Sunday's Ulysses ride to the Witch's hut and Give Me Hug at Mae Taeng

[The Bigfella]

We ride pretty much every week and this week was no exception. There were two rides leaving from Rider's Corner at the same time - and amazingly, we ended up meeting at the 107 / 1095 intersection towards the end of the day... and we arrived back at our target time, in order to watch the MotoGP racing. We couldn't have timed it better - arriving back during the Moto3 warmup lap.

Here's Deere, doing pre-ride prep on our bikes (we had 2 x 500X and 1 x 500F on the ride) and some of the Club bikes ( Ducati Monster and Panigale V4S, Yamaha FJ-09, Husky 701). Kevin was headed the other way on a 650 Honda.

Our route is below:

We took our favoured Ping River & Canal route up to where the 1414 intersects the 1001 and then rendezvoused with an errant member, who shall remain nameless.

Waiting for the 107 lights. That Canal route is so much nicer than the 107 jungle

Two new members this ride, Ivan (white shirt) and Alexandre (below)

We made it over the first hump and the Panigale decided to fling it's numberplate. Deere retrieved it - but didn't realise the tax label had come off too. Never mind, we stopped and picked that up on the way home.

Lovely day for a ride

Concentration....

Distraction

It's a thoroughly pleasant road - when there's no silver buses making life unpleasant for everyone else

... and it was coffee at the Witch's

 

[The Bigfella]

So, Deere finally got breakfast at the Witch's, but Kevin was left wondering about the beauty of the local lasses... or was it the climb down the stairs he was pondering?

Snacks, coffees, etc done, we headed back down the hill. We'd had a green Versys snapping at our heels on the way up, but no such fun on the way down. Deere and I had swapped ride positions - and I was sweep, when I saw the folks beside the road. Uh oh....

He'd heard a nasty noise and pulled over to investigate. The bearings were fine and the conclusion was he'd picked up a small stone. We headed off and the noise went.

A couple of the lads were off ahead, but knew to regroup in time for the turnoff

It was left at the 3052 and up the hill

Not exactly the type of sweepers the Panigale V4S was designed for....

But it was fairly well suited to the 500X

Alexandre was there on the Monster too - making a nice bit of noise

We weren't the only ones enjoying the fresh air. Speaking of fresh air - we'd been very lightly sprinkled on the way down the 1095 - just a couple of ks and not worth even thinking of donning any rain gear. We then hit a couple of km of wet road and a few raindrops as we crested the range. Enough to coat the visor - but again, no-one stopped.

There's a few small villages on this leg. We tootled through and then enjoyed the tighter road. I had an unusual encounter along the way... I was apexing a left-hander which had some rubble along the edge - avoiding same - and my boot connected with something solid in the rubble. Bloody OUCH. Damn near ripped my leg off.

Apparently Deere likes this shot. Mae Taeng river behind.... a bit wilder than usual

The group was getting hungry, so it was off to find the new nosh house

I'd told Kevin the 3052 was fine for the Panigale, just a few km of concrete roads. No real dirt. Hmm

There were probably 20 or so landslides and rockfalls along the top leg....

They seem to have had some rain

Even the elephants didn't look happy

Taking that photo meant that I didn't make it through a short section of roadworks at a landslide site with the other guys. I ended up getting caught for a good 6 - 8 minutes. A 20 ton truck tried to squeeze past a ute - and failed. He swiped his truck down the side of the ute... got just clear of it - and stopped - blocking the road entirely.... and the prick wouldn't move it. My politeness evaporated. He got the hint.

Anyhow... I caught the group - although a couple had already come back, thinking they were going to have to pull me out of the bushes or something.

Then it was off the 3052, down some back roads through the Mae Taeng area, looking for Give Me Hug

Lovely little house-based restaurant - run by Oy, the pizza lady near Zoe in Yellow. She's needing to spend more time at home looking after her Mum - and with the destruction of tourism, is now only open in town on Fridays and Saturdays. The view here is delightful rice paddies and the hills to the left. Sometimes, the view gets blocked....

You can find value out of town...

Ribs for 109 baht. Delicious too.

Here's the road in from the big Hug sign on the main road - only a few hundred metres, but in good enough condition to get into top gear on the 500X

So many locals out fishing....

Then we got the Ducati blues. The Monster went onto one cylinder. The guys turned back to assist... but after a couple of minutes, she fired up fine. She was low on juice and we suspect that may have made her burp

We fueled up, having met up with Kevin again at the 1095 / 107 intersection (he'd done the back road to Pai, turning right at the intersection with the front road).... and we scooted down the Canal Rd again, arriving back at 3:59 - in time for Moto3

 

[The Bigfella]

As a Ducati owner, I guess I'd better own up. I'd been planning on taking mine... but it's been temperamental. I'd had an intermittent engine check light... and then one morning she wouldn't start. The interwebs told me it was most likely a connection issue or the rev sensor.... so, we put her up on the workshop stand and undressed her a couple of weeks ago. We went through the connections one by one and suddenly the life had come back to her. We even got rid of the check light when I discovered that the battery positive lead bolt was bottoming out and the terminal could rotate a bit. A couple of washers fixed that.... and all was good. Until it wasn't. We'd skirted her up again... and the light came back on. Last night, Deere fiddled with a couple of connections... and bingo. She's going again. I'm about to punt her around the loop to see how she performs.

Then, we had the issue with the Monster on the ride. Out of the ordinary... and it didn't reappear. I suspect the fuel issue mentioned above.

However.... I'm told things go in threes. Kevin had just had the Panigale serviced, including new fluids. When he came to leave Rider's Corner, he had a clutch issue. Apparently not an unknown event - and I'd had similar with a KTM, years ago in Laos. A bottle of baby oil got the KTM and I through Laos and Cambodia... but we weren't that desperate here. Inspection time...

Jeez, those red ADV150's are popular, eh?

Better to play safe... so Matt popped around with his truck

... and we retired to the race-fest. MotoGP, World Superbikes... and if you want to watch the relatively boring stuff, we even ran the Formula One afterwards.

...... and there's no truth in the rumour that dogs look like their owners

 

[Captain_Slash]

It looked like a lovely day, where is the new restaurant where you stopped at Ian

 

[The Bigfella]

It looked like a lovely day, where is the new restaurant where you stopped at Ian

Google maps don't list it, but if you search for Give Me Hug on Facebook, you'll get it. It's off a lane from the canal road that runs parallel to and a couple of km west of the 107 - between the 3052 and the 1095. Not hard to find

 

[BigEnso]

Google maps don't list it, but if you search for Give Me Hug on Facebook, you'll get it. It's off a lane from the canal road that runs parallel to and a couple of km west of the 107 - between the 3052 and the 1095. Not hard to find

GPS Coords for Give Me Hug are: 19.136533, 98.92725