Rent a Scooter or buy one?

[Hummin]

4 minutes ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I just finished paying off my Yamaha Grand Filano, 2600 baht a month for 3 years. Yes, this ended up being a bit more than the cash price, but to me it was worth it. I unfortunately don't usually have 60k baht laying around.

 

2600 baht was a small price to pay for good, reliable transportation each month. Consider how much taxis and songthaews add up each day. Then me and my wife actually completed several 400 km trips on it across the country.

 

I'm a teacher and had initially been living in BKK, where I didn't need a scooter. Then I moved out to the provinces for work. "You got a bike?" was the question then hurled at me by many farangs, coworkers and those at the local watering holes. They of course all had extra bikes they wanted to rent, older, beat up models. They all kept asking for 3k a month, plus silly things like a security deposit and charges for repairs. It sounded like a good deal until my wife let me know, are they kidding? You can get a new one for cheaper. She was right, and I'm glad I did.

96 000 total? What amount of cash did you pay upfront?

 

New price 2o22 50k?

 

 

[DefaultName]

Rent - more expensive in the long term, but no repair costs unless you crash it.

Buy - cheaper in the long term and you can customise it (I NEED my Scottish flags ????) but all repairs are down to you.

 

Up To You.

 

I rented when I used to come on holiday, then bought when I moved here.  No regrets.

[richard_smith237]

5 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

If you love your life and don't want to end up in a statistic of fatal Road deaths......then buy a Car.????

4 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

Yeah, but I'm still alive☺️

Yeah.. but you haven’t really thought about that stat fully... 

 

75 % of Thailands road deaths are Motorcyclists (75% of 24,000 per year)

- How many deaths are from no helmet (when they’d otherwise walk away) ? 30-50% ?

- How many are from speeding ? 25% 

- How many at night ? 30%

- How many while drunk ? 30% 

- How many are riding utterly carelessly ? 30%

 

The stats are vastly reduced when we factor in the ‘underlying cause’ of many motorcycle accidents we see in Thailand...  All the time I see riders in Thailand doing stuff I would never consider, from pulling out without looking, taking chance on a gap, riding while using the phone etc

 

Just by not riding at night, not riding while drunk, riding defensively and wearing a crash helmet the risks compared to the 75% stat is reduced dramatically.

 

Riding a bike is still more dangerous than driving a car, I’m not implying or suggesting it isn’t. 

 

But, what I am implying is that the 75% (18,000) motorcyclist deaths per year is not a representative stat or risk profile for many of us who ride carefully. 

 

Of course, we can get hit by a truck...  and there are so many what-ifs, could happens etc... but that could happen as a pedestrian or in a car etc. and yes, on a motorcycle we are more vulnerable - my point is, not as vulnerable as the ‘blanket motorcyclist stat’ suggests.

 

 

[sawadee1947]

16 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

can get hit

Not only by a truck, but other motorcycles. And all of them would answer you to ride very carefully. With or without Helmet. Sober or drunk. Clean or drugged.

Also consider slippery roads and brake failsures.????

Can't see and PROs to ride a Motorbike.

[Sticky Rice Balls]

I always buy and sell

 

or have a friend hold it when i go home as it sat for 2 yrs during covid

 

they say to only rent the ladies!

[Pmbkk]

 

I thought the mantra in Thailand(TV) was always rent - never buy...????

[mrwebb8825]

I rented everything until I figured out where I wanted to be. As the OP has stated he has been here 6 years, 1 could presume that's established.

I've owned 5 motorcycles in my 22 years here. My favorite was the 2nd year release of the Tiger Joker! With the full leather kit it looked like a cross between a Schwinn with the leather streamers hanging from the handgrips to a full blown Harley tour bike with the saddlebags, padded sissy bar and front fork pouch. ???? Riding it was like sitting in your recliner with 120cc motor.

My last (and current) is a Honda Phantom 200. Only bike I ever bought 2nd hand. Paid 55,000k and flew down to Krabi to buy it then rode it 1,200 km back home to Nakhon Nayok where it currently sits in the shed out back. Had 46k km on it when I bought it 10 years ago and parked it at 98k. It was parked 2 years ago when I moved to Bangkok so the wife and I wouldn't have to trade off commutes to spend more time together. (jobs - I worked the provinces while she got transferred to the main uni campus 3 years ago)

I'll sell it for 5k if interested but you'd need to come get it. I'm now retired (taught for 21 years) and won't be back "home" until my wife retires in 7 years. Good project for the mechanically inclined. 

[scubascuba3]

6 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Yeah.. but you haven’t really thought about that stat fully... 

 

75 % of Thailands road deaths are Motorcyclists (75% of 24,000 per year)

- How many deaths are from no helmet (when they’d otherwise walk away) ? 30-50% ?

- How many are from speeding ? 25% 

- How many at night ? 30%

- How many while drunk ? 30% 

- How many are riding utterly carelessly ? 30%

 

The stats are vastly reduced when we factor in the ‘underlying cause’ of many motorcycle accidents we see in Thailand...  All the time I see riders in Thailand doing stuff I would never consider, from pulling out without looking, taking chance on a gap, riding while using the phone etc

 

Just by not riding at night, not riding while drunk, riding defensively and wearing a crash helmet the risks compared to the 75% stat is reduced dramatically.

 

Riding a bike is still more dangerous than driving a car, I’m not implying or suggesting it isn’t. 

 

But, what I am implying is that the 75% (18,000) motorcyclist deaths per year is not a representative stat or risk profile for many of us who ride carefully. 

 

Of course, we can get hit by a truck...  and there are so many what-ifs, could happens etc... but that could happen as a pedestrian or in a car etc. and yes, on a motorcycle we are more vulnerable - my point is, not as vulnerable as the ‘blanket motorcyclist stat’ suggests.

 

 

Spot on there, the thing about the anti-bikers is they ride 0km but talk as if they are experts, just living in fear

[scubascuba3]

6 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

Not only by a truck, but other motorcycles. And all of them would answer you to ride very carefully. With or without Helmet. Sober or drunk. Clean or drugged.

Also consider slippery roads and brake failsures.????

Can't see and PROs to ride a Motorbike.

Riding motorbikes and cycling is great i do about 20k km a year and it's fine, how about you? you must have lots of experience?

[papa al]

5 hours ago, Pmbkk said:

 

I thought the mantra in Thailand(TV) was always rent - never buy...????

ur thinking is dum

[BTB1977]

Depends? Are you where for one week? Or one year? 

[brianthainess]

21 hours ago, Lacessit said:

For long distance travel, either flog the guts out of a rental, or buy new.

If you 'flog' the guts out of it, it will be you paying for new 'guts' to be put in. 

[brianthainess]

15 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

If you love your life and don't want to end up in a statistic of fatal Road deaths......then buy a Car.????

+ 1

[Lacessit]

13 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

If you 'flog' the guts out of it, it will be you paying for new 'guts' to be put in. 

Perhaps I should have worded my post more carefully, I did not mean to the point of failure. I think we both know rental cars and motorcycles all have a top speed 15-20 km/hr faster than a corresponding private vehicle.

I can remember a guy in my former condo in Chiang Mai who owned a couple of 125 cc scooters, rented them out to one-month tourists that stayed at the condo.

He gave that up after a pair of French tourists flogged them up and down every mountain they could find. IIRC, put 10,000 km on the odometers, while he got 5000 baht.

[Lacessit]

9 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

Not only by a truck, but other motorcycles. And all of them would answer you to ride very carefully. With or without Helmet. Sober or drunk. Clean or drugged.

Also consider slippery roads and brake failsures.????

Can't see and PROs to ride a Motorbike.

I use a car for long distances. Around the city, short trips, a scooter is far more convenient.

One minor shunt in ten years of riding a scooter here, I must be doing something right.

It's not rocket science, I don't drive the scooter when it's wet. I don't use it at night either, that's when the drunks and druggies are out and about.

 

[Lacessit]

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Riding motorbikes and cycling is great i do about 20k km a year and it's fine

You do need a higher level of concentration and threat awareness on two wheels, which is why I only use my scooter for short trips.

As for bicycles, I regard them as death traps. One simply does not have the acceleration available to get out of harm's way if a situation develops.

[brianthainess]

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Spot on there, the thing about the anti-bikers is they ride 0km but talk as if they are experts, just living in fear

Just bcoz I feel and am safer in a car, does not make me an "anti-biker'' , I rode M/C here for 10yrs +. Riding a M/C in the rainy season ain't no fun no more. I also have an E-bike for local village shopping, new i paid 8k for. similar to this but don't expect them to go up steep inclines. no licence req. I have fitted bicycle mirrors and lights for extra safety.

 

[Pmbkk]

7 hours ago, papa al said:

ur thinking is dum

Thanks for that valuable input Professor Egit...

[scubascuba3]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

You do need a higher level of concentration and threat awareness on two wheels, which is why I only use my scooter for short trips.

As for bicycles, I regard them as death traps. One simply does not have the acceleration available to get out of harm's way if a situation develops.

the lack of speed on a bicycle is a positive it means less likely to have an accident. Out of the two i find cycling far safer. On a motorbike when going 80kph on Sukhumvit a dog could run out or a muppet pull out, of course bad luck if they do so it's very rare

[Lacessit]

1 minute ago, scubascuba3 said:

the lack of speed on a bicycle is a positive it means less likely to have an accident. Out of the two i find cycling far safer. On a motorbike when going 80kph on Sukhumvit a dog could run out or a muppet pull out, of course bad luck if they do so it's very rare

That would be true if I was doing 80 km/hr, I don't. My maximum speed around Chiang Rai is 40 km/hr, for the very circumstances you specify. In any case, I was not talking about speed. I was talking about acceleration. There are very few cars that can accelerate faster over a short distance than even a humble scooter, it's all about power to weight ratio.

Speaking of dogs, who do you think is more likely to have dogs chasing them or behaving aggressively, a guy on a scooter, or a guy on a bicycle?

[sawadee1947]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

night either, that's when the drunks and druggies are out and about.

Unfortunately not. Thais driving all day round drunk and/or drugged

[Lacessit]

4 minutes ago, sawadee1947 said:

Unfortunately not. Thais driving all day round drunk and/or drugged

Unless they started the night before, it takes time to get intoxicated.

I'll take a small bet the majority of accidents involving drugs and alcohol in Thailand occur at night-time, if the BiB ever bothered to keep accurate statistics.

All the Thais I have seen hit the Lao Khao after work, except for holidays, when they start early.

Of course, you may be perceiving intoxication when it is just normal Thai driving skills on display.

[scubascuba3]

18 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

 

Speaking of dogs, who do you think is more likely to have dogs chasing them or behaving aggressively, a guy on a scooter, or a guy on a bicycle?

Definitely bicycles but although soi dogs are pests they usually want to chase only, from behind, not catch up and bite