Trat Province, Cycling Day Trips – 60 Pics

[henrik2000]

Day trips out of Khao Saming near Trat town. (Pics looked crisp on my machine before upload.)

 

 

 

[Bredbury Blue]

What kind of bike have you got? What's the spec? I ask as I'm thinking of taking up cycling again.

[henrik2000]

2 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

What kind of bike have you got? What's the spec? I ask as I'm thinking of taking up cycling again.

I think it is very much a matter of personal preference - for a bike, for certain kinds of roads -, not what's generally best for Thailand. If you go country, my number 1 tips would be unflattable tires, and certainly not the tires that come with cheap bikes.

[Bredbury Blue]

2 hours ago, henrik2000 said:

I think it is very much a matter of personal preference - for a bike, for certain kinds of roads -, not what's generally best for Thailand. If you go country, my number 1 tips would be unflattable tires, and certainly not the tires that come with cheap bikes.

Very definitely a matter of personal prefence. I used to have mountain bike and now considering whether a road bike might be better for a bit of touring.

[KhunLA]

Any bike I'd own or if buying another, would have to be a Ebike.

[Harrisfan]

Great pics

[NickyLouie]

pro tip: wipe the smudges off the back of your phone camera lens

[StreetCowboy]

On 5/26/2025 at 4:51 AM, henrik2000 said:

I think it is very much a matter of personal preference - for a bike, for certain kinds of roads -, not what's generally best for Thailand. If you go country, my number 1 tips would be unflattable tires, and certainly not the tires that come with cheap bikes.

I would recommend Schwalbe Marathon Plus.  My mate would recommend Schwalbe Durano.  Other people will say go tubeless.  If you’re running inner tubes, keep the pressure up; I used to get a lot of punctures, until I got a track pump with a pressure gauge.

[KhunLA]

12 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Great pics

I agreed ... I see you got a thumbs down from your trolling fan club.   Hope the mods take note of your troll and warns him/her/it.  Maybe report the post, and you'll see a lot less thumbs down.

 

How to you thumb down a compliment 😢 Sad folks out there.

[henrik2000]

3 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

I would recommend Schwalbe Marathon Plus.  My mate would recommend Schwalbe Durano.  Other people will say go tubeless.  If you’re running inner tubes, keep the pressure up; I used to get a lot of punctures, until I got a track pump with a pressure gauge.

Schwalbe Marathon Plus - exactly the one i use. I have the Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour - which is made more for offroad. Last winter i cycled 4000 kms in different parts of Thailand, with a lot of forest and fields (i.e. full of thorns), and didn't have 1 single puncture. That's phantastic compared to earlier trips. 

For the Marathon Plus the manufacturer recommends using a pump with pressure gauge, they say you can't properly check the pressure with your thumb on that tire. I do have a small pump with pressure gauge to attach to the bike - and find it very difficult to get even the minimum of 3 bar into the tire. It's much easier with a big stand pump or compressor.

The Schwalbe Marathon Plus (Tour) has a protection level of 7/7 according to manufacturer, but it isn't foldable, if you wanted to bring it into Thailand from the West. Schwalbe also has a tire called Marathon Mondial (?), which is foldable, very small in its paper box and has a protection level of 6/7 (beware, you have to pick the right, more protective, less smooth-running "Mondial" variety). This Mondial gave me exactly 1 puncture on another 4000 kms of country bicycling in Thailand (industrial strength thorns), which is still very good compared to using cheap local tires + tubes (20+ punctures on yet another winter sojourn).

I would also recommend Schwalbe AirPlus inner tubes, i believe they have a big advantage over cheaper inner tubes, and they are helpful even if you have low-quality tires. (There maybe other good manufacturers, but Schwalbe is just so well established in my territory.)

--

Another good thing if you do have a puncture are Thai people. Workshops are everywhere and usually super-friendly, often insisting on helping me for free (barely managed to give them some oranges). Several times when they saw me pushing a flattened bike, cars and trucks would stop, put my bike inside (including inside family vans) and take me to the next workshop. (I do carry the equipment to fix a puncture, but in Thailand prefer a workshop.)

 

[BritManToo]

11 minutes ago, henrik2000 said:

Schwalbe Marathon Plus - exactly the one i use. I have the Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour - which is made more for offroad. Last winter i cycled 4000 kms in different parts of Thailand, with a lot of forest and fields (i.e. full of thorns), and didn't have 1 single puncture. That's phantastic compared to earlier trips. 

I've done 6,300+km in the past year, cheapest tyres and tubes ever, also no punctures.

Think punctures more to do with riding on under inflated tyres than anything else.

[henrik2000]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I've done 6,000+km in the past year, cheapest tyres and tubes ever, also no punctures.

 

Did you get those:

 

 

(Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tire after off-roading in upcountry Uttaradit.)

[StreetCowboy]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I've done 6,300+km in the past year, cheapest tyres and tubes ever, also no punctures.

Think punctures more to do with riding on under inflated tyres than anything else.

If your tyres are lasting longer than your chain, then you can't complain about the tyres.  I think I pick up more nails and pins than that, but I'm not sure.

What I would re-iterate is that if the OP had posted his pictures either one to a post or a few to a post, we'd be talking about his pictures, not tyres.

 

[StreetCowboy]

6 minutes ago, henrik2000 said:

 

Did you get those:

 

 

(Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tire after off-roading in upcountry Uttaradit.)

Ow!  Who leaves those on bike paths?

[henrik2000]

43 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

Who leaves those on bike paths?

"Bike paths"? It was exactly here:

 

[henrik2000]

49 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

What I would re-iterate is that if the OP had posted his pictures either one to a post or a few to a post, we'd be talking about his pictures, not tyres.

Thanks. If you wanted, you could copy a pic and paste it into a reply box, either by right-clicking or by Ctrl C, Ctrl V, and comment on that one. (I just tried that, it works on my system.)

[madone]

On 5/26/2025 at 5:58 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

Very definitely a matter of personal prefence. I used to have mountain bike and now considering whether a road bike might be better for a bit of touring.

gravel for a longer tour, you can match tires to terrain as you see fit,

[StreetCowboy]

8 minutes ago, henrik2000 said:

Thanks. If you wanted, you could copy a pic and paste it into a reply box, either by right-clicking or by Ctrl C, Ctrl V, and comment on that one. (I just tried that, it works on my system.)

Thanks!

[henrik2000]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Think punctures more to do with riding on under inflated tyres than anything else.

Oh, also to do with the surface. Maybe you've mostly been on paved roads. Dirt roads are full of thorns, some of them extremely tiny but effective, others monstrous (pic above).

[BritManToo]

Just now, henrik2000 said:

Oh, also to do with the surface. Maybe you've mostly been on paved roads. Dirt roads are full of thorns, some of them extremely tiny but effective, others monstrous (pic above).

I used to cycle downhill offroad runs from Doi Pui, through the hill tribes village to Huay Tung Tao lake. No punctures there either although I did manage to bend a few pedals in deep ruts, and one of my pals snapped his rear derailleur off.