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::: Oh, Hell - I 've Just Ridden My Vfr Again....


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Dang! Not ridden my bike for more than a year, just dropped it on the way to work coz of old front tire.

And now, just come back from a VFR trip to Cambodia!

Lots of pix, as usual, on the way.....

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  • Member Contributer

One year, no VFR?! Did you go through withdrawl? I'll bet it's good to be back riding your viffer.

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thế và cũng không......

Oh hell, wish I could understand ;)

WTH did you start drinkin, time to return to the states !!!

Me, or Dutchy?

I am hungry to be back. Someone help me to add some motivation, pleaseeeee......

One year, no VFR?! Did you go through withdrawl? I'll bet it's good to be back riding your viffer.

Yeah. Insane, right? One year without a proper riding. During that time, I have couple rides from home to work vice versa, less than 30km round trip.

You may know that the Vietnam roads are not really fit with the sport bike. However, I still found lots of fun with the VFR here.

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Okay, make it short, just a weekend ride out, we planned to go from Hochiminh City to Cambodia, visit Phnom Penh and one more interesting place is Bokor highland.

Not many of us joined the trip, as I told the guys that I can't guaranty that all the bikes can go thru the checkpoint. So 5 bikes were good number to go.

I was planning to use my CX650 Cafe racer for this trip.

But there are two things which I decided to change. I don't know that's good or bad decision but:

- I called one guy with his CB1000 cafe racer and a guy with the BMW cafe racer to join, just to have some fun with a cafe racer group ride, which we have never been doing so. Then that guy could not make it, he was stick with his personal business.

- I have no ride report with my VFR to upload to VFRD for a bit long time.

Well, then I rode my VFR after one year sitting still.

We passed the check point quite early. Below photo was taken just 30meter after the Cambodia check point, and in front of a Casino:

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If you come to border of Vietnam - Cambodia, you can find several casinos on the Cambodia side. I would say no Casino is allowed in Vietnam (you can find some, but not for Vietnamese passport holders). Cambodian knows that well, so they build a lot of Casino along side the border so that Vietnamese can easily come and burn their money.

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I think this trip was really painful trip to me as well as my VFR.

You may remember that I got a lay down couple of weeks ago, due to very old front tire. So I got the front tire changed, painting repair done.

But the thing I myself and may be none can imagine happened.

Before the check point, I found that my rear brake doesn't work, so the front. I tried to pull the lever, push the rear brake for a while, then they engaged back. I stopped to check it out. Hell, the front left caliper was dropped out of the front fork, it was hanging in the air by the hydraulic cable. Dang it. Two bolts of the caliper were missing.

So you may know what is the reason - definitely the bike shop - they changed my front tire without properly put my brake back in place.

Lucky me as I was doing a slow cruising. Can't imagine what could happen if I was doing 100mph then found no brake!!??

I tossed my bike in a bike shop on the roadside and ask for two bolts for temporary securing.

It took us around 15mins to do so.

After the check point. I again found that the rear brake very stiff. It slowed my bike, smelled of abetos. I did not know what happened.

Just found the rear disc, calipers, piston as well as the oil line was very very hot. We stopped at the middle of the way and came down to nearby ditch to find some water to cool them down. I was thinking that the bike shop they removed the fairing to paint then they do something with my rear brake. But then I thought that the two brake they linked with each other, then when the front brake was dropped off, then the synchronization problem.

After get them cooled, we got on the bike again, without adjust anything.

We reached to the Nuek Luong ferry station - on the Mekong river.

It's really Cambodian system. I think Vietnam system is bad, but the Cambodian is even worse. We have been split in to 3 groups.

Three bikes were pushed on the ferry. I was stuck at the water line. And one more bike was after the fence.

Let's see how they parked all those motorcycles:

DSC03463_zpsd47ee2ed.jpg

You can realize that the outside part of the ferry is the shock absorber, and it is not designed for still load like that. It was hanging by some chain block and slings. I have no idea how much weight the chains, shackles, slings can handle, or have them certified or not....

I was standing there alone:

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And with the VFR:

DSC03474_zps4393fd40.jpg

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Passed the Mekong river via the ferry, we met with some Cambodia bikers, who we have contacted for the ride.

They were on a R6, NC700X and a R1. They led us to Phnom Penh very fast.

I still found the rear brake hot and stiff. What I could do is just ride and apply water at every stop. I don't want to spend time for fixing the bike at a bike shop as I think it would take lot of time and it affect team's schedule. I know that is not a good choice, especially to the bike. But that 's what I did.

At a gas station, my bike was sprayed with lot of water:

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Rode for the next 20miles, hungry and thirsty, so we pulled over to a side road restaurant:

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Left the restaurant, we tried to be on the Bokor mount and back as soon as possible. We did plan to spend that night at Phnom Penh, so that we can back to Vietnam in Sunday with minimum travel.

Reached Bokor, fuelded up before getting up:

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Nice road waiting for us after the gate:

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Yes, it is:
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Gambling up the mount:

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Oh hell, gotta pay to get riding there:

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2000 Cambodia Riel for a bike ~ USD 0.5 :

DSC03500_zps1638fdfb.jpg

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Really good road up to the mountain.

It is said that about 35km one way. Not many cars or bikes along the way. We hit the fog at the below spot, around middle of the way to the top:

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Felt good with the VFR after one year no real riding.

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That way was leading us to the top:

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Old school BMW lately arrival the mid point:

DSC03519_zps6eed6887.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Rode for a while, we reached the almost top point - here they built a complex of hotel and casino. Looks great!

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We 're all there:

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Got inside, we took some rest at the hotel lounge, enjoyed some cookies, cafe and musics.

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Good one three:

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Spent almost an hour at that rest stop, then we all went downhill. We agreed that we need to back to Phnom Penh during that night.

Some great spot on the road:

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  • Member Contributer

DSC03536_zpsb16968ed.jpg

Thanks for the great shots, VH. Curious about that road marker ... It looks like it might just be a mileage marker/route sign (e.g. Hwy 32 or 21, O Chuk 7kms ahead), but it's shaped like a headstone. I haven't seen it here in Canada, but I've been several places in the U.S. where crosses are placed at the side of the road where there have been fatal accidents as a memorial and warning to motorists. Is the shape just a coincidence?

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Thanks for the great shots, VH. Curious about that road marker ... It looks like it might just be a mileage marker/route sign (e.g. Hwy 32 or 21, O Chuk 7kms ahead), but it's shaped like a headstone. I haven't seen it here in Canada, but I've been several places in the U.S. where crosses are placed at the side of the road where there have been fatal accidents as a memorial and warning to motorists. Is the shape just a coincidence?

I have never seen any real story about that.

However, from what I can think of I could say it seems because of a habit.

Well, in the past, people normally use existing rock beside the road to mark whatever they like. For example, they will do some carving on the rock to indicate the regional, the road, or some other marks. Something similar to the below pix. So time after time, they have some modification but still keep the original shape.

cot-moc-cuc-bac.jpg

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So what was the problem with your rear brake?

Root cause is too many bikes with so little time.

Immediate cause is the rusty caliper piston then they come out to push the brake pad then could not come back in.

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  • 2 months later...

Dang... just realized I left this thread uncompleted. I m finishing it now.

--------------------------------------

Some more road pix:

DSC03647_zpsc242451e.jpg

Thậm chí có lúc phải dừng lại để căng mình ra chiến đấu:

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We left the highland and back to Phnom Penh in the dark. It was hell heavy rain when we were near the City.

Lucky us as we have the local ride along, other wise we would take more time finding a place for that night.

Deep sleep that night.

Morning time, some folks went out for shopping. I have no time to do that but bringing my bike to the mechanics.

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Poor my disc:

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I 've eaten the pads:

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They don't have the replacement pads. So I asked them just use the existing steel plate of my pads and do bounding of new asbetos pads.

Well, that did not fix the issue.

Then finally I had to ask them remove all the brake lines:

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Then I went to this place to wait for the rest of the team - it 's Vietnam embassy in Cambodia:

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Then the guys showed up:

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We're all ready for the journey home:

DSC03724_zpsc23b62e2.jpgSome

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  • Member Contributer

Love your ride reports. You always have a good group of riders, lots of happy faces, and lots of photos! Beautiful country!

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Thank you, Mailman. Ride out is always fun. I have not much time for riding, so that why we try to make all of our rides are as fun as possible.

-------------------------------

Well, it was funny that we gotta stopped after the first fuel stop for the CB1.3K starter issue. It didn't take long:

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We agreed that this gas station would be our muster point for any trip later on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia:

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On the ferry:

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ST guy doesn't look like a man:

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Leaving Phnom Penh behind, see you next time:

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Took a pix with our Cambodia police friend:

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Not too late we stepped on Vietnam land, we decided to have dinner out, before getting home:

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That's all about our weekend trip to Bokor highland, Cambodia.

Not too long after that, I have a trip back to Cambodia, not on my VFR but on my 1200GS. It was a really adventure trip. Thru Cambodia, Laos and then middle of Vietnam.

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  • Member Contributer

Looks gorgeous. Hard to believe there's that much slab in that part of the world to ride an ST1300 on, but apparently there is. Cheers!

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Really like going through your ride reports. Very nice pictures too.

Thank you.

I know not many of you guys experienced riding at this side of the world, so I tried to take as many pix as I could to post :)

Looks gorgeous. Hard to believe there's that much slab in that part of the world to ride an ST1300 on, but apparently there is. Cheers!

Hmm, you are talking about slab? Plenty of them :))

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