Grant (Grubman) and myself , had some catching up to do from earlier days. And since grubman got himself a ninja 250 and i could arrange a little time out , we both had 2 wheels and time to ride the area too. We decided meet in petchabun and planned 2 day ride . 1st day: i left from Nakhonsawan at 6.00 AM and heading towards Petchabun where i was meeting Grant who started his trip from Khon Kaen at the same time. Meeting point was Burapa Hotel where we stayed. During the first part i had some fuelstop at Esso Nongbua, about 50km later i stopped and paid some respect for some VX800 that lost its frontfork on that place ( lucky the Rider was unharmed) At appr 8.30 i arrived at Burapa Hotel in petchabun and shortly after me Grant as well. We checked in and dropped some luggage . Had a Breakfast an off we went. we went north on route 21 towards lomsak and joined then Route 2372 / 2331 for a curvy climbing road up to Phu Hin Rong kla while there at viewpoint we had a 30 minutes medium strength rain forcing us to have "Espresso" a la Allessandro when the rain slowed down we went on into the National Park onwards on route 2331. This road is , specially at the beginning, in a not so good condition. However the surroundings are green and beautiful. we still had rains coming on and off even wanted to stop for a while but when we were ready to stop the rain was gone too: it was also time to "mark" Grant's Ninja 250 with the "Tiger/Sachs Club" Sticker. At the beginning where route 2331 was in rather poor condition , but it came better the further we progressed. Here at a view point without a view we then went on back to route 12 via route 2013 , my Lady (virago 750) was starving for some fuel which we eventually found by entering a village off the route 12 . We then went on and made the obligatory stop at Route 12 Coffeeshop...geez this place keeps growing and growing, evrytime i pass they have something new added. Great Entrepreneurship by making their own Tourist attraction. After some cold drinks we went on until Khaem Song and entered route 2196 to Khao Kho passing the "Little Switzerland". Always a joy to ride there and amazing to see all the ongoing developments there too. we went on until Khao Kho Palace...and even i was there before i never really noticed that this "Bungalow style" Building was the Khao Kho Palace The "Army" Coffee Shop at Khao Kho Palace viewpoint Here's Grant at the viewpoint on Khao Kho Palace. The best road and road condition was then the Route 2258 back to route 21 and back to hotel. It was some real great riding that day and had shower some meal and beers. 2nd day: I woke up hearing thunder and rain...no good news. Went downstairs for breakfast and it is pouring. We decided to wait out a bit and see if any improvement . But it didn't so we aborted the plan doing Route 203 towards Loei. About 11AM we both left to go back Home the most direct way due to rain. i went out on route 21 south while Grant went on the same road towards lomsak to join route 12 going east to Khon Kaen. I was out of petchabun Town and the road strted to dry up. When i was on route 113 it was all dry and very nice riding. While riding back home i was wondering if it was the right call to abort the ride on the 203 but from the situation we saw in dowtown petchabun this what we thought was right. I got back home 1.16 PM and Grant was back home at 2.45pm, reporting that he came into some hard rains near Lomsak. He got wet but made it home safe, but it also made clear that we did make the right decision for aborting the trip on route 203. Hope for better weather next time but considering the time available it was some great ride and meetup with an ex - collegue at work. Grant is relatively new on Bikes and did exceptionally well, never was out of my mirror and could have overtaken me the one or other times too...but this wasn't about who is fastest anyways, still we did the riding in normal speeds , good pace. it shows also what a Ninja 250 is actually capable . The only thing that is different is his Acropovic exhaust which gives great sound, but no other mods, even on IRC stock tires My Virago did well for her age but it needs a new throttle cable , not much more to say...oh and she has a new starter but needs a few times pressing the starter to have the starter actually move...oh what the hell can't have it all can't we? The road we have done on day one would have also been great on the Boxer 250 me thinks.... happy trails, mbox
Looks like some fun roads mbox, nice pictures. I especially like the Route 12 Coffee shop. Looks a blast with very entrepreneurial ideas and some really good old stuff they have collected. Where do they get all they I wonder?
here is the google map link for the trip we done on first day: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Samakkhichai+Rd%2FRoute+21&daddr=Route+2372+to:Route+2331+to:Route+2331+to:Route+2013+to:Route+2196+to:Route+2302+to:16.5545674,100.9761022+to:16.53468,101.06676+to:Route+2258+to:Samakkhichai+Rd%2FRoute+21&geocode=FRih-gAdSH0HBg%3BFUPl_wAd2L4HBg%3BFf7BAQEdT6YGBg%3BFbKQBAEdqO8CBg%3BFbizAQEdChYCBg%3BFbTc_wAdhocFBg%3BFURf_gAdEIkFBg%3BFUea_AAd5sUEBikHNU29ixUgMTHwPMaEVPsEEw%3BFZhM_AAdCCgGBilV8baIsT4gMTEwTMaEVPsEEw%3BFX9f_AAdq4UHBg%3BFemg-gAdnn0HBg&hl=en&mra=dme&mrsp=9&sz=12&via=7,8&sll=16.555253,101.172752&sspn=0.242869,0.303154&ie=UTF8&ll=16.774302,101.217041&spn=0.970353,1.212616&z=10 here a screenshot: mbox Attached files
Awesome report mbox! This concrete road marker looks very familiar! ;-) Glad you had no drama on this ride! Happy Trails! Tony
Well first of all thanks to Reinhard (mbox) for invinting me for the 2 day ride in phetchabun As i am new to riding i decided to get myself a ninja 250r so that i can learn and get experiance on riding, before the ride my whole biking had consisted of about 2000km which i had done aroung the Khon Kaen area since i got the bike which i got second hand from Phuket (should have ridden it back from Phuket to Khon Kaen but send it back) So i start out from Khon Kaen at 6 am heading along route 12 heading for Phetchabun with a few nerves as i have not been for such a long ride before, i was kind of like a kid with new toys have my new riding gear, helmet and tank bag all packed ready for the trip So off onto route 12 which is a duel lang carriage way through to Chum Phea which was about 60 km of just straight road, well i guess it is good to get the boring parts out of the way first, then after chum Phea there was road works and back to 2 lane road so back off the pace a little. Then it was a nice ride throught to the Namnao National park which is where the road start to climb and the cornering starts, i did not push to hard as it was my frist ride and i wanted to arrive both meself and the bike in one peice so i thorughly enjoy this part of the ride and up then up to Lom sak and onto the 21 for the short stint to Phetchabun where i meet Reinhard After having breakfast and checking into room it was off for the next part of the day which i can tell you i was very excited and scared at the same time not having been on many twisty road and not knowing what to expect for the orad which Reinhard had chosen for our days riding and also not wanting to fall back but i was pleaently suprise that my little ninja proformed well go the first climb up to Phu Hin Rong kla where we encounted rain after stopping to check out the veiw and i can tell you that the nerve had faded a little after that climb which i have to admit that i did go into a couple of corner with to much speed but the ninja's breaks were great and on to the next corner as Reinhard had mentioned earlier in the post the route which we took for the day was all very good for both riding and sight seeing and as the day wore on o got more comfident with my bike and riding and as Reinhard said there were a few time that i could have easily overtake the old girl ( 750 Virago) but i was not a race so i just sat back and it was quite help full as i was using Reinhard breaking point for myself, at one stage on more open road i decided to over take hime and give the ninja 250 a blast and i was very happy and suprised with what happened, me being a little over 125kg (yes i know fat bastard) the bike got easily to 160 kph and the only mod to the bike is a ackrpovic pipe which does sound great, i never had any problem with the tyres only having the stack IRC rubber still on the rims but never had any time that i thought the bike was going to let go of the black stuff but i know that there are much better tryes that can be fitted to the bike which at some stage will happen, Then the final road before heading back to the hotel was for me the high light of the day it was the 2258 which was about 30 km and a great road surface and many nice corners with some up and down portions to make it for me the best part of the days riding, this was the only time for the whole ride that Reinhard had got away a little, i could still she him on more open corners but he was no more that 500 m ahead so i was very happy with both myself and the bike fot the days riding and completing 500km for the day was satisfing for me So we had a few beer and some food and some catching up to do so all in all it was agreat days riding and catching up with an old friend and then off to bed for another days riding as menyioned by Reinhard day 2 was a wash out so heading home for me up the 21 i got about 9km fro Lom Sak and the rain hit hard with thunder so stopped for about 45 mins anf then off on my way back to Khn Kaen, so having got wet as i did not bring my lining for my jacket or pants i keep riding with light rain and 15 to 20 km out of Lom sak the rain stopped and the roads dried and it was a great ride back throught the national park and i gave the bike a blast on the double lane road out of Chum Phea and again with my tank bag fully packed and myself the ninja got to 160kph once again so i was very please to get to that and home safe and sound All in all it was a great 2 days even though the second day did not start that great and planes had to be change i did enjoy meself Please feel free to have a look at the picture at the attached link https://picasaweb.google.com/1051752644 ... mI8-qalAE# I am looking forward to my next ride Grubman
