Same journey, different adventure with Honda XR150

I'm still on the same journey, documenting indigenous games and sports via motorcycle, but I'm taking a different adventure with a Honda XR150 whilst travelling in Vietnam.

Although I know of at least one man, Geoff Keys, who has illicitly brought his UK bike into Vietnam, I wasn't prepared to take the same risk of losing my bike to officials. To be completely honest I was rather excited to leave my old Triumph behind in Laos and have a bit of fun off-road with a Honda.

Whilst many a novice biking backpacker may attest to the great adventures they've had across Vietnam, with their Chinese built weedy Honda Wins or disastrous Detechs, these experiences are most likely enhanced through the golden glaze of drinking too much rice wine whilst sitting at the roadside waiting for their breakdowns to be bashed into submission and all the other shenanigans that surround these situations.

I too love to revel in the glory of having found a chup-chup, temporary, shot from the hip repair, with bits of string or whatever came to hand, but if you want to see more of the country and less of greasy garages, take my advice and get a Japanese Honda XR150. The XR150 is far better suited to all the roads and non roads that Vietnam can throw at you. It's as if the bike was made for this country alone. It is light, has high suspension for holes and dips, but not too high to get your foot down, just enough power to take you away from most other traffic, up muddy pistes, across rocky rivers and more.

Sadly not all XR150 have been treated the same, so you need to get one from a reputable shop.

Easier said than done.

In Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, aswell as in Hanoi, there are many options for buying and renting a Honda XR150. It soon became apparent that not all shops offered the same level of service. Only minutes into the game and I quickly saw the shoddy maintenance afforded these otherwise excellent workhorses. If well maintained they can last a very long time and give years of solid, reliable service, but like any machine, if you don't do regular maintenance, whack it with a metal hammer whenever it's down, or just use the wrong tool when the perfect one is just a hand reach further away, the poor things are going to lose their muster.

I spent a week visiting more than 4 sellers, all but one was trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

"Engine never been open !",

one might say, yet the hex and allen bolts have been clearly sheared off with bodging around the engine block.

"Other seller wind speedometer",

yet the bike I'm looking at has clearly done double the KMs on this clock.

"We alway check and maintain bike after every rental",

yet pulling up the fork guards reveals oil leaking from the seals.

When everywhere you're being promised everything that is almost certainly not true, you can't help notice that there is just 1 business trying to do the right thing.

They are not paying me to write this and few people read my rantings anyway, so if you happen to come across this post, seriously just save your time and money, go to Tigit Motobikes. Not only will they support you across Vietnam, they will do their level best to provide a guarantee of parts and labour for mechanical wear and failure. Since they have a shop in Saigon, Danang and Hanoi, this is something akin to a chain of professional oases. Nothing is perfect, the mechanics don't have all the right tools and knowledge here either, but at least the company is attempting to improve their practices as they go forward rather than just shirk responsibility.

So here it is, a used under 20k KMs on the clock

and looking good from all sides

As luck would have it I was living with one of Tigit's tour guides, Renzo, who wanted to do some reconnaissance for a new tour and invited me along. This was a great way to break the bike in and see a bit of local life in the outskirts of Saigon. After the battle to get out of the city we were soon in uncharted territory, or at least previously undiscovered to Renzo. He spends his days scouring satellite photography to pick out hidden paths to unseen locations.

We first waited for a river boat ferry to take us there.

Then we wound through paddy fields,

passed by dragon fruit plantations,

and often encountered locals, who were often surprised to find my Peruvian companion could speak fluent Vietnamese.

I witnessed dogs carried in a bamboo basket cage on the back of a scooter.

"Renzo, are those dogs to be sold for meat ?",

I asked.

"Yes, they eat them here",

was Renzo's casual response. He has many insights into Vietnamese life, which I would love to have learnt more about, but time was a wasting and soon I would be off on my own discovery of Vietnam.

Once packed and on the road with this bike I immediately fell in love with the ease that I could drift through dirt, corner without a care and glide over grievous potholes which Vietnamese will avoid, thereby leaving me a clear path in the sea of scooters.

See a pothole head for it !