chiang rai - mae chan motard off-road

Jun 21, 2006
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we had been looking at a route from north of the kok river to the 1089 for a while, and now whilst in chiang rai with the sun shining seemd the perfect opportunity.
so after an early night we gathered up ourselves in the morning and set off.
the bikes

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unfortunately the riders werent quite as prepared as the bikes

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a hearty breakfast and various liquids/substances were needed to generate some energy for these riders

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right off we go as the distances in the days ride werent going to be that long we set off along the south side of the river in order to lengthen the day somewhat. the trail here is gorgeous following the river whilst not being a slimy slippery little bugger. wide enough for trucks aswell we were mindful of our speeds along here!

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after about 40kms there is a bridge that crosses over to the north side of the river, it is only narrow and the kids at either side try and charge you 40baht for the privilege, a handful of gas and they tend to scatter though.

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now we were to make our way back west towards chiang rai before detouring north heading for the village of huai khom. the ride was interrupted when a large burmese python mistook bignsmalls statuesque frame for something more edible

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the road is a great surface for 10 or so kilometres and the musketeers were in full flight

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after sniffing around for a while we found the trail, it begins as graded dirt heading towards the huai mae sai waterfall, once at the fall turnoff bear right and keep going, there are a few turnoffs but thanks to the SP riders thai language mastery he was able to find the way. we started to climb now through gorgeous teak forest, the dappled sunlight and great trail made for a wicked ride..

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the trail then comes down the other side of the range and passes some sort of royal residence or something, there were numerous pictures of her majesty queen sirikit and a helicopter landing pad.
the black clouds were looking to our east and i knew that this could mean big trouble as we were all on motard tires,

perhaps the black clouds were an omen as for once somehow we took a wrong turning and ended up going down some cow tracks, in the back of the mind you know its the wrong track but being stubborn and a bit simple we persevered with the trail becoming smaller and smaller and rain coming down more all the time..

before the directional mishap

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the photo stops became less and less as we really started to struggle with our street tires and wet clay, not a match made in heaven there some ugly scenes as grace and beauty on the bike was discarded in favour of flailing legs and limbs. whatever does the job.

myself and mark had reached a slight clearing and waited for our interpreter to catch up. however we were not greeted with the sound of a triumphant kawasaki powerplant blasting up the hill but screams and bellowing from a clearly slighty stressed and pissed off rider, seems the rain might have the last say after all. but after much rev-limiter abuse and sheer will power bignsmall made it up although what met us in the clearing was not a pretty sight.

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it was now my turn to eat humble pie, having watched my buddies conquer the slippery hill in front of us without too much trouble i set off, unfortunately the big 650 didnt quite hook up as wished and i spent the next 45mins wrestling my bike out of a bush, complaining to some hill tribe how they dont look after their trails and contempleting how i was going to get up the hill. thankfully mark had come back to regalvanise my spirit( he had now doen the hill 3 times compared to my half a hill).

thankfully a let up in the rain fall allowed my to get some traction and we were up. it was from here there was some slight confusion and now i cant really remember what happened. i have only just had a virus removed from my camera and have only just been able to download photos, maybe mark or justin can remember some details, i just remeber thinking that justin was a bastard for not leaving the gates open for me and mark and then meeting him at the end of the trail and him complaing to us about doing exactly the same thing!!

the end of the dirt now and we are on the 1089 genuinely relieved to be on the tarmac again when the rain came down i was thinking night on the trail!

with a fair amount of the day left we checked some more roads heading up to doi mae salong

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now faced with the option of 30kms od drudgery down the highway one, i challenged our resident gps genie to find us a way back to chiang rai where we dont have to dodge 18 wheelers and school kids. our man didnt disappoint and we had fun tearing up farmers fields and hareing alongside canals all the way back to chiang rai.

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awesome fun cant wait for the next run out there.
honda honky.
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
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I'll quickly add here that this is purely medicinal and by prescription. I wouldn't want a new reader to get a totally wrong impression of B&T. He is known for enough other vices already without adding another... :lol:

Great job on the ride guys!
 

Pikey

www.tbbtours.com
SilverhawkUSA wrote:

I'll quickly add here that this is purely medicinal and by prescription. I wouldn't want a new reader to get a totally wrong impression of B&T. He is known for enough other vices already without adding another... :lol:

Great job on the ride guys!
I thought this was definitely too hardcore for me - jumps, wheelies, big snakes and to cap it all off, intravenous drug use...... ;)

Yep, good report Lukester and looks like (yet again) you guys had a ripper of a time!

Cheers,

Pikey.
 
Oct 12, 2005
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Jeez....I plain forgot about this ride we did. Whiskey D__k Luke looks to have talents more than just hooking up with Dysfunctional women in all the towns we stop in, bang on report Luke, looks like the whiskey hasn't killed all the brain cells yet.

If I can find them I'll post some more pics of this trip.

We had some confusion once the stress of riding on the motard tires in the rainy hilly slick stuff made its prescence felt. On the hill we got seperated on Mark went first, then I. I got to the top and no mark so I continued off down the trail after mark so I thought. Well it turns out Mark had gone back down the hill a different way to console Luke. Seems the Big Red Pig was not cooperating up the hill and Luke was doing his best to coax it with violent kicks, streams of curse words, and blasphemes statements regarding the XR's pedigree. Turns out it took them close to 25 minute to get the XR's fire relit. I feel sorry for their respective girlfriends if the parallel between bikes and women is true.

Meanwhile I was attempting to chase Mark down the trail. Eeeeeeerm, remember Mark had backtracked to Luke unknownst to me. I hammered for a few KM's until I came to a gate. Mark was not there and the gate was closed. I waited for 10 minutes but nobody came and i heard nothing. Thinking the prat HoindaHonkey had taken the alternative way up the hill and gotten in front of me and the two of them were off caning down the road in front of me and closing the gastes behind them as a joke. Right selfish twats I think. So I get off the bike, open the gate, ride through and close it behind me. I keep going down the trail and there are forks in the road. F______g prats were'nt even waiting at the road forks I thought. How bloody selfish of them. So I was looking in the dirt for telltale tire tracks and guessing which way they went. Bottom line I went through three gates, four forks and about 10 KM without ever seeing them. I was furious at their selfish nature by the tiome I came out on the 1089

Now think about what they were thinking as they were both behind me and would come across the same gates that were closed and forks in the road with me not there. Oh yea thyey were thinking highly of their riding partner I'm sure. Somehow we all ended up at the same place on the 1089 which made for some serious piss taking b etween the three of us.

And just to confirm the methadone is by prescription
 

DavidFL

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Honda Honkey, great report & stuff. It's really good to see you writing up some of your trips again, plus the photos make em fantastic. I really appreciate them. Im also happy to see you still having a good time out there riding & not crashing.
 

Rhodie

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Mar 5, 2006
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HH
A great report with highly amusing insight.
Tho there appears to be some pictorial inconsistency:
1. Photobucket appears to be denying viewing of what might be crucial but incriminating evidence.
Image 17 or thereabouts.
2. Haven't we seen B&T's enormous python before?
Or does he just get it out whenever a camera is present?
3. What does SP mean in relation to B&T?
4. How come you managed a Yamaha to be on the ride as well - back up?

Happy Feet's surfing image of you guy's surfing is a classic.
Evidently great skill & coordination!
Kudos Dudes.
 

DavidFL

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Rhodie wrote: HH
A great report with highly amusing insight.
Tho there appears to be some pictorial inconsistency:
1. Photobucket appears to be denying viewing of what might be crucial but incriminating evidence.
Image 17 or thereabouts.
2. Haven't we seen B&T's enormous python before?
Or does he just get it whenever a camera is present?
3. What does SP mean in relation to B&T
4. How come you managed a Yamaha to be on the ride as well - back up?

Happy Feet's surfing image of you guy's surfing is a classic.
Evidently great skill & coordination!
Kudos Dudes.

Yes well
http://www.transmotosport.com/trip2007/ ... C01352.jpg

"Trip 2007", could suggest some fudging on pix & facts??
What's going on guys?
 
Jun 21, 2006
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rhodie.
1. dunno about that one, i checked it when i posted it, it is a picture of the trail so dont know why it didnt allow it.

2. nope that was the first time, unless you know of otherwise?

3. special person

4. must have slipped by me, same rider though!

not quite sure what fudging means in aussie, nothing but fact in what i wrote.
 
Jun 21, 2006
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another pic just to show we arent just loud obnoxious riders who scream through villages plundering their fuel and women.
here we are taking some poor soldier who at all of 11 in the morning was unable to walk and 10km from his base, our leader quickly asserted command and gave the poor fellow a lift.

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biker-local relations in harmony once again.