Buying a New Big Bike in Thailand
What do we buy, if the wife tell you that she want a motorbike. The first step is to ask careful, but surely nicely what sort of bike she is thinking off. As for me I made the big mistake to drive to the local motorcycle dealer where the biggest motorcycle is the Honda Phantom 200cc, what is a sort of a cruiser. The other motorcycles at the shop are all 110cc scooters or 125cc motorcycles.The wife was not amused, by my idea of buying a low cc motorcycle, a quote "If I want to go shopping I can take the Vino", the Vino is a 50cc Yamaha scooter which we use for traveling around our Mobaan (neighborhood).
Looking for another motorbike, we found that finding a respectable dealer, which sells bikes that you can actual can drive in Bangkok are limited. The bikes are too big, the wife is 165cm and her weight is less then 50kg, or the bikes cost a fortune for something what is considered outside Thailand old and the last reason of being skeptic, where the sales techniques of some of the, so-called big bike dealers.
No a new bike for the girl of the house needed some alternative approach, then I remembered seeing a article about the BMW G650 Xmoto in a local Thai magazine. The BMW G650 Xmoto with its 650cc and road ready weight of 160kg was surely something my girl can handle. The BMW compared to the Honda Phantom 200cc they both weight the same, considering that the design and engine performance of the Phantom which is not a motorbike for Bangkok traffic.
And most important, if we going to break the bank and going to buy a bike, we would like factory warranty and service nation wide something that most Japanese bike builders in Thailand not offer. BMW offers in Thailand new bikes with support from Official appointed dealers and service centers. The BMW G650 Xmoto is not the cheapest bike, but considering what I seen for prices for secondhand bikes around Bangkok I belief that the BMW G650 Xmoto is surely not a bad choice.
The BMW G650 Xmoto stands for easy handling thanks to compact geometry and 17-inch wheels, cool brake maneuvers (including ABS) with no surplus weight to get in the way, faster acceleration out of the bend, drifting not a problem: if you want to explore the limits of this bike, you have to know your own first.
