mania

My Honda Click 125i service is 140bht, that's including the oil change.

Dang I was bent over for what they charged me on my wifes wave 125i then at 190 baht

mania, i got this information from a ducati monster owner in usa in another forum so i am just the liar of him.

but i do not see any reason for him to lie still...

No nothing like that LL

Did not think anyone was a liar.

But the prices are all posted on Ducati.org

Here is another link although I find the prices higher than ducati.org

although looking at his list he usually has other things in there like a dunlop tire at 6k miles etc.

http://www.healthinfodesign.com/ducati/ducati_maint.htm

Looks surreal doesn't it?

another reason I service my Ducati, that and I can't stand anyone I don't know screwing with my bike. I'm too much of a perfectionist for the mass market servicing scenario.

Always the most satisfying way to own a bike.

A longtime poster on Ducati.org has a sig line that reads

"DUCATI. Making mechanics out of riders since 1946."

It is the govt charging the tax, and the dealership charging for the service. The dealerships are also separate entities from the Ducati company.

Let me try to clarify what I meant when I said they cant have it both ways.

Someone buys a Panigale here & pays twice what they pay in the States.

No small amount.

One might think that the trade off is we live in a cheaper country.

But no the maintenance is still high here (relatively )

So the actual cost of ownership is probably cheaper in the West

as the double initial price is still probably more than the West with lifelong maintenance

costs included.

Bottom line is wages here cannot compare with there so labor prices should not either.

Kawasaki & Honda here send their mechanics to training also & have levels of attainment for them.

I don't know about the Japanese places, but Ducati pays their staff very well here - including the mechanics, who have undergone a lot of training.

Just curious but what is "very well" here in baht?

Do they go hourly pay, daily or monthly?

If you know for sure as hearsay is funny here

i just checked and the price of this service is 1200 usd in USA!!! and yearly service costs for ducati monsters are around 2400 usd a year!!! wow.

so 6870 thb which is 230 USD is nothing!

and those 100 bahts we pay extra does not bother me as well. By the way, Honda Bigwing Bangkok staff does not accept any tip like japanese style - I tried.

I think you may have a mix up there

In the USA the 7500 Mile check up which is roughly 12000km

they charge $294.80 for valve adjustment portion on a 796 since they do not run the 795

The rest such as oil etc you are allowed to do yourself.

Also yearly costs I have never seen quoted as such just mileage not by time.

I have also seen Panigale costs as high as $1000

But in any case my original post was never meant to be a Ducati Thai service cost

bashing more of a Japanese types celebration at how cheap service here is for Kawasaki, Honda etc.

whoa, I was just talking about 100 baht issue, not the import duty and major bill concerns.....I'm agreeable on the matter mind you.

hahah yes I was just picking up on the fact that their pay is not too good

100 baht either way didn't bother me, as I know how tough their monthly paypacket can be.

That is the thing...

We know the pay is not up there yet the service charge on this was 4590 baht

Of course in the States we expect it as the pay is probably $20+ an hour.

But here?

I agree with Richard it would be foolish not to know roughly maintenance costs when buying but still

it is hard to allow it to be both ways.

On the one hand we live here & know things are cheaper locally. Labor etc...

We know bikes that are imported cost twice as much...Ok there is a balance

This bike is made & serviced "Here"

But seems like they want it both ways?

Stick the high tax on imports & then still charge like they pay wages?

In this case the dealer is pocketing a lot I think as I doubt any gets kicked back to the mechanic.

I never lost weight living here although I am not heavy

5'9" & 170

But I have lost the body fat that had built over the years in the US

So just the composition of my weight changed

I think as you say the heat here as I exercise the same in both places.

But also diet here is actually better as there are not so many sweets temptations/candy

& also dairy products are far fewer here.

I think the only time I have cheese here is once a month or so when I go to Mama Mia's for pizza.

Also No milk here & very rarely ice cream.

would be kind of funny if we did a falang flash mob deal & all lined

up to buy Kebab's at a certain agreed time

Would kind of drive his detractor insane I think

Great race at the front while there were loads of crashes, mainly at turn 10 for some reason. Alvaro only just managing to miss Rossi early on.

Marc was on line to wipe out Dani at a couple of points, especially when lost the front momentarily. Good ride by the Doctor, which was nice to see.

Sad to see Cal eat the gravel, better luck next time.

Bradley Smith looked pleased didn't he?

Yeah that is just what I said about turn 10 watching practice

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/604295-motogp-2013-sbkbsb-motorbike-racing/page-7#entry6506785

Don't know why or what was the deal there but it caught many napping

Also I was thinking after the race watching the top three conference that Ped look frazzled

I think having Marc at his rear tire all that time was taxing for sure.

I also bet when he saw the replay & Marc had to hit his front brake with 2 laps to go to keep from rear-ending

him.....

Yes also was sad to see Cal go down & Hayden too as he was doing so well in FP & Qual

some folks who financed a ducati will spend a good chunk of their monthly salary on a service like this

The Thai guy that posted that said he wanted to cry.

He said he went to the ATM before the service & got 4000 baht thinking that would be more than plenty enough.

I thought Ducati was Italian, but I agree you can't complain about that price.

Heheh yes Ducati = Italian but I meant us folks who ride Japanese brands have no complaints

My Kawasaki service ran 900 baht & I imagine the one that needs valves checked may run 3x that or less

Which is still less than half of this smallest of Ducatis

Even My Isuzu 4 dr Dmax with the largest diesel engine they make runs 4500 baht for the full service which included

valve adjusts & much more

Saw this on facebook tonight

It was the 12k service on a monster 795...6870 baht

Although 12k is the 1st Desmo valve adjust service of the schedule

I cannot see the letters but am betting the 4000+ is labor

Still seems high when one consider what the mechanics probably get paid here

But still I guess $225 is way cheaper than say a 796 monster 12k service in the USA

Heheh talk about a cliff hanger

Dang I lost my internet stream with 2 laps to go in MotoGP.

Right after Marc clipped his front wheel

Of course by the time the stream came back race was over.

At least nothing changed from where I lost contact but still

Wish I had a better connect some times but cannot complain for free

Moto2 was good too.

Wont spoil it by naming anyone as I know some watch delayed

There is no 'Japanese restricted version' of the Z1000- it's not even offered on the Kawasaki Japan website (meaning if you want one in Japan you have to buy an 'export version' and pay additional taxes).

The Z1000 and ZX-14R sold through Kawasaki Thailand are both full-power.

My guess is the original old post he quoted that said a "importer" brought in the unrestricted bike was talking about a

ZX10R 1000 not a Z1000

Moto3 Nice Race

Always good & always close.

Little things make the biggest difference in this class

& always enjoyable to watch

Mahindra has been moving along nice too

Would love to find a good Moto3 tech site & read more about the technology

in this class.

OT but,

I dont know if they still do food but as a side mention I had a cheeseburger at Love at 1st Bite once

Owner came over & asked if I liked it.

Was quite good as I remember

Well its hard to go past Dani after a lap like that I saw your post Mania about the top speed, I dunno but I saw Dani hit 342 in QP.

Yes Dani is tops now.

I missed Qual last night as I was out but Hayden had top speed

on FP3

Dani blew past it & also Stoners lap record for this track I believe in Qual.

Good on him hope he can keep it going for the race.

You know I was reading that the Yamaha boys have blown through their engine allocation & are on like engine 4 of 5.

I have not really followed this rule so can someone summarize?

I know they are allotted X amount of engines per season.

But once one is cooked are they not allowed to rebuild it?

I always thought they wee just limited to X amount & no new cases allowed.

But always thought they could rebuild the spent ones from their allocation.

Is that not true?

This is where I read about them going thru the engines rapidly as opposed

to Honda whose engines seem to hold up well

Lots of season left & if they are running low at Yamaha could be a problem then?

Engine Trouble Looming For Yamaha in MotoGP – Rossi & Lorenzo Burning Through Their Allocations

IMO, prices have gone up quite a bit following the raise in the minimum wage. One example is that coconuts have usually been around 20 baht on the street for years, but they have been 35 baht and more for months now and do not seem to be going down. Durian seems much more expensive for this time of year to me too.

Funny on the coconuts you wouldn't think the labor raise would affect it.

As it mainly looks like one man operations

One odd thing I noticed was this past month many folks were selling mangosteen & rambutan

for 25-28 baht per kilo "roadside"

Yet in Big C which has labor costs it was much less.

I saw it for 18-22 per kilo

Re this sort of scam in general, it's so easy to make it a practice to protect yourself from opportunity. If I pay for something anywhere, be it a bar, a 7/11, a roadside food stall, I hold the note/s up at the person taking the cash and look them in the eye and tell them what I'm giving them. That way they know that YOU know what the change should be. So many guys pay a 300 baht bin at a bar with a 1,000 and get change for a 500. Some try to argue the toss but rarely win, others just don't notice.

Reminded me of that movie "The Grifters"

Good movie & that was one of the simple grifts ( petty scams ) that got the guys arm broke

He pulled that show the money in reverse. Showed a $20 or something asked for change at a bar.

But he never said change a $20 just showed one & then

swapped the larger note for a smaller palmed note while getting the change.

Bar Owner was hip grabbed his wrist & baseball batted it with a small bat he had under the bar.

Dukes has good taste, but only the outer parts of the pizzas are not soggy, and they cut their pizzas into squares, which is very bad. When you eat an inside piece, it's just sloppy. Also, remember if you sit outside, you are right on the river road and it's noisy and probably polluted.

Dukes' pizza is best if you buy one and take it home and put it right in the fridge. Great eaten cold the next day.

I thought it was only me that thought this

Here's to another podium Cal.

Great qualifying ride by Dani, now the fastest man ever around the circuit (he will be well chuffed with that).

I missed Qual last night as I had to go out.

Sounds like it was a good one though. Hope to catch a replay today

before the race

I like the flush mounts looks good.

The beak....errrr...I never really understood it.

Does it have a purpose? Looks like a high fender but the tire is wrapped already with the low fender

so what the story with these? It is not just Kawasaki either