Yamaha Mio

[boogiewoogie]

Hello, wannna take my friend's bike(not rented) on long distance trip. Do i need any papers on a moped? Or my driver license and helmet will make it?

And what about highways? Can i use them on my moped?

[SeanMoran]

I'm a little bit confused, having only seen a few photos of the Yamaha Mio in the classifieds over this past week. It didn't look like a moped in the photos, so I hope I am referring to the right model of frame-mounted motorcycle, sans pedals.

I've been stopped many times for the usual checks, and I've always got the photocopies of the passport, current visa page, international d/l permit, and the police usually seem more interested in the photocoies of the registration papers and the receipt from the shop, which proves ownership I suppose, even though I've never been able to transfer a bike into my own name on a tourist visa. Photocopies of all those documents are probably important, but proof of ownership would seem to be the major point of interest. Good manners and a smile seem to play a part too, and the ability to speak even the most rudimentary pasa Thai seems to get some approval too.

It's not the done thing to ride on the freeway, and I've been turned around at toll-booths that I've accidentally come across in my travels. It's also a nono to ride in the left lane of rural highways or to overtake slow trucks in the right lane, although I've found it far more hazardous to try to pass trucks in the siding where motorcycles, tractors, bicycles and livestock are supposed to stay. There's no shortage of obstacles if you're travelling at 90-100km/h once you get out of that left lane where the four-wheelers go, and so I tend to draught along behind another reasonably-paced vehicle simply because I value my life and the sidings are just not safe at 100km/h.

I got fined once to the tune of 400thb for passing a parked truck on the right-hand side on the way down to Rayong from Chachoengsao, but it was a one-off fine, and I'd still tend to try to ride in the left lane of the highway at the pace of the speed-limit cars, because it's safer, but it's also possibly a good idea to move over to the siding when there's nothingb but jungle or rice paddies and no sidestreets in the forseeable distance. I've been asked kindly by cops on motorbikes to get off the highway on the bike, so it's always a bit of a risk: the chance of copping a fine on one side, and the chance of running into some old lady on a tredley or an angry soi dog pulling out of a driveway on the other.