You and your Thai Wife of 20 years.

[billzant]

Dear Forum.

I am interested in buying a new Phantom, and I live in Trat.

I spoke to a dealer and he says he can arrange to have the Phantom in the showroom at a price - OK.

But I want a backbox and a panniers for touring, and they say they can't arrange this.

They then tell me I must go to Bangkok, buy online, go to Harley etc.

My view is if a Thai dealer can't arrange it how can I?

Can anyone help with this?

Hope you are keeping well,

All the Best,

BillZ

[Kf6vci]

Well, I'm guessing here. Often, a Thai

is afraid of interacting with a farang. Fear of loss of face and such. How often do you get a wrong answer instead an honest

I cannot understand you?

You might want to buy quality aftermarket items which the dealer does not carry.

Can you live with soft saddlebags, or do you insist on real panniers?

Can you get a holder or rack for them, say from Givi?? I have yet to see a Phantom with hard

panniers!

When I toured Europe for weeks, I put my stuff into a nylon roll on my RD 350.

Once it hung precariously near the rear tire - I was fast on the motorway and a kind car driver honked until I pulled over.

So that was far from perfect.

A rucksack plus a tank sack might help, too.

Chris

[nam-thip]

Buy the bike and sort the extras out later.

Once you have the bike arrange to have a mini-holiday to your nearest big city or cilivilised town and have your box and paniers fitted there.

Most bike shops don't carry spares outside of your bog standard step throughs and have little idea when it comes to ordering spares for bigger bikes.

I have a Kawasaki boss and live in Pattaya.

I need a new plastic lockable cover for the battery compartment and six weeks down the line i'm still waiting for one to come from Bangkok as i couldn't find a bike-shop in Pattaya that had one as a stock item.

[H2oDunc]

Any small bike repair shop will sort you out no problems. Thats the beauty of the Phantom. Cheap , reliable and easily fixed or repaired anywhere in LOS. You can get the hard panniers or the soft leather ones and you can also get a back box wit stop light in it as well.

[aitch52]

Hi Bill

I also have a Phantom with the soft genuine plastic leather panniers, saddle bags whatever. I bought my bike from the Honda dealer in Pattaya on Pattaya Nua, on the junction leading to 3rd Rd (?) by the traffic lights. They supplied the bags and also the foot plates and extended gear lever which replaced the foot pegs and stock lever, highly recommended, best 2300 Baht I have ever spent in Thailand. The bike was in stock as was the rest of the gear and more, so it was a same day deal, no waiting around.

So if you fancy a trip to Patters from Trat that dealer should be able to help you out. I have moved up North but if you PM me I should be able to sort you out with the phone number of them, I am away from home working at the moment but will be home on Thursday. The sales manager at thtat time spoke reasonable English.

I have had the bike for 3 years and put 18000 Kms on her, mainly commuting to work to save the car, 130 km round trip in Chonburi and 110 km in Phetchabun trouble free so far, touch wood. The Phantom does all I want of it and I like the retro styling.

Good Luck

Chris

Edited November 10, 2009 by aitch52