1stbase

At my annual health checkup my doctor asked if I smoked. I admitted that I did and had done so for 55 years. I had no plans to stop. He pointed out that smoking was very dangerous. I responded by pointing out that I had driven about 8 kilometres along Sukhumvit Road in Pattaya to come to see him and would return home the same way. That, in my opinion, was very dangerous. I added that if I did that journey 20 times every day for 55 years I was living on borrowed time. He said that I was very funny. I replied that I was being deadly serious. He accepted my argument.

On arrival here I bought a small motor bike. I sold it 2 weeks later and bought a truck on the grounds that I didn't have a death wish. My tally so far is 3 dogs, 8 snakes, some chickens and a very large rat. I have lost count of the mainly Thai lives that I have saved through driving defensively.

P.S. When you have had your 'accident' you will wish that you had been killed when you receive the hospital bill.

Lol. The dogs here are smart. I must have passed by at least 100 of them and all of the ones blocking my way turned around after seeing me coming. 2 bitches decided to try to run after me to try to bite me and almost caught up, I didn't even speed up, my leather pants and control of the bike kept me calm and if they were to run under my wheel I was prepared for the bump at 40km/h. I am more concerned with moose than dogs, unless it's on the highway, then I am potentially screwed at 100km/h +. I estimate I saved over 50 thai lives, 25 ferang lives, and my life 50 times over the past few days by paying attention to whats ahead and behind of me. This bike has one of em passing lights (flick for highbeam) and I used it over 100 times, more than they use their horn in Cambodia. I used it pretty much everytime I passed someone or was turning or had a pedestrian 100 meters ahead wanting to cross, and even dogs who react right away to the flicker. Some big idiot was driving on the centerlane in between stopped traffic at a good 40km/h and he could have easily ran me down, j-walkers, or other bikes doing what i was doing (I was going inbetween a stopped vehicle from the left to center lane) but I was looking out for idiots so avoided it. I think in a busy street with lots of pedestrians and bikes, that's the number one cause of an accident because someone can go into the center lane at anytime passing a truck and not seeing you and boom.

I was always fascinated about communicating with the dead.

Will you remember me?

If so, knock once, twice, three times depending on your preference.

Care for any particular color for your body bag? Black, white, checkered.

Scented? Mint, pot-Pourri, jasmine.

Honestly, as long as it's a quick death I won't even be able to bitch about the life I missed. Sure I want to experience many things but if I die tomorrow I won't notice since I'll have no brain. Unless ofcourse theres an afterlife, then it would just suck really really bad.

I'm not suggesting you do this but, if you don't tell them, providing you don't have a problem, how will they know you've been to Bangkok on it?

Thats the thing, if it was policy / against there contract then sure no problem, bangkok here i come, but if the bangkok police are going to hassle me about it and possibly tow the vehicle off the road for being unregistered i am not sure it's worth the risk.

Why don't you buy a bike, use it for your trip then sell it on?

you was joking right??? When I made this comment I wasn't aware he intended using a big bike. ok fair enough

spend 200 k baht on a big bike just to go an hour and half on expressway to bkk.......Bikes aren't allowed on the expressway ok 2 hours on other roads only something like 120 baht on bus.

not quick n easy for a holidaymaker to register the bike in his name and then have the hassle of trying to sell the bugger after...lose a fortune just for highway experience. Depends how long he's staying.he would have to stay quite a while to make it anywhere nr worthwhile ive had 2 big bikes up for sale and cant sell at a loss in high season......he also mentioned he only wanted to rent for a week for highway experience As I said, had I been aware he wanted a big bike I wouldn't even have suggested it - selling a small bike is an entirely different matter.

to OP i suggest having a ride around the bigger roads outside pattaya,theres nothing special on the road to bkk apart from some nice big pot holes for a fast bike to not avoid.god luck There's no adventure in that though is there & certainly no story to share.only story /adventure i can see in it is a trip to the hospital.......surely more adventure country driving or take to bira ....just my opinion!! If he ends up in hospital it'll be an even better story, albeit a painful and costly one; if he doesn't live to tell the tale someone else will tell it for him & we'll have something else to talk about on here! Seriously though, he'll have more people wanting to listen if he talks of riding from Pattaya to Bangkok, rather than riding around Pattaya - it's the difference between taking a boat out to sea as opposed to pissing about in the port.

'Ships are safe in the harbour but thats not what they are built for' - however, motorbikes are dangerous in the town and on the highway, so i feel that quote precedes the advent of motorbikes

Motorcycles are only 4 or 5 times more fatal than cars. Anyways, yah i'll just bus to Bangkok, no one will rent to me here anyways, if I had GPS though I would do it in a heartbeat.

Dammit, 202 km / hour, I didn't mean to go that fast again, this is the fastest I have ever been in anything. I'm stupid, I am not going to do it again unless its on a track or something.

Stalling is a fuel/ timing issue

At the speed drivers here approach intersections and u-turns?

It's a life and death issue.

You can't afford to stall.

Only was stalling at a traffic light, I know this is Thailand but I don't think its bad enough that the car behind me can't wait for me so runs me down.

200km/hour, barely redlined 3rd on Sukumvit but then i saw a car 1km ahead, boy am I a fuc_king idiot, but I am definitely ready for 1000cc. Suprisingly several cops seemed to eye me but never pull me over, knock on wood, but I am ready.

Question, what the heck is up with gas on these things? I filled up with 500 baht this morning and must have put 20km on it, will double check the mileage tomorrow but the tank was empty after about 2 hours of local driving. I thought these bikes don't guzzle gas. Put another 500 baht in and its almost low again. That sucks.

Oh and would this trip be within the 50km limit?

Tried going tonight, found highway 36 alright but it wasn't lighted and I was affraid of animal bumps so turned back around after 4 or so km. It seems like a good safe hwy though, maybe I will cruise it when the sun comes out before I need to return the bike.

Of course you can, you surely know this already. But you're putting more strain on the engine the more you get into the 'red' zone.

Theres a small risk of engine failure too (depending on the state of the engine).

The engine has 20,000km on it compared to the 80,000 on the 400cc. I see it has a shift light when I go into redline so thats good, don't have to look off the road. The transition between 400cc was easier than the transition between 100cc semi-auto and 150cc clutch shift. This bike was a lot smoother probably because of the gears and the only 400cc/600cc difference was the power of shifting at highspeed on the highway without reving too much and losing control of the rear wheels. I am not doing really smooth shifts and the rear wheels haven't moved since. At first I thought I would need to take the 1000cc bike to a clear area to start off instead of busy pattaya beach road but now I am almost certain I can handle it from the get go and take it to sukumvit where i can slowly learn its power potential.

One of these bikes is definitely not a good idea for a daily driver. I am doing one day rentals of these bikes and once I try the R1 i'll rent the 150cc or 100cc again for daily driving until I get back to North America. The 150cc was really light and probably the most relaxed and safe drive so far out of any bike i driven.

Oh and would this trip be within the 50km limit?

I've already biked up and down sukumvit but I am looking for some adventure...

If you had kept going on Sukhumvit, it will take you to Bangkok.

I agree with earlier post, take Hiway 36 down to Rayong, that will give you the open road experience you seem to be looking for.

Maybe I will try heading to Rayong or at least halfway there tonight when traffic calms down. I can connect to highway 36 from sukumvit road right? Is the highway easy to stay on or is there lots of potential to get off route by mistake.

Found this map, so I will basically take Sukumvit to 36

http://www.thailandbooking.org/region/patt...pattaya_map.jpg

Ok...............Look..............learn to walk with the bike before running with it ok? The 600 is a SUPERB bike and has quite rightly won every World Championship in its class since 2002.

Just take it easy...........change gears at 8-10k instead. Nice and smooth. Drop the acceleration a little on change up and smoothly come in again.

Learn to go light on the front brakes by using two fingers only. Snatch on it............and you,re going to lay down.

Lessons would be good............but I don,t know of any place that does these for superbikes here.

Check your rubber constantly and ensure you have correct pressures.

Just..........TAKE IT EASY until you have learned what this bike can do. I would HATE to see this bike get ruined.

Lol thanks, so lets say I do over rev a high RPM shift, is the bikes rear wheels going to lose control or is it just to scare the shit out of me?

Both. But many variables come into play here. Speed.....gear, road, surface material, rev, Its a learning process I,m afraid and I have the broken bones in my youth to show for it.

Ok so now knowing its a potential risk I won't be doing any fast high speed shifts on this thing. Nice and smooth Wiping out the bike at that speed without having anything to hit could most likely get through my armour and kill me.

Lets say I did want to go fast though on a clear road, I'd probably keep it in first and then just slow down. Can I redline these bikes?

Ok...............Look..............learn to walk with the bike before running with it ok? The 600 is a SUPERB bike and has quite rightly won every World Championship in its class since 2002.

Just take it easy...........change gears at 8-10k instead. Nice and smooth. Drop the acceleration a little on change up and smoothly come in again.

Learn to go light on the front brakes by using two fingers only. Snatch on it............and you,re going to lay down.

Lessons would be good............but I don,t know of any place that does these for superbikes here.

Check your rubber constantly and ensure you have correct pressures.

Just..........TAKE IT EASY until you have learned what this bike can do. I would HATE to see this bike get ruined.

Lol thanks, so lets say I do over rev a high RPM shift, is the bikes rear wheels going to lose control or is it just to scare the shit out of me?

Both. But many variables come into play here. Speed.....gear, road, surface material, rev, Its a learning process I,m afraid and I have the broken bones in my youth to show for it.

Ok so now knowing its a potential risk I won't be doing any fast high speed shifts on this thing. Nice and smooth Wiping out the bike at that speed without having anything to hit could most likely get through my armour and kill me.

Ok...............Look..............learn to walk with the bike before running with it ok? The 600 is a SUPERB bike and has quite rightly won every World Championship in its class since 2002.

Just take it easy...........change gears at 8-10k instead. Nice and smooth. Drop the acceleration a little on change up and smoothly come in again.

Learn to go light on the front brakes by using two fingers only. Snatch on it............and you,re going to lay down.

Lessons would be good............but I don,t know of any place that does these for superbikes here.

Check your rubber constantly and ensure you have correct pressures.

Just..........TAKE IT EASY until you have learned what this bike can do. I would HATE to see this bike get ruined.

Lol thanks, so lets say I do over rev a high RPM shift, is the bikes rear wheels going to lose control or is it just to scare the shit out of me?

Sorry.........but you are not using clutch/acceleration correctly. Its YOU that needs to be smooth.

So when going from 1st to 2nd at 15,000 rpm I should slow down a second and do a smooth transition instead of a fast one?

I know I shouldn't be riding if I need to ask these questions but it's hard not to do it anyways. I'll take a safety course when I get back to normalville but for now I just want to drive the things a few times.

Welp, just came back from an hour ride on a 600cc Honda CBR RR and it is definitely a lot of a more smoother ride than the 400cc CBR RR. I must have stalled over 20 times on the 400cc and on the 600cc I only stalled once 45 minutes into it. The 400cc had over 80,000km on it and I found the gas lever very sensitive and not smooth at all.

One thing I did notice about the 600cc which I am really concerned about is that I took it on the highway and must have took 1st gear to about 14,000 RPM and switched to second and the rear wheel went left and right as if it was losing control. At about 100km, downshifting back to 1st and braking, I noticed the same thing. Is this normal/common? I am worried that if I take it to a higher rpm and shift harder the bike will lose control.

Is it bad to redline a bike or downshift it as much as braking when coming to a stop?

These are my main concerns right now before I get back on Sukumvit road.

Ok I admit, driving fast to avoid people passing you isn't a good idea, since it's the guys driving faster that you gotta watch out out for. Like I said before, the main thing when riding a bike is alertness, not having a cell phone, cigarette, drinks, or looking at that sexy girl or elephant crossing the road. I am a very aggressive driver and was able to deal with the maniac speeders in Los Angeles and Stop and cutoff taxi drivers in new york with ease. I drove across the United States. I am taking a more passive look at motorbike riding and will not be swerving through vehicle gaps like you can get away with in north america. I rather follow well behind a well moving vehicle on the highway then to try to pass them all. Will see how things go. I have been doing a lot of reading on bike safety.

I looked this up once before, but I am not going to do it again tonight.

The per capita death rate from motorcycle accidents in Thailand is higher than the total motor vehicle (including bikes) death rate in the states.

I don't have the bike only stats for the US, but I can tell you the death rate is much higher in The land of smiles.

Whats the bike stats for Thailand?

USA =

"In 2005, for example, the motorcycle fatality rate was 73 per 100,000 registered motorcycles compared with 13.7 per 100,000 registered passenger vehicles, the DOT says."

Not that it matters anymore but this morning I was riding a sports bike on pattaya beach road and traffic was stopped and there was a 2 meter gap between a stopped baht bus on the left lane and a baht bus stopped on the right in traffic so in neutral i slowly walk my heavy bike between them and the baht bus on the right see's me so hits the gas a bit pushing my leg just enough for it not to hurt. I get the point now, i looked at him and he raised his hand in a sorry motion and i raised mine too smiling back knowing that its obviously my fault for taking his spot and he was just teaching me a lesson. I am really lucky that I haven't had any bad encounters yet in this fuc_ked up country. The other day I drove by a thai guy beating the shit out of some girl on an open road and trying to stab her with a smashed beer bottle well she helplessly tries to block him. 1 more month to go

Without doing any research, I am almost certain that there is a bigger bike:death ratio in the USA than in Thailand. There are far more bikes than cars here in Pattaya so someone dying everyday is no different than someone (well a lot more than 1) dying everyday in New York riding a car.

I've already biked up and down sukumvit but I am looking for some adventure. I guess I'll save it for another year or just rent a bike in bangkok so I can see if I can survive the streets there.

Lot's of great posts here. Did the 400cc yesterday on a CBR RR. My main problem at first was progressing into first at a traffic light or stop. I stalled a bunch of times because I figure its better to stall then to over rev and do an unintentional wheelie. I drove around for 4 hours, up hill, turns, highway, down hill, traffic, etc. This bike was really powerful and I can just imagine how hard it will be to get on a 1000cc bike. If I was to rent one which I probably will end up doing within the next couple weeks, I would have it taken to a empty street so I can get the hang of things outside of traffic and risk. I also bought some bike pants and a jacket and I am the only one in Thailand I have seen wearing out of my 2 months here. Might try an R6 tomorrow.

I think my main concerns are over reving getting into first and potential risk from reving 1st up to lets say 15k RPM thinking the high speed and wind might flip the bike over. As far as driving on the highway in traffic, once the bike is moving I am ready to go.

That jacket looks nice, I will look into one of those

Old guy here.Rode em and raced em most of my life.

Broke my neck at 28 on a race track ,then 30 yearsaccident free

. Ten 2 years ago came off a yam at 160 MPH ---Took down a telephone pole with my shoulder ( had it been my neck I would not be here) Lay undiscovered in tall grass for one annd a half hours then a helicopter flight to the nearest hospital,

I am so lucky to be alive, and this FOOL thinks he can step up to an R1 in a matter of weeks.

My condolances to your family FOOL.

Whats a Yam?

So I just got back from my last night stroll at 100cc, checking out where I am going to drive my 400cc Friday, noticing potholes etc. Sukumvit seems like a good candidate for anything over 80km/h. Anyways, I stopped on 3rd road near south pattaya road to wipe the fog off my helmets face cover and I hear bang and look 5 meters infront of me and a motorbike just crashed into another motorbike with a food stand attached, at a really high speed too. My bike was parked so like everyone else in that area I rushed to see if i can assist. From what I imagine, the food stand bike was making a turn onto 3rd road and the motorbike must have been destracted and wham. The guy on the motorbike was wearing head helmet and received a nasty cut to his eye, the other driver wasn't wearing a helmet and his head was bleeding. At first he stood up but then he laid on the floor for 5 minutes with a towel to his head. Looks like they are both okay as the guy with no helmet was later sitting up. Now this is very ironic the same day I was considering progressing to an R1 and you'd imagine that I'd be an idiot to want to drive one now but no. It's more of a lesson to me to keep paying attention on the road, and to but a full face helmet instead of the half face one i just purchased a few days ago. As I read earlier at the link I provided above, this scene that occured today is one of the main causes for motorcycle accidents. The number one cause is a car making a left turn without seeing the motorcycle but that shit probably doesn't happen much here as opposed to in the USA where motorcycles are rare and no one expects them when turning. I am also going to invest in some good gear so when and if I do crash, as long as its not at a super high speed and some car doesn't run me over well i lying on the pavement or running off the highway, then I should live to see another two wheeler, a wheelchair.

I'm not suggesting you do this but, if you don't tell them, providing you don't have a problem, how will they know you've been to Bangkok on it?

Thats the thing, if it was policy / against there contract then sure no problem, bangkok here i come, but if the bangkok police are going to hassle me about it and possibly tow the vehicle off the road for being unregistered i am not sure it's worth the risk.

that explains things i guess, i just want to get some highway training. I guess I could find a highway in Pattaya but traveling to bangkok would be more convenient since I need to go there for a few days anyways. Anyone know a company here thats registered and allows bangkok traveling?

try the muslim family on the corner of beach road and soi pattayland, . they have a load of bikes but its high season and they may not have a bike available, but he has many and must have one registered, worth a try,.

Is that the same family running the internet cafe there? I'll check it out, thanks.

We get lots of folks comin to visit us for a spell. Half of them rent bikes, most of them crash. And they are only renting scooters. It isn't their skill that is an issue. It is the understanding of Thai traffic that is missing. If you try to predict what will happen next, you will get it wrong. You need to know all the stupid things that are possible and expect all of them to happen. And just when you get used to the traffic, beware the dogs, coconuts on the road, cloud of hot chili gas, car eating pothole marked with a branch, bugs getting into your helmet, butterfly the size of a bird smacking you in the face, and my favorite, puddles of stinky fish water that leaked out of some overloaded pickup while waiting at the light. When you are the master of all these, you might be ready for a big bike in Thailand.

That's where my trip to Cambodia played an important role in feeling comfortable on Thailand roads. I think what makes a safe driver here isn't his knowledge of his bike/roads, his experience driving at home, but how alert he is and how he uses his eyes, breaks, and steering wheel to manover around and avoid situations. Especially going in between cars in slow traffic, I always slow down passing each vehicle to make way for other motorbikes coming in, dogs, or even worse drunk or stupid pedestrians. I have over 20 windows open right now with safety information on bike riding and I plan to read most of them over the next few days.

Heres the best reading so far =

http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-Saf...udy-summary.htm

Arabs are by far one of the best drivers in the world.

Lol. A wee bit of pee seeped out the end of ma boabie when I read that one.

Hilarious.

No really, the driving conditions in their home country are one of the worse so foreign roads are a joke to them.