Ride Bkk To Cnx On December 5th For The Chiang Mai Bike Week

[BigBikeBKK]

Chiang Mai Bike Week and touring the Golden Triangle on a Kawasaki Ninja 250R---

DAY ONE:

A beautiful day for a ride! We made excellent time and passed hundreds of other bikers. (Oddly no one passed us)

Google estimates drive time at about 10 hours, but we did it in about 8 with a long stop for lunch and a few other mishaps that I described previously.

I hardly took any pics- sorry. But I know that others did (Trent? Anthony? Jim?) and hope they'll post them as time permits.

I did have to get my camera out to document this though:

No idea how this bike went over, but fortunately the rider was unhurt and the damage to the bike is only cosmetic.

Seems like on the Holiday that the police decided to abandon all their checkpoints We rode all the way from BKK to CNX at speeds of 140-170km/hr without a single checkpoint- that's a first for me, and I LIKE it!

I was worried that we were too slow for the guys on the rockets- Ninja ZX10 and Yamaha R1, but they were really cool and were content to rocket ahead and then slow down and rocket ahead again. Both very competent riders which is always nice!

Upon arrival we enjoyed many rounds of refreshments at the Kafe in Chiang Mai

The missus drove the truck up and brought my son and his nanny as well. We stayed at the Top North Hotel, stumbling distance from the Tha Phrae Gate and the Kafe-

Basic clean room for 800THB/night including breakfast. Not luxury, but not bad. Free WiFi, a pool, and excellent location.

Like I said- I didn't take many pics on this day, so hopefully others can fill in what I've missed.

DAY TWO coming up next!

[BigBikeBKK]

CHIANG MAI BIKE WEEK and Golden Triangle Riders trip- DAY II

I forgot to mention that we had the good fortune to run into a bunch of GT Riders at the Kafe on Friday evening. My friend John from Khon Kaen looked quite pleased and confident on his beautiful new BMW GS1200

Peter Dougal was there on his trusty FZ1 (the one on the left)

And I got to meet Marco, a very nice fellow riding a GIGANTIC BMW 1800LT, aka the "Land Yacht"-

Goodness it makes my little Ninja 250R look small...

Also met David and Mai from Chiang Khong. Those two experienced GT Riders have travelled over 100,000km in SE Asia on their various BMWs and are a joy to know. They were riding their nicely customized BMW1200GS-

Saturday was a mellow day- Trent and my little one at breakfast-

I forget which one is the baby...

Then wife and baby stapped on their lids and we rode over to the Chiang Mai Bike Week site at the Sirinat Hotel to check out the scene.

That's right- 3 up on a Ninja 250R! Only in Thailand, huh?

The Bike Week was off to a slow start; not too many bikes yet and they were still setting up some of the booths.

We wandered around and enjoyed checking out the Harley girls. TRENT- you MUST post pics!

Met up with John, Dougal and Marco in the hotel for coffee. (Milk for some)

At the Bike Week we also ran into KhunDan whom we had lost the previous day shortly after leaving Bangkok. It turned out he had lost his phone somewhere along the ride which of course made it impossible for him to contact any of us. Fortunately he and his friend from Singburi and his Thai friend on his wife's CB400 were able to make it to CM on the 5th despite the various unexpected challenges that were thrown their way.

It was a beautiful day and the GT Riders were going to meet at IanBungy's X-Centre in the afternoon, so I decided to take the missus and little one a a fun little loop around Doi Suthep since the X-Centre is on the loop-

Wow- I'd done this road on a dirt bike years ago and didn't notice what a fun road it is. A bit challenging 3-up, but we managed just fine. I was in some pain on the steep downhill sections what with my son sitting behind me and the wife on the pillion pressing me up against the tank- OUCH! :jerk:

I got a break when we came to a large tree that had fallen across the road-

Took a while for some guys with chainsaws to clear the road and we were off again!

There were a lot of beautiful bikes at the X-Centre-

An interesting mix of styles- here we have a stunning CB1300 with more custom parts than I could ever list and a sexy Triumph Tiger 1050:

A Bonnie and a Street Triple-

To Be Continued...

Edited December 9, 2008 by BigBikeBKK

[LivinLOS]

Love those street and speed triples.. One came flying at me going the opposite way round the same loop when I took the missus out to show her the road.. He went by in such a blur, really pushing it nicely, that all I caught were the headlights, not sure if it was one or the other.. The tiger looks like a good tool for thai roads too..

Glad to hear all were having a blast.. Really gotta sort out my pics.

[KHUNDAN]

You can view the photos I took at the ChiangMai rally at: www.photobucket.com/KHUNDAN

Great fun

DanPHOTOS OF CHIANGMAI RALLY

[nakedAIR1300]

I think day 1 was pretty fun apart from a few mishaps...

the ninja on its side was unfortunate but am glad everyone was ok

great blast up the highway to Chiang Mai... Anthony and Andrew on their bikes were amazing. Andrew dressed in full leathers is used to riding track and so blew us out of the water zig zagging traffic at crazy speeds. I know where they get the expression "born to ride" from now. I will join Andrew at the track the next time he gets out there to practice some skills and hopefully not kiss the tarmac.

So anyway i didnt take alot of photos and at the bike week my attention span for bikes was pretty low as their were so many pretty girls around i decided to take some snapshots of them instead... heres just a few

The T-Rex's big daddy.. this bike is an absolute monster!

Kiss me.. i swear its my birthday!

Who's your daddy?

i dont know how this one got in there...

this is Ians dog from the X Centre. cute as a button

so anyway as i said ...i only took a few photos for the trip as i know Tony is camera mad!

more later...

[BigBikeBKK]

You can view the photos I took at the ChiangMai rally at: www.photobucket.com/KHUNDAN

Great pics KhunDan! Did you and Dean and Bang (sp?) make it back to Bangkok without any difficulties? Sorry we didn't get to ride together but hopefully we'll have a chance to in the future.

Happy Holidays and Warmest Regards,

Tony and Nong and Little Mir AsianConnection71

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Edited December 10, 2008 by BigBikeBKK

[BigBikeBKK]

Chiang Mai Bike Week Continued---

Good times with the Golden Triangle Riders at the X-Centre. This is where we decided to ditch the rather boring Chiang Mai Bike Week and join Dougal, John and David and Mai on their Golden Triangle ride

My son was quite taken with Ian's puppy

And the puppy seemed to enjoy the attention

I'd never been to Ian's X-Centre, but highly recommend it- great food, super friendly staff, and a nice place to take the family-

After the X-Centre we rode back into Chiang Mai. I tried unsuccessfully to find an express laundry, but was successful in drinking a few more beers at the Kafe

Wanted to pick up a GTR shirt but they only had XL in stock... Gives me a good reason to ride back up when they get more in stock

Went for a brief swim with my son back at the Top North Hotel- talk about COLD!!!

This is NOT the pool, but my boy was ready to jump in!

Then off to the Chiang Mai Bike Week-

I've got to say that this was probably the most mellow Bike Week I've ever been to in Thailand... Hats off to Yamaha and HD for putting together some very impressive displays with lots of sexy girls, but all of the other brands were quite disappointing. Triumph and BMW displays were bare bones and zero accesories. I gave my friends at Kawasaki a hard time for not having a ZX10R or ER-6N on display. I mean after all, they're planning to start selling them in 2009, so why not send up the display models from Bangkok for the Bike Week to let everyone know what's coming?!

All of the North Comet guys I met were very friendly, but it was not a very well organised event. There was a lot of confusion about the registration process, what with abandoned tables and no stickers. There was a stage with an old lady singing karaoke or something- very odd... The free food for bikers was a nice touch, but what's up with trying to charge 300Baht for a Chiang Mai Bike Week T-shirt?!

Contrast that to last weeks Bangsaen Bike Week where every biker got a FREE T-shirt (Trent got 5?!?!) and additional shirts were available for only 150THB. I skipped the CM T-shirt and I think I'll skip this bike week in the future...

I was very very happy that Trent and I met some of my GT Rider friends who invited us to join them on an awesome Golden Triangle ride.

To be continued!

Edited December 10, 2008 by BigBikeBKK

[BigBikeBKK]

Riding the Golden Triangle- Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong with the GT Riders

David and Mai, Dougal, John and Marco- I can't thank you all enough for inviting us to join you on your ride. I'd never been past Mae Sai and it was awesome to explore new country with skilled riders.

Gassing up in the morning:

The 107 winds through some beautiful country and it was good to get out of Chiang Mai and RIDE! A few solid hours of riding brought us to Tha Ton where we stopped at Kwan's Guest House for coffee and lunch-

David, Trent, Peter and Marco

A beautiful day and stunning scenery, though past the 107 the roads in this part of Thailand were not in the best condition- had to watch out for potholes and gravel/sand in the corners. Fortunately traffic was surprisingly light considering it was a holiday weekend.

The Golden Triangle!

We arrived in Chiang Khong in the late afternoon. Peter, John, Trent and Marco checked into a cute guesthouse on the river. My wife (driving the 'support' vehicle) REALLY wanted to go camping and David and Mai were kind enough to invite us to their beautiful resort-like home where they let us set up camp.

Trent came over and saw what a beautiful place it was and promptly returned his key to the guesthouse and moved to David and Mai's place as well.

Mai and her mother cooked up an amazing Kantoke-style dinner for us which we washed down with plentiful beers- Trent and I stayed up late around a nice warm fire drinking with Mai's brother and uncle and playing sobriety games until they couldn't stand and Trent lost a sock... I borrowed a sleeping bag and passed out under the stars. You really could not ask for a better ending to a perfect day!

To be continued!!!

[BigBikeBKK]

Touring Thailand on Two Wheels- Chiang Khong to Nan via Phu Chi Fa

Oh yeah! This is what it's all about!!!

Woke up well rested with only a minor headache from the previous night's festivities

A beautiful morning and quite chilly.

David and Mai's place is amazing- Peter said they need to print up some maps so that guests don't get lost!

Time to ride!

Near Phu Chi Fa

A coffee break in Phu Chi Fa:

Route 1148- a new favorite!

I took these pics while riding- probably not the safest thing to do but I just had to get some pics of this amazing road!

Had to pull over for a quick pit stop and snapped John and Trent as they rode by-

Heh heh- I didn't mean to take this pic but it came out kinda cool

Following Peter, John, and David and Mai-

Beautiful roads and stunning views-

Well, mostly beautiful roads!

A final gas stop before rolling in to Nan- You can tell everyone is happy with the day's spectacular ride

[LivinLOS]

Some great shots there and sounds like a bundle of laughs..

The north really does have some sensational riding..

[BigBikeBKK]

You bet LivinLOS- it was a spectacular trip and I'm rather bummed that I won't be able to ride again for a while as I'm taking the family to Europe for the holidays. But we're already talking about a trip to Laos in February! If you can get your bike sorted by then you should join us!

Here's out final day- Nan to Bangkok in 8 hours!

We left Nan at 0800 after coffee and a good breakfast. It was very cold and very foggy! I'd say visibility was perhaps 30 meters or less in certain places. A chilly but beautiful morning ride.

There are some beautiful winding roads that pass through the mountains between Nan and Phrae, and again between Phrae and Uttaradit. After that it was full throttle pretty much all the way to Bangkok, and again, the only police checkpoints we encountered waved us through ahead of waiting cars and trucks making us feel like VIP's

Another nice discovery is that the Highway 11 via Phitsanulok is in MUCH better condition than the more popular and somewhat rough in spots Highway 1 that most people take to get to Chiang Mai.

Next time I'll take Highway 11 for sure as it's a much more pleasant ride.

Happy Trails!

[Bard]

Ohh shit you guys had a nice ride up there, man it makes me long for a ride up North.

Hopefully next time around I'm on time off and can join up.

Cheers Bard

[AnthonyR1]

hey guys,

looks like you took some cool trips on the twisties. here are some of my pics....

Edited December 11, 2008 by AnthonyR1

[BigBikeBKK]

Good Ones Anthony- thank you for sharing!

It was a lot of fun riding with you and Andrew and I hope we can hook up for more trips in the future!

Happy Trails,

Tony, Nong and Little Mir

[BigBikeBKK]

Just had a chance to add up the mileage we did on the Chiang Mai Golden Triangle ride and I'm coming up with about 2200km in 5 days. (A few more for Trent on account of his 'quest' in Nan ) Actually, though, it should be more for me as I did the Sa Moeng loop and Trent didn't...)

Not bad at all! The little Ninja 250R hasn't missed a beat, runs happily on 91, and goes nearly 300km before the fuel light comes on.

She was pretty dirty after some of the dusty roads so I stripped her down and sent her to my favorite car wash for a deep clean-

These guys are great- hand wash, hand detail and hand wax for 60THB!!! (They always seem shocked when I tip them too )

Check out the way they apply the wax with what looks like an airbrush-

Now the little Ninja is squeaky clean and ready for another ride, but alas we're leaving on Monday for 5 weeks and she'll have to sit patiently and await our return.

Next trip is rumored to be over the border and into LAOS in February!!! Can't wait!!!

[HamSabai]

Great report and lots of nice pictures.

Thanks guys.

[nakedAIR1300]

yes, back to Bangkok for a quick bike wash

count them... seven lovely young talented people washing the T Rex. If anyone want to know where this car wash is PM me.. they are the best bike wash i have ever been to hands down and is only 100 baht plus a nice tip weekly (normal big bikes are 80 but because it they get the toothbrush and white glove out on my bike they charge me more). They can also use normal pressure water so not to destroy CGI boxes or anything else fragile that doesnt take nicely to high pressure water guns

[BigBikeBKK]

I knew these pics were floating around out there somewhere and finally they have surfaced

I know, I know it does'nt really resemble the Interpol shots but you'll see more of them in a minute.

So without further ado I'd like to introduce you to the only GT Rider who has the distinction of being caught with his trousers down in the Kafe:

Hope he has'nt lowered the tone of the place. Apparently it was something to do with the fact that he required some sort of reinforced 'support':

LMAO!!!

[Travelmate]

Oh my! The shame.. A dude showing off his tights.

[BigBikeBKK]

Some new pics!

It was at Chiang Khong that we lost Marco who had to rush home for a familly emrgency. Was really sorry to see him go.

For the rest of us it was up and at it and Dave and Mai led us off down R1155 and left up to Phu Chi Fah.

On the road up to Phu Chi Fah:

At one point we reached the end of the tarmac and in the middle of a slow lazy U-turn David was overcome with fatigue and decided to rest:

After David was fully rested we continued on and had a , yes you guessed it, a coffee break:

Having lost Marco I found another coffee lover in David. This is at a market road with some of the resorts dotted about:

Here's one of the views up there:

We finally came down the mountain and discovered ourselves on the "King of the North" road the R1148. The other guys have posted some good shots so I'll just add a couple of views:

John mentioned the Trent puncture and for me it was just amazing what you can get fixed in the middle of nowhere.

And Trent showing his happiness and satisfaction of the princely sum of 20 Baht total cost:

We got into Nan and stayed at the Nan GH. Great breakfast.

Towards Doi Pukha-

On the R1081. This just a sensational road:

Wow!!!

[Travelmate]

Man those roads look awesome. Should have joined instead of lying in the hotel with a bed warmer powered by rice.