I got back early Monday morning from a great holiday mostly in northern Thailand, starting from Chiang Mai. Renting a motorcycle and going for some kind of tour up there is really very enjoyable and not very expensive if you live in Taiwan, so I plan to post a couple of things that may be of interest.
Firstly, what else but bikes themselves! I rented a Honda CB400 Super Four, and my brother rented a Honda Baja 250 dirt bike (which he insisted on pronouncing ‘badger’ throughout). As with the majority of rental bikes above 150cc, neither of these machines had license plates - perhaps we can generously assume that they were ‘on the way’. Certainly none of the numerous police checkpoints we passed on the way seemed bothered - they just waved us on and sometimes gave us thumbs-up.
I’ll put pics of these bikes and maybe some evaluation on my site in due course, but I’ll make a few brief comments now. The Super Four was great fun to ride - it had a reasonable amount of torque to 6000 rpm, then a bit of a flat spot, then from about 7500 to 13,000 a nice bit of power, pressing you firmly back in the saddle. It had obviously been dropped before - the crash bars were worn down a bit and the handlebars were a little bent although not enough to warrant fixing straight away. Generally, however, the bike was in reasonable condition - the back brake was poor but the front (dual discs) was very sensitive and firm. The back tyre was not massive but did the job. I had to get used to the power of the bike though - a few minutes after I rented it I rolled on the throttle coming out of a corner and slid the back end out nicely, surprising me and no doubt the following cars.
I paid 550 baht (roughly the same in NT dollars) per day, including the rental shop’s own ‘insurance’ which was well worth getting as it included damage and theft waivers and also included recovery in the case of breakdown, which I imagine they’d sting you pretty severely for if you hadn’t taken out the insurance. I have no reason to suppose that they’d renege on the policy - they dealt with me in a very friendly and fair way throughout, and my brother had rented from them before. I’ll post an address and directions for them on my site in due course; PM me if you can’t wait.
There are a number of shops offering these nice new-ish sporty-ish 400cc road bikes such as Suzukis and Hondas. I was happy with the Super Four over five days holiday, but on the road I saw a bike that I would REALLY like to have; a Honda 400cc V-twin Bros. OK, the name reminds me of a short-lived 80s pop band with an unfortunate influence on the jeans of a generation, but this bike would be ideal for any Asian touring, especially in Taiwan. Although I didn’t get to ride it, I think that the V-twin engine would offer a smooth and wide range of power delivery with perhaps a little less top end than the Super Four, but probably with the plus of a less pronounced flat spot. Again, a photo on my site when I get round to it.
My brother’s Honda Baja was pretty much a pure dirt bike. While it had indicators, it didn’t have mirrors or a battery and only had a kickstart. My brother was pretty good at starting the thing but when we swapped bikes for a day I found it a pig and had to bumpstart it one time. It was also tall - I normally rested one hand on my brother’s shoulder in order to swing my leg high enough to get over the saddle. My brother liked it and both he and I tried it out on some dirt, on which it excelled. I wasn’t particularly brave but managed to get it sliding a bit as I came out of some corners. People say, by the way, that practising sliding about on a dirt bike is great for your road bike skills. It’s something I want to try again sometime.
The mechanic who rented that bike to my brother told him that he’d need to keep the oil topped up. He must have known that the engine was getting on a bit and burning a bit of oil. Although he kept the oil topped up, my brother did not treat that bike particularly gently and it was smoking a whole lot more when he returned it five days later.
Lots of rental dirt bikes are more dual-purpose machines, many having electric starts and some having lower saddles. They’re either 250s or 225s. There are some liquid-cooled Yamahas which look nice but are generally a bit older than the others, and as my brother pointed out the cooling system is just one more thing that can go wrong. The dirt bikes could be a little cheaper than the 400s, but not significantly; I’d say make your decision on what you want to use the bike for and which style you feel comfortable with. (Do not, however, plan to do anything more than the briefest amount of dirt riding on a pure road bike with pure road tyres - it will be slow, frustrating and you’ll probably still drop it at least once. I swapped bikes with my brother on the little bit of dirt road we travelled together, and even he was struggling with the Super Four on the dirt.) My brother got in a good day’s dirt riding on a day when I retrieved my camera from the mountain where I had inadvertently left it the night before and took the opportunity to do some more sightseeing on the paved roads up there.
There was one shop in town offering big bikes which already had their reg. plates. It’s run by an English guy; my brother has talked to him before and says that he doesn’t go out of his way to persuade you to rent his bikes - it’s more of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. I don’t know whether his bikes are better maintained than other shops’, but they are a bit more expensive. He has a couple of dirt bikes, a big Harley and a Honda CBR1000 (the latter two being of little practical value for that kind of touring IMO). He also had a Japanese 400cc sporty road bike - didn’t see which one as we were peering through his gate when his place was closed on a Sunday. That’s one thing - most of the rental shops are open every day from about 9-6.
If you do want to rent a bike anywhere, I would say that the #1 thing to check is brakes; fluid levels, sponginess etc. #2 is tyres. #3 could be handlebars and forks - slightly bent bars is no great problem but bent forks is.
Post or PM any questions you want. Next installment - on the places we went - coming up shortly.