Washing GS Adventure 30 Years Anniversary

Heyya..

After for so long i haven't washed my Adventure.. normally i would wash every 10,000km at BMW Motorrad Glenmarie when i do 10k km service maintenance and the Motorrad boys will wash the bikes after servicing.. :-P

now, she's super clean... HooRahh!!

BMW R1200 GS Rallye Special Edition

Heyya..

I just wanna share with my blog readers about BMW R1200 GS Rallye Special Edition 2012.. Recently BMW Motorrad Malaysia has lent a friend of mine the R1200 GS Rallye for a week.. In general, the technical specs of GS Rallye version are similar with the other R1200 GS basic models.. The GS Rallye is a Special Edition for 2012 R1200 GS line.. Previously in 2011, BMW has come with Triple Black as its 2011 R1200 GS range..

(for your info, the R1200 GS and R1200 GS-Adventure are totally not the same and they both have different specs)

Well, from my point of view, BMW Motorrad has done brilliant on the GS Rallye paint job and decals with BMW’s ///M-Sport schemes.. The chassis is painted in red, which it gives out the sportiness of the Rallye model.. While BMW retains the tank cover in white colour, honestly, the bike does not look dull at all.. it gives the bike a clean and simple look, easy to blend..

What I really love with the design is the close-up details done on this bike.. for example, the seats are stitched with red stitches on dual-toned (black & white) seat cover..

The GS Rallye comes with handle guards and they are in white colour.. it is rare to find any GS model which come in white handle guards..

By observing closely on the Rallye, I can see it uses few Triple Black parts.. for example:

• Triple Black front suspension
• Fork Brace 
• Paralever swing arm 
• Engine head cover.. 

Question is, could they be over-stocked parts for Triple Black edition?

The height set-up of the bike is low, same with the ordinary R1200 GS model, giving it the agility to ride in towns, in traffic jams.. I could feel the bike is really suitable for town / city riding..

Obviously when u put the GS Rallye and GS-Adventure side by side, you can see the differences between these two amazing bikes..

Mind you, there are no protection bars, engine head cover, engine guards, crash bars etc on the bike as BMW wants to make the GS Rallye as light as possible with clean design lines.. Personally, I think the protection / crash bars can ruin the GS Rallye sporty design.. it is good that BMW has retained design of the GS Rallye as simple as possible..

Also, the GS Rallye comes with Multi-spoked rims.. the multi-spoked rims give the Rallye more dual-purpose look… but I would prefer if they are in black colour..

We took both GS-Adventure 30 Years Anniversary and GS Rallye Special Edition for a spin in the middle of Kuala Lumpur city to Asia Cafe in SS15 Subang for dinner.. Riding these huge bikes in town ain't easy, especially the GS-Adventure.. but as usual, i lead the Rallye bike on my GS-Adventure.. if the Adventure can get through the Kuala Lumpur traffic, the Rallye gonna be easy peasy.. 

By the way, you can see in the photos above, that is what i wear when riding in Kuala Lumpur town.. i only wear shorts, sport shoes, t-shirts, riding gloves and helmet.. Kuala Lumpur city is hot and riding a GS Adventure does not allow any wind to cool me down.. 

Overall, the R1200 GS Rallye Special Edition is my most favourite R1200 basic GS line model.. if only BMW would produce the GS-Adventure with Rallye edition, I would definitely buy it..

HooRahh!!

Koh Phangan!!!

Heyya..

I woke up at 2.30 in the morning, took shower and put my riding apparels on, had couple of Nescafe ice latte in cans, unplugged the iPod and HTC X One from their charger units, packed them into the GSA handle bar pouch.. Also I’ve almost forgotten, to wash the Scoot Goggles lenses.. I remember during my previous ride to Koh Samui, I was struggling when riding at night due to dusty goggles lenses…

The initial plan of going to Krabi took place a week before as I should have gone to Krabi few days before Merdeka weekend.. this was to avoid Merdeka crowd in Krabi as Malaysians tend to go there for a quick weekend holiday.. Unfortunately, I left my passport, bike grant and Thai vehicle insurance at my dairy farm, near LCCT Sepang Airport.. but I could not delay the trip by a day or two, due to my friend’s wedding in Pekan 3 days later on Saturday.. Due to that, I had to postpone the Krabi trip to a week later..

The riding to Krabi was torturous as I had to ride through heavy rain in the dark from Tapah to Bukit Kayu Hitam to Patthalung.. it was cold, dark and my Clover “Rain Proof” pants did not work very well!!!! Now I know Clover products are useful for the first 2 years, but then, they start not to become water proof anymore.. my bottom part was wet and the rain passed through the pants and the water went into the boots.. I reached the border control by 6.45am, did passport and customs declaration and left Thailand’s Sadao Border Control at 7.30am..

As I was riding towards Patthalung, I started to think that Krabi is such a boring place and it is too family oriented beach resort.. Many Malaysians love to visit Krabi.. i can even say, every Malaysian has visited Krabi.. I wanted to go to a beach where I wont find any Malaysian bikers or Malaysian families on holiday.. hehee

Therefore, I decided to head to Koh Phangan in Surat Thani.. the decision of going to Koh Phangan was made as I was nearly approaching Patthalung’s intersection of Highway 4 and Highway 41 on its flyover bridge.. That’s me.. always make last minute planning and I can always change my plan easily.. that’s the reason why I love to ride solo.. and, Koh Phangan is a Party Island.. Ooohh the babyyyy!!

 

Alright, back to my journey log.. I reached Don Sak pier at 10.15am.. there are 2 ferry services; Seatran Ferry and Raja (Racha) Ferry.. But only Raja Ferry goes to Koh Phangan.. Although Raja Ferry goes to Koh Phangan, the number of ferries departing to Koh Phangan are very limited.. there times are 8am, 10am, 2pm and 4pm..

I missed the 10.00 am ferry by 20 minutes.. hence I had to wait for the next ferry which departs at 2.00 pm… the cost of the ferry is 460 Baht that includes 1 big motorcycle and 1 handsome passenger.. LoL

While waiting for nearly 4 hours, I had green curry chicken lunch at Raja’s cafeteria.. the cafeteria is clean, it looks it's been built recently and in general they sell thai dishes and noodles.. 

Unfortunately the ferry didn’t arrive at 2.00 as scheduled.. it came at 2.30 pm as the weather was terribly bad for the arriving ferry against the strong sea current.. 

While waiting for the ferry to arrive I’ve met a girl, Amanda Li, from Hong Kong, travelling alone.. i've got to know she’s into diving and Koh Phangan has several beautiful diving spots..

Finally the ferry arrives, loaded the GSA on the ferry and later, the ferry departed.. On the Raja ferry, the ferry seems to be an old ferry.. compare with Seatran Ferry, the interior of Seatran ferry is much better and cleaner.. anyway, I should not be complaining as Seatran doesn’t provide ferry service to Koh Phangan..

The ferry journey took almost 3 hours to reach Thong Sala Pier at Koh Phangan.. it was nearly 5.30 pm and dark..

According to Amanda, Koh Phangan has many beach spots but the most beautiful beach spots are located at Haad Yao and Haad Salad.. so I headed straight to Haad Yao from Thong Sala Pier.. it took nearly 20 minutes to reach Haad Yao from the pier.. the road is narrow and hilly.. so need to watch out for small bikes/scooters crossing the narrow road..

Haad Yao has many hotel resorts.. I went to 6 hotels at Haad Yao area and found few which are nice to stay.. then I decided to check out Haad Salad because I’ve heard the area is quieter than Haad Yao and the beach/lagoon is nicer..

..Thong Sala Pier, Koh Phangan..

It was nearly dark so I went to one hotel at Haad Salad, called Salad Beach Resort.. I bargained the room rate and got 900 Baht for a night.. the resort is beautiful with Thai wood craftsmanship, bungalows facing a swimming pool, private beach and it includes breakfast..

I went to night market in Koh Phangan town.. it is a small town.. beside the night market, it has a food court where u can dine the night market food and also it serves thai dishes..

The next morning i had a wonderful breakfast provided by the Salad Beach Resort with a great superb morning view of Haad Salad aka Pirate Beach.. since the hotel is located at a lagoon, there are not many beach tourist at the Haad Salad beach.. Every morning, there is a hotel staff cleaning the beach and scrapping off sea shells on the beach.. they really keep the beach clean and tidy..

 After lunch, i teamed up with Amanda, who also stayed at the same hotel with me, and explored the island with my GSA.. 

On the Koh Phangan map, there is an island which is attached to the main Koh Phangan island, called Koh Ma..  Unfortunately, the sand at Koh Mah is very coarse and the beach is quite dirty and not maintained very well.. Koh Mah is connected to Koh Phangan by a sandbar..

I stayed at Koh Phangan for 3 days and 2 nights.. really had a wonderful time at Koh Phangan.. it was such a beautiful day on the day i left Koh Phangan.. i took the 7.00 am ferry to Don Sak and the sky was blue and clear and the sea was calmed...

I reached Don Sak pier at 10.00 am and the day was getting warmer and hot... for the south bound to KL, i chose to use the eastern coastal route via Sichon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Hua Sai, Ranot and Songkhla.. i've done this route 3 years ago when i had my previous KLR 650 RedBull.. it was nice to use the coastal route again.. bringing back all the sweet memories..

HooRahh!!