My third Ride

My third ride was a 2005 Honda XR 250. I had never ridden a true dirt bike before, and while the engine could use a bit more power for getting me up hills, it was so much easier riding through the dirt than on my KLR 650. The thing only weighs 270 lbs, and this made changing direction and avoiding ruts and gullies, a cinch. The bike was also so easy to change direction that I pushed it really hard into corners on the paved sections. This I think contributed to my first issue of the trip!!

It happened at about 5:00pm today, 30 km south of Khum Yuam. I at first just felt the rear end getting a bit squirly as I transitioned from corner to corner, and then in a straight bit looked down and saw the tire compressed a bit against the road, and then "poof"... it went flat, and I pulled over to the side of the road. I checked the tire for any signs of a puncture, and could find nothing, I thought it odd that the tire would have gone flat on a well paved sectioned of road, but whatever; I had to figure out how to get from middle of no where Thailand forest, back to a place where I could get the tire fixed. Luckily (or perhaps expectantly) the first truck I flagged down stopped to help. A young Thai man and his wife helped me load the motorcycle into the back of his old pickup truck, alongside a bunch of cabbage :-) We tied down the back end of the bike to the truck via the bike's luggage rack. I them stood in the truck bed holding the metal truck cage with one arm and the motorcycle with my other. This proved pretty taxing after a dozen turns or so, but I figure i got my workout for the day.

The guy had to drive me all the back to Khun Yuam because none of the other little towns had the proper sized tube for my 130 (4.60) sized rear tire. When the guy dropped me off at the Motorcycle shop in Khun Yuam, i tired to give him some money, but he wouldn't take it. I then tried to give him my pocket knife as a thank you, but he wouldn't take that either. I said thank you and he drove off with a smile. I hope he had to go past Khun Yuam anyway to get to where he was going, or else I would feel really bad. Any way the tube change was pretty easy, took all of 20 min, and only cost me $5 for parts and labor!!! The kid, Sam-Bon, who changed the tire wouldn't even take a tip!!!

So I do think I know what happened to the tire though. There was a small tear on the side of the tube, the part that touches up against the side wall. I think the combination of an underinflated tube (reason #1237, not to trust that the shop knows what they are doing), a worn down tire, and me riding the bike too hard, had deformed the tire under the force of cornering, which pinched the tube against the rim, causing the tear. Even though the tire is a bit more inflated now, I think I will take it easier on my way back to Chiang Mai Tomorrow :-)

Sam-Bon fixing my flat tire...

This type of road was common over my three days. It really is more of a dirt path. Going down some of the steep grades was a bit harry, but I managed. I will say the Thai guys amaze me on what they can do, with a passenger, on a little 125cc motorbike!!!
Video: riding a (easy) stretch of the above mentioned road
http://vimeo.com/3028065