2022 Northern Thailand Ride Part 2
DAY 3
Today I make my way down to Nan, the capital of great riding roads in Thailand. Along the way I'll revisit the famous "wall of road" of Ban Phaya Phipak and experience the sublime 1148 multiple times before reaching Nan.
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Sunrise on the Mekong river |
After setting off at 8am I went straight to a workshop to get my tyre pressures checked. Turned out the rear was 45psi and front was 38psi cold. No doubt POP rental increased the tyre pressures to preserve tyre life, but that probably made the bike feel more nervous and tippy than it should be. I reduced the pressures to 34psi front and 30psi rear to err on the safe side.
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Morning ride along the river |
The morning started with a nice stretch of 1155 that runs alongside the Mekong river with great views of Laos. The road then turned inland into the mountains. Road condition was generally alright and about 5-10km before the turnoff to 4018 it was superb with lots of elevation changes and tight bends to play with. The tarmac was actually dark grey in colour instead of the usual dusty looking light grey tarmac that I've had since the start of my ride. It was so good that I had to ride it again after coming down from 4018.
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A wall of road |
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The phenomenal 1148 |
DAY 4
There's really only one objective for today which is to experience the legendary 1081. Repeatedly. Boy did it prove itself to be the very best road in Thailand.
I started the day around 8am and rode out of Nan via 1169. Already the road was incredible and serves as an excellent preview of what's to come next. One doesn't spend much time upright that's for sure. Seems like this area is popular for road trippers as there's numerous cafes & lookout points being setup to lure the typical tourists.
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1169, a fantastic road in its own right |
A short while later I arrived at the start of today's objective, the 1081. Immediately the fun begins with multitude of excellent curves being thrown at me relentlessly, all with beautifully smooth road surface that entice me to ride as fast as I dare. As with 1148 the road consists of medium radius corners with constant gentle elevation changes, rolling past hills after hills. It's quite hard to express in writing just how good this piece of road is, one really has to go and experience it for him/herself. The entire stretch of 1081 is 40km long and it takes awhile to finish, but man this is such an electrifying ride that sampling it only once is simply not an option. I duly turned around near the end and rode all the way back to the start, and then U-turned to savour the road all over again. Suffice to say that 1081 is possibly the very best riding road in Thailand.
Throughout the ride I stayed on gear 2 & 3 to fully utilise the bike's powerband, the CB650R's 94hp is more than enough and its linear power delivery typical of an inline 4 makes it such a thrill to ride fast. The old saying that it's better to ride a slow bike fast rather than the other way is absolutely true.
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'Curve number 3', because it literally looks like the number '3' |
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The magnificent 1081 |
The subsequent downhill section of 1256 was not in the best condition with areas of loose stones and gravels particularly at the braking zones. Adding to that it rained properly for awhile before subsiding into a drizzle. I was riding slowly and focused on keeping the bike upright as these OEM tyres are pretty hopeless in the wet. The road surface looks glazed over too, and with most of Thailand's roads the top surface of the tarmac is finished with fine stone chips not offering a great deal of grip. Thankfully the rain only affected a particular section of the road and the rest including all of 1081 remained dry for the whole day.
Down at the plains temperature rose a little so I had a nice cup of ice coffee by the riverside to cool myself.
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Ice coffee at Kham Pet noodle shop. |
Completing the loop I reached the start point of 1081 yet again. Obviously there's no reason not to do it once more so I rode it the 4th time today until the shrine at midway point. It's really such a fantastic road that one can never get tired of riding it, no matter how many times.
Tonight at Nan there was a huge and lively night market that occupies the entire road in the middle of the city. There's live music at every corner, with magnificent old temples standing tall just behind the market, the city truly came alive. It seemed like the whole town was there too, such was the crowd. During my previous ride here I came in the middle of the week hence did not see this side of Nan, however this time the city has utterly charmed me. When I come here again I'll spend some time to explore the city properly.
DAY 5
Today I leave the playground of Nan and head back to Chiang Mai via a series of B roads. Based off memory I was expecting to just have some fun on route 120 however the roads have other plans for me.
Riding back into the city I hit rush hour traffic which was pretty bad with standstill at various places. CB650R being a fantastic city bike (literally what 'CB' stands for) filtered and weaved through traffic with ease thanks to its superb steering lock, manoeuvrability and low speed composure. Returning the bike at 5:10pm I recorded down the total mileage and fuel consumption which was 1494km and 78.3L or fuel in total. Out of 1494km probably 1400 of those were curves, such is northern Thailand, truly a rider's paradise.
Overall this is one of the best riding trips that I've had. As I gain more riding experience every ride here is better than the last. As of writing (August 2023) I'm in midst of planning another ride to Mae Hong Son and Nan, but this time with my friends who have not ridden here before. One thing for sure they'll all be blown away.
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Top roads:
1. 1081- heaven on earth, simply sublime
2. 1148- as good as the 1081
3. 120- 2 lane high speed hillclimb
4. 118- Thailand's version of Karak highway
5. 1169, 1091 & 1251- phenomenal roads in their own right
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