Pictures of Bangkok Motorbike Festival

[Ian Bungy]

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Good Info Tony. Thanks for that I was totally Unaware! I thought they were all doing the strip and ship thing! Well worth people taking note for future reference! Red Baron are in New Zealand as well by the way!
Now where are the Rest of the Photos of the Bike Festival You Promised Mate??? Have a Great Weekend!

[Franz]

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Well, as promised a small report & fotos about this event in Bkk.
Had to get up at 5 for the first TG flight to the big Mango only to arrive there at 09:00 and finding the doors closed for another hour, wasn't easy to find an open coffeeshop, cause getting up so early my luxurious body demands a lot, and I mean a lot of good quality beancoffee to get started.......finally found a Segafredo shop, day & awakening saved...
Once open I had some very good highlights: met the SSR guys Gerhard (Bakerboy), Andrew (Not on a Yamaha) and Trent there, later on was joined by GT-Riders Craig-EBC and his lovely girlfriend, Dougal Peeetaaaah and his lovely SWMBO and in the late afternoon TonyBkk & family, what a nice day !!!!!!
The positive sides in my humble opinion:
We saw bikes that are to come and especially MV-Agusta, Aprilia, Royal Enfield, some additions to existing and most surprisingly Taiwanese SYM is also coming in.
I have loads of fotos but will only post the ones I liked the most here.

By the way, I did not take my partner there and would advise all who intend to go there, not to do so either as the "better halves" can find a lot of goodies for themselves and you might end up with much higher expenses that you actually intended to spend; just see Craig's delight when his GF announced that after trying 6 pairs of boots none of them fitted: (for this time.....)


As for accessoiries we had some of the top shops present such as Panda Rider, Dirt Shop, Paddock, Thaimotorbox Givi and some others.
I did frequent them and got meeself some new Alpinestars boots, a Revv'it rainjacket, a Givi pillow for a topbox and Co2 Cartridges for tubeless tyre-repairs for the FJR.

On a negative side: BMW, DUCATI and SHARK were not present which I find with the latter two disappointing as they actually manufactore in Thailand.......hopefully next year will have them there too.

The real surprise for me was this bike, as they haven't been overly interested in the biggie market until now:
The Suzook V-Strom 650; I was told it will come somewhere end of March and will also be another competitor in the Enduro market (Versys, F650 &800, Tiger 800), pricing was not yet available:


Yamaha told me that the XTZ1200 will come 70% sure and a pricetag not over 800k THB which is better than the R1200 and the big Tiger anyway........should be selling some........I must admit although it's a heavy one, it looks gooooooood:


Not to write this report again, I'm just gonna save this one and continue in another post. Rgds, Franz

[Franz]

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So to continue, I totally liked the looks of these bikes MV-Agusta F4 and Brutale F3:


Sorry, but forgot to ask the pricing but these should be out quickly as also imported by Kunka.

Just next to the MV's was KTM's stand with even one X-Bow on show (for several Mio THB of course........), I already see the boys of the rich parents parading them up and down Ratchada and RCA:


The beautiful RC8:


And the lovely baby Duke 200:


Another bike I liked of course the red/white livery on any Yamaha, here the new R1:


Should mention also that Yamaha dropped their prices a bit (R1 now 790k, FJR 820k, T-Max 495k an FZ1 590k) further on did they tell me that the FZ8 will come in maybe second quarter for approx. 480k THB.
I need to compare first but a first lookey also tells me that KTM's are cheaper than last year. 690 Enduro R goes for 628k, 690 SMC R for 632k and the 690 Duke for 628k, are new models as they now have all the same modified LC4 engine with 67 HP.

But pricewise the biggest surprise for me is SYM a taiwanese company who sells already by the containers in Europe and has quite a good reputation as they obviously have engines from Honda though not the last model but frugal, reliable ones, have ridden once the old 250 scooter and it was a good one.
Was told that the 300i is already available for THB 150k:

specifications:

and the 400 version should be available end of March for THB 215k which isn't bad at all just looking at Vespa/Piaggio ridiculous prices here in LOS:

specifications

sorry made a mistake in labelling the last 2 fotos should be 400i not 300.........

I might get tempted to get one.............as their reputation is good in Europe.........
Another nice bike they have on show is a 'baby ER6n', forgot to ask the price......:

specifications:


Another nice aspect to this show was that there's a lot of companies with different bikes, propped up with good paintjobs, chrome and accessoiries, didn't take any fotos as mainly cruisers and I'm not at all interested in them.
As with Honda's showbikes, other than the CBR1000RR none of the bikes they had did even get me to take a picture..........loads of talk about the CRF250 but not even one on show other than an imported non-street-legal one, well I will not be a customer of them now and in the coming years.......

A nice Vespa copy from India caught my eye, called Stella with a nice sidecar:



And last a nice Wave-speedboat of the Royal Thai Police:



So that was a Saturday and money well spent, will go there next year again and hope that there will be more goodies to come.

Cheers, Franz

[Franz]

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.......some more remarks to the Bkk Motorbike Festival:
you should imagine that when you are interested in biggies with pricetags of 200k THB up that you'll at least get decent brochures and 'ready to pick up price lists', not so here in LOS. Other than Yamaha with a brochure/info/price folder and Triumph with a flyer/pricelist not much was actually available. KTM at least had an A4 copy of the prices but not more.

As for SYM, I'm just too lazy to scan/fotograph the namecard so here's some details:
www.sym-thailand.com
Khun (Mr.) Panu Wongwondee - ass. mgr. aftersales svc.
p_wongwondee@sym-thailand.co.th
Tel: 0-2993-7788
Paholyothin Rd., Bkk

Another visible fact, slowly but surely all the accessoiries brands are establishing themselves in Bangkok, saw loads of helmet, clothing, footwear, aftermarket parts suppliers being presented already by agents here.

Things look good......................cheers, Franz

[bung]

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Any KTM dirt bikes? I thought I saw one just behind the X Bow.

Either way, things are looking up for the big bike market in Thailand, just gets better and better.

[Ian Bungy]

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Good Photos and info Franz. Thanks. Some good Prices from some of the Big Names but others are still verging on Ridiculous!!!

[mbox999]

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Franz, the 250cc naked from SYM is priced at 120.000,- thb the real downside on this bike i find is the dry weight of 173kg ... i love that Brutale and the exhaust from the F4 looks very special

[Franz]

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Hi Reinhard, thanks, 120,000 is still in an affordable range so should find some buyers too, anyway competition on the 250 market gets better and better.
Hi Ian, yes prices are still too high, that's what keeping me off Triumph as we all know done in Chonburi for some models.
Hi Bung, not that there was plenty, saw one YZF250 competition bike on the second floor, but me thinks exhibited not by Yamaha, Honda had one CBF250 there, Suzuki one RMX250 ??.
It seems bike importers still think that only Bangkok Hiso boys can afford bigbikes and only listen & import their wishlist of ridiculous powerful sportsbikes and choppaaaaaaaa's. Why would Honda think about the Goldwing which is already half a car in weight and needs to be handled by some tall heavy person......makes absolutely no sense. I've got loads of Thai friends with enough funds to do some serious off-road riding but they are not from the Bkk Hiso and are not heard.....And they go to all the other importers such as RB and the chopshops, but at least they ride some serious KTM's, Yamaha's and Suzook's
KTM as I can remember had several 990's there, the 690 Enduro R and another one for off-road, but none of the real stuff.
When asking Yamaha about my personal wishlist (japanese injected SR400, XT660X, WR450) I got just a NO as reply. Just the thought of how many Thai's would go for the new SR400, still a no and again me thinks the Bkk-Hiso don't appreciate as too cheap for them, not overpowered, overweight or overpriced, nothing they could show off.....but at least they could handle that one on the road 555555555555
Cheers, Franz

[Ian Bungy]

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Very True! The KTM 690 Enduro R is the King but at 628.000 Baht is the King of Price for a Dirt bike as well!!! A lot of Money for something to drop in the Dirt? Just Too Much!!! But 67HP, WOW!

[Changnoi1]

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It seems bike importers still think that only Bangkok Hiso boys can afford bigbikes and only listen & import their wishlist of ridiculous powerful sportsbikes and choppaaaaaaaa's. Why would Honda think about the Goldwing which is already half a car in weight and needs to be handled by some tall heavy person......makes absolutely no sense. I've got loads of Thai friends with enough funds to do some serious off-road riding but they are not from the Bkk Hiso and are not heard.....

Indeed a weird old fashioned way of thinking. I saw once that Kawa had a show at "Central Pattaya" and that same day their shop was full with Thai middle-class looking & buying bikes. Here in Khon Kaen there quit a few ducatti's and other big bike's riding. Well at least in the car section the realized that out of BKK people buy BMW and Merc's also.

I am sure with a other marketing there would be a much bigger big-bike market here in Thailand.

Chang Noi

[Changnoi1]

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Franz, the 250cc naked from SYM is priced at 120.000,- thb the real downside on this bike i find is the dry weight of 173kg ... i love that Brutale and the exhaust from the F4 looks very special

173kg!!! How did they manage that? Or is that incl. a 80kg rider?
So I am sure the hp/weight rate will be very low.

Too bad as it does nlook nice .... just like the baby Duke 200 but at a price tag of 220k a bit expensive.

Chang Noi

[mbox999]

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173kg!!! How did they manage that? Or is that incl. a 80kg rider?
So I am sure the hp/weight rate will be very low.

Too bad as it does nlook nice .... just like the baby Duke 200 but at a price tag of 220k a bit expensive.

Chang Noi

Changnoi, i don't know why they made it that heavy...last year sym introduced the 125 Wolf on the BKK Motorshow...same dilemma, 155kg for a 125cc naked is just too heavy...i too wonder how they got them so heavy...maybe a concrete made tank?

[Davidfl]

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Thanks for the photos & update Franz.

[whitehead]

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Great info thanks and some very interesting info from Tony also re RB

[2wheels]

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Hi Franz,
Like you, I was surprised (and pleased) to see the V-Strom in the mix.
A Thai website (Thaicarnews) mentions the price.

" Suzuki V-Strom 650 ABS 2012 ตัวจี๊ดคันนี้ ราคาเริ่มต้นอยู่ที่ 295,000 บาทครับ ใครที่สนใจรถแรงจากค่ายซูซูกิคันนี้ ก็เก็บตังไว้รอเลยนะ สำหรับปี 2012 นี้มาแน่ครับ รับรองเท่เกินใคร โดยเฉพาะความแรงก็คงไม่ต้องพูดอะไรกันมาก เพราะซูซูกิการันตีความเร็วและแรงแน่นอนครับ "

[TonyBKK]

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Hi Franz,
Like you, I was surprised (and pleased) to see the V-Strom in the mix.
A Thai website (Thaicarnews) mentions the price.

" Suzuki V-Strom 650 ABS 2012 ตัวจี๊ดคันนี้ ราคาเริ่มต้นอยู่ที่ 295,000 บาทครับ ใครที่สนใจรถแรงจากค่ายซูซูกิคันนี้ ก็เก็บตังไว้รอเลยนะ สำหรับปี 2012 นี้มาแน่ครับ รับรองเท่เกินใคร โดยเฉพาะความแรงก็คงไม่ต้องพูดอะไรกันมาก เพราะซูซูกิการันตีความเร็วและแรงแน่นอนครับ "

The V-Strom is a fantastic bike with a very loyal following, but you're dreaming if you think it will come to Thailand for less than 400k Baht. I would attribute the 295k price in that article to the typical high standard of Thai journalism (sic.)

Given that the FZ6 retails for what, 480k Baht in Thailand? I predict a V-strom price closer to 500k Baht if/when Yamaha decide to import it the LOS.

[nikster]

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The V-Strom is a fantastic bike with a very loyal following, but you're dreaming if you think it will come to Thailand for less than 400k Baht. I would attribute the 295k price in that article to the typical high standard of Thai journalism (sic.)

Given that the FZ6 retails for what, 480k Baht in Thailand? I predict a V-strom price closer to 500k Baht if/when Yamaha decide to import it the LOS.

US MSRP is 256k baht so yep, 295 would only be possible if the bike is made in ASEAN... or if they got some super special allowance...

BTW Tony I don't think Yamaha will be importing the V-Strom at all :P

[TonyBKK]

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US MSRP is 256k baht so yep, 295 would only be possible if the bike is made in ASEAN... or if they got some super special allowance...

BTW Tony I don't think Yamaha will be importing the V-Strom at all :P

Doh! I'm such a moron! I was thinking about the new Yamaha Super Tenere when I wrote about the SUZUKI V-Strom and, well, there ya go! Hell, I walked up to the check in counter at the Khon Kaen airport this morning only to discover I'd made the reservation for Sunday! DOH! I think I'm too young to be this senile, no?! Thankfully the Thai Air staff took pity on me and re-booked me at no charge