Ok, so I was referring to the place Mr Viethorse posted
here:
"4.Bike City..
- Add: 480 D Nguyen Thi Thap Street, Tân Quy Ward, District 7 - HCMC.
- Contact: +848377752491 (As below photo)
- WP: Lat 10°44'21.52"N / Lon 106°42'27.35"E (estimated)
- Service: All kinds of repair, maintenance, overhaul, parts, accessories, Wi-fi cafe..."
I zoomed in there really quick and found a lightweight mesh jacket with protective inserts (more later).
So, I can only really comment on the accessories because that's all I was interested in (and had time for):
There were a few full body suits (didn't really check these out), helmets (agv and aprilla $350-$550) and some jackets.
There weren't many jackets, most of them were branded 'Honda', weighed a lot and were mainly leather. I was looking for XXXL as this seems to be the Asian size that will get around my gut (I reFUSE to be believe I'm that size at home!) The largest size they had was '3L', which I believe corresponds to XXL? Anyway, they only had this size in the jacket I bought. The jacket appears to actually be genuine, there is a 'Honda' tag on it and various bits identifying it as from the 2009 Shinichiro Arakawa range. It is very lightweight, however the protective inserts look identical to those on the Honda Japan website (
http://www.honda.co.jp/bike-accessories/wear/protector/pr13.html). The jacket has adjustable zips and straps and buttons all over it and the inserts all come in their own pockets for adjustability and upgrade I presume. I paid 3,000,00VND for it, the original price was $180, but there is a 20% discount on all accessories at the moment.
The wi-fi cafe isn't there anymore. I believe it used to be Black Cat cafe's second premises - DO GO to the original one on Phan Van Dat, Dist 1 Tel: 829 2055, the burgers are INSANE!
There were some cool looking bikes there but I didn't take a look at any of them. I noticed a VN guy was getting his bike serviced and they mentioned that a Filipino guy goes in their regularly for upgrades/modifications.
Please, anyone reading my mini 'review' bear in mind that I've only been riding bikes for a couple of years, solely in VN (aside from a couple of days around the streets of Phnom Penh) and solely on smaller CC bikes (Wave, Airblade and now my own Honda Future). In fact, I have only just recently set out to buy some protective gear - so you experienced guys will have to glean what you can. I've found a similar jacket (
http://ps05.aucfan.com/aucview/yahoo/h143082459/) on-line and would appreciate some kind of feedback on my purchase.
Oh - and ow I've had chance to sit back at home and write a decent post - Hello everyone, I live in Central VN. I've been riding around these parts for a year and a half or so - although I'm not really sure if I have anything worth posting on the trip reports section. I could well be doing a more substantial trip soon, if so, I'll take a few pictures and post them up.