The Golden Triangle Rider

[Snail]

After finally finding the annoying electrical problem with the JAPANESE bits of the wiring on the Ducati I bought recently decided to take a small ride on some roads I knew, to make it easier if the problem re-occurred. Headed south from Chiang Mai to Hot. From there turned right towards Mae Sariang looking forwards to a nice blast alongside the river. The road was as great as ever, for about 5 km's! From there to the turn off up to Mae Cham it was great in places but lots of the road surface missing, or severely broken up in large patches which is a bit disrupting and and bit painful when travelling at speed completely unsuitable for the conditions. Slowing down wasn't an option as I didn't want to be back late for the bike racing.
After the turnoff to Mae Cham the road was surprisingly good aside from a few small mudslides on blind corners. As usual, once getting onto the Doi Inthanon road things were as normal. Beautiful fast smooth surface all the way up and back down to Chom Tong.
The main road back towards Chinag Mai has a few patches (no warning) that are being repaired and since it was only 1600hrs as I passed through Hang Dong I decided to do the Samoeng loop as well rather than heading straight back. What a blast! Very little sand or gravel anywhere and not much traffic. The Ducati goes round corners much better the faster you go so maybe I missed a few details on the way. Highly recommended afternoon ride but maybe not an a Honda dream.

[Colin]

Just remember if it wasnt for the Japanese bits of wiring your bike probably wouldnt even be running at all

[Snail]

True enough, but my point was more that the Italian parts are often as reliable or better than Japanese, which was definitely not the case some years ago

[Colin]

Yes perhaps Italian parts are better now, I have just bought a brand new BMW F650GS from VVP here in Chiang Mai and the brembo brakes on it are okay. Back in 1987 I bought a new 750 Triumph Tiger in England that was made in Devon and apart from the engine which was fine and didnt miss a beat for 14000 miles in all weathers, the rest of the bike was crap and all of the crap was Italian, brembos that were just about adequate in the dry but useless in the wet, they dripped rusty water onto the rims which then rusted, the forks leaked as did the rear shocks and the silencers just sapped the midrange. I think the day I bought that Triumph was the day I started detesting all things Italian, apart from food of course, and there they can beat the Japanese.

[Davidfl]

3rd December Samoeng Loop Update.
The tight steep right hand downhill hairpin bend just 2.3 kms before Samoeng / 3kms from the R1096 / R1269 junctions claimed another victim today.

[img]http://davidgtr.smugmug.com/photos/47172851-M.jpg[/img]

[img]http://davidgtr.smugmug.com/photos/47172856-M.jpg[/img]

If you're going down into Samoeng for the first time, you do need to watch this corner.

Davidfl
Keep The Power On