Daewoo's 07 Trip - Ride Report 1 - Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai

daewoo

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Dec 6, 2005
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Daewoo's 07 Trip - Ride Report 1 - Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai

After three days of working out my pool playing and beer drinking arm in BKK, I flew into Chiang Mai [CM] on Friday afternoon, checked into the Jonadda guesthouse, http://www.geocities.com/jonadda2002/JONADDA.html and headed straight to C&P Service (51 Kotchasarn Rd, beside POP Car Rent, just near Spotlight Agogo). The bike served me well for the whole trip, had new tyres, and seemed to be in a very good condition.

I then met up with SubTropicalJohn [TJ] to discuss plans for the evening and next day.

A large group was heading over to Chiang Rai the next day for the SuperXross Championships, but in 6 weeks the best plan they had come up with was, “to go to Chiang Rai the next day for the SuperXross Championship.”

Due to my low riding ability, and that I was riding a 250 dirt bike the whole way, I didn’t want to try and ride over with the ‘big boys’… B&T, who I had been in contact with previously about this weekend, had nicked of to Phuket for the weekend to keep is 72 YO ‘Pops” into trouble... Pikey didn’t want to ride, as he only has a dirt bike with new knobbies (and I suspect knew the next day would provide a supersized hangover), and TJ had committed to chauffeuring him in the Honda Jazz. IanBungy was riding over, running in his birthday present, so the best plan we could come up with was, to meet at the P&T near Pikey’s, if Ian made it by 11:15 when we were leaving, I would ride with him, otherwise I would just follow TJ & Pikey…

IanBungy of course went to a different P&T at the scheduled time, so set off after us, arriving at Chaing Rai and hour before us, reaching speeds that would get you arrested anywhere else…

The ride was uneventful, the XR not particularly kind on the @rse.

We met Pikey at the P&T on the 1001, cut across to the 118, and followed that all the way to Chiang Rai…

One thing I did notice was that, while not quite up to Thai standards of driving skill, TJ did manage to accomplish a few overtaking maneuverer that would see him admitted into a sanatorium in most other countries.

TJ, Pikey, and I then headed out to the Motocross Track which was basically carved into a working quarry. The parking was ‘over there somewhere’, just as well TJ opted for the 4wd pack for the Jazz.

We of course arrived just in time to miss Mark Rossi’s race, but all of the racing was fast and furious.

Pikey and I attempted to mountain goat method for securing a good vantage point, but after one race of using all you strength to stop ourselves sliding down the steep, loose dirt slope, with rocks hitting us in the back the whole time, we decided exit before the human avalanche, preceded by the sound of a flip flop strap snapping, took us to our horrible but inevitable deaths…

Unfortunately, my camera stayed in my bag the whole weekend, so I have no photos of the racing, we missed Mark’s Race, and his protégé, James was punted off and out of the race in the second corner of his…

Nevertheless, there was some good races and quality riding all night…

One of the highlights was when we went searching for some dinner… not being a big fan of sticky dried squid guts, we decided on a hamburger from a little van set up… next thing, there are tables and chairs coming from every direction, and table service, from the owner who spoke very good English…

It was a completely surreal experience (which is of course completely normal in Thailand)…

After the race it was back to the official ‘team hotel’, the Nimwit, or Nimrod or something, for much armchair commentary about the racing, the bikes, the money being spent by the different teams, and TJ’s particularly peculiar choice of clothing, or rather his particularly peculiar combination of particularly peculiar items of clothing…

Of course the night went downhill from there and ended with a few of the more hardy GT-Riders locked in a closed GoGo Bar so that we could keep drinking…

This was my first opportunity to put a face to most of the names on the board where I have been a member since Dec 05, and I felt like I really was part of the community, even tho I really and nothing but a tourist… I had a great night with all you guys and thank you for your friendship that night and all the rest of the time that you put up with my posts…

Cheers,
Daewoo