Grace (BikeHedonia)

Thank you!! Oz is just a flying visit, flying back to Thailand tomorrow. Finally got an mri on the knee and should get the report next week...

Hello my glamourous people, how are you all doing? Long time no word. I can't remember where I was up to. I hurt my knee in Cambodia. There's more to come on that story. I got the HiVolt Moto Tours business off the ground in Chiang Mai. We now have a fleet of brand new CRF300Ls for our customers to fang around the jungle on. Got them all kitted out for dirt. Bookings for the upcoming riding season, weather should be perfect in about a month. Customers seem happy. I am apparently, productively employed. Good God. Wonders will never cease. Currently in Oz for a flying visit to catch up with old friends and shop for bike parts. Back in Asia this weekend.

I have been riding across south east Asia in a cheap Ixon mesh jacket for the last five years. I have crashed multiple times (bitumen and dirt) and it's saved me every time. Absolutely can't fault it, the best value for money of any gear I purchased for the trip. Leaves Klim for dead. I use it with my Dainese back protector (fits in the back armour pocket just fine; jacket was sold without back armour).

Have they fixed the pogo stick rear shock? As of 2019 it would try to throw you into the bushes everytime you hit a bump.

@Slowlycatchymonkey thanks for the epic ride report, so glad you guys made it safely through the extremes of weather! Loved the sound of the dodgy hotel, it sounds convenient, awful and hilarious. Once upon a time, after I'd been turned back from the Thai border three times in one night, I ended up sleeping in a shady Malaysian love hotel, the amenities were somewhat less but I would have hated to see luminol on that place. The things we do on moto trips... haha. Rest up and enjoy the festival!

Thank you, I may need it. I wonder at what point it reaches the age where Keep Throwing Money becomes both true and unsustainable. In other news I heard rumours of a 400cc rally style adv bike coming from Gas Gas in 2024. All I need to do is win the lottery and I'll be sweet.

You're welcome to see it but there's nothing to see. There was a small haematoma on the inside of the knee which is gone now, but the damage is internal. It's still not right but it's getting there...

My motorcycling obsession has expanded... again. Oops.

I fell down the stairs two days later... Sprained knee, scuttled for three weeks!!

So instead of being miserable about my clutch I decided to do something completely deranged instead (as one does). The Hanuman Enduro Competition was so far out of my comfort zone, I really thought I must have lost my mind when I signed up for it. But it also turned out to be one of the destroying and affirming experiences I've put myself through in years (and I have a bit of a record of putting myself in out-there situations). It was just... wow. I wrote up the full story on my blog bikehedonia.com

Yeah, it's a high performance engine under a lot of stress and everything's made out of aluminium and plastic... not really a recipe for longevity. But we get along thus far. I've never rebuilt the engine yet, it's nearly 100,000km, so I can't complain too much.

Sadly i must disabuse you of this apparently success story... this is set number 4 lol. I've never had an engine seize because I watch those rocker arm bearings like a hawk (still, touch wood), but they wear out faster the older the engine gets. The first set lasted 45,000km, the most recent set only has about 15,000 km on them.

Happy to report that you are all wrong, my water shaft impeller seal is fine! That's the good news. It was just a little hole in the radiator and they welded it up. The bad news is that my clutch is borked. Slave cylinder seal failed (again) and the master cylinder has been leaking for months. Ugh. My bike is a 2012 so still running the Magura system which is plagued with problems. Clutchless shifted 150km to get out of Phnom Penh yesterday. That city is a headache, hard to find somewhere safe to park your bike and everyone always trying to snatch your phone. I am in Kampot. I have a race to ride, then options to reassess. Some days... weeks... months are smoother sailing than others. I also need a new set of rocker arms, I can hear the bearings are on their way out. Poor old girl is pushing 100,000km, a fair bit for the big single, bits are starting to wear out.

Well, I'm traveling solo again, no friends and no enduro bikes. Old mate couldn't get his passport back from the UK embassy in time to drive down so I ended up flying back into Cambo on my own. Yep, I'm back in Phnom Penh, this is KTM Rescue Mission Mk II. (The first rescue mission went nowhere because I was still waiting for the Laotian border to reopen by the time I had to skip back to run a tour in Thailand). So, here we are again. This time I expected smooth sailing - the bike had only beeing sitting for four weeks, not two years - but I get out of the shop and the temp light comes on, there's no water in the radiator. I pour water in, it comes out again. So off I limp towards my favourite mechanical magician, leaving a trail of droplets on the hot Cambodian road... But it's all good, because we make it to the workshop without any further red lights. I settle in to wait for the head mechanic to reappear, and hopefully solve all my problems... Well, some of them. Can I just say, the Thai baht to USD exchange rate is murder.

Anyway, I made it back from Cambo safe and sound... just two days before Laos reopened its land border, which is what I'd been waiting for the whole time! Nevermind. I'm now planning the next foray back into Cambodia from Thailand and this time, I'm going to have a crew. My Thai friends were all jealous when they heard about all the fun I'd had without them, so now I've convinced one friend to drive with me - with our enduro bikes on his truck - all the way down to Kampot where there's a big enduro race on 10, 11, 12 June. It should be fun!!

I knooooooow, me too! I was thinking about Indiana Jones the whole time and trying so hard not to reference tomb raiding, which is obviously bad and not what I want to reference! But if only I could get it out of my head!

It's true! At least, the bit about boring people

But I digress. In Cambodia there were magnificent abandoned ruins, with no-one around. I didn't go to Angkor Wat, I just rode alone along the King's Road... temple ruins to temple ruins. Highly recommend. This is my favourite video from my whole month in Cambodia. I just wanted to show you this place. It was incredible. I did, however, receive a complaint that the dirt roads featured were too good, and thus the videos were boring. Next time I'll make sure I only film the quicksand sections Quicksand temple quicksand temple! Grace

We got the EC300 back after its rebuild, I'm beyond stoked. Unfortunately it's raining for the next ten days/eternity so I am doing admin for the upcoming tour season. But how gorgeous is this beastie?

They were indeed. Really nice, good humoured people, it was a real pleasure to meet them! Normally I ride alone because most people are not such good company when dealing with the travails of life on the road, but these guys were ace. I'm hoping they'll come up to Thailand for a ride soon, although fortunately/unfortunately they are gainfully employed which means they might have to wait a while for their next set of holidays to roll around...

Not at all. Just a momentary dirt nap

I've been neglecting the chronicles. Here is some viewing to accompany your daily ablutions. I made some new friends and fell over in a rice paddy.

It's a national tragedy.

I would have imagined that, having the NHS (which is awesome) makes public health everyone's (and every govt's business, even the conservative ones) because goodness knows nothing is as cost effective as prevention. But... ah yes... sorry I was living in a fantasy world for a moment there. Prevention is much longer than the election cycle, and as you say, people don't like being told what to do... Speaking of dental decay in toddlers... it kills me that in Vietnam and Cambodia it is almost impossible to buyany UHT milk which has not been sweetened and (this is the worst part, for me) that includes the milks which are specifically marketed to toddlers as being vitamin enriched especially for toddler nutrition. People simply don't have the education to disbelieve marketing like that, and I think to myself: those companies could be making almost as much money selling that milk without the added sugar. Almost, of course, but not quite. Like the Nestle baby formula scandals, it's just so sad that capitalism trashes the health of whole populations for such negligible marginal gains. But, I guess I'm off on a tangent here... I think we're on the same page anyway.

WOW... I am very familiar with rickets from my Dickensian through to between-the-wars readings but I had NO idea that people in the UK are suffering from it again. That is WILD. And that nutrition wasn't in the curriculum until 2014... crazy. Really interesting, thank you so much