HeyNow

On 4/30/2018 at 11:43 AM, uwe_rayong said:

 

 

I think both scooters will have a very good resale value, main target group in Thailand are Thais - and they often do prefer Honda.

 

Is the smart key system on the X-Max in any way superior to the Smart Key on the Forza?

 

I saw an ad that the Forza even locks the Top Box (if it is the Honda "Smart" Box) automatically via the Smart Key System.

 

If I would buy a scooter today, I would buy the Honda. I like it more.

Who cares if the resale value is 10.000 THB more or less in the next 2-3 years? 

 

 

 

 

The top box functionality is pretty cool, but I wonder if that top box would really be available here at a reasonable price. I'm doubtful of either.

It doesn't look like there's any significant difference between the two smart key systems, except Honda looks a bit nicer. 

I agree that resale value is a relatively minor point. I certainly wouldn't buy this or the Forza with the intention of selling any time soon. It's just something to consider, alongside many other factors.

1 hour ago, Fat Prophet said:

 

You did a side-by-side comparison of the specs of the XMax with the specs of the OLD Forza.

 

Actually, those are the specs of the new Forza, pulled directly from the AP Honda website and other sources. 

You're right that it's all on paper for the moment, and I said as much in my post. Comparing numbers is a part of learning about the bikes, not the whole. I'm eagerly awaiting the opportunity to test ride both bikes before deciding. 

In regard to correcting design issues, I have only anecdotal evidence on that. Friends in both camps whose bikes have been recalled (e.g. the CB300F, the R3) and both companies did a good job contacting them and fixing the problems. Personally, I've had very good experiences with Nat Motors up on Huay Kaew. Overall, Honda has a big leg up, just by virtue of the sheer number of service centers they have.

I  agree that those "flaps" are weird looking and don't do anything for the look of the Xmax and overall, I think the bike could us a bit more contour. To my eyes, the Forza goes in the opposite direction and has too much contour. But to each his own.

Can any Xmax owners comment on how the bike handles when filtering through traffic? 

3 hours ago, idman said:

Lucky old me, I went into the big Yamaha shop around the corner from Chiang Mai Ram Hospital to put a deposit on a Xmax as I had given up waiting for Honda to release a new and improved Forza 300.  Lo and behold what did I see on the showroom floor but three, yes three brand spanking new Xmaxs for sale.  To say I was shocked is an understatement as all I have heard, have been told was at least a three month wait.  Now there are only two available, a white/black combo and a dark grey one as I jumped on the brown color.  I will be taking possession of my new toy on Friday. As I said at the top, lucky me.

Mind if I ask how much you paid? Seems like a lot of places have jacked up their price by 7,000 baht or so...

Nice! Funny how it looks like the Xmax is the smaller of the two from that angle.

Thanks, Mr. J. Do you have the link to the original article in Thai?

May I ask a question for clarification? Is the talk about a new Forza 300 just speculation at this point or has there been news of it somewhere? I've been keeping an ear out to see if Honda would rework the Forza, but hadn't seen any news. So if anyone has a link or two to share, I'd love to see it.

I agree that taken individually, the improvements we see in the X-max aren't exactly "huge." But the sum of them is significant and I think the X-max will come out well ahead of the current Forza. The reviews I've seen so far of the bike seem to support this, but I'll reserve judgement until try it myself.

After calling True today, I learned from a service rep that it's possible to use your own router. As described elsewhere in this thread, you can run your own router in bridge mode off the one provided by True. But you can also buy a DOCSIS 3 compatible router, then make an appointment with True to set it up for you. Happy to report that aside from the wait time on the phone, I had a good experience today with the English-speaking customer rep. He was very helpful and polite and spoke English quite well. 

By way of background, I upgraded to a 50 Mbps package about six months ago. The router they gave me (a "Technicolor 7200" ) has given a constant source of frustration with frequently lost connections and difficulty in reconnecting to the router afterward. The rep seemed to acknowledge this as a common problem and asked me to let True replace the router with a different brand. He suggested that if the new router still gives me grief, I can try buying my own. I'm happy to try that and possibly save a couple thousand baht in the process. We'll see how it goes.

Ah, here it is. A very similar page, but a different post and a slightly different MSRP at 160,000.

https://web.facebook.com/xmax300thai/posts/1845025002407049

Saw this on FB today:

https://web.facebook.com/YamahaXMAXThailand/posts/1825566707698992

Originally, I'd been seeing Thai websites mentioning prices in the range of 210,000 baht. Way too expensive. But now it looks like the price may be 165,000 give or take. Another poster posted something similar, but I can't find the link anymore.

That's an attractive price for a maxi scoot that's lighter and more powerful than the Forza. Not to mention a whole lot better looking, at least in my eyes.

On 10/27/2016 at 6:21 PM, eisfeld said:

Are they imports or why are the prices of the bigger Yamaha scooters way too high? You can buy a CB500F for that kind of money. Same like the T Max for 470k THB. What justifies these prices?

I thought at first that the country of manufacture (Indonesia) on this bike might have to do with the higher price. But then I remembered that the NMax is made in Indonesia too, and Yamaha has priced it very competitively against the PCX. So I suspect that the Thai authors of the articles above are just taking the European price of 5,499 euros, converting it directly into 210,000 baht and putting it up there as a ballpark figure for the time being.

We'll have to wait to find out what the actual price is, but I doubt Yamaha would be so foolish as to think that the Xmax could compete against the Forza at that price. Many of the comments by Thais on Facebook are saying that it's a nice bike but "pheng maak!" The Forza at around 160,000 is already a hard sell to most people here.

Saw a post on a Thai website today which puts the price at 210,000 baht with a debut on 17-March-2017:

http://car250.com/yamaha-xmax-300-เปิดตัว-17-มีนาคม-2017-ราคา-21000-บ.html

But from my reading of the article, it's only talking about a European release date and the price is a direct conversion from the price of 5,499 Euros mentioned in another article. So it's still unclear whether or not this will be released in Thailand, and if so, at what price.  If they try to sell it at 210,000 baht here, I don't think there will be many takers. 

I too saw the news about the new X-Max on my Facebook feed. From what I've read, it's built in Indonesia. Good to hear from at least one source that it may make its way to Thailand. By the numbers, it looks to outclass its competitors (e.g. the Forza, Burgman 200 and Sym GTS300i ) - more HP, more torque, less weight, more fuel capacity, bigger tires and brakes.

Personally,  the styling suits me better than the Forza. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yada yada. If anything, the X-Max tries to be a little too sporty/aggresive whereas the Forza is way too bland and bloated. The black-gray and black-white color schemes look pretty sharp, but the brown-black is fugly! 

A big question mark is the price tag. If it's really 240,000 that'll definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm and I doubt many Thais will go for it either. If Yamaha can keep it around 160-190K, similar to the Forza, then they may get more attention. Another question mark is whether Honda will revamp the Forza in 2017 or 2018. If Honda can sharpen up the styling and shuck some of the weight while keeping it at the same price point, I just might go for that instead. 

With the NMax and now the XMax, it seems that Yamaha is working hard to loosen Honda's stranglehold in the premium and superscoot markets. Honda's been quiet so far, but I bet they'll release some updated products in the next year or two to fend off Yamaha's assault. 

Thanks for a very helpful post. I'll be heading there in the next few days and will verify that the location information is still current.

Hello,

I currently do not have a 90-day "Receipt of Notification" stapled into my passport. That's because I went to visit another country, and I haven't had to do 90-day report yet. When the time comes for another check-in, may I do it via mail? (I know I can't do it online this time, since it's my first one since returning).

Thanks,

HeyNow

Having ridden in it a bit myself, I feel it's been done pretty well. It's nice to get out of traffic. The lanes feel too narrow for two way traffic, but that hasn't been an issue for me yet because nobody's really using it yet. Also, I appreciate that they put up barriers to keep motorcyclists from using it. But I do wish they'd spaced the barriers out a bit more. As it is, the clearance is really tight, even on a road bike. Unless you feel very confident in your ability to maneuver your bike, you must slow down to pass through. Maybe that's not a bad thing, though, because the barriers are only found at the places where side roads feed into the canal road, and it's wise to slow down there anyway.

I also like how the lane opens up in places and allows you to merge back onto the main road if you want.

One question is how well the lane will be maintained over the coming years. If they let it fall to bits, then it won't be good for much except as a jogging path.

Home Pro usually has them in stock in several varieties, all made by 3M.

Since the start of the New Year, I've noticed that my phone (Galaxy S5) goes into 4G mode in some parts of the city, despite the fact that I have a 3G sim card. Likewise, my internet package is 3G. I've run a speed test when I've seen this happen, and the speeds are definitely 4G (e.g. 17 Mb down, 11 up) - my 3G is always much slower than that. This is with True Move.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this just some kind of glitch or is True Move doing some kind of automatic migration from 3G to 4G?

Thanks,

HeyNow

Can anyone tell me if the larger, Toyota Innova minivan taxis are also available curbside at the airport? I have a group of six or seven that I'd like to take from CEI to Mae Sai and would rather that we ride together instead of splitting across two taxis. Any information on rates or availability for this type of vehicle would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

HeyNow

In terms of performance, I've had excellent results with both Windows and Android devices. The site and app are both very responsive and relatively well designed. Very cool how they now let you download TV shows (up to 7 at a time) and keep them for a week. Wish they'd do the same for movies and expand their movie catalog in general. The sci-fi section, for example, has a whopping 33 titles. Some titles seem to be miscategorized (e.g. Captain America as "Drama?")

I emailed customer support several weeks ago, asking for a couple shows in particular. Lo and behold, just this past week two of them showed up. I agree that the content is rather limited, and they'll be hard pressed to compete with sites like Hulu that have the most up-to-date content or Netflix with their original programming. But based on my limited experience so far, it seems like they're serious about improving their service. I'd say it's a service that's definitely worth keeping an eye on, as they do seem to want to do it right.

There's a Government Savings Bank (Omsin) at Big C Hang Dong that has a coin counting machine. (Other GSB branches might have them, but this is the only one I've ever tried). They'll take your change, run it through the machine and give you bills minus a service charge. Sounds simple but it's a slow machine and a slow process. That's because they presort the coins by denomination and reject any that are too old. Also, they don't convert satang (the little 1/4 and 1/2 baht coins), so don't even bother bringing those in. And of course, you can't get gift certificates to Amazon like you can with Coinstar - not that they'd be of much use here anyway!

If you have to buy it locally, you might try places like JIB, IT City or Banana IT. If you're willing to wait a couple days for delivery, InvadeIT (www.invadeit.co.th) has Windows 7 Pro available at 5,590 THB.

Homepro sells an assortment of 3M masks that are N95-certified. When the burn season comes around, I switch from running to biking, and find these are quite comfortable to wear. They are effective for removing particulate matter when used properly. I suspect, however, that this solution wouldn't work for running because perspiration causes the masks to be unbreathable.