Cheaper and better side stand fix? possibly....

[JonW]

So, Ive been on my travels, this time to Seoul, South Korea.

Most bikes there are scoots with the odd modern sports bike or Harley occasionally thrown in and others are boring looking Chinese style mid range boring looking things, probably made locally and brands I didnt know but dont want either lol... but almost none are standard.

Ohh mods?!?!? well yeah...

Many of these are delivery bikes, some for Uber Eats style pickups but many for real hard work to earn money and they are serious modified for the job:

Lengthened swingers and sturdy racks are the order of the day and in a place where all the cars look new and you've never see so many Porsches, these look decidedly hand made by people who live at the other end of the wage scale from the Porker owners in the city.







What is obvious is that most of these carry a cargo stacked up and much heavier than the manufacturer ever envisaged, so they use a clever side stand.

Its made of steel tube and the rider carries it with him and slips it into the tube holder on the rack before leaning the bike over to trap the stand between the ground and the rack.

Its really effective and made me think while it'd look awful, its a design possibility for those without a side stand bracket lol (ok, yes, I jest...)



Other bikes seen...

Proper old... just a bit of art for the owner i feel.




Like a Grom, but different




I quite fancy a Suzuki Big Boy... er... no really I reckon these look cool in an old school way even its its just a TU250.

[veg]

Some great looking bikes, love the street scrambler type Honda Cl type thing and that old Honda.
Necessity is the mother of all invention. For most people around the world (the vast majority of the world’s population) the motorcycle is a tool far cheaper and easier than a car. I love seeing these solutions to their problems got any more Jon?

[JonW]

I agree. I also love that these are working machines, not fair weather bikers with the latest tackle. These are people keeping their machines running any way they can.

It reminds me of when we were younger. Few of us could even contemplate a car, let alone a new one and certainly not one that had the performance a shitty old bike did. We rode em for every task, in all weathers.

There is something much cooler about a modded bike kept on the road with a bit of bush mechanic'ing than buying another new one from a dealer etc.

Sadly I didnt see that many bikes. Seoul isnt like Vietnam or places like that. Plus we were in the middle of the city hence the Porsche every 3rd car (the others were all Hyundai and Kia, no Japanese cars to speak of which is weird when you come from Aus lol). Most of the bikes were near the markets and the cheaper parts or town really... other than the uber eats pickups of course.

[veg]

One of the things I love doing is looking at what bikes are being used by people in countries I visit.
Didn’t see a single bike on the road in South Africa not even in the city’s lots of knackered old pick ups. In a huge city I get the use of a bike because of traffic and that part of the economy.
Used to love in the 80-90’s places like Greece with kids and their little strokers. I’ve seen a definite decrease in the use of scooters by kids on the continent whether it’s the Netherlands or Germany through to the Mediterranean.
Want to visit India and do a touring holiday. 👍

[donkeychomp]

Great pics Jon. Love the creativity of the locals. Reminds me of Cuba of old. Home made brake fluid, an MGA with a Skoda diesel engine and every other American car was owned by Hemingway...uh huh.

Alex

[JonW]

I know we are not a travel forum, but Veg's info on South Africa went down well so I figured I should add that if you are considering visiting Seoul, then... you should Absolutely Go!

Not least as from the UK, like Aus, you are one of the 22 countries thats getting around the ETA system for this and next year : www.k-eta.go.kr/portal/board/viewboarddetail.do?bbsSn=149899 <-- this saves the cost of the online 'visa', just like a USA ESTA. its not much but every little helps as a supermarket once said...

Anyway, why go?

Its really safe, just like Japan people leave things like mobile phones, laptops and handbags to save seats in food courts and coffee shops when they walk up to order. yes really. No one steals them.

Its really safe, even the really drunk people are happy drunks.

Its really safe, the metro is easy to use, well lit and the people are helpful not weird and avoid eye contact or oggle you with a leer.

Its really saf... oh you get the idea. lol

Its really easy to get around, the metro is easy to use and they have a card you get that you load money on. Its very simple to use but very complex. My advice is to get Naver maps app and use that with a Data Sim - about £20 for 10days. Google maps dont work there btw.

The food is amazing. If you like Asian food, you'll enjoy it. If you like Spicy food you can get it how you like, not dumbed down for westerners etc

Food ist that exy unless you want it to be (or you buy fruit... like Japan this is crazy money). Ordering is often done on screens and there is an ENG button or (sigh lol) an American flag to get words you can actually read/understand.

Beer is cheap, local is good too if you like lager. Soju (kind of like Sake, maybe) is not my thing, Makgeolli is a young brewed half way house between beer and soju in alcohol content that's a lot like fizzy milk and very very very cheap. Worth trying those, just to say you have, then go back to beer lol

The locals love to drink... often you enter a restaurant in a locals area and the blokes from work are staggering and waving their arms about in discussion, its like 15mins before closing on a Friday in the UK lol. The tables are chock full of empty bottles of all sorts or Makgeolli, beer and Soju. Its a happy experience tho in those places, no one bothers anyone else... and they serve fantastic food too. Oh and if you need anything you push a bell and a waitress appears, you only need to get up when you break the seal...

The city is pretty flat but does have some hills of course, but its easy enough to avoid them if you dont like walking up n down. It is really walkable tho and you defo should walk there... we averaged 18k steps a day.

Western Credit Cards work well there, well ours did... their cash is simple to understand if not and there are cash machines around.

Coffee is good-ish... not as good as Aus, but decent (In case you didnt know, Aussies are very fussy about coffee). ie better than America - but where isnt?! lol

Toilets are plentiful, unlike say France, Vietnam (which is Asian France as Im sure you know after all those years of colonialism) and others in the EU. They are also clean and very few are asian style, ie hole in ground. In fact everywhere had western loos and most of them are Japanese electronic style like robots if you know what they are like.

Airport is about 1 hour from the city and cheapest is also best to get into the city, all stops metro. Well signed and simple to get tix. Easy peasy.

Getting through customs was super quick. about 20mins with luggage collected! unlike say LA or Sydney which can take hours on a bad day... or the fast boat to Macau, yeah never ever do that...

Airport is decent when you fly out too, lots of eats and some are not rip offs. Lots of shops too, tho most are silly high end stuff. Who on earth buys a Louis bag or gets their name added to the Rolex wait list at an airport?!

Lots to see and do. Pretty decent war memorial with English texts and lots of food markets to explore. Youtube is full of youtubers with good info.

All in all... a great place to visit. Easier to travel around and less cultural rules to break than Japan, less dirt than China/Vietnam etc its almost as clean as Singapore etc.

[lcmarky]

Interesting read. I've spent a few weeks in China & Thailand on separate occasions, but have thought before of Seoul as a destination..

[veg]

Sounds good Jon
Honestly we are all at an age where some of us are happy to push the boat out and expand our horizons.
I’m off again to South Africa in November ( hopefully) family friends have a lodge in Kruger so v excited and as said previously I’m desperate to do a train then bike trip around India. Grandfather spent years there between the wars with the Royal Berks and I’ve some amazing pics. 👍

[donkeychomp]

Great travel tips Jon. Not been there but I have been to Tokyo once, so maybe a similar climate? I'd class it as fantastically insane.

Alex

[JonW]

Sept 11, 2023 13:23:14 GMT 1 lcmarky said:

Interesting read. I've spent a few weeks in China & Thailand on separate occasions, but have thought before of Seoul as a destination..

You'll find Seoul quite a bit cleaner and more modern, depending on where youve been in those places. More expensive as well but not silly exy.

[JonW]

Sept 11, 2023 18:59:36 GMT 1 veg said:

Sounds good Jon
Honestly we are all at an age where some of us are happy to push the boat out and expand our horizons.
I’m off again to South Africa in November ( hopefully) family friends have a lodge in Kruger so v excited and as said previously I’m desperate to do a train then bike trip around India. Grandfather spent years there between the wars with the Royal Berks and I’ve some amazing pics. 👍

I am a big fan of travel, Ive been doing it all my life. Grew up abroad following my old man around and never seemed to settle... apart from when I got to Aus lol... Tho Ive still always spent money to travel cos i love eating new food. Spicy and tasty is what i crave and new is always better than what Ive had before. Travel gives me that and Ive been lucky to have jobs and a partner who let me.

Seeing how other people live and broadening the mind; its what we were designed for I reckon.

I know a few folk on here have travelled more than I have and Im sure they will agree that the world changes and what was is now gone and new replaces it.

A good example of that is Hong Kong. I know it changed when we gave it back to China, but in the past 5 or so years what was once a tourist heaven is fading fast in those years.

Question is do you visit now before its just another part of China? Ive not been for 10 years and i think i'll feel its changed too much and not for the best. I sort of want it to stay the same, so maybe I'll just leave it as my memories... hmm... thats sad for the locals tho. Lots of head offices have left now as well so the buzz in the evenings will be different as well.. hmm...

Other changes in the past decade even have been good. Comms like data connections have helped navigation, apps have made life easier, education has helped with more people abroad speaking English and technology has meant that things like the overly complex Japanese rail system with multiple companies now operates basically on one simplified ticketing system. 15 years back that was a nightmare to work and the workers spoke zero English. Now they do, now the ticketing works how you think and now we also have instant conversational translation apps like Papago*.

Sounds like youve some great trips planned Tim, good on ya. A few years back a friend of a friend wanted me to accompany him on a Royal Enfield ride across India which he had found online. it looked a good trip but I wasnt a fan of the deal. I dont know if he's done it yet. He's an ex bike cop so happy on any bike and any situation so I bet he has.

* - I did have an amusing incident when I wanted some more rice last week in South Korea in a crowded place. I spoke clearly above the (very loud) din into Papago 'can we please have some rice?'. I was about to let the waitress read the Korean translation Papago provided, but my wife asked to look at the screen... lucky she did. Papago had misheard me and thought i said {drumroll} 'can we please have some guys?'... yeah... classic. luckily easy fixed, but always check if you speak into an app lol.

[JonW]

Sept 11, 2023 21:27:36 GMT 1 donkeychomp said:

Great travel tips Jon. Not been there but I have been to Tokyo once, so maybe a similar climate? I'd class it as fantastically insane.

Alex

Ahh Tokyo... one of my all time fave places in the world.

Climate much the same, yes. A lots of similar cultural things shared with S Korea, but Japan is a bit more serious about decorum etc.

Insane... yes... but less so these days.

I say that as most people now speak some English. Also most cities have bright lights and screens all over the place so it feels less full on that it used to, but depends on where you live i guess.

...but for me (and you i suspect) it still has amazing charm and if a person has never been then I say that they should 100% go there. I'd go back tomorrow if i could, tho i rank Seoul as 'very similar' now that ive been.

[donkeychomp]

Of course I'd go back, and I agree if anyone gets a chance to go there...do it. I was lucky as I went there and got paid for it (working as a courier) and the chap who met me at the airport spoke about 10 words of English (one that began with an F) and I could say hello and beer. So that night off we went and got fairly plastered on the local brew. One thing that surprised me was the way people drove, it was like a class system with big lorries ruling the road and the lowest of the classes were bicycles. Plus everywhere you looked it felt like the set of Blade Runner.

Alex