NinjaGladiator

What a very good post.I like it, make sense; I agree 100%

What Thailand need is a REAL ELECTION.

Funny to read how a lot of retired old men, angry americans with their terrorist laws and Abisit fans seemes to think this is just something that has to be stopped - so they can go on doing - what ever. Some times you have to stand up for what is right, and I think this will take along time, but a military government is not a good idea - would you like that in your respective native countries - NO WAY!

If you old military freaks want this, why don't you move your gear to Burma!

Excellent..it's good to see someone using their brain and simple common sense! Hats off to you sir/madam!

Yes - totally agree, as do all the red-shirts, what is Abhisit affraid of, any western power would have stepped asside by now or at least set a date for General elections.

If a kid was constantly in your face in the play-ground, "you can't beat me in a race, you're too slow, you're no good" How should you respond, well we know what most Americans would say "Punch him in the mouth/Nuke him", but most of us would let him have his moment, in a fair race. If the kid wins, you just say"Quite right you were faster than me well done", and if you win, "Now can we just get on with our own business now - as I've beaten you fair'n'square"

For your simple picture - for simple minds, Man really wanted Gold medal, but didn't win, so uses power through mammy, daddy, best friends to finds the best judge in the land who will be on-side, judge forms a kangaroo court, and quickly come up with an easy charge, so the winner is stripped of his medal, but the bronze man realised he was still not good enough to take 1st place so calls mammy and daddy again to rally around and sort this other guy out (who now has Gold medal), Judge - kangaroo court, etc. etc. and hey presto he's stripped and bronze man finally gets what he wants, however this is not a good example cos we're not dealing with individuals here we're dealing with the wealthiest people in the nation, and there's a lot of them, with a lot of clout. Vote buying has been going on for generations, up here in Dumb&Dumber land, where us country bumkins live, we is all so stupid up 'ere, we avn't got a clue.

So I asked my misses how it all works - Man comes along with lots of 100bt notes, passes them around, and says "now you promise you will vote for______", and they all nod their heads like good children, 2 days later another man passes through, he's only got 50bt notes, but that doesn't matter, they all take his money and nod like good children (kop-chun-Ka), "So who do they vote for on election day" I asked with a surprised look, "They vote for whoever they like" replied the wife.

SabaiBKK - I do hope you weren't referring to me when you talked of simple minds, seems to me you're a little clueless yourself.

Glyn

You can see the idea behind this approach, when the yellows took the airports, it had worldwide coverage, plus effected tourism in a big way, this in turn hit the pockets of the working classes, the ones the yellows don't give a hoot about, so it was effective. The reds obviously think the same approach will work for them, they've been nice as pie to the Bangkokians, apologising for the inconvenience, etc. Now they're blocking Malls, tourist areas, and now the immigration bureau, but don't they realise, causing problems for the tourism industry will have a long lasting effect on their (the working classes) pockets. The Royalists and elite don't give a dam_n if they never see another tourist in Thailand, remember the national anthem translated says "Thailand is for Thai people" they don't need our pittance, they're way to wealthy, and they'd rather we stopped giving money to their poor because we're upsetting the balance of their class--driven society.

I guess 46 million baht is worth fighting for..... not sure why there are so many people helping to get it back......

By the way, I am not in a position to take sides, and I am in a polka dot pink and black shirt this evening...... not yellow or red

1. It's 46 billion baht

2. Being a red doesn't necessarily mean you're a Taksin supporter, or give a hoots about his dosh - just you disagree with the method in which the latest government regained control of the country, after 5 long years out of power

3. You gotta change that shirt

Tony I gotta question if that is the best road in Thailand after my jaunt up Doi Intanon, it seems the best roads in Thailand seem to be mountain roads that are hardly used, the surfaces and curves are as good as a race track, For those that have never experienced anything other than city or highway driving, you gotta get out there and experience them, I have more fun on this 650r IN THAILAND ,than any time back in the UK on a zx9r. "How much officer 200bt, OK thanks bye now!"

Shame about the standard of boxed metal drivers on the roads, they're really gonna have to start improving their road skills, "LOOK MATE MOVE OUT THE WAY - THAT'S AN R'd BASTURD IN YOUR REAR VIEW MIRROR - AND YES I DID JUST COME FROM NO-WHERE"

Whoa! Just a minute please. Your are talking about Shin Corp. This was a very risky business at the time. If they had lost a couple bird they would have burned through the 5 Mil Baht Thaksin had borrowed. If you have technology acumen at all you would know that was a very real possibility and a high probability for a first time communications investor. These were the first satellites owned from within Thailand. Before this the Thai military had to lease space on foreign owned satellites. At the time the military heralded him for providing the secure satellite that the miltary need to protect Thailand.If you compare that to Bill Gates you will see that Gates bartered with a DOS program that he did not own. He copied in a sense the Apple graphics interface building Windows. Nothing so special about that. I supposed that you would insist the Bill Gates give back all his microsoft earning back because of the shady DOS deal that he started with.

I think you got it wrong mate, Bill and his mates invented the Graphical User Interface, and took it to Apple. Apple pretended not to be interested and secretly got on with creating their own, leading to a race for the finish line, Until Windows 95, DOS was always needed to run the secondary GUI operating system, nobody knew of an alternate method, DOS was a licenced product and paid for, so how can you come up with a comparison for Bill Gates wealth and that of the Thieving Basturd called Thaksin. For someone who is obviously quite intelligent I have to ask why you would want to defend such a selfish, geedy, person like Thaksin. Don't tell me you got a red shirt on!!

There's some crap speeled on this thread.

If a drug dealer gets caught, do they simply get taxed on the $10m found in off-shore accounts, or is the entire amount confiscated? Now there is a comparison for Taksin's wealth and that of his entire family, his dumb bitch daughter was working in McDs on a publicity stunt, so how come she can claim to have fairly earned her billions.

Lets see now...

Purchased loads of land around svanipumi at marsh land prices, and then resold it to his government at a vastly over-rated price, knowing all along it was gonna be the sight for the new airport.

Promised every poor villager, that they would have electric to their homes, fair-play he did it, investing millions of tax payers money to build the grid and supply the houses then he privatized it and guess who bought most of the shares, since then electric prices have quadrupled in 8yrs.

He's not the only one at this game they're all doing it, it's how the rich get rich in Thailand, but while you are prime-minister, your taking the pi$$, and his wealth has increased 6 fold since taking office, obviously he can account for a small portion, after all he was on a salary, but outside of this small portion, it is corrupt money and should be confiscated.

Are you all aware of the latest...

gasohol production is in the hands of the elite and wealthy, with their power, they wanted to ban all regular fuel from the forecourts, so everybody has buy gasohol, the car manufacturers were up in arms, saying that it's not good for their engines, the elite and wealthy tried to silence them with higher import taxes, when that didn't work, they stuck a levy on the normal benzine at the forecourt, so much that you now find some garages will no longer sell regular fuels. Gasohol produces no go power for your car, it's a joke it's like diluting the fuel, only you can't use water so they manufacture alcohol for the job, you will find with a 10% mixture, your car goes 10% slower, and instead of 10l per 100km, you'll find yourself burning 11l to go the same distance.

Property transfered between individuals will be charged three percent fees if owned for more than two years by the current owner. If owned less than two years the fee is higher, between five and six and a half percent.

So farang companies are charged double the fees that individuals(thais) are charged, sounds like a baht bus pricing system.

Well you steam-rolled right over the most important part of my original post, the land office may charge double for this particular transfer, actually it's not given that the average falang holds propety for less than 2yrs (something to do with them not managing their finances properly and going home with tail between the legs - don't re-act, it's only for those where the cap fits!) so given that, the 6.5% is the same as individual transfers. now onto my original post, company transfers have it easy, the Land office do not get any revenue from the transfer, only the initial transfer into the company name, so really we got it easy, I can't believe there is 3 pages of whinging on here, when- if you actually own property in this way you are laughing, cos the increase doesn't involve you, and if you buy a property already owned by a company, you won't pay any taxes to the land office.

You guys can harp on.

Do you know how much it costs when you buy/sell houses in the UK, and if it's your second property look-out

You'll note that TV kept the Company ownership separate for ease of breaking it down to explain, it doesn't imply only falang prices are going up, although true this is generally the way falang buy property. It then goes on to say that individuals will see an increase as well, I recently sold a house that I'd owned for +2yrs and was charged all in about 2%, this is now going up to 3%, this transaction has nothing to do with falang.

On the plus side (which you are either forgetting or have never purchased in Thailand b4), the land office only charges the tax once on the sale of property to the company, after that the property (ie company) can change hands as often as you like but the land office doesn't get a baht from the transaction, cos the method of transfer is done simply by transferring the company, (1hr in a lawyer's office) the land office doesn't play any part in the transaction.

Stop whinging we're all lucky to be here.

I'm still at 8k so no probs to report, any x-ring type available here?

$159 is a bit more than I had budgeted for but cheers for the offer, I'll keep an eye on ebay.

Off on a 7 day tour around the hill tribes, the back box has come in handy cos I fitted a 2 man tent and 2 sleeping bags in there, I'm gonna rough it for 2 nites out of the 6

I'll upload some pics on my return.

Cheers guys for trampling right over my last question, I don't feel like a scooter rider one bit - honestly.

So Tony I notice your clip-ons in the vid (looking very nice) so where is the best place to purchase them and how much should I expect to pay. I understand they go onto the tree above the yoke, how is the lock-to-lock situation? Any info is much apreciated.

Glyn

What's the best clip-ons for the ninja 650r (available in Thailand) for value and ease of fitting??

Yes a licence may be obtained from 15+ but they are restricted to 90cc, and bikes of this size are far and few between these days, maybe even your local plod will not have this information but it is correct. Go to the transport office for these regulations. So yes this probably means that as long as plod has no idea of the laws, your son will drive peacefully for 2yrs, but get real should you be trusting a 15yr old lad with a mc capable of 150kmph. Anybody know if it can be restricted, before his son becomes another statistic.

NG

I blame the authorities, every business owner likes to take ownership of the road front outside their property, NEWS FLASH you don't, if it's a public road and the car is taxed, it has every right to park there, the authorities will decide if it's not a suitable parking zone, by painting the curbs red and white, and if it's intended for taxis the curb will be painted yellow and white. However in my early days I would just give them a stupid look and walk away, after returning and finding a door mirror hanging off, you soon realise it's not worth the hassle. But the police should go round and remove the tables, chairs, cones and what ever else they use to reserve their road front and inform the owner that they are causing an obstruction and will be penalised if they continue, when the silly owner states, "people keep parking there if I don't block it", the police should inform them that that is the idea! Stupid, ignorant F**kers

I fitted an MTC can, it fits parallel. I then used the original tail piece so it pretty much looks like stock, but polished instead of brushed steel, it's very small, and very noisy. My mate got the arrow on his and they put a rubber valve washer (or 2) behind the fairing on the last fixing and now it clears the exhaust by 4-5mm

No the hardcore alcoholics think ahead and either have a fridge full of Lao Khao or get to 7Eleven 3 minutes before prohibition starts. I know that the clock in my local 7Eleven has been 12 minutes slow for about 2 years so I use that to my advantage. In unfamiliar minimarts that display the correct time try setting the time on your mobile back 10 minutes and insist on being served, it has worked!

Another alternative is make sure you have exactly the right notes and change for your 4 beers which you bag by yourself at the counter. Before the cashier has the time to explain the house rules say "yo no habla ingles?" slap the exact money down and walk out then look back to see the cashier going to the fridge to get the barcode!

Tescos is easy! Drink while shopping during prohibition and turn up at the checkout with a few empty cans of beer and a few full ones.

They'll tell you "you can't buy beer" and confiscate it and then spot the 3 empties and the one your drinking. This stumps them so the manager is called and you end up giving the exact money for what you've consumed which is kept out of the till and registered after prohibition ends.

If all else fails go local as granny don't give a sh!t about some dumb ass prohibition law!

Happy Drinking

I think Jarapa is making the point that heavy drinkers can and will still get their beer, because it is important to them and they need it. So the only people effected by these laws are the occassional drinker, who didn't give it much thought, just simply decided to knock off work early one friday aft. meet up with some friends and go for a few bevvys, They got the 1st in OK (it was 1:55) 2:45 comes around and they call for another to be told "sorry no can do" shock horror, "what a stupid rule", meanwhile back at the whino's house he's comfortably sat back downing his 4th bottle of Low-cow. As I said earlier they promoted the campaign saying it was to stop underage drinking, if people break the rule about selling to under aged, they'll continue to break the law and sell to under aged after 2pm, IT'S A JOKE!!

The laws are always so unclear, I also think the law was put in place and only forced upon the large retailers, as a way of redirceting market share back to the small vendors. But they of course cannot enforce such a rediculous idea, but the likes of Tesco and BigC play along because of late they have found it harder to obtain licences as locals go up in arms that they are being put out of business around the country, whenever a new store is planned. I don't think the law was intended for bars and restaurants, but of course certain individuals are going to get confused.

I had to laugh when the new laws came into force, the main jist of the campaign stated it was to stop underage drinking, so we'll only allow you to buy alcohol during 11am -2pm (duh, isn't that when kids take a break from school, so at least that shouldn't effect them too much (lol)).

If they are serious about the midnight stoppage, that's most of the nightclubs I attend out of business, cos they don't fill up until 12am and go onto 3am, illegally selling alcohol, mind the clubs are very quiet and descreet maybe the authorities don't even know they are trading - NOT!

Tony, I thought you'd plugged your pair valve, so how come this happened, and does this mean you have now unplugged them? Confused??

Oh and should I plug my pair valve, since I've changed the end-can? Back fire is quite minimal, it was worst on the ninjette.

Luggage?

Here's a picture of mine fully loaded up...

The back-box is badged honda, but is the universal bracket type so fits to any rear bracket, I made my own rear bracket (see earlier post), The box holds 35litres, my frank-thomas throw-overs came from UK, but are available around THailand each holds 15litres, the Magnetic tank bag fully expanded (as pic.) holds 30litres, this is my second tank-bag my last was worn thread bear after 10 yrs hard use, I find them very useful and not too intrusive, I also upgrade the magnets to neodymium (ultra strong) magnets, so the bag doesn't budge no matter how much weight is in it. So in total I've got 95litres of space, that's 80 for the misses and 15 for me.

Beer Chang is disgusting stuff, bu it has its followers. One night we spent an hour educating this scouser on the bad effect chang has on the body, with all its unregulated brewing tecniques and cheep chemicals. He stopped immediately and ordered a Leo swearing never to touch chang again, 1 wk later he was back in full swing with the chang, asked why? "it's the cheepest way to get where he wants to be" apparently he was having to drink 2x leo to have the same effect.

I think Chang draught is a very nice beer, but I still get a hang-over on it, whereas no other beer gives me hang-overs.

I do agree that we should support the thai beer market in order to support the thai people, but chang should improve the quality of its product.

Lenny, I've never heard a vfr referred to as a formal ride, it's been a while since I rode one, but remember they were pretty cramped for my 5'11" frame, the 650r is very different and much more ready for long rides. But if you're a short guy you may find a vfr ample. As for performance it depends how your engine is performing, weren't they in the 85+ hp off the production line, but I doubt you'll get it much over 130mph/210kph now unless it's got some mega tune-up bits fitted, so the performance should be simular. The 650r despite its sporty looks, feels more like driving a motorcross - with a very straight back, unless u purposely tuck-in, or change the bars.

Anyway I've now copied Tony's idea and totally reupolstered the seat, still gone with the two-tone/single seat conversion look. I've also fitted an mtc end can (they mount paralell with the bike) and stuck the oe end piece on with some bubble gum an duct-tape, now it looks original but minus 5kgs and 2 cats.

I'm going to take a hacksaw to the mirrors on my Ferrari and epoxy them to the cat.

ts

Ha! having read your second post I sort of know where you're going wrong, these bikes are not ferraris that would have to be a Ducati Desmo, these are practical touring budget bikes, and if you want to do something to make them more practical, then it doesn't matter. eg. when the seat is at different levels, you and pillion have boundaries, I can now shove my arse into the back of my seat and know I'm not stealing any of the misses' space, like-wise if she slides forward she knows when she's gone to far and can shift back, no need for a swift elbow in the ribs from me.

The rack -well the practicality speaks for itself, and the grab handles were not done for cosmetic reasons but to accomodate the very practical bike rack - but thanks for your apology.

you are slowly but surely turning that bike into a really ugly piece o'crap. the seat cowl and polished grab rail was bad enough, but the rack? you are joking,right?

Well let's see now, what ugly piece of crap are you driving?

My mate bought the plastic seat cowl $120 dollars plus post, plus paint. It ripped his seat getting it on and off, and he can only use when solo, so the rest of the time when he parked up the bike seat looks ugly (and they are ugly), my design allows me to have a single look seat at all times, and I always tour with the misses, so the only effective choice. If I bought a seat cowl it would just gather dust in my garage. Mind I do like Tony's idea of going the whole hog and recoving the lot using two tones

Polished grab handles - thats exactly how they go into dealerships in UK (not sure about US spec), so black or polished whats the dif.

As for the rack, it's fvkin amazing, it's only on the bike when carrying luggage (not a perminent fixture duh!) what bike looks nice carrying luggage (a goldwing and erm?). It's amazing cos it's on and off in seconds with no alteration to the bike other than the polished grab handles. There's a guy on here that had a rack fitted, they replace the grAb handles, so basically a perminent fixture, and took an hour to fit.

If you ain't got anything constructive to say, your true level of intellegence will show through and you'll end up embarrassing yourself.

If you know anything about thailand then you would know Thailand changes their rules like someone changes their undies. Crackdowns are temporary and always have been. How long did the 90day in 180 scheme last before they scrapped it?

Who said they scapped it I thought they'd reduced it further to 15 days x3 over 6 months.

So I take my family to Pattaya (or any other resort in Thailand) for a little holiday, but we must all be tucked in our hotel beds before dark, so my daughter doesn't see the antics of all the saddos down the sois. Get real of course we wanna go out for the evening.

I can't change what I see, neither am I trying to, but the government can and are slowly-but-surely, they hate the image they have overseas. if you are acting agrily towards my comments then I guess I must be talking about you.

I can't help the way I feel, these people and their antics disgust me and I can't wait for the day that Thailand is full of nice tourists who go home at the end of their holiday, and expats that all settle here do so with their partner, and when they go out it's simply for a few beers (a bit like we see back home in Europe or U.S.).