Disabled Motorcycle Recovery Project

[crsaddlebags]

The wife and I often get calls from people we don't know who need help in recovering a broken, wrecked or otherwise incapacitated motorcycle in northern Thailand. For many people, because of Woraphat's extensive business advertising, she is their only contact when they are in the Chiang Rai area or the north. We can usually arrange for a local person with a pickup truck to arrive on scene, load the bike and return it to Chiang Rai or sometimes, to the far away home of the rider. With that in mind, we are going to try to start a motorcycle recovery project in Thailand, with perhaps one phone number for riders to call to get help anywhere in the country. If you or anyone else would like to have your phone number added as a recovery source for this area or any other area (you own an available truck or trailer with driver or have family, friend or mechanic who does), please give us a PM. We will post this to other motorcycle forums in Thailand and perhaps we can build a good network that will service all areas of Thailand with one phone number. If not, you can at least count on us to help you in the Chiang Rai/northern Thailand area. For the Chiang Rai area, 089-429-4562 for Woraphat, English and Thai language, 24 hours.


We are open to suggestions that will help to get this project off the ground outside of the Chiang Rai area. We are also open to suggestions that will make things run more smoothly in the Chiang Rai area. If you know of a service that has already been established in Thailand, let us know and we will link up with them instead of starting this from scratch.


We know that in most areas that a person could have trouble, there are locals with trucks that will help if asked. However, we often hear from people who cannot communicate with the locals or for some other reason, do not want to get them involved. Some of those riders call us from the hospital and cannot return to the scene of the disabled bike. This service will be for those who genuinely need help from an English and Thai speaking source. If you know of a phone number that is manned 24 hours a day that can take calls in English and Thai, Thailand-wide and connect the rider with a recovery team/shop in his area, please let us know.


This service is not meant to be a profit making business venture for us. We do not charge anything for our help in connecting people with a recovery truck nor do we make any commission from the various folks who have done recovery for us. We do not repair motorcycles nor do we wish to have any bikes needing repair dropped off at our shop. There are other shops in town who specialize in bike repairs and that is where the bikes should be delivered if they aren't delivered to the owner's home. However, if you do require recovery for a motorcycle, you can be expected to do whatever is right for the team that shows up to assist you. We can hardly expect anyone who is called for a recovery run to drop what they are doing to come get you and not receive anything for their time, fuel and vehicle use. If you call Woraphat for help, she should be able to give you a very good idea of how many baht that particular recovery person will be expecting.


Looking forward to some input to help make this work.
Marty and Woraphat
Chiang Rai Saddlebags and Biker Gear

 

[The Bigfella]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[Ally]

Good idea Marty, well done to you both for kicking this off.

Ally

 

[KTMphil]

I'd talked about this idea 4 years ago with someone else and unfortunately it didn't come to fruition for various reasons. It's an excellent idea & we'll try and think of the best way to add from this end, thanks for getting the engines started.

 

[Gnasher328]

Great idea Marty, hope it works, I'll stick your number in my phone.
Tim

 

[MartinThai]

Great idea Marty...... I wonder what was the final incident which persuaded you to "put pen to paper" :RE

Two minutes after our phone call I was chatting to a nurse in A&E...... within 5 minutes it was all sorted out with her Dad and his pick-up for the following morning! My old samong just wasn't working at the time..... I've been here long enough and speak the lingo enough to have done exactly as you suggested automatically, but I guess was still reeling from the spill! Thanks, and good luck with the scheme.

I don't have a pick-up to help with bike recovery but would be more than happy for my phone number to be used if someone needs help/advice/liaison/support.

 

[crsaddlebags]

Hiya Martin. Yes, that incident was the final catalyst to get me off my butt. Glad you weren't badly hurt.

Glad to add your phone number the list. I would guess you know a Thai friend or mechanic or two in your area that you could send after someone who is down and that is the kind of participation we need. We call you, you call the local friend or mechanic and the bike gets picked up. Thank you for participating.