More motorcycling advice and pics

I had previously mentioned that motorcycling around backpacking places like South East Asia is the way to go. It's cheap, you have the entire country at your fingertips, and if you have a lot of time on your hand and don't have a restricted schedule, there really isn't any particular reason to be in a hurry and just enjoy all the sights at whatever pace you deem appropriate.

This is all very easy to accomplish by either renting a bike (easier but more expensive as they charge a lot per day for anything worth renting) or buying a bike and then selling it on at the end of your trip (can be complicated because the ownership book can only be transferred in the same country you acquired it in.)

This is the tale of a trip where I rented a bike, a pretty good one too, and took it across the north of Thailand.

One thing that i think a lot of people neglect is proper road gear. You really should be wearing at least boots and a leather jacket, even if it is hot. Gloves are also highly recommended because you WILL get sunburn on your constantly exposed digits. This happened to me on my first trip and I have never forgotten how painful and annoying it was. My hands looked like lobster claws.

Also, you should probably try to have something with a reasonable amount of power. I'm not saying you need 600 CC's or anything but it certainly does help.

I was on a trip with someone that had a mere 200 CC's once and he couldn't keep up, it was annoying always needing to wait for the dude and he was really self-conscious about it as well. It simply isn't enough power. So make sure that you and your crew have around the same amount of power between your legs otherwise you are gonna have a bad time.

Another thing that I don't think many people consider, and you should, is that touring bikes do not do so well off road, neither do choppers - and if you are touring around back roads and it starts to piss down, you are going to be dealing with things like this. I am a relatively experienced rider and I still dropped my bike twice. Choppers are even worse in these predicaments, especially if they have been modified with low-profile tires (a mistake I made once, the trip was miserable.)

They say that the ability to make good choices is called wisdom, and that wisdom comes from making bad choices. You only make these critical mistakes once before you remember forever though.

On our trip and many others like it, we have been privy to sights that tourists are almost certainly never going to see because their transport is busy rushing them to the pre-determined places. When you take it slow and don't really have a destination in mind, you encounter some of the craziest stuff and probably make better memories that the people who just head straight to their resort to enjoy the carefully manicured view (I'm not knocking you if this is what you do, I understand that most people have time restraints.)

These last two things probably aren't considered special enough to be on any sort of tourist map, bu they were pretty special to me and my pal. Just down the road was a place to stay in the hills with a pretty nice bar attached for just 300 THB per night too! (around 8 USD)

If you ever have the chance to go touring on a bike, whether it is rented or you own it, I sincerely hope you take advantage of it. It's an experience that you wont soon forget, guaranteed!