I have always had a motorbike in Thailand. It is the preferred method of transport because it is super easy to park almost anywhere and consumes very little in the way of fuel. They are also quite inexpensive to rent and if you know where to look and understand the way the laws of ownership function, they are quite easy to buy and then sell on when you leave.
That being said, just as I indicated in the title, I can see very little reason for me to bother having one up here in Chiang Mai.
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They look like that and a Fino also happens to be one of my favorite "twist-and-go" bikes. They are normally between 100 and 150 CC's which sounds weak until you consider they will generally go fast enough to kill you instantly. If you are careful and don't drive like a lunatic you'll be fine. However, there are a number of reasons why I am seriously leaning towards not having a motorbike in this city at all.
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That's the first reason right there. The roads are packed. There are a million people here and I would guess that most of them have at least one vehicle. There really isn't anywhere left to build any more roads so yeah, it is only going to get worse as time goes on.
The cops here are looking for payouts on a daily basis. Unfortunately they target anyone who is not Thai a great deal more. I sat at a coffeeshop at a police checkpoint and roughly 90% of the people they pulled over were tourists. They notice the non-Thai skin, or they see the rented bike sticker that is required on the front of the bike, pull them over, and give them a fine. The only Thai people I saw get pulled over were not wearing helmets and I thoroughly agree with ticketing these people. Wear a friggin helmet!
On a bicycle, you can basically do whatever you want: Wanna ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road? Go for it and just stay out of the way. Wanna ride on the sidewalk? No problem! Feel like bypassing a one-way street on your push-bike? Nobody even looks at you funny for doing so. (by the way I'm not suggesting that you should do this like a jerk, it is perfectly safe if you are comfortable with your bicycle and realize that it is your obligation to get out of the way should there be a problem)
This next part really applies to people like me: I work online; I don't really have to be anywhere at any particular time so what's the rush? I have a schedule to maintain 2 days of the week and that's it!
The Grab taxi app (it's like Uber, but in Asia) is so remarkable well-made and inexpensive you will never have to wait anywhere really. I have gone from one side of town to the other and the total bill has never been more than 100 Baht ($3).
The aforementioned Mobike company that has thousands of bicycles for you to use anytime you want all over the city so if you don't want to walk, you don't have to for long.
you can get almost anything delivered to your house. Meals, groceries, beer, liquor, even cigarettes. The service for this delivery is normally around $1. This used to be complicated as F**k but now that any chat app has a "share my location" option, you don't even need to know how to speak Thai to work this out.
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There are also these things. They are called Songthews and they are basically buses. It doesn't matter if you are going to the next block or 40 miles away, the fare is 30B (less than a dollar) so once i figure out their routes I may use that from time-to-time also.
These things I have listed above are a powerful combination of reasons for me to not purchase my own vehicle. I may at some point purchase my own bicycle, one that has gears and a basket for me to put doggo in to go to a park, but as it stands right now, I really can't justify having one. Time will tell.