What Type Of Riding Do You Do?

[arnoldjr]

I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of riding everybody on here does. Touring, track days, long trips, short trips? Basically why did you buy a bike and what do you use it for. Let's see what kind of distances you ride or where you have been.

Total for me this year will be 15000km. Almost all touring, with the occasional track day. Day trips around 4-500km, weekend trips 600-1000km, pretty much just use the bike to explore places I've never been. My goal is to ride through every province in Thailand. Map shows in red all provinces visited by the end of this year. I'm sure there are more than a few of you with more places than that so let's see it.

[arnoldjr]

Map

[KRS1]

13000 km in 4 months so far....I chose a small bike this time around so i could ride everyday without fuel cost killing me. Most days go exploring looking for new things/routes/scenery.Everytime up Doi Suthep is like a track day (14 kilos up). Average around 50 Kilometers a day at the least. I Get bored easily so jump on the bike and have lunch across town or go hit a viewpoint just to smoke a cigarette, sometimes 100 kilos away..

Take a semi-long trip around 500km every week or two. Pai, Phrao, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai, Mae Salong, generally wherever there is to go up north as long as there are mountains and twisty roads.

Only time i ever want a bigger bike is when im riding with other people with larger bikes on straights. Once in the mountains were all equal going downhill.

I miss my 600 though !!! But fuel cost wouldn't allow riding everyday like i do now, or allow me to drive around the city looking for the ultimate fried chicken vendor.

[arnoldjr]

Wow, 13k in 4 months that's impressive. I wish I had more time to putt around on my TZM but lately its just been the odd trip out of town for the weekend on the Ninja. That should change next year when work calms down a bit.

[poanoi]

I bought the big bike to get a new hobby, as go-go was becoming too expensive.

It didn't work out, i use it once a week going to Big C to keep the engine ok

[snowflake]

I bought my bike to slip though traffic every day on my way to work, and to travel to other provinces, and to make sure that I could get my speed fix every day (car is not the same)...

I have only put inn 5000km in the last few months- busy season for me with work related trips... Will get better after the rainy season will finish and then it will be 500km every weekend again... Look forward to that...

[wantan]

I did something around 4000 - 5000km the last half year with my Tiger. I do not know exactly because odometer (and speedometer) stoped working at 2500km. I am too lazy to repair it or to measure the distances with my GPS.

Sometimes when i am too annoyed of the BKK traffic i take the bus or a taxi, but most times i use my Tiger Boxer (shopping, driving to work, ...). I also like short trips (3 hours up to one day) on quiet streets outside of town. This is why i do not drive as much as i would like to. BKK is exactly the opposite of quiet. And to get out of BKK it always needs a lot of time in dangerous city traffic. Not a pleasure here in BKK, its more an adventure every day.

Maybe next year i move to some other place that is more quiet and more fun to ride. We will see. Have fun.

[draftvader]

I bought my Suzuki Best 125 (I know, I know, this is about big bikes, but it is relevant) to shrink Bangkok. I ride almost every day in and around Bangkok doing the shopping, checking out new areas and just clearing my head when my programming is "stuck". Bangkok riding is all encompassing and I find it very therapeutic. A nice long ride through Chinatown followed by a Foot Reflexology massage on the way home and I find myself solving all my coding problems. Nice one.

My wife and I have ridden this little work-horse back from the furthest reaches of Koh Phan Ngan on one occassion and had a blast over the course of a week. Mostly though it is short hops around Bangkok to stop me wasting my life in the backs of taxis. Lovely for the impatient man. Got to love the smiles of your fellow riders when you pull up next to them at the lights and they realise that there is a "farang" on the next bike.....also no arguing over "scenic routes" with taxi drivers any more.

3 years I have been riding this bike that I bought for 15,000 and it has been the best value motoring of all time. Even if it died tomorrow I would be happy that we shared this time. Only thing that would improve this? It being a Suzuki Raider 150...perfect BKK bike.

[RED21]

Brought my CBR to get to and from work faster (which about 70 km from my home)...

I would like to travel longer distances with it, but I just don't have the luxury of time.

When I'm at home we take the car when we go out to the city and take the trusty old Honda Wave on short market runs.

[alexpoker]

I got a NSR 150 SP. its my first bike. Had it like 4 months and ridden around 7k km.

I really enjoy riding up Doi Suthep and have a current PR of 9 min 58 seconds

I really wanna go down to to a track and ride around on the NSR there. I guess my best bet is to ride the NSR down to bangkok for a week and do a couple of track days?

If I really like it, I might relocate to bangkok at some point.

[ttakata]

Wow you guys really log in the kilometers.

I got my Nouvo 135 as BKK transportation and my DTX250 as a track bike but now its an off-road bike.

I only do 2-3000KMs per year since I work at home and live next to a BTS station.

Around 3 weeks ago I did 9 days of dual sport through Laos over 1600 Kilometers.

I managed to do the following: cracked goggles, bent handlebars, bent hand guards, tore body armor, tore raincoat, tore riding pants, broke luggage straps, broke license plate, and broke a turn signal.

I dropped the bike maybe 10 times and had 2 big throw offs where I fell on the road and another time a log.

Amazingly I did not break any bones but my thumbs and shoulder still ache today and my helmet was trashed.

When we were above the clouds, we were 2200 meters up, around 1.4 miles.

Here's a vid:

At time 2:07 you can see the angle of the tree stumps relative to the trail, maybe 40+ degree grades.

At 4:22 one of many guys walking around with AK47s, I suspect they were protecting opium fields nearby.

At 7:05 you can see if you fall off the trail, you will vanish and perhaps die.

Having ridden on road for 10 years and only crashed on public roads at speed once; I find off-roading 1000% tougher because I crash all the time, luckily at slow speeds.

Still if you see the pics, not many road bikes can get you to these sights unless you're a native on a Wave 110 :-)

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/ttakata73

[saorsa]

Mostly day trips outside of Bangkok, but due to my crash in Jan, I have only done 400km this year. Due home on 31st Dec weather permitting and planning to explore places I haven't been on some longer runs and head to my favourite road through Kao Yai to see if my wrist will cope with all the corners now since it doens't work very well after it got pinned back together.

[transam]

I only do one type now, the age thing , and the mrs checks my heart beat afterwards.

[newf]

Mostly track riding/racing. Have did about 2500km on the road and nearly 5000km on the track in the last year between all my bikes.

[Gonsalviz]

Bought my Road King to tour. 18,000 km in a year and a half but I only get here about 3 months out of the year.

Been through most of the north, Phuket and Krabi.

Wanting to go to East Issan but haven't heard about much good riding there.

Pretty lousy riding to the south until you take a right at Phun Phin and go to Takua Pa down to Phuket.