bobbybob Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 I just keep waiting for the crash.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsonBNntgE OK--since its winter and I'm bored, here's one more for the snow-bound. I like it--stunting with a sense of humor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9cLXnNe7Z0 Link to comment
smiller Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Ever been there? That is nothing for Bangkok... Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Guy is a good rider. He was looking way ahead to pick his lines... Link to comment
MotorinLA Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Hmm… without the shaky camera the appearance of speed would have been greatly reduced. Overall that was pretty tame. I think my daily commute on the 405 would look more exciting than that. The second guy definitely has got some skillz… Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Hmm… without the shaky camera the appearance of speed would have been greatly reduced. Overall that was pretty tame. I think my daily commute on the 405 would look more exciting than that. For sure. There was hardly any traffic at all. Link to comment
Fightingpiper Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Hmm… without the shaky camera the appearance of speed would have been greatly reduced. Overall that was pretty tame. I think my daily commute on the 405 would look more exciting than that. I still wouldn't want to be the passenger holding the camera...... Link to comment
TedG Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 The second guy definitely has got some skillz… Yep, mad skillz..bet his whip has disappearing doors too. Link to comment
lawnchairboy Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 complete with Baht buses... Link to comment
leikam Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 I just keep waiting for the crash.... That makes it sound like there were going to be some close calls. stunting with a sense of humor Nice riding. Do what you can with what you've got is the name of the game and he's got snow banks so why not? Link to comment
Paul De Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 The real excitement is not on the hi-ways surrounding Bangkok, it is on the city streets. But Bangkok has nothing like what I witnessed on the city streets of Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam where scooters and motorcycles out number cars and trucks at something like 20 to 1 and congested beyond anything I have witnessed anywhere else in the world. The rules of the road say ignore traffic lights and the cross traffic seems to just interweave. Fewer crashes than you might expect too. The most amazing thing was watching a guy on a scooter with his handle bar end just an inch or two from my cab's window and both cabby and scooter rider cruised along at 35 mph without any concern for what the other vehicle might do. Link to comment
Francis Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Singapore has them bunched up at the stop lights and riding like a swarm of mad men when the light changes. Link to comment
samuidave Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Well, seeing as I actually live half the year in Thailand with my wife, and I witness the scooter riders first-hand ALL the time.... The first video is absolutely nothing of alarm to anyone here. The second video is just freaky skills! Essentially, there are no rules to the roadway in Thailand unless you are involved in an accident. There are roadblocks, however, but that are merely cash grabs for the police, checking for helmets and licenses. Seems odd however, when one can find police every day riding around without said helmets themselves. All that said, the Thai riders, on 125 Honda scooters, are great traffic riders for the environment where they live. Put them onto a western roadway and I suspect they would be killed rather abruptly unless they learned the rules of the road. Three or four riders on a single bike is routine - no helmets, often no license, too frequently underage, riding against the flow of traffic, taxi-ing down the shoulder, merging without looking or caring, blowing stop signs, jumping traffic lights, rarely signaling, splitting lanes within inches (or less as my truck can testify), and crossing the lines on both sides of the roadway is just the way most everyone drives --car, lorry, truck or motorcycle. But the accidents do not occur quite as frequently as our western ways would have us believe. It is an 'understood' madness among the Thais; simply madness from our western perspective. In the end, it is just part of the culture. Everyone rides a scooter, and few seem to know anything about it other than it is a fancy bicycle which you don't have to pedal. You might note, the operator of the bike was a 'farang', meaning foreigner, and out flexing his muscle and ego on a 250cc. On one hand I have a problem with the farangs doing it because they should know better; on the other hand, 'when in Rome..." (I simply do not partake.) For the record, Northern Thailand has some amazing mountain roadways that wind on for hundreds of miles - often littered with broken pavement, graveled shoulders, drivers in your lane relentlessly, rocks and fallen debris from farm trucks, crops scattered along the shoulder from the local farmers working the hills, people parked in the middle of blind corners, and miles and miles of double radius and decreasing radius turns, rising and falling, rising and falling again over the scenic vistas. Absolutely beautiful riding on a small bike, and little in Canada or America can get your skills sharped for the 'unexpected' roadway quite the same way. Ahh, amazing Thailand! A family of six, Chiang Mai, northern Thailand: Link to comment
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