I was looking very much forward to a ride to Mae Hong Son as the weather suddenly changed for the better.
Leaving CNX early morning on Saturday I needed to get to Pai to meet up with Nikster at the Witching Well Cafe for a good brekkie.
As I just finished the conversion of the DR650 to Supermotard, that was a run that should show her abilities at last.
Got on quite well and up near the junction to Huay Num Dung, first fog was engulfing me with temperatures that indicated that the cool season is in the coming. Road is not in such a bad shape but one needs to be careful as there is still some small stones and other rubbish on the road.
Mae Malai to Pai and Pai to Phang Mapha are in Thailand my 'fear roads' as 95% of my crashes happend there, speeds were still moderate. Took me just some minutes short of 2 hours from my place in HangDong to the Witching Well Kafe in Pai where I finally met up with the ever smiling Nikster and his Versys. Had a good brekkie and then a visit to his "Villa" a real marvel of house and a astonishing view from his terrace.
We then got up riding to Phang Mapha and up the mountain on the viewpoint took 2 pictures just to prove we were really riding, more should have been done but that later........
Must say we met quite a lot of bikers on the way, mostly Thais.
Switching bikes just so both of us got some taste of what the other one is riding, gave us even more pleasure.
I must admit that keeping up with Nik on the Versys is not easy for me and I need to squeeze the DR very much and still can't get him.......as above mentioned that this is my feared road and I also don't dare to lean the DR over too much; also the new setup needs to be tested mm by mm on how much I can go.
Versys is very powerful and nice to ride 'with the correct suspension settings' !!!! Nik you read this ?? 5555555
Amazingly the DR now turns out to be a completely different bike, she falls into turns just on her own and is stable as a train on rails. Fitted tyres are Diablo Rosso II and I must say, these tyres will also be fitted soon onto the FJR.......for obvious reasons. Although it is still nearly impossible to get rid of 1 cm chicken strips as they are totally round and would enable you to nearly lay the bike down I tried to push as much as I dared.
Just coming down the hills, I was not far behind Nikster but then you have these long stretches of high speed straights and that's when it got really difficult to keep up. So I squeezed the shyt. out of the engine and in my quest to catch up revved the engine into 'kindom come'. Was wandering why I was doing slightly more than 14. and wondered why she doesn't do more, but then seing the revcounter being on the other end I heard a bang and then knew that this 'ooooopppps' (forgot 5th gear) will be a costly one. Instead of 7,500 (redline) engine was at 9,000 and because of the mods on it there was nothing to make her splutter at 8k.
Nik took it easy and waited for me to limp into town with blue smoke on my back, the sound of pistonrings between head and piston, well, hell, still: what a ride..........
Nik then headed back to Pai after some refreshments and me tried to find a pickup for getting DR and me back to CNX on Sunday. As the blown engine wasn't enough, the pickup blew and shredded one backtyre just near Mae Rim which made the trip even more exciting...5555555, as always, spare tyre next to no air and NO key to remove the tyre.....well finally we managed & delivered and tomorrow the engine's gonna get stripped.
Just hope it's just the piston and not a destroyed barrel or even worse cylinder head, let's wait and see......
As for fotos, well arriving in MHS I was a little pissed about my stupidity, dumped the bike at the Hotel and went downstairs into the coffeeshop for loads of Gin & Tonic, and sorry as a consequence of that I did not have a steady hand for more pictures both yesterday and today for different reasons.......
Needed to edit once more, I filled up the DR at the PTT in Pai, and it's around 130 kms into MHS from there, on my way from CNX to Pai I used an average of 5 lts/100 km, tank was full in Pai, it holds 17 lts, rode just 130 on it and "simsalabim" when I drained the tank at home there were a mere 3 liters left although I switched the petcoke OFF and there are no holes. So I can only guess that some Wave is running free of charge for a while.........tank cap was locked but then there were some strange 'running marks' under the point where the hose joins the petcoke.
Now I also know why the same strange thing happened 2 months ago on the XTZ at the same establishment......
Just watch your fuelgauge once you go there and park overnight.
Cheers, Franz
Leaving CNX early morning on Saturday I needed to get to Pai to meet up with Nikster at the Witching Well Cafe for a good brekkie.
As I just finished the conversion of the DR650 to Supermotard, that was a run that should show her abilities at last.
Got on quite well and up near the junction to Huay Num Dung, first fog was engulfing me with temperatures that indicated that the cool season is in the coming. Road is not in such a bad shape but one needs to be careful as there is still some small stones and other rubbish on the road.
Mae Malai to Pai and Pai to Phang Mapha are in Thailand my 'fear roads' as 95% of my crashes happend there, speeds were still moderate. Took me just some minutes short of 2 hours from my place in HangDong to the Witching Well Kafe in Pai where I finally met up with the ever smiling Nikster and his Versys. Had a good brekkie and then a visit to his "Villa" a real marvel of house and a astonishing view from his terrace.
We then got up riding to Phang Mapha and up the mountain on the viewpoint took 2 pictures just to prove we were really riding, more should have been done but that later........
Must say we met quite a lot of bikers on the way, mostly Thais.
Switching bikes just so both of us got some taste of what the other one is riding, gave us even more pleasure.
I must admit that keeping up with Nik on the Versys is not easy for me and I need to squeeze the DR very much and still can't get him.......as above mentioned that this is my feared road and I also don't dare to lean the DR over too much; also the new setup needs to be tested mm by mm on how much I can go.
Versys is very powerful and nice to ride 'with the correct suspension settings' !!!! Nik you read this ?? 5555555
Amazingly the DR now turns out to be a completely different bike, she falls into turns just on her own and is stable as a train on rails. Fitted tyres are Diablo Rosso II and I must say, these tyres will also be fitted soon onto the FJR.......for obvious reasons. Although it is still nearly impossible to get rid of 1 cm chicken strips as they are totally round and would enable you to nearly lay the bike down I tried to push as much as I dared.
Just coming down the hills, I was not far behind Nikster but then you have these long stretches of high speed straights and that's when it got really difficult to keep up. So I squeezed the shyt. out of the engine and in my quest to catch up revved the engine into 'kindom come'. Was wandering why I was doing slightly more than 14. and wondered why she doesn't do more, but then seing the revcounter being on the other end I heard a bang and then knew that this 'ooooopppps' (forgot 5th gear) will be a costly one. Instead of 7,500 (redline) engine was at 9,000 and because of the mods on it there was nothing to make her splutter at 8k.
Nik took it easy and waited for me to limp into town with blue smoke on my back, the sound of pistonrings between head and piston, well, hell, still: what a ride..........
Nik then headed back to Pai after some refreshments and me tried to find a pickup for getting DR and me back to CNX on Sunday. As the blown engine wasn't enough, the pickup blew and shredded one backtyre just near Mae Rim which made the trip even more exciting...5555555, as always, spare tyre next to no air and NO key to remove the tyre.....well finally we managed & delivered and tomorrow the engine's gonna get stripped.
Just hope it's just the piston and not a destroyed barrel or even worse cylinder head, let's wait and see......
As for fotos, well arriving in MHS I was a little pissed about my stupidity, dumped the bike at the Hotel and went downstairs into the coffeeshop for loads of Gin & Tonic, and sorry as a consequence of that I did not have a steady hand for more pictures both yesterday and today for different reasons.......
Needed to edit once more, I filled up the DR at the PTT in Pai, and it's around 130 kms into MHS from there, on my way from CNX to Pai I used an average of 5 lts/100 km, tank was full in Pai, it holds 17 lts, rode just 130 on it and "simsalabim" when I drained the tank at home there were a mere 3 liters left although I switched the petcoke OFF and there are no holes. So I can only guess that some Wave is running free of charge for a while.........tank cap was locked but then there were some strange 'running marks' under the point where the hose joins the petcoke.
Now I also know why the same strange thing happened 2 months ago on the XTZ at the same establishment......
Just watch your fuelgauge once you go there and park overnight.
Cheers, Franz