Ducati/harley Bang Saen To Chantaburi Ride

[RusticCharm]

On Saturday morning, Daryl (PDaz) and I rode from Pattaya with to Bang Saen to meet up with the Ducati Chonburi Club guys at the Tide Resort. We were to ride to Chantaburi and back. 

The route-

Two huge, lights-a-flashing police bikes; a BMW and a Honda, were to clear the way of undesirables and we were also accompanied on the ride by a Chonburi VIP: the former Minister of Tourism on his gold Harley. A couple of support vehicles were also on hand. Got to hand it to 'Touch' (the Thai guy who runs the Ducati Chonburi Club). He really knows how to organize. And this after the great job he did at the Bang Saen Bike Week.

The meet-up at Bang Saen, Harley and police BMW.

The number of bikes grows.

Pocahontas? As usual, there's the obligatory 'character'. 

Coming soon to a YouTube near you! The ride was filmed by one of the police motorcycle riders with a camera taped to his crash helmet. 

We stopped for fuel at a place called Bang Jak.

A nice collection of Monsters.

The coolest (and fastest) bike on the ride, Ducati 996.

One of two identical Buells.

Both Buells. Kind of strange looking.

A local temple. On the way back, just outside Chantaburi, we gathered here for the group photo. Next to an army camp.

Pretty cool seeing all the Ducs lining up in front of the temple. Wish I'd had a real camera. Two images spliced into one with Adobe as the iPhone camera has no zoom.

Just past Ban Phe. Some kind of Fisheries Dept. Nice picnic area.

All in all, I would say this is the most fun and best organised ride I've been on in Thailand. Some of the scenery on a little detour we took by the coast in Rayong was amazing.

No attitude or egos from anyone. The VIP and the police were very cool. Such a difference from the Bangkok lot. Just straight ahead fast, sensible riding. Only two westerners, Daryl and myself as Gus (Netfan) was overloaded with work and couldn't make it.

There was rather an amusing incident on the way back. A bunch of police were standing in the road to pull us all over because I presume we were in the right-hand lane and/or speeding. They were waving their ticket books frantically and I bet, counting on a nice little earner. That was until they saw who was riding shotgun. As their faces dropped we all rode off laughing. 

On a side note. About halfway back, my engine and fuel lights came on so I pulled over into a service station but it turned out to be a false alarm. One of the police riders on the white Honda came back to see what was wrong and then led me on a hair-raising 150kph+ ride through traffic to catch up. I don't usually ride this fast in traffic but I had just passed the 2500klm mark on the 848's odometer so I could now open up the revs all the way to 12k.

The 1300cc Honda did a great job of clearing the path as we zigged-zagged along the highway and there was no way I was going to lose face by falling back. The 848 was a blast.

Gus, you missed a good one! 

[Netfan]

Hey Terry, thanks for the report...yeah, maybe this will teach me not to procrastinate and be stuck with paperwork all weekend. Looks like it was a great ride.

[RusticCharm]

Hey Terry, thanks for the report...yeah, maybe this will teach me not to procrastinate and be stuck with paperwork all weekend. Looks like it was a great ride.

Yeah, but look on the bright side. You can spell 'procrastinate'. 

[Pdaz]

Yeah shame ya missed it Gus... Hope to seeya at bike week ? Hope I don't get called to work too soon..

My Sport 1000 and Terry's 848 visit the beach at Bang Phe...

Token farangs... Every ride out should have some

Excellent organisation, great feed in Chantaburi and heaps of cool bikes...Even my GF enjoyed it..

[voracious]

Terry,

As a fellow rider, I love the pics!

You might want to look at the videopano app for the iPhone.

It will let you get those wide shots with no hassle. You just scan left to right and it will assemble a panorama for you.

(shot with iPhone using videopano app, original was 1700pixels wide, resized to 1024 via picassa)

(edit: spelling)

Edited March 17, 2010 by voracious

[soihok]

Thanks for that account and the photos.

Started my day off nicely....

Cheers

[CroBiker]

Good stuff, great pics!!