Good Times with the GT Riders!
We left Bangkok for Chiang Mai at about 0800 with 9 riders.
Straight shot up the 1-
A beautiful day for a ride! We made excellent time and passed hundreds of other bikers. (Oddly no one passed us) :wink:
Google estimates drive time at about 10 hours, but we did it in about 8 with a long stop for lunch and a few other mishaps.
One guy on an aging CBR400 made it an hour out before his front sprocket apparently fell off, or the drive bearing broke or something like that. This is the same guy who showed up at the rendezvous point nearly an hour late. I couldn't be bothered to go back and bid him farewell. :?
A Thai rider on a borrowed CB400 didn't notice that his fuel line was leaking until he ran out of gas (at which point he was soaked in gasoline and far from any gas station...)
The kind gentleman who invited the two riders above lost his phone so we didn't see him again until this morning when we happened to run into him at the Bike Week. He had picked up a friend in Sing Buri and had also gone to fetch gas for the CB400 so the three of them were able to make it to CM, albeit quite a bit later than originally planned.
80km out of CM the R1's "trunk" flew off, but it wasn't noticed that it had gone missing until some 20km later, requiring the owner to backtrack and search along the road for his missing piece. Fortunately it wasn't run over and was recovered with only minor scratches.
So- even with all of these delays and rather heavy holiday traffic and a LONG lunch break we still made it to CM in about 8 hours. I think that on a 'normal' day without any mishaps it could easily be done in 6 or 7 hours.
I didn't take hardly any pictures on this day. Here's one I snapped at a gas stop-
XJR1300, R1, Ninja ZX10, Ninja 250R (2 more Ninja's missing from the pic)
No idea how this bike went over, but fortunately the rider was unhurt and the damage to the bike is only cosmetic.
Seems like on the Holiday that the police decided to abandon all their checkpoints. We rode all the way from BKK to CNX at speeds of 140-170km/hr without a single checkpoint- that's a first for me, and I LIKE it! 8)
I was worried that we were too slow for the guys on the rockets- Ninja ZX10 and Yamaha R1, but they were really cool and were content to rocket ahead and then slow down and rocket ahead again. Both very competent riders which is always nice!
Upon arrival we enjoyed many rounds of refreshments at the Kafe in Chiang Mai
The missus drove the truck up and brought my son and his nanny as well. We stayed at the Top North Hotel, stumbling distance from the Tha Phrae Gate and the Kafe-
Basic clean room for 800THB/night including breakfast. Not luxury, but not bad. Free WiFi, a pool, and excellent location.
Like I said- I didn't take many pics on this day, so hopefully others can fill in what I've missed.
DAY TWO coming up next!
We left Bangkok for Chiang Mai at about 0800 with 9 riders.
Straight shot up the 1-
A beautiful day for a ride! We made excellent time and passed hundreds of other bikers. (Oddly no one passed us) :wink:
Google estimates drive time at about 10 hours, but we did it in about 8 with a long stop for lunch and a few other mishaps.
One guy on an aging CBR400 made it an hour out before his front sprocket apparently fell off, or the drive bearing broke or something like that. This is the same guy who showed up at the rendezvous point nearly an hour late. I couldn't be bothered to go back and bid him farewell. :?
A Thai rider on a borrowed CB400 didn't notice that his fuel line was leaking until he ran out of gas (at which point he was soaked in gasoline and far from any gas station...)
The kind gentleman who invited the two riders above lost his phone so we didn't see him again until this morning when we happened to run into him at the Bike Week. He had picked up a friend in Sing Buri and had also gone to fetch gas for the CB400 so the three of them were able to make it to CM, albeit quite a bit later than originally planned.
80km out of CM the R1's "trunk" flew off, but it wasn't noticed that it had gone missing until some 20km later, requiring the owner to backtrack and search along the road for his missing piece. Fortunately it wasn't run over and was recovered with only minor scratches.
So- even with all of these delays and rather heavy holiday traffic and a LONG lunch break we still made it to CM in about 8 hours. I think that on a 'normal' day without any mishaps it could easily be done in 6 or 7 hours.
I didn't take hardly any pictures on this day. Here's one I snapped at a gas stop-
XJR1300, R1, Ninja ZX10, Ninja 250R (2 more Ninja's missing from the pic)
No idea how this bike went over, but fortunately the rider was unhurt and the damage to the bike is only cosmetic.
Seems like on the Holiday that the police decided to abandon all their checkpoints. We rode all the way from BKK to CNX at speeds of 140-170km/hr without a single checkpoint- that's a first for me, and I LIKE it! 8)
I was worried that we were too slow for the guys on the rockets- Ninja ZX10 and Yamaha R1, but they were really cool and were content to rocket ahead and then slow down and rocket ahead again. Both very competent riders which is always nice!
Upon arrival we enjoyed many rounds of refreshments at the Kafe in Chiang Mai
The missus drove the truck up and brought my son and his nanny as well. We stayed at the Top North Hotel, stumbling distance from the Tha Phrae Gate and the Kafe-
Basic clean room for 800THB/night including breakfast. Not luxury, but not bad. Free WiFi, a pool, and excellent location.
Like I said- I didn't take many pics on this day, so hopefully others can fill in what I've missed.
DAY TWO coming up next!
