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Having spent quite a bit of time in the Land of Smiles for the past 14+ years (now working on building a house in Nakhon Pathom), I would never, ever ride a bike in Thailand. Between the questionable road surfaces, crazy drivers and my desire to wear full gear (I like my face and skin as they are), it's just not for me.



My experience has been considerably different (except for the crazy drivers). I find the roads to be quite good. In fact, I'd say they're surprisingly good. You'll very rarely see pot holes.

I make it a point to wear gear as you can see in the pic. I got a Fieldsheer tour mesh jacket which breathes quite well, so you don't get hot in it, a full face helmet, gloves and Joe Rocker meteor boots so I feel pretty good with what I got.

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There are not many ambulances in Thailand (seen them sometimes in Bangkok, but driver's don't give them the right of way). If you go down, you might get lucky and have a song taew (pickup truck with two wooden seats in the rear to carry passengers) come by and he might be willing to take you to a hospital.



Once again, not my experience. My friend Stew came down to visit me and he fell off the bike the second day he was here. Broke his ankle and fractured his shoulder. The ambulance was right there, they took care of him and brought him to the hospital. They were pretty good. Furthermore, people passing by will always stop and take you to a hospital. They're pretty nice that way.

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Plus, the gov't charges a premium on large-engine bikes. You'll see a lot of little Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, etc 125-250 cc bikes buzzing around (some carrying the whole family), but very rarely do I see anything bigger. I know you can rent H-D's but you pay a lot for that privilege.



This is true. It gets pretty expensive, pretty fast to buy a large displacement bike. However, there are plenty of 400cc offerings out there (my Honda Steed being one of them). There are plenty of Harleys for sale and there's a Kawasaki store where you can buy any of their offerings. However, you will pay a premium and anything over 600cc gets VERY expensive. BTW, I picked up my bike used for $3k. It's a bit more than what I would have paid for the comparable bike in the US, but not outrageously so. The bike is in very good condition and I haven't had any trouble with it.

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It's ironic that Triumph builds the bikes there, but they don't/can't sell them there. I think there was talk, at one time, to open a dealer in Bangkok & Pattaya.

With all that said, and I know others have differing opinions on gear and stuff, the pics are great. Dee mark-mark.



BTW, I mentioned it in another post that I saw a used Triumph Bonneville T-100 here. I didn't find out the price, but I sat on the bike and it was the most comfortable bike I've ever been on! Holy crap, I want it!