Topic: Neat bikes in BKK...

[techy5025]

I have been in Bangkok for several weeks and noticed a lot of neat...well maintained older bikes. It's interesting to see the 750K because the limit on importing bikes is supposed to be 250cc. It must have done a border run! 

There are tons of scooters...mostly Honda...and lots of 150ish bikes. I saw one with FIVE people on it...two kids on the tank and one between the parents.    So much for needing a 1000cc bike to carry two people.

A lot of the older bikes are strapped to the side of vender carts. Gives a new meaning to the word "hack".

I have decided that cars basically ignore the swarm of bikes unless they are directly in front of them. Surprisingly, I've only seen one accident and that was three bikes that collided. Everyone got up...brushed themselves off...and rode off. Only one of the three had a helmet on. 

A couple of pics...that CBR is a 150cc BTW. Small for a plastic bike. I think it had one cylinder.

Jim

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

I am looking to buy my son a dirt bike this summer.  He has a 8hp Mini bike I bough him at tractor supply 2 years ago, and he has mastered that on the ground and in the air.  he is a big kid. 135  lb  5ft 8in.  we have a 2 acre side yard and I have 5 acres of woods that i have cut 2 miles of trails through.

[gerhed]

I visited Bangkok for 4  days in 1968 on R&R.
I don't remember the bikes.

[techy5025]

It also seems that the bikers don't seem to be influenced by the other vehicles...buses, etc. They cut right in front of them...ride two feet behind them.  Cabbies routinely trail bikes by ten feet or less...at 40 mph...which makes me cringe.

In the US, bikes are in the great minority. Here they are in the great majority, so riding is totally different. It is amazing to watch the bikers snake their way to the front at the traffic lights. Not wishing to tempt fate, I have stuck with four wheels. Maybe in the country I would try it, but not in the cities.

I have yet to see a SOHC of any type...but I'm still looking. 

Jim

[matchanu]

I visited Bangkok for 4  days in 1968 on R&R.
I don't remember the bikes.

LOL!!!

I bet you remember the gold fish bowls.


Been to Thailand a few times, I love the country, great people, great food.

A few of us rented bikes there and went on a couple of rides. There are no DUI laws there so it's seriously every man for himself.

It was a riot.

[spitfire]

I lived in Thailand for 7 years, bikes are the poor mans transport, as such whenever there is an accident involving a motorbike it is always the other vehicles fault, no matter how stupid the bike rider. I once watched one of these funny film clip shows and it showed a woman riding a bike around the barriers on a train crossing point, the train hit the bike, immediately the Thais with me concluded that it was the train drivers fault.
Bike insurance is just about impossible to get.
If you are sitting in your car at traffic signals you are surrounded by bikes, they could go straight on, they could turn right, they could turn left, it is your job to avoid them, otherwise you are liable for medical treatment, repairs to the bike and loss of the riders wages. The price of all these doubles or triples when a foreigner is involved, two of my colleagues and their families had to be immediately taken out of the country after being involved in accidents involving bikes.

Cheers

Den

[BobbyR]

I visited Bangkok for 4  days in 1968 on R&R.
I don't remember the bikes.

R&R in Bankok, of course you did not see the bikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!