Motorcyle Tours in Northern Thailand
Northern Thailand must be considered as one of
the most rewarding regions for motorcycling worldwide. The experience can be
summed up as: Great vistas and fun twisties made easy and cheap.
Other features include:
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excellent roads with the best road cover in Southeast-Asia,
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abundant twisties
of all radiuses,
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almost no traffic
in rural areas (=outside of Chiang Mai),
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pleasant, cool climate
during the dry season,
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great landscape with green hills and rocky mountains, lakes, flower-fields, and
tranquil forests,
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interesting hilltribe villages,
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superb and cheap roadside accommodation and food,
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golden Buddhas greeting from mountain tops.
Road cover has greatly improved over the last few
years. The Royal Thai Government has always made the construction of road
infrastructure a priority so that today Northern Thailand has some of the best
roads in Southeast-Asia. And since many mountains are sacred and their
spiritual inhabitants must not be disturbed, roads are not drilled throught the
mountain but carefully meandered around them. This makes for the largest
collection of twisties anywhere. So, when renting a bike go for the lighter,
smaller one, big bikes can easily be overwhelmed by the curves which diminishes
the fun.
Traffic outside the city of Chiang Mai is very
scarce with just a few lorries, pick-up trucks and busses carrying local
produce and transporting people. On the amazing road from Mae Sariang to Mae
Hong Son you most likely won't encounter more than a dozen cars over a stretch
of a hundred miles.
Motorcycling is great year-round. The rainy
season is certainly rainy, but downpours don't last very long and after a short
break you're ready to go on.
The unparalleled service-quality of Thai
hospitality can be experienced for a handful of Baht in the smallest village
along the road. So you can stop anywhere and get tasty food and good
accommodation at very low prices.
Loops are the format of choice. Their length
ranges from 100 to well over 700 km (60 - 500 miles) and give you respective
riding times of 2 hours to 3 days minimum.
The most widely available rental bike in Northern
Thailand is the Honda Dream, a very mature, reliable and economical 100
cc four-stroke with about 8 bhp.
It make not be the dream of serious bikers in terms of size and torque(?) but
for novice riders and for those not yet used to driving in Thai traffic it's a
safe and fun choice. It also gives you a worry-free trip since every mechanic
in Thailand can fix these bikes at very low fees (new tire 150 Baht, mirror 100
Baht) and last but not least it's simply the perfect bike for the city traffic
of Chiang Mai where a bigger vehicle would be easily overwhelmed.
Bigger bikes are far less common in the North than for example on Phuket
island or in Pattaya and a 250 cc Honda AX 1 is already near top of the range.
The rental price for these bikes is around 700 Baht per day which is very steep
compared with Phuket. These bikes are reliable and not entirely powerless
although many are in less than mint condition due to high repair costs which
some owners are reluctant to spend. Make sure you thoroughly test your
prospective bike.
Bigger bikes like a 400 or 600 cc Honda Steed
(Honda VLX Shadow in the U.S. -great bikes!-) from Japan are relatively rare
and will set you back a four figure amount per day. These bikes are very
comfortable and easy to ride and usually come in good condition since,
as opposed to the AX 1, they don't encourage off-road riding.
Make sure you get a 600 cc engine since the 400 cc model looks similar and is
of course weaker and less fun for roughly the same rental price.
Safe Riding
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| Motorcycle riding in Thailand is very dangerous,
especially for novice riders not familiar with driving on the left-hand side of
the road and with riding a motorcyle in general.
Numerous farangs are killed in motorcycle accidents every year.
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Always wear a helmet, bring it from home if you intend to ride a big bike since
Thai helmets offer only rudimentary protection.
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Wear protective clothing even if your leather gear from home will make you look
ridiculous (well, fun-ny!) in Thailand.
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Sunglasses enhance vision (Thailand is very sunny!).
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Never rely on your right-of-way.
Never rely on anyone stopping before entering the road from the right and
especially from the left.
Motorcycles are at the bottom of the vehicle hierarchy prevalent in Thai
traffic.
On the positive side Thai 4-wheel drivers are more accustomed to dealing with
motorcycles in traffic than their counterparts in the colder countries of the
west and east. Also, most have experience with motorcycles themselves.
In most cases of a crash the fault lies with the inexperienced farang with
insufficient control over his bike.
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For detailed info on the loops and related
topics please visit the authoritative site about motorcycle-riding in Northern
Thailand, created by David Unkovich:
http://geocities.com/MotorCity/5354/
Please review
this article by resident author Oliver Hargreave about a motorcycle tour of
Northern Thailand on an Enfield Bullet.
For a list of motorcycling-related businesses in Chiang Mai you may visit our
business directory.
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