Wheel Balancing in Chiang Mai.

Sep 19, 2006
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www.chiangmai-xcentre.com
I have Just had My Wheels Balanced again after Yamaha Cocked them up the First time!!! So forget them here is the Info on the ONLY Proficient Service available in CM.
Take the Hangdong Road down past the Airport. Go Past the Lotus and Opposite the Honda Car Dealer do a U-Turn and the COCKPIT Shop is right there. Can't Miss it as it is the Only CockPit on that Road.
They have Just Imported from Germany all the Required Fittings for Their Balancing Machine to Fit Motorcycles Wheels!!! A Prompt Efficient Service. The Owner is "Chin". He speaks perfect English and tells me all His Friends are Like Myself and Got feed Up with not being able to get there Wheels Done anywhere in Chiang Mai so He took the Required action to do them Himself!!! ( He has Motorcycles as well! ) Just Bring Your Wheels and Tyres in and they will do them on the Spot. Telephone Numbers are:
053-805252-4
 

DavidFL

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Arh yes worth a try I thought as the AT's got a few vibrations coming through from the front of late.
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A mere total of 45 grams added! Ouch.

And the reason for doing it - well I thought it would be a good experiment to see if I noticed the difference on the road Cnx - Loei - Vte starting tomorrow. Apart from the clackity-clack concrete 4-lane, a lot of the road is real smooth & you should notice any ripples / vibrations (& at 237,000 kms the ATs got a few.) So why not see if I felt a difference. And to be honest with 45 grams added I think I noticed a difference coming out of the Cockpit driveway! :lol: :lol: Should be a hell of a lot smoother run tomorrow.

So if you've an older bike or a bike with a few kms up - check it out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

And the place
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GPS Waypoint: N18 45.212 E98 57.967 for the directionally challenged. :)
 
Last edited:
Oct 20, 2003
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Thanks for the tip, didn't know they did bike wheels there too!

I have been using that shop for years for car tyres, brakes and oil changes. Very fast service and good work. They actually know what they are doing there!
 
Apr 23, 2007
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Had good service from that Cockpit shop for the car (boss impressed me, I'll tell you), but not gone there for bike stuff. The other day I noticed that Nat at the Piston shop had what looked like a computerised wheel balancer though, so that may also be a good option now.
 
Feb 5, 2007
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I have heard good and bad about Dyna Beads but am going to give it a try on my new spoked wheels simply for cosmetic reasons over the stick on weights.

If it works as well as it should, I will use it on all my spoked rims and even give it a go on the Healey back in Canada.
I bought 10 lbs of the stuff so it better work!
 
Jul 3, 2014
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I rode from mainland (northeastern) China - Laos - northern Thailand and return.

Departed China 2nd Jan '15 and arrived CR 5th Jan.
Departed Thailand 1st March arrived back home in China (6am) 4th March.

I rode non-stop the first ~48-50hrs (both directions) as I managed to get onto the G60 expressway near Jiande city (300km / 5hrs away from my home) and intended to attempt to stay on the G60, until I was required to get off by the traffic Police - which didn't happen fortunately on the ride down. Naturally I had to stop for petrol as well as a couple of power naps in the early hours after 18 hours and 42 hours riding. I was tired and knew it, but no hotels to get a room in on the expressway (besides I was not meant to be riding on it). Serious case of monkey butt. I bought a sheepskin to sort that out for the trip back before departing Thailand - worked a treat.

Completed 3900km in the first 48-52 hours.
22,500km total distance travelled in the whole trip.
Bike '14 G650GS.

Used GarminXT on my ol' WinMo 6.5 HTC HD2 phone for the outward journey and OsMand+ on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (Android) for the GPS on the way back. No issues with map offsets on the OsMand+ in China on the return leg. I did carry a map book, and my collection of GT-Rider maps for Thailand.

I bought 2 sets of Metzler Karoo 3's from Cockpit CM which were more suited to the on and off road trails including some technical single track. Both Chin and his wife (Cockpit owners) were fantastic and the prices were the best I could get, and I did shop round for prices... CR Big Bike Rentals, Pirelli CR, BNS Burning CM, & Barcelona BMW Motorrad. Cockpit were the best.

I even went so far as buying extra Karoo 3's (2 additional rears and 1 front) which I bought back to China, since the prices were better than China pricing.

The spare tyres were shipped from Cockpit via the bus to CR which I collected from the ol' CR bus dept.

To get the tyres to my home in China, the tyres were strapped onto a mates CRF250 (his offer) and we rode together from CR - Chiang Kong border (bridge) crossing, rode on up through Laos and into China to Xishuangbanna in Yunan where we stayed the night in a hotel. Tyres were dropped off to a freight forwarder and shipped to my home near Ningbo the next morning.

My friend turned round on his CRF250 and rode back with a small group of Chinese riders heading to Thailand that had arrnaged to meet at the hotel the previous night.

I then started the non-stop ride back to Ningbo.

Managed to stay on the G60 expressway until the last 350km (about 2 and a half hours from home according to my GPS). Very heavy traffic in two locations after passing through the Zhejiang border toll station - where one cop made a serious effort to chase me on foot. At the second of the multi-lane nose to tail stationery traffic, I was caught by the Police (who were pleasant enough) and eventually escorted off. The remaining 350-380km became a greater distance and took me 8 hours to complete. Anyway, really liking the Karoo 3's and recommend both Cockpit (who also offer basic servicing on MC's e.g. oil/filter change) as well as Barcelona BMW Motorrad.

Luv'd the riding in northern Thailand once again (rode for 2 months Jan + Feb '14 on a CB500X - 15000km), and am very envious of how great it is there compared in Thailand (despite what some expats say) to the situation for motorcycles/motorcyclists and quality of life in general in mainland China. Sorry but IMO Thailand outranks China by a very wide margin on the quality of life index.

Cockpit for example offer a great friendly service and actually balance motorcycle tyres. Very few tyre shops offer that option in China, certainly never found a car tyre shop that does, besides few want/willing to handle motorcycles tyres - period. Actually I've had many instances where motorcycle tyres have been way over inflated in China. Cockpit were fairly spot on.
 
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DavidFL

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A plug for Cockpit

DSC_1743.jpg


& their tyre & wheel balancing service.

And for anyone who is after a 2nd hand set of Michelin Pilot tyres 50% used for a Versys I have a set at Cockpit - contact me for more details.