A Superb Hobby

[Swamp Thing]

Back on topic, the road that runs round Bang Phra reservoir and then on to Sriracha has some good twisties.

I went for a ride on this route this morning. Very enjoyable. Fresh air, lovely views and a road through woodland with twisties. I was hoping to find a nice place to sit and enjoy a sip of water when I found an open area, set back from the road, with public seating in the shade of a tree and a view that was out of this world. A wide view of the lake, with trees on the far side and hills in the background shrouded in mist. Wonderful.

Thank you for this recommendation.

On the way back I decided to make the route circular, so I turned left from the Sukhumvit at Si Racha and went on to the 3241. A bit urban to begin with, but a nice wide road with little traffic at that time. However, after passing through a couple of small roundabouts, the road becomes more rural, very smooth with sections to cruise on, then twisties to do a bit of leaning in to. Wa-hey! (Steady on, old-timer...). A very enjoyable ride.

Then on to the 331 to loop back home.

A.s.h.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Swamp Thing

[MartinL]

Bikes have always been a hobby for me, from the first day of owning my first real bike 40-odd years ago.

They've never been about transport although the hobby aspect of them has taken me many thousands of miles, usually just for the pleasure of riding - going nowhere in particular and taking hours to get there, to get to a bike-related event or on a two week biking holiday. I'm sure all fellow-enthusiasts on this forum could say exactly the same.

As a hobby, bikes have taken me to autojumbles to look at bits of junk others want rid of, in the hope that it might be the elusive part for my latest restoration project. I've chatted to unsavoury-looking people others would cross the road to avoid, even though the person was nothing like the image they projected. In fact, people might even have thought I was a bit dodgy simply because I'm a biker - I know that, years ago, being banned from a pub for being a biker was common so I suppose I must have been threatening to some - you'd never guess it to look at me. I'm not a particularly sociable person but bikes are a great conversation-starter if you're a bit shy. I've spent a fortune on biking bits-and-pieces that may or may not be useful.

I've had big & small bikes but always preferred small bikes simply because I'm a short-arse & small build. You don't need a big bike to have fun - in fact, I'd go so far as to say you can have more fun on a small bike, but that's just my opinion. Speed is some of the attraction but, when road conditions limit your speed to, say, 70 mph (112 kph) you can do that just as easily on a small bike and have just as much fun. My favourite bike of all time has been the small Duke in my avatar, sadly sold on when I left UK.

Now getting older - OK, only 60 but some people are ready for their "pipe & slippers" at that age - I'm absolutely certain that the awareness & reflexes needed to survive unscathed as a biker have contributed to an active & healthy (early) retirement & my good physical condition compared to others I know - not bikers - of the same age. Come to think of it, all my similarly-aged biker mates back in UK are healthy & fit, too.

Back in UK, I doubt there's anybody who looks at a bike just as transportation these days. Probably the same in Europe, Oz, USA, etc.

Edited December 21, 2014 by MartinL

[AllanB]

I don't have much of a history of biking, it all began in Thailand, for two reasons, cars are so damn boring here and expensive and the weather is good enough for biking.

After a brief encounter with a Phantom, where I learned why they were so cheap, gutless in the torque department and mechanically flimsy is being kind, so I looked for something bigger and better. Spent almost a year looking for something secondhand with a touch of character that was sound and had a green book, for a budget I set myself of 60-70k baht. Along came a shabby, noisy but rare 30 year old Honda NV400, which, as most of you have heard, I have been trying to sort out.

It has been fun finding a fixing faults, many for my favourite price of "free", but frustrating not finding the motherload fault, until recently.

So now I have a working bike, or sorts, phase II of bike ownership in Thailand.

The biking part even on the Phantom was fun, seeing, hearing and smelling places I passed through, in search of that winding mountain road. Only one found so far, the 201 going up to Loei, I came down it on the Phantom, plan on going up it on the much more powerful NV tomorrow, can't wait.

Don't let me down NV pleeeeeeeeease.