ClareQuilty

The Dream is much nicer looking (as in retro or traditional), and there is a much higher resale value - there is a huge market for second hand Dreams at shocking prices on the Burmese and Cambodian border. This also means, however, that the bike is a lot more likely to get stolen.

Finally got 'True' the other day, with some help from the landlady (in fact I believe the satellite is in her name!) Well, who knows. In any case it is very expensive - about 2,000 baht per month, though with one free month on a six-month commitment. We'll see if it is worth it over the next few months. Thanks for all the help from various people in this thread.

Has anyone been able to find boric acid in Thailand? I haven't yet.

Personally I think they just like to make life complicated for farangs.

You said it! Most offices really don't like to deal with foreigners. The only way you have a chance is to find some motorbike shop which does title-transfer and licensing services, and which has the 'in' with the office - in other words has a 'relationship' with the staff in the office which is 'beneficial' to said staff, if you see what I mean. I'm so happy to say I use such a shop, and they have always been able to get things done under my name for a fair price (the 'extra fees' usually amount to at most 100 baht).

That said, recently when the staff of the DMV changed - you know how in Thailand the bosses at these offices are often moved around - they had some difficulty 'cementing a relationship' with the new guy for a while. I had to wait over two months for one registration to come back. No extra charge, but there's just a certain protocol for these kinds of relationships in Thailand, apparently, and there's no rushing it (you can't just walk in and offer a bribe).

I prefer the local asiadisc or wharever its called . The Funjabi Channel is excellent with overdubs of old 70's movies and the Nepal TV channel . They are all free once you have bought the thing . Cured me of watching tv .

Haha! Good one. Yes I'm very afraid to get something useless like Thai or Indian TV.

I'm up here in Isaan, and after trying for a week or two, so far have had no luck ordering any satellite - no one can communicate with me at the 'True' office, and they don't seem to want to sell to a foreigner. However Thai acquaintances who have satellite say that they just pay one time to buy the equipment and then no monthly fee - however they have no idea if they get any English language channels.

You might want to have a quick peek in here: http://www.thaivisa....ok/page__st__25

Thanks, took a look there, couldn't make heads or tails of it.

When I was at True I had a Thai friend try to communicate with the staff by telephone, and though she could not communicate with them (basically they just didn't want to sell to a farang), she did say to me afterwards she was suprised I wanted to pay by the month. I said 'what other way is there'? She said she bought a dish and then there is no further monthly charge. She didn't know whether she had any English channels though.

Thanks for the advice. I went to the 'True' office today, where they were incredibly resistant to my attempts to order satellite. Seems this will be a several-weeks ordeal like most things in Thailand.

I'm thinking about ordering satellite TV at my new house, rather than cable. I've always had cable provided by apartment buildings, so I don't know anything about satellite in Thailand.

Can anyone advise me how to order satellite? Which company would have English channels? I'm up in Isaan, in Maha Sarakham, so it is probably the locals know nothing about English language TV.

I have a Kawasaki Cheer, about (I guess), 15 years old, which has a working electric start, and starts easily after a week or two sitting. However it has been wrecked several times, is held together by wire and those little plastic band thingies, leaks something (I'm not sure if it is engine oil or gasoline) all over the place, and has only one mirror (the place where the other mirror screwed in was ripped away in one of the accidents).

The bike drives nice and is reliable though, with good brakes and adequate power, and a comfortable seat with no rips. Plus you get a lot of amusing looks from Thais when driving something like that. I'd sell it for 10,000.

A friend of mine has flats every week or two, both on front and back, but more often on the back tire and more often after having a passenger.

I have flats occasionally on my bikes but much less often than my friend.

Are you having flats more in the rear?

i have a 17 million baht house which provides me with one of the best views in pattaya.You have a long way to go to get where i am boy

You own a house in Thailand? So you are a Thai citizen?

How often do you floor it to lets say trying to keep your speed coming up a hill or even going straight on a freeway?

No, I never floor the car, ever. All my life I've been one of those guys who drives like an egg is under the accelerator pedal.

In point of fact, the amazing thing is that if you're not in a hurry, the little one liter motor seems adequate to getting around - true, a lot of people pass me, but I pass some trucks and things no problem.

Not trying to be mean, but isn't it time you realised your not an old car person.....and you should be upgrading to something new.

New? Good lord man, the reason I have a 27 year old car is due to poverty - new is not an option.

And after all, compared to the average person (particularly in Thailand) I know quite a lot about cars and their mechanicals.

My old Ke-70 runs cool enough during normal weather, and there is no problem using air-conditioning in this kind of weather (though I never do as it isn't very hot out). I mostly drive the car at night anyway.

But during April and May I find it necessary to use the air-con, and alas during the day and particularly in urban stop-and-go traffic, using the air causes the car to run quite hot. Even out on the highway you can't use the air for more than about 30 minute before the temp starts to creep up. I've never overheated the car, but I usually have to turn off the air-con.

This air conditioning was no doubt added by the dealer back in the early 1980s rather than by the factory, so perhaps the cooling system was never quite adequate for it. Since that time the original owners replaced the original 1300cc engine with a new used 993cc engine, I suspect because of overheating it, though I don't know for sure.

I'm wondering if putting in a bigger radiator would be enough to solve this problem, or whether some other alterations would be necessary. I might consider it if a larger used radiator were very cheap - has anyone had occasion to install used radiators in Thailand on old Toyotas?

What will make a noticeable improvement in power is a Nissan SR20 DET swap

Can I do that for 10,000 all in? My mechanic here has often offered to put a 'new used from Japan' 1.6 liter Toyota engine in the car but he mentioned about 30,000 for the switch, far beyond my budget. And on top of that he said it would require using an automatic transmission, which I strongly dislike in this type of car.

I'm happy to report that I got the tires re-balanced - just a simple re-balance, nothing high-tech - at the new 'B-Quick' auto repair shop next to Central Plaza in Khon Kaen. It was 150 baht (they only did the front wheels)and the car did seem quite a bit smoother at 60-70 kph.

They also happened to have another Ke-70 there with the engine out of it - the old one sitting there, and a new (old used) 1300cc waiting to go in. They enjoyed showing me this while my tires were balanced, and told me the whole swap was costing the owner of the car just about 10,000 baht including engine and labor!

Seeing as how I've been told I only have the older 1000cc unit in my car, I'm tempted to consider such a swap back to the original 1300cc.. wonder if it would make noticeable improvement in power.

Got the bike back tonight, he said it was fixed and charged me just 40 baht. I'll drive it a few days to see if its better - couldn't see in the dark if it was still super-smokey. For sure it still put out some smoke, but it didn't look like as much. Wonder what if anything he might've done?

Guys, I don't know how one would 'drain the oil tank'. I can't work on bikes, just ask the mechanic to do things. Anyway I dropped the bike off at one of my two favorite mechanics for a day or two 'check' of this problem, without specifying anything to be done. We'll see how it turns out - usually this guy is so careful about not charging anything that he won't do anything he'd have to bill more than 200 baht for without specific approval, and half the time he hands it back after having the bike for 2 days 'just adjusting' and charges 20 baht.

Thanks for your kind attention and suggestions. I didn't buy the bike from a farmer, but who knows who was the owner before..just got it at the bike shop from their 'back room' of elderly trade-ins, 5,000 baht. Its certainly possible that that owner drove the bike very slowly, as a lot of older Thais do with their older bikes, and/or that the bike sat a lot, which is also common if the owner has a newer bike or even a car. I've known many middle class families who keep a bike for just going 2-3 blocks to the market but use the car for everything further, and those bikes are usually pretty poor-running. Lastly as I've specified before, the bike has no 'cooling system' - its just air cooled, no water in it at all.

I've resolved to take it to the 'very good/professional' type of shop for the special 'on the car' wheel alignment/tire balancing treatment - however I have no idea if there would be a shop that high-tech here in Isaan. I doubt it in Maha Sarakham, but perhaps in Khon Kaen. Can anyone recommend a place? I'll go there Saturday.

So to the OP , Whats your update , what did you find out and what was the problem , interested in your conclusion to your original problem .

Yes as I said above I bought a new battery.. so far its fine, but only a long spell of dis-use will tell.

No Lickey these are new tires as stated in the original post - 100% tread and not more than 300 km on them I'd say.

ThaiCBR - I haven't yet had to put in any auto-lube, as it was full when I bought it. I put various brands at various times in my other two strokes, with no problem - smell or excessive smoke.

^{Sounds like the new ring hasn't seated properly yet. If it continues I would remove the head and cylinder and have the cylinder re-honed and then replace the ring. You can do the whole job in about an hour.}

What new ring?

though it does still tend to be a bit smelly (to those who claim all two strokes are smelly, some of the other one's I've had aren't very much so).

Define smelly. All 2 strokes burn oil is that what you mean. I wouldn't describe that as smelly. Down wind of a pig farm is smelly.

Well it smells much worse than my other two-strokes, which really have only the very normal and inoffensive smoke-smell. This one stinks - acrid at times.

Check it's not sucking gearbox oil through a damaged / worn seal.

Don't know much about your bike but I had an old suzi 2 stroke that did that.

Its an old Tena - a 105cc little clutchless click-through-the-gears kind of bike. I'll have to take it to the mechanic and try to get him to check that gearbox oil idea.

Funcat, I have no idea if there is a guarantee on the tires.

It has everything to do with your problem. My shaking also started when I changed tyres and like you, I had no shaking with the old tyres.

Fair enough and thanks oilfieldworker, I was just unsure if your Benz or whatever it is with the special aftermarket wheels and all really translated to my 27 year old Corolla.

It only does 80 KPH what BDP is the engine pushing out,

I'm not sure what is 'BDP', but I'm guessing its some Euro version of horsepower? The engine is not the original 1300cc one, but a 1000cc one from an even older Corolla, and these are push-rod engines we're talking about here, so I doubt its producing much power at all.

By the way, to Lickey above - you mentioned the 'line' around the tire, yes I looked and it seems perfectly even. There is an awful lot of lead on the front wheels now, all in one place.. but only a little on the rear. I did have the same guy where I bought the battery (another repair+tire shop) take a look at the tires and he said they looked fine, he approved of the lead, the installation, and said that the date (around one year old) was fine.

Haha guys very funny.

I did dig deep for a new battery today after taking it to a 'dynamo' shop, where the nice man checked it for free and said that though the battery had good power, it was near to going kaput (he opened the little screw top things on the battery and showed me that inside it was all black/brown like some kind of chemical reaction taking place.

I believed him too, as he did not sell batteries! Down the road from there I got one for 2,500 baht. Ouch! Will have to wait for my next holiday (Song Kran) to test its ability to withstand a week sitting.

I have a 1984-85ish rear wheel drive Corolla which originally had a 1.3 liter, but I guess that's a different 1.3 - the older one was a push-rod engine, I think yours is a 'overhead cam' engine.

A mechanic of mine often offers to swap out the engine (actually I have a 1 liter in it at the moment) for the newer 1.6 liter, which is the most common Toyota engine around now (the one you see in most Bangkok taxicabs for instance). He says that the swap would be around 30,000 baht, as the engines are quite cheap used from Japan. You might ask the mechanic about a 1.6 used engine from Japan.