4 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

And a Harley Sportster used to be considered a woman's bike back in the day

Still is. 

And the big ones are just Arm chairs for old men. 

Think they all come with a his & hers free cup holder now days.

11 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

I see differences in terminology her

 

to me a scooter is quite simply these Italian types, Vespa Lambretta etc good for keeping pants dry

the rest are motorcycles, ranging from moped through lightweight motorcycle to heavyweight motorcycle or big bike if you prefer

 

I see little scope for agreement in this thread

 

just like to comment (my view) that today's 100-130 cc bikes in LoS can be very very fast  bikes, not really suitable toys for 16-year-olds

 

 

That is great because 16  year olds are not allowed to ride bikes over 100 cc.  Anyway bikes are not toys they are a mode of transportation and they need a certain speed to be safe in traffic. If your too slow your a danger to yourself especially acceleration is important

Getting a big bike license stil going to be riding a lap in the go-kart track and playing with the might-work-on-a-good-day red/green light box from the 70's?

Pretty soon a new law will be made here for everything that makes the news.

 

Law against looking at pretty woman riding motorcycles. Don't do it, it is disrespectful so gonna make a law about it!

Law against your wife or girlfriend holding you while sitting riding motorcycles while wearing shorts. Don't do it, it is disrespectful so gonna make a law about it!.

 

And more punishable laws like: 

Law against you holding your g-friend or wife while sitting on the back riding motorcycles. Don't know why, but a lot of foreigners let the woman ride them. But Don't do it, it is disrespectful so gonna make a law about it! And this one will be penalized greatly as men cannot touch the women in public.

 

But I almost wouldn't mind a new law saying you can't smoke cigarettes on motorcycles. 

 

The license is not going to stop stupidity. One who rides will abuse the speed limit and go fast as they feel. Such as the headless bike kid who was supposedly doing 200k to help make this law. Stupid is what stupid does.

Come on lets be serious they can't even enforce the helmet law, just look at that copper tying the kid to her father on a bike both without helmets and they thought that was good enough to show the public.

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So I guess my HD 1600 would be considered a big bike?

14 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Law against looking at pretty woman riding motorcycles. Don't do it, it is disrespectful

I'd say it's distracting and could end up in an accident or worse (her boyfriend might see you looking at her).

33 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

And a Harley Sportster used to be considered a woman's bike back in the day

Still is.... 

1 minute ago, PhonThong said:

So I guess my HD 1600 would be considered a big bike?

Yes, but not a powerfull or fast bike.

3 minutes ago, Vacuum said:

I'd say it's distracting and could end up in an accident or worse (her boyfriend might see you looking at her).

There you go! They oughta make a law about it.

So I hope big bikes can use tollways...

16 minutes ago, Vacuum said:

Yes, but not a powerfull or fast bike.

Basically, a pregnant cow of a bike..... 

Licenses in the Netherlands;

 

16 years old; max 50 cc (or 4 kW electric), Max construction speed 45 km/h. Automatic license if in possession of bigger moto or car license.

 

18 years old; max 125 cc. Max 11 kW. Max 0.1 kW/kg dry weight. 

 

20 years old; max 35 kW. Max 0.2 kW/kg dry weight. 

 

23 years old (of after having above license for 2 years); no limitations.

(Possible to get the license at 21 or 22, but will have restrictions as per above license until 2 years pass or rider turns 24). 

 

NL probably has one of the stricter regimes around.

 

1 minute ago, melvinmelvin said:

NL probably has one of the stricter regimes around.

 

Same as UK due to EU legislation harmonisation.

With the tiny number of "big bike" riders compared to the small bikes - this would have almost zero impact on the accident rates.

 

But how about allowing the holders of the new 'Big Bike' license to use the Expressways?

Sounds great in principle but the devil will be in the detail .. Like enforcement by the Old Bill .. 

If you exceed a certain body weight, esprecially when driving with 2 persons, a 125cc "Motobike" cannot be used. In my opinion the division is nonsense. Much of the operation of bigger bikes is as well applicable for smaller machines. It does not really matter if you fall flat on your face while driving at 100kmph with a 125cc or 1000 cc bike. So the tests - and esprecially the training - I did have special bike training - should be for the biggest ones anyway - but no seperate test is necessary.

I think any kind of a licence would be a good start and not just for bikes. Bless the Thais for another knee jerk reaction. I am seriously considering opening a milk shake bar and could employ some Thais to replace the need for the shaking blender, 'ere Somchai, pop this on your knee for a moment, hey did you hear that a farang smoked on Pattaya beach today' pop in a lump of ice cream and voila.....i'm doing my bit to keep down energy wastage !

As far as I recall, the UK determines the 'big' bike based on the power output, rather than raw CC. At the moment it translates to roughly 650CC, but can be any size in theory. Again, if memory serves, 11kW is the output limit - but that could have changed. 650 would still be way too big for Thailand IMHO, and 400CC seems about right to me - the larger Centaur (which is a bit underpowered for a modern 400CC) probably ought not to qualify for a different licence to the 250 / 200 CC models, IMO.

have had bikes for many yrs, little scooters in Thailand, real sized in USA (Ninja et al). other than if it's too heavy to handle at slow speed (not fall over or steer correctly) IMHO size is irrelevant to safety. Little can be as dangerous as big.

Recently got my Thai Mcy license, the 'road' test was a joke, the written test was a joke, the process was a joke. Nothing to do with 'road safety training' and zero to do with specific motorcycle riding skills. And, if I ride strictly according to 'the rule book' I would have been dead already.

Teach about slick roads (sand, water, oil), teach that everyone else is out to kill you and ride accordingly, show photos of real accidents and explain why they happened and what should have been done to avoid. Some kind of class to scare the shit out of riders FIRST might just impart a little bit of respect for the road, immovable objects, their skin and skull, and their passengers.

Increased fees, fancy licensing, and more regulations won't accomplish shit, education might accomplish a little.

 

I'm all for control when people are killing themselves.  But from what I've seen with big bike training and you can have a separate test and requirement for them but it doesn't address what is killing the Thais at an alarming rate, tops in the world and that is the mental aspect of driving learning not only the physical skills but the mental part and proper execution.  What good is a special big bike license if you continue to do the same thing that is killing others in small bikes.  

 

Today, the mental aspect of upgrading to a bigger big is " the bigger the bike the faster you go "  isn't that what you see on the Highways.  you can kill yourself on a 100 C.C.  if you run a red light or drive it recklessly and not understand the rules like simple coming or slowing down when it rains, or prior to entering a major road stop or slow down before one proceed.  

 

For the million time the Thai government there isn't one person in government who understand what needs to be done. Today I told my wife and daughter Inlaw regarding the new fines and jail time for drivers not having a license. Basically from the bits I got and mostly their facial expression it is the same!  Outside of Bangkok, it can't or isn't enforce because no one in government particularly representing the Transport Dept has any power outside of Bangkok to do it!  And I agree!

 

 

3 hours ago, Scottjouro said:

A wise move i think...the average Thai who is used to riding a motocy struggles with a "big bike" and then we have the dumb ass farangs who cant even ride a motocy properly trying to ride a "big bike" as well...

 

I would think capping the motocy at 125cc and anything above that is considered a "big bike" 

I suppose your an expert then!

A start would be to getr every one to have a licence first, then maybe thinking about grading them

When I first started riding (my Harley) in Thailand I found that many of the local motorcycle clubs required that their members have a "big bike" which, to them, was anything over 600ccs.

 

They didn't want members on smaller bikes (like the 400cc Steeds) because they were a pain in the @55 on roadtrips and had a hard time keeping up with the group on long trips. Yes, there are machines under 600ccs that can go really, really fast and "blow away" Harley's no problem.

Oddly enough, I hardly ever see any of those when I ride to Chiang Mai or Khon Kaen or any other long trip though. Occasionally when I'm near a big city I might see one wound out to the point it sounds like it's going to pop a piston any second. It seems they think they have to red-line it so they can blow past me and hope they get to their destination/turn off before their engine blows.

(We're talking standard Thai bikes here, not high end custom racing bikes.)

 

Training and testing will probably be a joke. When I was posted to Germany in the 80s we had to take a Motorcycle Safety course and pass a test before we could get a license to ride. The problem was, the training/testing was all done on a closed course, on 125cc scooters.

But as soon as you passed and got your license, you could operate any size bike you wanted to.

 

So of course, some of our guys went out and bought the biggest, baddest bikes on the market at the time. I think a 1200 Ninja was about the best crotch rocket you could get at the time.

Naturally, new license in hand and shiny new bike between their legs, a lot of them headed straight for the autobahn.

And crashed.

And died.

Or got severely injured.

At one point we'd lost more people to motorcycle accidents (killed or seriously injured) than to all drunk driving accidents (with cars/trucks) and my unit had the dubious distinction of having the highest number of alcohol related driving offences of any Canadian unit in Germany !

Teaching people how to do a gentle "figure 8" and 15-20 kms/hr on a scooter is nothing like trying to weave through traffic at 180-200 kms/hr or trying to corner a 1200cc bike at those same speeds. A couple of accidents were the results of people who "sat" on their bikes going into a curve at high speed and carried straight across the road and off the other side.

The problem is, how to deliver quality, effective training (and testing) on bikes that big, in those conditions ?

In BC (Canada) under the "graduated" system, you get a learners license, then a few months later you have to take another test and get a slightly better grade of "learners" license and then a couple few months later you can go for the full license and the test is, they tell you where to go and then follow you around the city (in a car) and watch how you drive, turn, change lanes, etc.

Slightly better than doing it on a closed "figure 8" course but still not the same as driving at speed in highway conditions.

Of course, this could all be just talk which will fade away and chances are, we may not hear about this again for months or years. Maybe never again !

 

You are whistling in the wind if you think there will be one ounce of meaningful traffic regulation in Thailand.  You have to patrol the roads for that, and we all know that is absolutely a pipe dream here.

 

I only am writing this to complain about the  very big, very fast and very loud bikes that are roaming the highway between Hua Hin and somewhere past Cha Am.  In the past few months I have had the crap scared out of me several times being passed by one or more of those idiots doing what has got to be over 200KMH.  I normally drive between 90 and 110 and they are past me before I can even tell color or manufacturer.   It seems most nights around midnight there is a run of two or three of them going back and forth a few times.

 

If any of you are one of them I hope you don't bite it anywhere near me!

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

good start

and if that could be combined with mandatory training .....

 

will, of course, be a challenge to find the limit between ordinary and big

 

Well uk test means i can ride any bike any cc. Yes i took it 49 years ago but law is law. Make it just for thai 555555. After all many things just for foriener ONLY FAIR 555555

It always surprised me 50cc or 1200cc no difference in driver licence for motorbikes

With incomes rising, bike costs coming down, there are more and more young who can afford a bigger bike, perhaps before they should. Separating licenses on some size or power criteria makes good sense. Doing it early before a mountain of dead bodies on larger bikes piles up is better than waiting.

 

Singapore does not care about age. You get your first license, you can ride up to 200cc. After a year, you can be tested again on a 400 for a license up to 400cc. One more year, and the final exam on a 750 gets you access to any size of bike. Their model puts experience above age - insurance premiums take care of the rest.

 

In Singapore you can't buy a bike without a valid license and you can only buy to the licenses permitted limit. The sale is registered with the transport ministry immediately. This model also makes sense, but as all things here, implementation and policing will fail good intentions from day 1.

 

I'd be happy to take a test for my license. I'd be happier if the test was a test, not a formality; it is too easy. Even someone who thinks larger than 150cc is a big bike would pass...

In the US, the state of California calls a big bike over 250cc if memory serves. My license is M1 being big bike.

 

When I got both car and motorcycle licenses in Thailand the person at the counter knew exactly where to look on my CA license to do the paperwork so obviously I was the first person with a CA license. I wonder if the expats coming in for licenses will be granted Thai licenses based on their home country license.