{"id":23831,"date":"2023-12-11T00:01:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T08:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=23831"},"modified":"2023-12-09T13:05:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T21:05:59","slug":"bangkok-part-6-a-short-primer-on-bangkok-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/12\/11\/bangkok-part-6-a-short-primer-on-bangkok-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangkok Part 6: Bangkok bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

So what\u2019s today’s blog all about?\u00a0 \u00a0I promised I would tell you a bit about the different kinds of motorcycles and motor scooters in Bangkok, and this is that story.<\/p>\n

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Scooters, Cubs, motorcycles…they are everywhere. Every traffic light is the start of a drag race to the next light by all the bikes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bikes dominate Bangkok\u2019s urban landscape.\u00a0 I know that sounds like a catchy thing to say (snappy writing, perhaps), but it wasn\u2019t intended to be literary lavishness.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the way it is.\u00a0 Two-wheeled transportation is everywhere.\u00a0 In traffic, the bikes filter by on the left and on the right.\u00a0 In front of any business or in any parking area, there are hundreds of bikes.\u00a0 And at every stop light, dozens of bikes filter to the head of the line.\u00a0 The excitement builds as the countdown stop light nears green (they tell you how many seconds until the light changes over here), and in the last few seconds before the red goes away, a zillion motorcycle engines start revving.\u00a0 The word “glorious” seems appropriate.<\/p>\n

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Filter to the front of the line, start revving as the lights nears turning green. The pink autos are taxis (taxis are either pink or metallic green in Bangkok).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are few big bikes in Bangkok.\u00a0 Oh, you\u2019ll see one now and then, but they are a rarity.\u00a0 Over here anything over 200cc or 250cc is just wasted displacement.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to Bangkok several times and of the tens of thousands of motorcycles I\u2019ve seen (and those are not exaggerated figures), there were exactly two big bikes.\u00a0 One was a Harley Sportster and the other was a Triumph Bonneville.\u00a0 There\u2019s just no need for more displacement.<\/p>\n

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A lone Triumph Bonneville, tucked away in a Bangkok parking spot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Ninja.\u00a0\u00a0 Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha are popular over here.\u00a0 Surprisingly, I didn\u2019t see too many Suzuki motorcycles.\u00a0 We did see more than a few Suzuki automobiles, though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One moto thing that\u2019s noticeable right away are the orange vests.\u00a0\u00a0 When you see a rider with an orange vest, that means they are using their bike as a taxi.\u00a0 They give short rides (the folks here tell me typically under 2 kilometers).\u00a0 The riders have to wear the government-sanctioned orange vests and a helmet; passengers don\u2019t wear any safety gear.\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of the female passengers wear skirts and ride side-saddle (I’ll show more of that in the next blog).\u00a0 I\u2019d say roughly 10 percent of all the bikes are being used as taxis.\u00a0 Most of the drivers are men, but you do see women riders occasionally.<\/p>\n

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Thai taxi men, and one woman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A mototaxi, a rider, and a food delivery bike.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surprisingly, it\u2019s rare to see more than two people on a bike.\u00a0\u00a0 You do see it, but not like I have seen in China or Colombia (I once grabbed a photo in Colombia of a motorcycle carrying six people).<\/p>\n

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A Thai Freightliner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bikes are working vehicles over here.\u00a0\u00a0 I mentioned the taxi thing; it\u2019s also very common to see bikes weighed down with all kinds of freight.<\/p>\n

There are scooters (you know, the things that are styled like Vespas), step-through motorcycles (like the old Honda Cub), small sport bikes (small displacement CBR or Ninja type bikes), plain old motorcycles, and (surprisingly) a lot of Grom-styled bikes.<\/p>\n

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Another rare sighting…a Vespa in Bangkok. Most of the scooters are of Chinese origin. But this Vespa?\u00a0 If you\u2019re thinking it\u2019s from Italy, you\u2019d probably be wrong.\u00a0 Zongshen (in China) produces these for Vespa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Here\u2019s a guy on one that looks a little like a Ducati.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure these are made in China, as Gresh and I also saw them for sale on our ride across China.\u00a0 If you were wondering, the clutches don’t rattle on these.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was last in Bangkok 6 or 7 years ago, I saw a few Kawasaki motorcycles that looked a little like the Honda Grom.\u00a0\u00a0 Today, the Grom style is very popular in Thailand, with motorcycles of this style from several manufacturers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll close this blog with a three photos of a bike I spotted yesterday that I thought was pretty cool.\u00a0 It\u2019s a CG-clone-based motorcycle, and its owner has a sense of humor.<\/p>\n

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A little Beemer. Well, a Beemer wannabe. Unlike modern Beemers, this one has a rational seat height.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I wonder if the Cafe Racer decals are factory original, or if the owner added them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It looks good. I like it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are enjoying our last full day in Bangkok.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re up early tomorrow for the flight back to California.\u00a0 It\u2019s been grand.\u00a0 We\u2019re staying in the top floor of a 5-star hotel in downtown Bangkok (the Pullman Grand Sukhumvit) and we\u2019re living in the lap of luxury.\u00a0 The room is awesome, there\u2019s a pool and a gym, there\u2019s a free tuk tuk ride wherever we want to go, there\u2019s free booze and breakfasts and dinners, and it\u2019s costing less than what a Holiday Inn might cost in the United States.\u00a0 \u00a0We\u2019re going for a dinner cruise up the Chao Phraya River tonight with our good friends Kevin and Nan, and we\u2019re going to hit another one of the temples later today.\u00a0 \u00a0We took a grand long boat ride on the Chao Phraya yesterday and it was awesome.<\/p>\n

There’s one more in this series of Bangkok blogs, and it will feature a set of photos showing Thai women passengers on moto taxis.\u00a0 Stay tuned.\u00a0 I think you’ll like it.<\/p>\n

Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

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