Hi all,
Me and my friend had a small 50-60kms dirt adventure around Baan Ricky a few days ago.
In our last trip to Kaengkrachan National Park KS mentioned to me that he had purchased a CBR150 and intended to use it for commuting. I am an avid reader of GT-Rider. Found out about Baan Ricky, and worked out a plan. We could rent bikes and explore the trails.
I got my KLX last November.
Hello Gorgeous!
Neither of us has ever tried riding on dirt. Absolute newbies. This was our first experience.
Day 1
Would like to thank Tony_bkk & friends to inspire me to get into this J. Also would like to thank Brian_bkk for uploading the trails around Baan Ricky, without which we wouldn’t have known where to start.
I got the 1k service done on the KLX. I got myself a body-armor, pair of gloves, knee protectors, a jersey and boots from Dirtshop. Got the hand-guards installed. I had read about how to derestrict the bike by shorting the clutch electrical cables on this site, so got that done too. (Bike breathes better for sure). Uploaded the GPX trails onto the GPS and I was ready to go.
On 26[sup]th[/sup] Jan Sat. at 5.30am, I met KS at Rama III and took the route via PhetchKasem. The bikes were slow and we had to stick to the extreme left lane as we could do only 90-100k. We had to refuel the KLX many times throughout the trip. Enough number of times that I couldn’t keep track of the fuel consumption. The CBR though, did the whole trip without an extra sip.
We stopped at one of the Jiffy’s for morning coffee.
We were at Baan Ricky around 10am. Good and a clean place. Room rent was 600bht per day which included Towels, Blankets, Drinking water, Soap and Shower. Missing was TV, aircon & hot water. Surprisingly there was mosquito repellent lotion.
Only one KLX was available for rent and that was fine with us. We were told that all others belonged to some other company (whatever that meant), or were taken away to Bangkok. Although the bike had done only about 7k, the engine rattled and was noisy. KS tried the bike and had difficulty finding neutral but after adjusting the clutch cable he was ok. Bike rent was 1000bht for a day.
Since it was the first time for both of us, we decided to go for the shortest trail (24 kms Baan Ricky2.gpx), I had downloaded. Both of us having zero experience on dirt, initially we were too careful and were riding slow. But we realized, on real uneven patches we HAD to go faster so the bike could jump over the humps, instead of going thru them. Soon we were on high revs and were pushing thru easily.
This trail had many rough patches and I was really impressed how the KLX could comfortably glide over. One of the reviews said the foot pegs were too small, but I found them adequate enough. The boots gripped easily and I could easily raise my butt.
On the best patches we were too busy riding and enjoying, it never occurred to us to stop and take pictures. I still need to learn the art of capturing the moments of riding. Anyways we came across lovely scenery on this first trail.
After few kms of riding I could hear some rattling behind me. Thinking it was KS’s rented bike I didn’t pay any attention. After a while, when I pulled out of a rough patch, I heard some metal thing falling behind and heard KS calling me. Didn’t realize I was on higher ground I slammed the brakes, only to realize my feet wouldn’t reach the ground and flop! I went into the bushes. The brakes are very good!
Thanks to all the gear - not a single scratch. I walked to KS where he handed over my number plate to me. Hmmm… I learned why one needs to tie-up the number plate. Managed to pick up the bike only to discover that the clutch lever had broken. The newly Acerbis Handguards didn’t quite help. Luckily I could still use the clutch with my gloves on. We had a few dead ends on this trail and had to backtrack at times. Since the bike was tall and heavy in comparison to the CBR, KS did have a few flops at the U-Turns, but no damage was done.
At about 12.30-1pm, we came back to the room we had booked. We were hungry and we needed some rest. The food at Baan Ricky was excellent.
“Phat Krapao Kai” one of my all time favorites.
View from our room
We left the doors and windows open and had some real cool breeze blowing through. After a shower and a nap, around 3pm we were ready to check out the (Baan Ricky 1.gpx) 2[sup]nd[/sup] trail. My GPS showed this one to be 111kms and neither of us was willing to ride that long. Hence we decided to ride as much as we could and try to be back to our room before sunset.
GPX map of both trails in green.
Trail two was more scenic and adventurous. We couldn’t follow the “Baan Ricky 1.gpx” trail which I had downloaded because it was blocked but a wooden gate and we couldn’t find a way around.
We desperately tried to find a way to the river. I had seen a few pictures of Brian crossing the river on the bike and was tempted to do the same. We ran into a dead-ends repeatedly (as u can see in the track map). Eventually we gave up.
Luckily we found a way to loop back to the main road.
We were pretty exhausted riding since morning. Just got back to Baan Ricky, had dinner and crashed out.
to be continued…
Me and my friend had a small 50-60kms dirt adventure around Baan Ricky a few days ago.
In our last trip to Kaengkrachan National Park KS mentioned to me that he had purchased a CBR150 and intended to use it for commuting. I am an avid reader of GT-Rider. Found out about Baan Ricky, and worked out a plan. We could rent bikes and explore the trails.
I got my KLX last November.
Hello Gorgeous!
Neither of us has ever tried riding on dirt. Absolute newbies. This was our first experience.
Day 1
Would like to thank Tony_bkk & friends to inspire me to get into this J. Also would like to thank Brian_bkk for uploading the trails around Baan Ricky, without which we wouldn’t have known where to start.
I got the 1k service done on the KLX. I got myself a body-armor, pair of gloves, knee protectors, a jersey and boots from Dirtshop. Got the hand-guards installed. I had read about how to derestrict the bike by shorting the clutch electrical cables on this site, so got that done too. (Bike breathes better for sure). Uploaded the GPX trails onto the GPS and I was ready to go.
On 26[sup]th[/sup] Jan Sat. at 5.30am, I met KS at Rama III and took the route via PhetchKasem. The bikes were slow and we had to stick to the extreme left lane as we could do only 90-100k. We had to refuel the KLX many times throughout the trip. Enough number of times that I couldn’t keep track of the fuel consumption. The CBR though, did the whole trip without an extra sip.
We stopped at one of the Jiffy’s for morning coffee.
We were at Baan Ricky around 10am. Good and a clean place. Room rent was 600bht per day which included Towels, Blankets, Drinking water, Soap and Shower. Missing was TV, aircon & hot water. Surprisingly there was mosquito repellent lotion.
Only one KLX was available for rent and that was fine with us. We were told that all others belonged to some other company (whatever that meant), or were taken away to Bangkok. Although the bike had done only about 7k, the engine rattled and was noisy. KS tried the bike and had difficulty finding neutral but after adjusting the clutch cable he was ok. Bike rent was 1000bht for a day.
Since it was the first time for both of us, we decided to go for the shortest trail (24 kms Baan Ricky2.gpx), I had downloaded. Both of us having zero experience on dirt, initially we were too careful and were riding slow. But we realized, on real uneven patches we HAD to go faster so the bike could jump over the humps, instead of going thru them. Soon we were on high revs and were pushing thru easily.
This trail had many rough patches and I was really impressed how the KLX could comfortably glide over. One of the reviews said the foot pegs were too small, but I found them adequate enough. The boots gripped easily and I could easily raise my butt.
On the best patches we were too busy riding and enjoying, it never occurred to us to stop and take pictures. I still need to learn the art of capturing the moments of riding. Anyways we came across lovely scenery on this first trail.
After few kms of riding I could hear some rattling behind me. Thinking it was KS’s rented bike I didn’t pay any attention. After a while, when I pulled out of a rough patch, I heard some metal thing falling behind and heard KS calling me. Didn’t realize I was on higher ground I slammed the brakes, only to realize my feet wouldn’t reach the ground and flop! I went into the bushes. The brakes are very good!
Thanks to all the gear - not a single scratch. I walked to KS where he handed over my number plate to me. Hmmm… I learned why one needs to tie-up the number plate. Managed to pick up the bike only to discover that the clutch lever had broken. The newly Acerbis Handguards didn’t quite help. Luckily I could still use the clutch with my gloves on. We had a few dead ends on this trail and had to backtrack at times. Since the bike was tall and heavy in comparison to the CBR, KS did have a few flops at the U-Turns, but no damage was done.
At about 12.30-1pm, we came back to the room we had booked. We were hungry and we needed some rest. The food at Baan Ricky was excellent.
“Phat Krapao Kai” one of my all time favorites.
View from our room
We left the doors and windows open and had some real cool breeze blowing through. After a shower and a nap, around 3pm we were ready to check out the (Baan Ricky 1.gpx) 2[sup]nd[/sup] trail. My GPS showed this one to be 111kms and neither of us was willing to ride that long. Hence we decided to ride as much as we could and try to be back to our room before sunset.
GPX map of both trails in green.
Trail two was more scenic and adventurous. We couldn’t follow the “Baan Ricky 1.gpx” trail which I had downloaded because it was blocked but a wooden gate and we couldn’t find a way around.
We desperately tried to find a way to the river. I had seen a few pictures of Brian crossing the river on the bike and was tempted to do the same. We ran into a dead-ends repeatedly (as u can see in the track map). Eventually we gave up.
Luckily we found a way to loop back to the main road.
We were pretty exhausted riding since morning. Just got back to Baan Ricky, had dinner and crashed out.
to be continued…