SSR Tour to Petchabun September 24-26th

[TonyBKK]

Dunno if Petchabun is "North" or "Northeast" or other so thought I'd throw this report in the "Other" section :happy5:

The stunning roads around Petchabun, only 350km from Bangkok, are guaranteed to put a smile on your dial! ;D

Khosit Hotel is pretty nice-

Highway 12 heading east of Petchabun is an amazing high speed road that cuts through a national park-

Great spot for views and refreshments at the Route 12 Cafe-

And the 2331 to Phu Hin Rongkla National Park has to be seen to be believed!

Petchabun is only about ~350km from Bangkok. Can get there before lunch, drop bags at the hotel and blast some fantastic roads that same afternoon. ;D

Plenty of awesome roads to keep us busy for 2 or 3 days!

Preview of things to come!





To beat the Friday morning traffic let's leave from PTT Don Muang bright and early at say 0600 on Friday September 24th.

Who's in? Gonna be a blast!

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This is Trent (aka Bananaboys) report:

Well i know i wasnt supposed to join this tour but due to my awesome organisation skills and some other factors i was able to join at the last minute.

of course i didnt tell anyone i was coming... i was afraid they would change the meet point on me

So our tour started with perfect weather and arrived PTT ready at 5:30am

Spud was late and managed to clock up 150 km before even arriving at the meet point and he only lives down the road

so we left BKK at 6:30am with perfect weather and 4 bikes in tow

first stop Petchabun (i think - as i didnt read the thread)

arrived at Petchabun without incident at 9:30am and left our bags at the hotel ready for a days riding around the awesome roads around Petchabun. Our new friend John was waiting at the hotel already as he came down from Phisanilok earlier that morning. John was on his ER6N and it looked like it had every gadget under the sun attached to it...cool as later down the road it turned out we needed them all ;D

first days ride was quite nice, a total of 850km for the day and 11.5 hrs of riding from when i left my house... hardcore as being in a banana suit for 12 hours is quite draining.

after a quick shower and electrolytes we enjoyed some beers in the reception and met another Neil who we later changed his name to Sarg as he was staff sargeant for 22 years. he was also on a ER6N with just over 1000km on the clock. So we found a nice restaurant and bar and ate some really nice thai food, beer and checked out the sexy hostesses and went home quite early.

Day 2

breakfast was not a good as our last stay at KOSIT HOTEL but still good value for the 800 baht we paid per night

a nice ride consisting of around 300km and alot of Somchai's. easy day and good company, was starting to settle into a good weekend by early on in the day

some really really scenic roads up to the Phu Hin Rongkla National park and we met some really nice people while we chilled and got a coffee. i was signing autographs all morning

Spud in one piece

get outta my photo

both of you get out

on our return leg Neil and I managed to loose everyone so we took a nice relaxed pace and made our way back to the hotel after a good days ride

shower, electrolytes and headed for the pool. there were too many kids in the pool and a strange color water for me to swim so we enjoyed some beers and weed to kick off our Saturday night

the plan was to go to the same restaurant as the night before as the food was good and beer was cold so off we went.. on our bikes of course. Sarg was the only one with some sense and took a tuk tuk. smart cookie!

full bellies and 2000 baht bill between 7 of us (awesome) we headed downtown for possibly a massage by some talented young locals. this wasnt to be as the uni girls were not present and only grandmom was there to assist. she quickly put her teeth in when she saw customers but it was too late, i wasnt having it.. and neither was anyone else.

so we were on our way back to the hotel and spud thought he would show the locals how you play motorbike bowling and threw his bike down the road only to end up with minor scratches and cuts. VDO ensuing...sorry Spud

Spud in his new knee and elbow pads

In closing a big thank you to everyone for another really great trip. Always good to meet new people John and Neil and also spend time with mates, bikes and drink beers. ALOT of laughs to be had and good memories from my 3 days away.

Thank you Neil, Tony, Nee, Spud, John and last but not least Sarg

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Before I forget I want to post the routes we did over the weekend.

Here's Friday's route- over 800km!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Thanon+Khum+Klao&daddr=Unknown+road+to:Unknown+road+to:Route+12+to:Route+201+to:Route+201+to:Route+225+to:Unknown+road&hl=en&geocode=FbuF0gAdlNQBBg%3BFfa91AAdRz7_BQ%3BFbV3-gAdImkHBg%3BFSY7_wAdHtUIBg%3BFQhi_AAdvwsWBg%3BFYjb8AAdqtEUBg%3BFe6L8QAdR0sFBg%3BFYN3-gAd6GgHBg&mra=mi&mrcr=6&mrsp=7&sz=17&dirflg=t&sll=16.412683,101.151713&sspn=0.007678,0.016512&ie=UTF8&ll=15.10925,104.210815&spn=3.95551,8.453979&z=8

Saturday's loop to Phu Hin Ron Kla National Park via the 2331 and back via Nakhon Thai and Highway 12:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=Route+2331+to:17.0214634,100.9769679+to:Route+12+to:Unknown+road&hl=en&geocode=FYN3-gAd6GgHBg%3BFePGAQEdW6YGBg%3BFRe6AwEdR8kEBin7UGmpzoogMTFRgnGEVPsEEw%3BFciyAQEdsxYCBg%3BFTR3-gAdjmgHBg&mra=mi&mrcr=2&mrsp=4&sz=17&via=2&dirflg=t&sll=16.411407,101.146713&sspn=0.007678,0.016512&ie=UTF8&ll=16.82426,101.206055&spn=0.490311,1.056747&z=11

I know most of you wanted to blast straight home on Sunday but I wasn't in a hurry to get home and wanted to re-visit route 225 to Chaiyaphum. Some fantastic scenery along that road! Stopped to take some pictures and videos and smoke a bowl with a nice guy from California who was touring around on a little Kawasaki Kaze. Thanks for the bowl Toby!

This route was just over 600km and would have been perfect had we not got such a late start out of Petchabun. As it was I got home right after sunset, exhausted but happy This is the route I took:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=Route+225+to:15.70165,102.01479+to:Route+304+to:Thanon+Khum+Klao&hl=en&geocode=FYN3-gAd6GgHBg%3BFXaI8QAdHmgFBg%3BFZKW7wAdRp8UBikPHeZJmjMfMTEQyiOZz2kEEw%3BFWaV3wAd6JQUBg%3BFY2G0gAd39QBBg&mra=mi&mrcr=2&mrsp=4&sz=16&via=2&dirflg=t&sll=13.797553,100.794003&sspn=0.015546,0.033023&ie=UTF8&ll=15.045601,104.024048&spn=3.956693,8.453979&z=8

Big thanks to John from Pitsanulok aka MacGuyver 8) Wow- he's got every bike tool and gadget you could imagine and he sure saved my ass when that slow leak in my rear tire slowly got worse and worse. That little air compressor is a cool piece of kit. I think Trent should buy one and carry it "for the team" on future rides ;D

I'll add my pics soon!

Cheers!

Tony

 

[Kiwi Cruiser]

Hi Tony

That Pine Road Coffee shop on Route 12 is such a cool place to stop! We hit it both ways on the ride from Chiang Rai to Koh Chang, and The Goddess has been begging to go back and spend some time around Petchabun. Have seen a few photos of Route 2331 and have its high on my "must go there" list!

Keep them rides coming - it just proves that The Far North is not the only place with great roads to explore!

Cheers

 

[TonyBKK]

Finally had a chance to edit some pics! Here's our route on Day 1, about ~850km!

Was a funny surprise to roll into the rendezvous point at the PTT near Don Muang and find Bananaboy aka Trent hopping around and ready to rip!

Slight delay because the Spud kept missing the gas station but we eventually caught up with him down the road a bit.

No pics that morning because we were on a mission to reach Petchabun as quickly as possible so that we could drop our bags and enjoy a good ride in the afternoon.

We covered the 350km from Bangkok to Petchabun in about 3 hours. Not bad as that included a stop for gas along the way.

The good old Kosit Hotel-

We had a haggle a bit over prices but eventually got them down to 800 Baht / night with breakfast. :thumbup:

Met up with John who rode his ER6n from Pitsanulok to meet us in Petchabun.

Heading north out of Petchabun towards Lomsak on the 21 there is a lot of road construction going on- slowed us down a bit and we decided to go the LONG way around to avoid returning through that construction again. Had lunch at a nice place on Highway 12 and then enjoyed the fantastic road through Nam Nao National Park. A bit of rain but son on the other end. That was the weather for most of the weekend. Nothing too terrible and always sunny on the other side 8)

Hung a right at Chumphae and headed on down to Chaiyaphun where unfortunately Spud and I made a wrong turn missing the 225 and lost the rest of the group. We weren't sure if they ahead of us or behind and I didn't have any luck trying to reach anyone by phone or SMS... Oh well- Spud and I continued on the 225 which I have to say is a FANTASTIC road! Gorgeous scenery and I felt like I was up in the Golden Triangle on that road, not 300 km from Bangkok.

Beautiful views from the Phao Pheng Heuy overlook on the 225-

The 225 is a bit rough in spots and under construction in others, but all in all a fantastic road!

Turns out the rest of the gang was in front of us and they took a short cut back to Petchabun so we reached the hotel about 20 minutes after them right about sunset.

We met up with "Sarge" who rode from Surin on his brand new ER6n-

It was a long fantastic day! Showers, beers and blunts and then off to dinner in Petchabun. Fantastic food, great live band, adorable waitresses and sexy beer girls and when the bill came we couldn't believe how cheap it was :clap:

We were all pretty beat so went back to the hotel fairly early that Friday night so we could wake up well rested for more fantastic roads on Saturday.
:happy5:

 

[TonyBKK]

SSR Tour to Petchabun Day Deux :happy5:

Decided after the FULL day on Friday that we should slow down a bit and check out the scenery and take some pictures! Saturday's easy loop was only ~250km, but it covered some fantastic roads! The 2331 to Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park and the always perfect Highway 12-

Took our time at breakfast (which I must say, while perfectly adequate it isn't what it used to be...). After brekky discovered my rear tire was FLAT! :shock:

Shit... I'd plugged a leak about a month earlier and figured the plug was leaking. Rolled the bike over to a service station next door, inflated the tire and couldn't find a leak... The plug wasn't leaking and I spun the tire and didn't see any other punctures. (Turns out I didn't look hard enough...)

Well, I figured it must be a slow leak and John from Pitsanulok (aka MacGuyver) had a very cool little electric pump with him so I decided to go for it and see what happened.

Half way up the 2331 I could feel my rear end getting mushy so pulled over at a scenic spot to take some pictures and borrow John's pump.

The rear tire was down to 15psi :shock: Yikes! We talked about replacing the plug, but decided not to risk it because if we weren't able to plug the leak on that road it would be a royal PITA to get the bike sent back to Petchabun.

So, while the boys snapped pics and enjoyed the amazing views I pumped up the tire-

What an amazing spot!

John's little tire pump saved me! I gotta get one!

Blasted on up to the viewpoint and coffee shop at the top of the road- Spud, Trent and Neil with the 2331 behind them-

Then a couple of pick-ups rolled in full of uni girls :clap: Trent was a happy camper :lol-sign:

He made some money charging the tourists to take pictures with his Fizzer :lol-sign:

Route 2331- Awesome!

To be continued! :happy5:

 

[DavidFL]

TonyBKK wrote: SSR Tour to Petchabun Day Deux :happy5:

Decided after the FULL day on Friday that we should slow down a bit and check out the scenery and take some pictures! Saturday's easy loop was only ~250km, but it covered some fantastic roads!

Route 2331- Awesome!

To be continued! :happy5:

Glad you guys got up on R2331. It really rocks doesn't it.
Love the photos. Please keep em coming. All Good stuff.
:thumbup:

 

[Franz]

Wow Tony & Trent, what a ride, what stunning roads, what excellent pictures !!!! Need to go there, Phu Hin Rongkla is definetely a MUST for every serious biker !!!!
BTW Tony, does Bananaboy ever change or wash his blue underwear combination or does he have 2 ???? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Haven't seen him in any other shirt yet..... :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ...keep them fotos comin', cheers, Franz