This year's Vintage Bike Meeting in Kanchanaburi saw its 10th edition, and boy, what a party it was! If you do things, do them right, and OVER THE TOP I might add. Not for the bikes, which were abundant and beautiful. Somebody must have had the brilliant idea of having 3 stages with live bands playing. The main on and then 2 smaller ones near the camping area. "Smaller" doesn't equal "quieter" though. In fact, they were only about 20 meters apart from each other and seemed to compete for people's attention by playing their (to my ears) very annoying music at full blast. Maybe it's just me getting old and grumpy....should post more on Thaivisa, I reckon....
Anyways, rant over and back to the important stuff. BIKES! Yes, and lots of them. More than the 3 previous years I think. BMWs are always the primadonnas of the show. I think I've never seen so many R69S in one place before. Ducati was also present with some very nice vintage racers. BSA, Triumph and Norton had their fair share of attention. Not as many Harleys as I'd have expected. Japanese bikes always present, of course. Sadly, not even 1 Moto Guzzi, so I just had to buy that very lonely Guzzi t-shirt and REPRESENT!
I spent several hours drooling over these bikes and taking pictures. Hope you like them as much as I did.
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| That's a Harley I'd ride... |
I have a soft spot for small displacement bikes. The Suzuki A100 is one of my favourites.
I'm not sure if it relates to this particular model, but a friend told me these old Kawa 2 stroke sport bikes go for up to 50.000Baht. Wow. This certainly is an immaculate specimen.
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| I like this bike. It's got balls! |
Love the details on this "Seitenwagen"
Those who followed my rantings for some time, know that the R69S right on top of the list of my dream bikes. My brother's got one and he lets me ride it whenever I go back on holiday in Italy. A truly stunning bike. It isn't called the 'King of the Road' for nothing, you know. Here in Thailand they go for anything between 1.2 and 1.8 million Baht. I'll keep on dreaming for now....
There was a group of harcore Honda fans with their impeccable restored bikes. Nice!
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| Nice touch! |
Modern vintage retro classic Royal Enfield is back in Thailand.
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| BSA Scrambler, but with Yamaha SR heart |
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| A stunning Norton racer. |
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| Love the details of the cooling fins. |
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| Triumph/Norton hybrid par excellence |
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| That drum.... |
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| BMW heaven |
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| That ass.... |
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| I guess this hasn't run in a while. |
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| details... |
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| How about this Benelli Sei?! |
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| The most famous L-twin in the world |
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| Ducati Elite Mototrans with the famous jelly bean tank, for the perfect aerodynamic racing position |
Now I have to say something about the new Royal Enfield. People like to compare the Continental GT with the Yamaha SR. This time I had a closer look and in my opinion they are definitely not on the same level when it comes to the finish of the parts. To me, they looked very crude and of low quality on the GT compared to what I'm used to see on the SR. It seems much bigger than the SR. Don't get me wrong, I do like it, from a distance, but I think RE still needs to work a bit to refine this bike.
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| That suicide shifter! LOL |
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| Those SR engines are everywhere it seems... |
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| No idea what this is. There was a big "M" on the tank. Any ideas? |
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| Big Black Mama! |
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| Hotrod elongated Vespa |
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| I do wonder how these bikes must handle... |
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| The original Royal Enfield |
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| XXXL Viking seat |
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| A rare XT in Thailand, signed by Dell-Sara, Thruxton and Kid's Garage (Japan) |
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| Nice paint job and exhaust |
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| this is a 'no comment' comment |
I got to meet "Mee" from Meeclassic, one of the best bike builder in Thailand and very nice guy, too.
On the way back to Chachoengsao, I decided to take another route. This time I rode up North along the lake. Road 4041 is really nice and curvy and almost deserted. 3306 also perfect for speeding at 140km/h in all safety...large good roads with very little traffic. Passed through Suphanburi and passed Ayutthaya to avoid going through Bangkok. All went well until I reached Minburi, where I got lost in endless circles, deeper and deeper in the rice field paddies. All that happened, despite having a GPS map on my phone. I know people say the best way to ride is to get lost, but when you're tired and already rode almost 700 km in 2 days, you don't bloody want to start exploring! You want to get home and have a bloody shower!
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| Sorry, not vintage, but very dependable. |
See you next year!
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