Recommended touring bike for SE Asia

I

IanM

0
Nov 19, 2011
3
0
0
Hi guys

I've just been looking through a bunch of posts on GT and found loads of useful info on biking SE Asia...many thanks. Unfortunately I couldn't find any posts on bike recommendations so im gonna throw one out there.

I've actually spent the past three months biking through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos on the good old Win 100 which I bought in Hanoi. I spent about 7 weeks biking down the Ho Chi Minh trail towards south Vietnam, then across the Ha Tien border into Cambodia and finally up into Laos where I am currently (in Luang Prabang). I would recommend this route to anyone, I had an amazing time! If anyone has any questions on that part of my trip, feel free to ask.

I actually just sold the Win 100 to a dutch guy who is doing my trip in reverse, and I plan to upgrade to a new (more durable & powerful) bike which im hoping to buy in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Once I have a decent bike, Im gonna head south through Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia and finish somewhere near Bali...obviously getting some boat rides along the way.

So, my question is, what bikes/models would people recommend I get to last me 4-5 months along this route? I'm looking to spend under $1000 so probably second hand and between 125-250cc. I would prefer a bike that can be easily fixed (i.e. spare parts readily and cheaply available) and also one which I can resell for a similar price in Indonesia.

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Ian.g.mclean@gmail.com
 
"I'm looking to spend under $1000" - that limits your choices!

You won't find much for around 40,000 THB. Lots of decent little 110s and 125s, of course, but you mentioned up to 250cc.

A used Phantom 200, 4-6 years old, or a Kawasaki Boss 175 with 30,000km might be for sale somewhere.

I'd recommend a CBR150, good value for money, if you're lucky you might find a 3 year old one with less than 20,000km.

I have a 125 Wave FI for sale, 1,5 years old, very clean, 23K km, 35K THB, but I'm in Phuket! (bike is sold)
 
Thanks for the info mate.

I actually just arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday so had a quick look around at what was on offer. It seems they have a bunch of CBR 250's, D-Tracker 250's, KLX 250's and Phantom 200's for rent for 800 Baht a day, which means there must be some about for sale, but i think they are more in the 70-100,000 baht territory, so maybe a little pricey for me. Although I guess I could buy here and then re-sell somewhere near Phuket which would mean I could spend a little more?...we'll see.

A guy I met yesterday mentioned a local bike market open on Sunday morning called the Mae Jo bike market on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, where apparently they have good value second hand bikes for sale, so I'll probably head there and hope to pick up either a second hand CBR, DTracker or Phantom...or something along those lines. Trying to stick with Honda though because of the fact they're a little easier to fix out here.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice. If anyone has a bike they wanna sell in Chiang Mai, let me know. I'll be keeping an eye on the sellers forum. :)
 
I live not far from that market,its mostly 125 scooters with the odd phantom,but its still worth a look.go onto Thai visa in the classifieds section for chaing mai bikes section more on there,i bought my last bike off there.happy hunting.
 
Hey IanM,

I am very interested in hearing about your trip, specifically which boarding crossing you used and what paperwork you had. For some reason I cannot PM you, if you could PM me I'd appreciate it so I could pick you brain a bit. I land in Bangkok on Dec 6 and plan on heading to Siem Reap a few days later to look for a 125 with Vietnam papers. If I can't find it there I'll go to Phnom Penh where I've spoken with a shop that has a few. My plan is to spend 4 months, give or take, exploring basically the same region you did and hopefully some of Thailand if I can get the bike in. Any tips are greatly appreciated! I just bought an HD GoPro so the videos from this trip should be amazing! Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom