T_Dog

In Chiang Mai there was a crack down on motorbikes and cars on the cross walks at major intersections last month according to the wife. Apparently lots of riders of all walks of life got tickets.

The restaurants and bars we hang out at occasionally have been really empty. When we ask the waiters/waitresses why, they say folks have no money after the gambling last week. Gambling seems epidemic in Chiang Mai. A few months ago, I ran into a group of guys half way up Doi Suthep gambling on the last digit of license plates of cars coming up the road. They were having a good time by the looks of it.

Our normally safe Moo Bann has had two break-ins during the last four months. Not a good trend. I don't think the thieves in our "hood" use flashlights though!

what to do when the MB is coming at you on the wrong side of the road? 3 pages of replies on this topic? Simple answer: Just live with it.

I weigh 77 kilos.

I always ride with the tires inflated hard. 50-60 psi. I have a gauge.

The punctures are almost always in the same place on the tube: right near where the valve connects to the tube. Sometimes I find a tiny pinhole in that vicinity and sometimes it's a tear. Last night I removed the tire and tube from the rim and checked with a magnifying glass the area of the rim around the hole and the hole itself. There is just nothing there that would cause the punctures. It's smooth. The rim tape is in tact. There are no burrs or anything else that would cause a puncture.

The most recent failure was with a Camel tube that has a threaded valve stem and a nut which secures the valve stem in place. I tried this because I thought the failure might be because of the valve stem moving or being bumped causing stress and a puncture or tear.

Ratisma, Trying lowering your pressure to about 25-40 PSI if you are using tires in the 195 width area. I've never run pressures as high as yours, but when I was having my failures, it was ALWAYS on a day where I pumped a little extra for a long road ride. Mountain bike tires and tubes need to be run at lower pressures than road tires. I think you might just be exceeding the strength of the tube.

You can run very low pressures on mountain bike tires. When you get too low, you will get a "snake-bite" flat from a root or rock that causes two slits on both sides of the tube from the sudden friction of the tire forcing the tube to rub suddenly. That is a sign you are too low.

Isanbirder... It could very well be. The one we saw was a bit more brown and red than the one in the pics I've seen.

And Tywais, I was looking for that thread as I remember seeing it. Good stuff in there. The owls sure are a lot more docile than hawks when they are hurt. Last year I saw a hawk get hit by a car so I stopped. It would scream at me as I got close like "I'll rip your eyes out if you come any closer." He flew away after a few minutes as well. Wasn't going to go near him with that attitude.

At any rate, it's time to change my avatar to this owl. Had to relocate my resident Tokay last week and found out they really stink!

Sitting on the deck after dinner at dusk and this small owl flew right past us and crashed into the sliding door. Dazed, it rolled its eyes a few times until regaining its composure. For twenty minutes it watched us as if enjoying our company. It finally flew off with no apparent harm from its collision. We felt pretty lucky to see this beautiful bird.

It resembles a Saw Whet or Pygmy Owl such as I am familiar with from the mountains of the US Northwest. Anybody have a positive ID for this critter? Closest I could come on the web was a Christmas Island Hawk Owl, but I doubt it could be that.

http://www.owlpages.com/image.php?image=species-Ninox-natalis-1

Back in business! Got a really helpful phone rep and turns out we have an intermittent connector on the back of our box.

Movie channels and AXN have not been working on True Visions satellite TV for the last day. Error message is "Searching for signal." Other channels and parameters seem fine. Service people at the call center don't seem to know what to do. Anyone else having problems? It sure looks like a translator on the satellite itself is not working. For as much as the Gold package costs, it should all work!

I'm in a pedantic mood (most unusual for me).

รถสองแถว - rotsongthaew does refer to the pick-up taxis but the word แถว - thaew translates to a row, column, file, line or queue amoungst other words.

Like two rows of seats eh? Aw crap, now I'm being pedantic.

The forum has been awfully quiet about this topic since almost two years ago. Has anyone ever gotten a true translation about what the law says about your wife buying property with a foreign husband's money?

In my search for a Honda Zoomer up here in Chiang Mai I found a really nice Honda CBR250. It's documented/registered and looks and sounds good. 55,000 baht. Southbound on Canal Road, the shop is just past the Mae Heah market. They also have a Zoomer, but unfortunately they want the same amount of money for it. They've had a few CBR150's too but they never last more than a few days.

For diesel-fueled heavy equipment, a top quality fuel filter is a must. Racor is the world leader. Any water in the diesel will blow the tips out of the injectors. Any alcohol in the fuel - which is hydroscopic (attracts water) - will aggravate this problem. A good fuel filter / water separator will remove the water. The above mentioned model has a clear bowl allowing a daily inspection, and comes with a drain plug allowing you to drain any water that has accumulated.

Like the old Cat fuel caps said "Buy Clean Fuel, Keep It Clean"

This is good advice. Bacteria and microbes pretty much take over diesel fuel storage tanks and eventually get into your tank and engine. The problem is worse in warmer climates. Check and change your filters regularly.

Diesel Fuel Bacteria Problems

Just discovered that Google has a handy drawing tool available. It has engineering and architectural templates as well as a template that can overlay on Google Earth. Quite powerful for a simple tool to draw up your projects, and it is 3D as well. Check it out if you are tinkerer. There are free Google Sketch Up downloads for both Windows and Macs.

Lately the burgers at the Mong Pearle Coffee shop up by CMU (right next to Lanna 3) have been pretty good.

Ker-chhing. That should make five!

999 from 1999 for my 999th post......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBWl2chTsk

Not sure who publishes this blog, but there are some interesting newsbits and links within it

Thailand Aviation

My hands would never survive that many posts!

Feedback survey is not working here with FireFox and a MacBook. I start it, and all I get is a bar with some dates on it and no other text. Tried several times with the same result. Would love to complete it, but hitting "No Thanks" to get rid of the yellow question frame.

Hi there

i'm 20 years old studying in uni in scotland (i'm scottish) and my girlfriend is thai - meaning i travel here at least once a year, often for long holidays. I'm currently here for 3 and a half months until my uni resumes (summer holidays). I love aviation and want to get into it and have just been checking the thai websites here.

anyway, just seen this topic and would love if someone could answer a few questions for me..

1 - my eyes are pretty bad. I understand that you are allowed to use corrective lenses if you want to fly - is this the same in Thailand? Is it easy enough to get a medical with no problems using them?

2 - i'm in bangkok. What is the cheapest place to learn flying around here (and how much)? Would like to get some hours I saw the thai flying club website but havn't seen anything else.

3 - my girlfriend studies at an international uni here and said to me her uni teaches flying. Their website is in thai and i can't read it however. Does anyone have any experience or know how these universities teach? What do you get out the end of it?

4 - finally - is there any air shows or places closeby to bangkok that are good to go to for flying enthusiasts (museums etc)?

appreciate help

Enj... Great to see a young person interested in aviation! Although I would recommend you get yourself started in your home country, you can indeed get training here. One club you could look into which is not too far from BKK is

http://www.thaiflyingclub.com/

I had a friend that was a member there and he had positive words about the training experience. They could fill you in on sight/medical requirements as you would need to get a basic medical examination.

Hopefully others will chime in with other options, and this should get you started. Check out all the information below the "Flight Training" heading.

Also..... Google "Google Translate" and you can enter the link of the university site and Google will try to translate that website to English. It is not perfect, sometimes humorous, but you should get the main points.

T_Dog,

Not wanting to be picky but lowering the pressure inside the pump tank by closing down on the valve between the supply and the pump which may well cause " cavitation" will not fill the tank with air, unless of course there is a leak allowing air to be pulled into the pump as the result of lower internal presure of the pump tank.

Air goes not come from cavitation, air comes from outside the pump - how the air it getting into this pump is anyones guess and can be from any number of causes.

Cavitation is a widely mis-understood phenomonen and widely misused term, for interest the following link gives a good explanation of cavitation for those who are interested.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Cavitation

No leaks in my system. I can easily demo this by closing off the supply valve to the pump a bit. My clear 30 meter garden hoses will show about 10-20 percent of volume is air. Only a 3 foot run from my tank to the pump intake with no leaks. The air is not coming from any leaks, so if it is not cavitation, I don't what is causing it. Also.... I think some pump designs induce cavitation easier than others.

Qing.... Water pumps are a lot of fun aren't they? Regarding your question:

"I checked the water tank myself, it was clean and full. So how can bubbles/air go inside the 1st pump?"

Not quite sure of your configuration but if that pump gets its water from the bottom of your tank and the tank never goes dry, the air is coming from pump cavitation. That is usually caused by something limiting the supply line from the tank to the pump. When I lose the air in my pump's pressure accumulator tank, I simply start to close the valve between the tank and the pump input(but not completely) when the pump is running. The pump cavitates and the air fills up the tank in about a minute. Very easy to do.

So your air can really only be coming from cavitation if my assumption on your system is correct. Check for something plugging the line at the bottom of your tank, and make sure any valves are completely open.

Good luck!

T-Dog.

At 148cm tall, the only way she can reach the foot brake and shifter is if she puts on her "platform boots", and then she can't shift gears at all. Anyway, she loves the new Scoopy I got her. But you might want to check out the Honda dealer on Mahidol. They have a little 50cc Honda that you might be interested in. lol

My wife is only 1 cm taller than yours! LOL Where is the Honda dealer on Mahidol road? I don't remember seeing one there. It looks like the Scoopy might be today's Zoomer!

http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/honda_zoomer_2007.php

The new system is working great here on a Mac with FireFox.

One Wish List Suggestion:

I would like to be able to "bookmark" or "add to favorites" topics that I would like to be able to find at a later date quickly. Topics like locations of electronics stores, good visa threads, etc. I don't believe there is a way to do that easily at the moment except to make a reply and then find it in your "My Content". (Search rarely digs them up for me.)

A "My Favorites" would be a great addition, but I know you probably have your hands full at the moment.

This thread is driving me dotty - but I guess that's because I'm in my dotage?

Hey, at least you have five dots..... What about us little guys?

Its amazing what the fifth dot does for your self esteem.

Since I earned mine I've started my own business....won the lottery....married a supermodel etc....

But I won't let it change me at all.....

The sixth dot however well......

So we'll always be one dot short of a full load...... That explains everything!