Anyone ridden in Thailand?

[grr666]

Anything pertinent i need to know? I'm going on a day out with the lads from the wedding party, we're gonna ride
bikes and fire some guns at a range. Now the rest of the lads are going for scoots but I'd rather have a geared bike
if possible, small capacity is fine, no point being 4x faster than everyone else and given some of the photos
I've seen the roads are more like tracks so a small scrambler style bike seems the most ideal choice. I've driven on
five continents but never ridden abroad. Was gonna pack some lightweight summer gloves and kevlar jeans,
maybe a mesh jacket. I'd be grateful for any useful information. I'll be packing a couple of action cams so with any
luck I'll get some footage of non riders falling off bikes to embarass them with forever.

Cheers.
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Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[MCN]

Yes, me and the Mrs used to get back from the local bars by moto-taxi when black-out drunk.
It was a big posh hotel too but not many respectable folk around at 3am to see us.
Shorts, t-shirt and Flip-Flops. One trip we made she was filming the trip using her phone. She's only been on my bike twice before.
A bit like a horse and rider. If the rider doesn't move around too much then the horse performs much better.

But a bike in a South East Asian city is fcuking suicide.
Traffic is just to congested and no fuker gives a fcuk for any other fcukers.
My mate lives their and rides a Harley. But he lives in some thinly populated area.
Armour is not easy to live with in any tropical country too.

I thought the roads were perfect.
Not engineering with banking and chambers where they should be. Poor road signs if any. Hardly any advanced warning signs.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Irezumi aka Reuben]

Standard of driving is pretty good but nobody really obeys rules if that makes sense. Stick to a scooter, there's so much going on that not having to bother with gears is much easier. People overtake wherever they want, you'll easily pick it up.

You're not going to be able to wear much in the way of kit. It's gonna be way to hot!

Roads as mentioned are pretty good surface wise from what I remember.
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Pictorgraphicalfantastical

[doggone]

What I've seen of Thailand the driving standard is reasonable, much better than India anyway.
Out of main cities I'd risk it.

[Riejufixing]

[grr666]

Oh, I have no doubt that some kind of carnage will ensue. We'll be on Koh Samui (not sure if that's spelt right) if that
pads it out with a bit more detail. Just the one night in Bangkok then on a sea plane out to the island. I reckon some amusing
footage will end up being recorded, couple of forces lads in the group so I'm expecting a little debauchery. I did spend some
time in Malaysia and the most I saw on a bike was 5 humans and a dog in a shopping bag, in my mind it will be similar to that.
I remember a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur telling me on average they had 14 motorcycle fatalities a day over there.
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Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[MCN]

Off topic.
A more than fascinating item for me in Bangkok is the Mofo River that rushes through. (It's not called the Mofo River BTW.)
The barges are something to see own their own.
No fuker gets in their way and survives. 😁

Absolutely wonderful people the Thia. Most polite and friendliest humans I've ever met.

Try to get a hurle in one of the two/three seater trike taxis. We took one from a Sheraton hotel we had dinner at 😎 to our hotel. 1am, straight through zhost on it and the driver was up for being egged on to let it rip up and down the long empty streets. Disco lights blazing and Shite music blasting out of it too.
I think we paid him far too much when he dropped us off.

You will enjoy all of it.

There is a confusing bit on arrival at the airport. There are only certain gates for people from certain countries to use. Much like most places but there are thousands of folk passing through Bangkok airport. You won't get through just any immigration gates. It is well signposted though.
And I think we bought the passport pics too as they need that for visas. I found out at immigration that Europe is visa free.
My Mrs is not from Europe so had to got through a different gate from me. I thought I'd lose her but she found me on the other side. (Even though I was running.)
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[grr666]

It's my mate who is getting married's favourite holiday destination, which is why he wants to marry there I suppose.
He's raved about the place on the numerous times he's been. Just to add his fiance is English and female, it's not one
of those weddings... I'm not looking forward to the smog. Apparently it's particularly awful in Bankok at
the moment so I'm glad the island is some distance from there.
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Currently enjoying products from Ford, Mazda and Yamaha
Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[Fisty]

Didn't a certain purveyor of fantasy wipers ride ladyboys in Thailand?

You could ask him.
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Quietly and consistently taking the piss.
TL1000R | Hayabusa | ZXR400 | TL1000S | Bandit 400 V
Fatter and faster than Fret

[grr666]

He definitely had a deviant look about him from the pics I've seen.
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Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[Pjay]

I lived in Thailand 10 years ago and owned a bike there, as it's by far the number one mode of transport.
Yes it looks a bit hectic, but everyone looks out for bikes, so you soon relax and get into the stride.

I wouldnt worry about the roads unless you are going to somewhere well off the beaten track, the roads are fine virtually anywhere a regular tourist would go. You will probably struggle to find a bike hire place that has anything but scooters, they are all 130cc twist and go peds out there, so do some homework on where to get something a bit different before you go out, as if you are walking around or ask about, you could spend most of the day looking.
Another thing that never really gets answered is the legality of it all. You can pretty much hire a bike without showing a licence and ride it around, the police never stop you unless you dont have a helmet on in town. If you have an accident though, it gets messy, as you probably wont be insured for any damage, so the police might get involved and tell you it's illegal to ride there without a licence and demand some money (not a lot maybe £30). Then you have the bike owner to deal with, they will have the police on their side and demand a lot more if you wreck the bike. To be doubly safe, make sure you check everything out with the bike hire place with crash/damage insurance beforehand. It's the walk in off the street places you have to be wary of.

Other than that, buy your petrol from those little guys selling it by the side of the road in bottles. They need the money more than the petrol stations and its only a few pence more to fill up. They are everywhere and its ok you wont get scammed with shit fuel, it's as good as the petrol station fuel.
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struan80 - I'll go first - satisfied tick 1

[grr666]

A different friend who holidays there for the more traditional reasons knows an English guy on Koh Samui
who owns a bike hire firm near where we are staying (which looks amazing btw) and is trying to put us in touch
with him. I believe I'm the only one in the group with a full UK bike licence so I'm guessing the others will be winging
it to some extent. Presumably my licence would be recognised even if theirs isn't as long as it's accompanied by an IDP?
Seems daft to not get one sorted for £5.50 I'll pop into town tomorrow and get it arranged.
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Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[doggone]

This guy spends quite a lot of time over there and uploads some rides, it looks busy but not scary.
Provided you know where you are going roughly...
Note google maps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44ROmldCQU

[Pjay]

Another thing that is interesting is that if you are stopped in town without a helmet and the Police stop you, it was a 200 baht fine (about £5) and they would give you a ticket. If you got stopped again, you could flash the ticket and they would wave you on. I'm not sure if it has changed now, but probably not, they dont like change out there.

I obviously wouldn't advise riding without a helmet, but if you have a little scoot, it's easy to just jump on it and ride at 20mph with no helmet when you see everyone else doing it. But in town you will get waved down by the police. Oh it's also technically illegal everywhere but the police dont bother you outside of the larger towns and the cities.
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struan80 - I'll go first - satisfied tick 1

[MCN]

[Ste]