited by the strength of their belts or chains that drive their mechanisms.

On point 2., consider that Honda Air Blades and Yamaha Nouvos only develop around 8.8 horsepower. Belts are used to drive far more powerful BMW's and Harleys. Also.....to those who are thinking about souping up their Nouvos, Mios, Finos, Air Blades and Clicks and so on, consider that Yamaha and Honda engineer their belt drives and belts to be able to handle only so much torque. So if you are thinking about replacing a 115 cc. Nouvo cylinder with one that is 160 cc's to make your bike go faster, go forth and do so but without Yamaha's blessing. I'm sure Yamaha is able to design a stronger transmission and belt but until then, you are on your own, if you think you are a better engineer and can therefore build a better bike. But if you consider souping up bikes to be your hobby and enjoy what you are doing, great. In my opinions the automatics are very reliable AS IS.

Lastly, to those who might consider the reliability of automatics over manuals in general, while living on a farm I had four pickup trucks, but only the last one was an automatic. I cannot remember how many clutches I burnt out on the manual transmission models. Admittedly I sometimes put the pickups to hard use pulling up to two wagons loaded with soybeans or corn out of the field. But I had zero problems with the last pickup truck which was an automatic which I wound up driving close to 100,000 miles.

It looks like you and I are in the same boat or at least I will soon be. Have you tried that Honda Dealership I mentioned? The one in Naklua. So far I've just done oil changes here and the like. But perhaps you could bring in your service manual and point at the right page, say the 10,000 km check that outlines what needs to be done in Thai and this shop will actually follow the books outlined program.

So you haven't even had as much as a new belt put in the transmission? I checked at the Honda shop and the recommendation is to change it only at something like 23,000 kilometers. They also gave me a price (for a Honda belt...Airblade) and it was dirt cheap.

In Bangkok now and have already seen at least four or five of these 200 cc. bikes. They seem to be about the same weight and size as the Honda 150 CBR's. Don't know what the power is, but that's 33 % more displacement. If the horsepower corresponds at a similar rate and I'm not saying it does, the bikes could be a lot of fun to drive. I live in Pattaya and have never seen one until today immediately upon my arrival in Bangkok.

I've just started riding on the Thai roads, and the other day I saw a motorbike accident involving a serious head injury. No helmets by the 4 people involved. Not sure if the guy died or not, but he was not moving and his face was deathly white with blood coming from his nose. His girlfriend was holding him, wailing. Generally, the Thai riders have some unbelievably bad riding habits, here is a list off the top of my head,

- not wearing helmets. I asked a thai why dont they wear helmets? sabai sabai she said.... unbelievable.

- wearing thongs/sandles

- no protective clothing

- 3 people on a motorbike

- riding like a grandma at 40kph on the freeway

- no indicating lights

- one handed riding - when it is raining, it seems to be "cool" to hold an umbrella in one hand, hold the bike in the other, and go at a wobbly 20kph.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to improve ones own safety on the road?

For instance, the standard practice for a Thai biker when wanting to do a U-turn in heavy traffic on say... a freeway, is to pull over to the left at the U-turn point, then wait for heavy traffic to pass before crossing the road to the U-turn. Normally there is a build up of motorbikes doing this in heavy traffic.

So what I do is if I know i want to do a U turn is to pull over to the left well before the U turn then wait for the break in traffic. Then accelerating from behind get in the right lane, ready for the U turn, thus avoiding the clutter at the U turn.

Maybe others with more experience can share some safe riding habits they have learned.

Let's see -

1. not wearing helmets. I asked a thai why dont they wear helmets? sabai sabai she said.... unbelievable.

2.- wearing thongs/sandles

3.- no protective clothing

4. - 3 people on a motorbike

5.- riding like a grandma at 40kph on the freeway

6.- no indicating lights

7- one handed riding - when it is raining, it seems to be "cool" to hold an umbrella in one hand, hold the bike in the other, and go at a wobbly 20kph.

Okay...let's see, how I do on these.

1. I wear a full coverage helmut although not the more expensive than a good used bike so I pass here.

2. I always were sandals, just about anywhere and this includes on the bike. I live 200 meters from the beach in Pattaya. So I fail here. On the other hand i'm still alive as wearing leathers would have killed me a long time ago in this heat.

3. hel_l no. Shorts and a t shirt if not swim trunks. I flunk.

4. on occasion, expecially in a 1.5 kilometer jaunt from a nearby bar when I pay my girlfriend with me and we meet up with one of the guys who's walked to the bar. F double minus for me here.

5. No way. Try to keep up with the traffic or stay in the slow lane way to the side. An A for me here.

6. Bike is in perfect operating order. Even check the tire pressure and pump up with a hand pump about once a week.

7. Yes. On occasion, but not usually. Takes me one tenth of one second to get the other hand on the grip. I fail here. But do keep the telephone in the pants, Not paying attention on account of a phone call is the height of stupidity.

You fail to mention the many more important points such as driving bikes on sidewalks, routinely driving against the flow of traffic in a one way lane, running red lights, not looking where one is going, (the classic is a Thai woman rear ending my bike as I was crossing a speed bump), taking the right away while driving into a major cross street necessitating a turn, loitering at a complete standstill in the middle of the street, passing the bike ahead of them then cutting right in front of them leaving just two feet to spare. And so on ad nauseum

I think it's time to give my Scooter a real proper Service; incl. changing of the brake oil and so on. But where can I get that here in Pattaya?

I bought both my Nouvo and the Fino for my gf at a Yamaha dealership at Central Road and Sukamvit on the North side of Central Pattaya Road and experienced good service there. But I now live in Naklua on Wongamat Beach and find it more convenient to get the bikes serviced at a Honda dealership on the West side of Naklua Road between Soi 18 and Soi 16. This Honda dealership offers simply outstanding service.

Have no experience with Pickup trucks or cars for that matter in Thailand, but plenty in the U.S. About the only downside is fuel economy for a pickup is typically substantially worse than most cars and it is tall and wide so it therefore has a lot of air resistance which causes poor fuel economy. But my last pickup (a Dodge Dakota Sport) was more comfortable than most cars and it drove great. Furthermore, it would do everything such as pull heavily loaded wagons out of the field (I was a farmer). With four wheel drive it would go when other vehicles wouldn't go in the winter. It was safer in snowy or icy driving conditions. It had large adjustable bucket seats that were very comfortable. Its ride was very good. Although it was larger than most cars and therefore more of a challenge to park it handled great on the highway., and traveling across the American West through the mountains I'd normally try to maintain 80 miles an hour. Had a five speed automatic making it easy to drive. Could carry all sorts of stuff. Had a club cab so I could put a couple of extra people in it, and above all it was very reliable. sitting up high it gave a commanding view of the road. And even though it only had a 318 cubic inch 8 in it and was pretty heavy given it was four wheel drive it would still do 115 miles an hour. Except for its fuel consumption I'd rate it far superior to most cars and I often covered a thousand miles with it before crawling off somewhere to sleep.

Whoever said the pickup trucks of today drive like trucks doens't know what he is talking about.

I haven't had one flat tire in close to 9000 kilometers driving my Nouvo. Knock on wood. But of course the fact that I brought a nice hand pump back from the U.S. along with my bicycle and try to refresh my Nouvo's tires about once a week might help. I figure that a tire that is starting to run low on air is going to collect nails and other sharp objects faster than one that is running low on pressure and being soft with a lot of give in it is going to be more susceptible to flats. As to your CBR 150, although I have not driven one I like the idea of the bike and would no doubt have a lot of fun on it also. But I don't think it's going to be nearly as practical as the Nouvo. Example....lack of luggage space and a seat that looks uncomfortable for two (I usually ride with my girlfriend on the bike with me). So although I might enjoy driving a CBR 150 more than a Nouvo, I can only extrapolate how it would fit in with my lifestyle. "Where do I put those grocery bags? Where do I put the gym bag with all that stuff I keep in it? How about those books I just bought at Bookazine?" As to my gf's Fino, we've had it for only five months now, but like the Nouvo it's been absolutely trouble free.

Also concerning the CBR 150 what kind of riding position does it impose? A forward leaning position possibly? If this is the case then I would think it to be similar to what I had on my BMW K-100 RS. It was comfortable so long as you were doing over 80 miles an hour. But my BMW 650 was far more comfortable with its more erect driving position.

A couple of days ago, I went to Ko Larn Island with my neighbor and we both rented out 125 c.c.Honda Waves. This is my first time driving a Wave. I own the Yamaha Nouvo and have done enough driving of Honda Air Blades to get a feel for this machine and how it differs from the Nouvo and smaller automatics such as the Yamaha Fino and the Honda Click.

First off, I can really recommend renting a bike to anyone going to Ko Larn Island as here the riding is very relaxed and scenic and it gives one the opportunity to really discover this small island. As to how the Wave differs from my Nouvo, it took some getting used to it (and I"m still not used to it). It was a four speed automatic clutch but the shifting pattern is the opposite of all those five speed clutch models I used to own. One shifts down, that is one nudges the shifter downwards to go up one gear whereas in those five speeds it was one down for first after which one pushes the shifter upwards for second, third and so on. Also, because of this bike's only having four gears I did almost all my driving on Ko Larn in 2nd and 3rd.

I never got my rpms up very high. Perhaps this is why many feel the automatics get much lower gas mileage as they are almost always being driven at a higher point of the rpm curve. On the other hand the power always feels to be right there. I also want to comment that these Waves are very light weight and that we actually drove them on dirt trails on Ko Larn Island. My old Honda 185 XL on off road would have really felt at home here and I would have driven it agressively, mainly because of the tire type that has a nobby surface that really grips into sand, dirt, rock, etc. However.......these Honda Waves did manage the task and I really don't feel that Viragos and Phantoms and CBR 400's and the like would have managed it nearly as well if at all. But I will also say that my Nouvo would have done equally well.

The Honda Wave that I drove does not handle nearly as well as either the Yamaha Nouvo or the Air Blade. This bike had a basket on the front and in this basket I placed my bag that had toilet paper, towel, a couple of paper backs, my wallet, etc in it. My overall impression is of a much longer front end than the Nouvo's and the handling was not nearly as sharp. So, I will say this. Both the Nouvo and the Air Blade have ample storage underneath their seats so in the case of my bag, the weight distribution is not affected whatsoever as the weight of the bag is placed in the center of the bike right underneath the driver's butt. Having that basket way out in front of you not only limits one's visibility but it also unbalances the bike by putting too much weight right over the front wheel.

Nevetheless, while driving that Wave, I kept thinking, "This is not really a bad bike at all and it's fun to drive." Then I started to imagine what driving the Yamaha Spark must be like. it has 135 cc's to the Nouvo's 115 and the Honda Wave's 125 and it produces 2.43 horsepower more than the Nouvo which has around 8.9 horsepower to the Spark's 11.33 which comes out to an increase in power of 27 %. That is a pretty big difference.

Two days after our little day trip to Ko Larn, an American friend of mine got a flat in his rental Nouvo. So I went over to his place with my air pump, pumped up his tire and I had him follow me to the Honda shop where both my girlfriend and I get our bikes serviced. My friend is currently staying in Pattaya for two months after which he will return to the U.S. for about a month after which he will come back to Pattaya to start his retirement. I am urging him to buy a bike when he returns and I am suggesting that he also try out an Air Blade thinking he might like it even more than the Nouvo. So this got both of us checking out all the bikes at the dealership.

I noticed that the new 125 cc. Honda Waves have 17 inch diameter tires. The Air Blades have 14 inch tires while the Nouvo has a 16 inch wheel. Also the Nouvo's have a front tire that is 70 mm wide to the Air Blades 80 mm while its rear tire is 90 mm to the Yamaha's 80 mm. But since the Yamaha has a substantially larger diameter wheel there is going to be a tendency towards more straight line stability due to greater gyroscopic effect while driving it when we compare it to the smaller diametered tires of the Air Blade. The Nouvo simply does not want to turn as fast as the Air Blade. However, when we compare it to a front basket mounted Honda Wave it is a very light quick handling bike with a very precise feel to it.

But, the Honda Air Blade is a more compact bike than the Yamaha Nouvo. It's got a shorter wheel base and it's slightly lower to the ground. It also puts a wider patch of tire on the ground being around 12.5 % wider. THis is going to give one a greater sense of that glued to the road feeling. The Air Blade has better brakes so I think it's all around a safer bike than the Nouvo. Contrast the Air Blade to the Honda Wave which has just a 60 mm wide front tire and a rear tire that's just 70 mm wide (both 10 mm less than the Nouvo) and it's no contest. The Air Blade's tires average 33 % wider and that's on a more compact more closely coupled bike. So I think the Air Blade is going to be a much safer bike than the Wave.

At the same time that Yamaha's got a wheel that's 16 inches to the Honda's 14 inches so it's got a circumference that's 14 % greater, Perhaps this is why many riders here are commenting that their Air Blades are slow compared to the Nouvo's. If one can say that the gearing is about equal, as it the power of the two bikes, then that taller tire can be driven at 14 % greater speed which if the Air Blade travels 100 kph translates out to 114 kph for the Nouvo.

So, both the Yamaha Nouvo and the Air Blade have much better handling than the HOnda Airblade which most likely will be fitted out with a front basket. Moreover, they both put more rubber onto the ground so they are going to be safer all other things being equal. Moreover, both brakes on all the automatics are right out in front of you compared to the rear brake setup on most other motorbikes being a foot pedal which I find to be an unnatural position so doing without a clutch which allows one of the brakes to be where the clutch used to be on fully manual bikes makes braking more instinctive.

Now let's talk about reliability. I've had my Nouvo now for nearly two years and I have not had one problem with it be it great or small. In the Honda shop I asked about the transmission belts in the Air Blades and they told me Honda recommends that they be replaced every 24,000 kilometers. They cost just 400 baht to replace. The mechanic then told me that the drive chains in the Honda Waves should be replaced every 1 year and that they cost about the same as the drive belts do for the Air Blades. Plus, I've done a little bit of research on the Internet about the CVT transmissions be they in cars or motorcycles and what I'm gleaning is that they are the coming thing. They are more reliable than other automatic transmissions, they are simpler to maintain, they transmit the power better thus helping the machinery get more power to the ground and they are more economical to operate. So it looks to me they are really state of the art and that they are going to pretty much take over.

So although we might like our Harleys or our BMW's or the Honda Phantom for that matter, both the Yamaha Nouvo and the Honda Airblade are way up on the evolutionary curve. Just pity the poor sap back in the U.S. with his 10 inch wheeled motorscooter that's got to be an unstable as hel_l. Which one's better? That's a hard one to call. They are both so dam_n close and so handy in a place like Pattaya, so cheap, and so good at carrying both people and stuff without a lot of complexity or even a moment's thought. But my whole point of this post is "How can either one be made significantly better?"

Yamaha's already got the 400 c.c. Majesty for the U.S. market which can go around 95 miles an hour, has lots of luggage space built in under the seat ala Nouvo, and which has two drive belts to drive its automatic transmission. From what I've read this is quite a machine and that it's good on the highway and so on. But at over 400 pounds to the Nouvo or Air Blade's 225 lb empty weight it might be just overkill for a place like Pattaya, being not as handy in traffic or as easy to park while offering more speed than is necessary. Same goes for Yamaha's 250 cc. Reflex which also has twin drive belts and also weighs over 400 pounds.

So let's see. Suppose I like the slightly wider tires on the Air Blade at 80 mm front and a 90 mm wide rear width and I wish to incorporate them with the 16 inch wheel diameter of the Nouvo? Or say I want to go with a 90 mm front and 100 mm rear width for my tires. This is going to make the bike ride better and it's going to be significantly safer and more stable. With this kind of setup I'm going to get both the advantages of the Air Blade with the advantages of the Nouvo. BUt how much power increase is it going to take to make this bike drive the way it should? OKay....say we take the 11.3 horsepower 135 cc. liquid cooled engine of the Yamaha Spark as a base to start from and we make it say 150 or 160 cc's at around 13 to 14 horsepower. That sounds like a good concept. However, I already fill up my Nouvo on the average, every five days. It's got around a 1.1 gallon gas tank so we are going to need to increase the size of our fuel tank. Increase the length of the Nouvo's already long seat to fit a Thai family of five? Oh well, that's an engineering problem that has got to be solved because that new Nouvo putting more rubber on the ground while offering more horsepower is going to use gasoline up a little quicker.

And how about that long life drive belt? For some reason Yamaha thinks having two belts in its 250 cc. Reflex is necessary to withstand the extra power and torque. So if we utilize a single belt are we going to get 24,000 kilometers out of it the way Honda gets 24,000 out of its little 110 cc. Air Blade? Okay.....again, that's an engineering problem for a company the size of Honda or Yamaha. It's certainly one I don't want to try and tackle while trying to beef up my Nouvo to come up with a Corbett designed super Yamaha.

So what's this thing going to weigh and how easy is it to manage in Pattaya traffic? It's certainly going to be better on the open road, but then again, what open road are we talking about here? The road to Sattahip Hospital? Anyway, I imagine it's going to be a tradeoff. But now that I've had my Nouvo for nearly two years now I think I'll just keep it until it's three years old, then trade it off for another bike. If I were to bet it's not going to be in the shop with any real problems. Will Yamaha have a newer and slightly bigger Nouvo by then? And will it even want to? And I might just spill out a little cash to buy something a little different, a new Air Blade perhaps. It's just a little smaller than a Nouvo and it's just a little more agile in traffic. It's just as easy to park, carries just about as much stuff without having to fool around with saddlebags and extra rear mounted luggage. And it has better brakes, which is a huge concern of mine since I'm more concerned with survivability (mine) than with nearly everything else. Plus with its low center of gravity and fatter tires it's going to be harder to upset. It's also going to probably be 10 to 15 kph slower. So if it only goes sixty miles an hour I can still cruise 50, can't I? And that's probably fast enough. So if that's fast enough should Yamaha really worry about building a bigger, faster and more thirsty Nouvo? But who knows, I might even buy a Phantom, but my common sense tells me the best all around machine here in these conditions is either the Nouvo or the Air Blade.

But how can we make either one even better? Any ideas? Or are they both nearly perfect for what they really need to do in their present incarnations?

I think it's all just a troll thread for two reasons, one to get at the Harley guys and two, no one could be that stupid to think you could compare the bikes in any way, shape or form. I'm hoping it's number one as I wouldn't want to know that anyone walking the planet would be that stupid.

I don't find this to be a troll thread. At first glance, one might think it is. One might even think the woman asking the question to be stupid or naive. We all know for instance that the Harleys typically have two cylinders whereas the Phantom has just one. Most of us know the Phantom has 200 cc's, whereas Harleys start at around 900 for the smallest Sportsters. We all know Harleys will do over 100 miles an hour and the Phantom won't go nearly this fast. And we all know that Harleys cost big bucks whereas Phantoms go for a pittance by comparison.

Check out this woman's exact wording here? "Is there a BIG difference between the Harley and Phantom other than the "mystique" and status of driving a Harley? Is the Harley worth it??"

Do notice how she intentionally capitalized "Big" . Now notice how she put quotes around "mystique" so as to call attention to two concepts "Big" and "Mystique". She is (if she is in fact a she) is very clever. Troll thread? I'm not sure what a troll is other than some sort of stunted creature that was chasing Peer Gynt in Grieg's Peer Gynt classical music composition. I do think the original poster is trying to encourage some very sincere debate here over the pros and cons of having a Harley, particularly having a Harley here in Thailand.

I personally think Harleys are cool. So long as the owner has the opportunity to really ride his Harley and let the machine strut its stuff. Myself, I've only driven an older model Sportster. So I can only extrapolate from this experience, listening to the engines of Harleys, and riding other types of bikes what it must be like riding the things. First...there is the sound. The sound is one of great power. Second is the displacement. I am sure that when you fire it up you have the feeling of having great power between your legs. The kind of nearly aphrodisiac proportions. The Road King model is 96 cubic inches or around 1449 cc's. It weighs in at 777 pounds fully gased. It costs at least $18,000. The Softail Deluxe at just under $18,000, has the same engine, which again is around 1449 cc's. Hey, my first Mazda Miata sportscar had just 1600 cc's, but once I put the supercharger on, did 139 miles an hour.

This Softail Delux according to MCN Motorcyle News is good for only 110 miles an hour which his about the same speed my old BMW 650 would do while weighing it at 408 pounds empty. Although my old R-65 only produced 50 horsepower some of the latest and fastest 650's produce over 100 horsepower. these large displacement Harleys only produce around 65 horsepower.

For around $14,000 one can buy instead of one of these large Harleys the BMW 1200 S which has 167 horsepower, nearly three times what the large Harleys produce. And they weigh 200 pounds less. However, the Harleys produce 89 foot pounds of torque at 3300 rpms whereas the BMW has to get to 8250 rpms to reach 96 foot pounds. And that is one of the biggest reasons for the Harley's enduring mystique---the illusion of power that can be tapped by its driver at any time. When it comes to real power, the BMW does from zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds and can top out at 160 miles an hour, fifty miles an hour faster than most large Harleys. And when it comes to handling it's no contest. The German bike's in an entirely different league, and I haven't even mentioned various models of Japanese bikes.

So getting back to the Phantom, if one can say a Phantom is good for say 75 miles an hour versus a Harley's 110 miles an hour the BMW goes 50 miles an hour faster than the big Harleys whereas the big Harleys only go 35 miles an hour faster than the Phantom. For that matter the smaller Sportster models only go 105 miles an hour (again accorind to the same source I quoted earlier) while displacing just 883 cc's. So they are just 30 miles an hour faster than the Phantom. Yet, like the Harleys the Phantom's engines are tuned to produce a big sound (comparatively that is). My 185 Honda XL dirt bike at just 15 cc's less sounded pretty tinny by contrast. At night parked along the curb the Phantom looks nearly as large and imposing as the big Harleys, especially if you deck on out with extra luggage and other options. Driving around Pattaya it seems toruey and powerful enough. But it's a wanna bee, right? Okay....it's a wanna bee Harley but it succeeds pretty well in my opinion. That is unless you factor in what you already know...the Harley has two cylinders. It displaces over 1400 cc's. It costs what many cars cost and so on.

Well, not taking anything away from those who like Harleys (if it makes you feel good buy it), the Harley isn't the geniune article either other than it's a genuine Harley. But the Harley only conjures up the image of real performance. Because if I want to put something in my parking lot that is the geniuine article I'm going to put a BMW 1200 S down there because it really is truly about performance, and if one expounds upon History and tradition and all of that, I'll just say this. The Folker D-VII World War One fighter plane was one of the best fighter planes of that conflict with its standard 160 horsepower engine. However, upgraded models had the 185 horsepower BMW engines which gave this plane even more performance and this goes back to 1917.

I owned first a 185 cc. Honda XL on off road bike, then thinking bigger is better I bought a 500 c.c. single cylinder Honda XL. It seemed a little cold blooded and you had to kick start it so it was harder to get the engine going than with the 185. It had too much torque and power to feel comfortable in the woods where the 185 excelled. But it had good power for the highway. I'd say it would do around 85 to 90 miles an hour. It did not vibrate badly at all as I can remember as Honda had done a good job counterbalancing it. And sure, it was not equal on the highway to the BMW twin 650 that replaced it but one must remember that it had tires that were also suitable for riding in the dirt and it was relatively light at around 300 pounds. Still, pretty smooth.

I read a number of reviews on BMW 650 single cylinder engines that were discontinued a couple of years ago. These had belt drive and had around 50 horsepower. From what I read their engines were very smooth on the highway and the bikes were suitable for touring. They only weighed around 385 pounds. These bikes were supposedly terrific fun and very agile in town or on twisty roads. And BMW is still making 650 single cylinder bikes but these are chain driven and more of a dual purpose kind of machine. From everything I've read all these BMW single cylinder bikes are very smooth and transmit little vibration to the driver. So yes.....it can be done with just one cylinder. For me this is a very appealing concept and far more of an attractive proposition than four cylinder motors on motorcycles which I feel are overkill and add too much weight and width to the bikes.

BMW also used to produce three cylinder bikes. That was about the same time when I bought my four cylinder BMW K 100 RS. I drove one of them once. And from what I experienced and from everything I read those three cylinder 750 cc. BMW bikes were significantly smoother than the four cylinder 1000 cc. models back then.

There is a bar in my neighborhood where the owner owns a black Honda Phantom with a hard shell storage case on the back. Once in awhile one or two Harley owners will ride their bikes to this bar and park. The Phantom looks pretty imposing sitting in front of this bar appearing much larger than it really is. Certainly by no means a three quarter size Harley which will outweight it two to one. And I certainly enjoyed giving this bike a test spin. So let's see----65 miles per gallon I've been reading about this bike, a three gallon plus size fuel tank so you have ample cruising range and a price of around $2500 U.S. or so with Japanese reliability. For driving around here it seems like this is a mini Harley except it's much better, and if it seems that it is a fake imitation of the genuine article, just how genuine is a Harley anway? dam_n thing is engineered to be loud but not fast, to conjure up image but not performance and it's a real slouch in the handling department.

We have a guy living up the street from my condo who drives a big Harley. Great looking machine. It's long, heavy and wicked looking. That being said, when you hear him returning to his condo that Harley sounds like a locamotive without a muffler of any sorts. In the real world of condo living here in Pattaya everytime I hear that "nice only Harley makes sounds like that" the following thoughts go through my head, "Selfish loud prick. He's got hundreds of people listening to that thing go by. He must be crying out, "Look at me! Ain't I cool? Now where did I hide my dick? Oh....I left it in my saddlebag." I mean that thing deafons all conversation taking place on my deck. Too bad it won't go very fast. And it's got to be a real hog trying to get through Pattaya traffic. And man, it's so big, it's gotta be hard to park in a lot of places. Too bad he's not enjoying it one tenth as much as my pal, David, who's driving an Air Blade, a real motorcyle for handling what Pattaya's got to dish out.

On American roads to each his own and those who enjoy Harleys, well okay. It's just a matter of personal preference. But I'd much rather drive a BMW, perhaps that new 800 c.c. model. But for Pattaya, all that chrome and an engine that's tuned to deliver maximum decibel level and not much practical performance all a big Harley spells this thing's all about show because it sure isn't a good choice for driving under these conditions.

Yep. Same as the Nouvo which is the bike I have. But consider this. Pattaya is smack right on the ocean. Honda Phantom's have a look of solidity about them with a much more substantial feel to them than a Nouvo. Lots of metal. Being on the ocean means having lots of humidity and humidity and metal do not go well together. Most Phantoms start to show the effects of all this humidity. Plastic is unaffected by humidity.

So as much as I try to like the idea of a different type of bike, when you really get down to it, for most people you really can't beat a Yamaha Nouvo or Honda Air Blade. Both are practically maintenance free. Neither is so fast as to invite you to pour on the throttle and get yourself into trouble due to the fact that the Thai police do absolutely nothing to control the idiotic driving that goes on here. But both are fast enough to do the job and to do it quite well so long as you live in the city. The CBR 150 looks really cool and I love the idea of its slightly larger tires than the Nouvo's or Air Blade's, disk brakes on both wheels, greater acceleration, etc. But there's no storage space on the bike. Furthermore, at sixty just how cool am I going to look on that CBR? EVen my THai girlfriend mentions "Phantom" whenever I mention CBR to her, meaning I think, "that little crotch rocket is a young man's toy but you would look pretty cool on that big Phantom." If I bought the Phantom I'd have to get saddle bags which aren't nearly as practical as that nice storage area underneath the Nouvo's seat. I hate the idea of those behind the bike's seat external storage boxes which add to its length and to me seem to be cheaply made. Moreover the Phantom is not as easily parked as the Nouvo which can be placed between two other bikes that are closely parked together. Plus once again, even though the Phantom is by no means a speed racer it does seem to have more acceleration than my Nouvo and it has bigger tires so I would probably tend to drive it faster. And this conflicts with what i perceive to be my greatest goal while driving a motorcyle here which is self preservation. Simply put the faster I go the less time I have to think about how to save myself from the latest threat to my life by the latest stupid driving act from the latest idiot near me.

I think both the CBR or the Phantom if I kept either one for very long are going to show metal deterioration from the humidity whereas the Nouvo will show little if any. Furthermore, at 49,000 baht I can drive mine for a total of say three years and then simply buy another one while suffering very little maintenance cost or time spent polishing chrome, etc. You just drive these things and they drive quite easily, your feet remain dry from the rains. You have large 16 inch wheels which give you greater stability than lesser wheels found on many other motorbikes. You go into a store and buy something and you simply put it under the seat and the job is done without having to fiddle around with tank bags, saddle bags or the like or having to screw with a cheaply made external case. You have that hook in front of you on which you can hook all sorts of plastic bags and you have other places all around the bike on which even more things can be tied onto. You would all be surprised at how large a box the thais can strap onto the rear portion of a Nouvo's seat using all those tie down spots designed into a Nouvo. And to top it all off the Nouvo even has a certain amount of off road capability (which it shares with Waves and other motorbikes). For instance there is a fair amount of construction going on near me and I will sometimes drive my bike in the dirt so I can see what progress has been made there. And no, the Nouvo is no dirt bike but it's one helluva lot better than Phantom's, Viragos, Kawasaki Boss's, etc. Truth is the Nouvo does so many things well and is so carefree that try as I might want to consider a CBR, Phantom or practically anything else, there are simply too many drawbacks to such alternatives to one who lives and drives in Pattaya and too many strong points one would be giving up going to something that is "bigger and better" than a Nouvo.

As I've mentioned I have the Yamaha Nouvo, the Mio's bigger brother. My gf has the Fino which is basically a Mio with a retro Italian styled curvaceous body put on. Otherwise I think everything is about the same for the Mio that goes for the Fino. These are smaller bikes than the Nouvo and do not have the luggage capacity among other things. The Fino's 40,000 baht whereas Nouvos are now going for 49000 baht. Buy one or the other and we are only talking 3000 baht difference per year without factoring in resale value that will probably make the difference in cost of ownership even less. Okay...the Mio and Fino are smaller than the Nouvo, and although I really like my gf's Fino, both are not as capable as the Nouvo. They weigh around 190 pounds to the Nouvo's 225 pounds so here although the Nouvo is a larger bike with larger tires and wheels, hence more stable, the Nouvo is still pretty much of a light weight itself. When I mean capable, I mean the Nouvo has the edge doing down the road at speed, but I also mean the Nouvo has a fairly substantual luggage compartment underneath its ample seat whereas the two smaller bikes have about as much room for a pair of gloves.

My gf's atttitude about the Wave is this. Thais buy them because they are much cheaper than the automatics. And for no other reason she tells me. In other words she's saying that if you bought a machine for Thai most THais would take the automatic bikes almost every time. A Nouvo has a much larger and more comfortable seat than a Wave (with more room for storage underneath as well). It has bigger tires so it will be more stable. Has a little more weight so again this will tend to make it more stable as well. It has a platform on which to place your feet rather than footpegs. This means that when it rains your feet stay dry.

But don't take my word for this. It all comes down to personal preference. Rent a Mio. Then look at the Finos or rent one as well for a day. Then rent a Nouvo. And if you can drive an Air Blade as well. Then buy what suits you the most. And as far as reliability I"d say all of these bikes are quite good. No trouble with either the Fino or the Nouvo, so I tend not to believe that many Mios are going to have many problems either. Just doesn't make sense.