How Do You Know How To Service Your Bike?

Bike Maintenance

How do you guys perform the scheduled maintenance or repairs?

Do you just ask the dealership to handle it for you or do you do all the job by yourself?

To be frank I have never done any serious job on my bike.

But that's gonna change. When I get my next bike I am going to buy a service manual like the one appears in the photo.

In that way I can rely on myself to fix the problems that I might encounter en route Long Way Round.

I of course have to practice before embarking on the trip. I have a few years to do that, so i am not too worried about that. :-)

Cheers Riders.

To Make The Pain Go Away

Dreaming About My Next Bike

So, you know I have sold my bike. And that is a sad thing. To help ease the pain, I am actively dreaming about my next bike.

My next bike is going to bring me around Japan, Korea and perhaps, even the world! But I am going to take things one step at a time. I need / want a bike to go around Japan.

Now, do I need a very fast and loud bike? No, I dont.
But I do want a bike that can have decent luggage space, easy on the maintenance,
reliable and relatively stable on the highway and tarmac. I certainly dont mind some offroad capabilities.

You see, buying a bike is easy yet at the same time very difficult, when the purchase takes place in Japan. It is because most bikes are priced according to the market value, taking no tax effect into the purchase decision.

I like all the following bikes. And most of them are priced similarly. The question is which to buy, what trade off to make. Unlike buying a bike in Malaysia whereby the tax scheme makes the decision a lot easier, choosing a bike in Japan is always, should I say, hard.

Well anyway, let's browse the bikes.

Cheers Riders.

I Sold My KTN GP125

I LOST HER

OK, so it wasn't anything this emotional but it was certainly still quite something to manage anyway.

On Jan 2, 2016, the second day into the new year of 2016, I sold my KTN GP125 to a friend.
It was only half more year till I return to Japan and I have to let her go sooner or later anyway,
but as a biker will know, the feeling of having no bike nearby is always unbearable.

It will be at least six more months before I can get my hands on my new bike (whether it is used or new is an entirely different story though). For now I can only stare at my biking gears and hope for someone to lend me his or her bike....

What would be my next bike?

Really, I am so torn. Let me put it in another post.

Cheers Riders.

Riding From Chiangmai To Golden Triangle

And so I did it! I rode about 1000 kilometres in three days with a friend around Chiangmai. We had one bag pack for each of us, rode about 300km or so in a day, from morning till night.

That was a great journey. We got to see the Mekong River, the Golden Triangle, the tribes and so on.

All and all, it kind of like showed me how at the least a long way tour was going to be.
I want to do more longer trips!

Below is my video documentary of our trip. Hope you will enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/_l4QwArnMTM

Cheers Riders.