KTMphil
Senior member
Had a long chat with big Dave tonight, who just had this experience.
A quick bit of background on the story:
Big Dave had agreed to meet with a couple of "rookie, off-road, weekend warriors, from Bangkok", who were bringing their bikes up on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The train was delayed, which meant they weren't able to start the ride from Chiang Mai well into the afternoon intending to head for Mae Hong Son on the west-bound "Elephant Trail", "we'll just go" was their attitude (no gps).
Dave was on a BMW F 800 GS (the other 2 guys on Kawasaki KLX 250's) & ended up with a fried clutch (on the BMW F 800 GS) and had to leave the bike in the jungle down a verge. Relying on the other 2 guys, the usual extended trail riding learning curve stuff happened with new guys in the jungle, running out of fuel and water etc.....& eventually they were able to get the help from some Hmong villagers for fuel, siphoning it from their pick-up. After a while luckily for them, a pick-up came along and was willing to go and rescue the bike in the dark, they'd all had enough by then and said they would prefer to get it in the morning.
For some reason when once they were near Wat Chan (already passed 10PM), one of the KLX rider's said he couldn't stay there because "he needed aircon"! So, onwards northbound they went all the way to Pai to find some aircon, apparently now around 1.30am!
Big Dave paid 1,000 bht for the Hmong-village-pick-up-drivers room in Pai, probably the most fancy night they'd ever had, they must have loved it. Next day they negotiated a price of 5,000 bht to go rescue the BMW F800 GS & deliver it to Chiang Mai.
Dave estimates the whole rescue ordeal, from the Hmong villagers lending him a scooter to rescuing the bike in the jungle & delivering it to Chiang Mai (probably 120km) was around 10,000 bht.
Probably a good benchmark to use.
A quick bit of background on the story:
Big Dave had agreed to meet with a couple of "rookie, off-road, weekend warriors, from Bangkok", who were bringing their bikes up on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The train was delayed, which meant they weren't able to start the ride from Chiang Mai well into the afternoon intending to head for Mae Hong Son on the west-bound "Elephant Trail", "we'll just go" was their attitude (no gps).
Dave was on a BMW F 800 GS (the other 2 guys on Kawasaki KLX 250's) & ended up with a fried clutch (on the BMW F 800 GS) and had to leave the bike in the jungle down a verge. Relying on the other 2 guys, the usual extended trail riding learning curve stuff happened with new guys in the jungle, running out of fuel and water etc.....& eventually they were able to get the help from some Hmong villagers for fuel, siphoning it from their pick-up. After a while luckily for them, a pick-up came along and was willing to go and rescue the bike in the dark, they'd all had enough by then and said they would prefer to get it in the morning.
For some reason when once they were near Wat Chan (already passed 10PM), one of the KLX rider's said he couldn't stay there because "he needed aircon"! So, onwards northbound they went all the way to Pai to find some aircon, apparently now around 1.30am!
Big Dave paid 1,000 bht for the Hmong-village-pick-up-drivers room in Pai, probably the most fancy night they'd ever had, they must have loved it. Next day they negotiated a price of 5,000 bht to go rescue the BMW F800 GS & deliver it to Chiang Mai.
Dave estimates the whole rescue ordeal, from the Hmong villagers lending him a scooter to rescuing the bike in the jungle & delivering it to Chiang Mai (probably 120km) was around 10,000 bht.
Probably a good benchmark to use.
Dontcha just love the air-con brigade!
