Betong-Songkhla ExpeditionRide (Day 2)

It's the 2nd day of the expedition. We slept quite soundly last nite, a much needed rest.

Feeling fresh and high spirited, we started our Day 2 with a breakfast at a Halal restaurant serving a local favourite food. I forgot what it's called though but it's yellow rice cooked with chicken. Although it doesn't come with any soup whatsoever, it is moist and good enough to eat as it is.

So, today we are heading to Songkhla and we are not going to follow highways or the likes. Instead, we are going through the trunk roads or the smaller and more winding roads.

At the Bannang District, we went to a cave called Tham Krachaeng (Krachaeng Cave). This cave is located at Ban Ka Sot, Tambon Bannang Sata, about 50km from Amphoe Muang Yala on Route 410. It has a good scenery of mountains and a stream running through the cave. Once we exited the 410, we went on a dirt road for about 1.5km. It was my first time riding on a dirt road and not to mention, on a tall, big and heavy bike. It went smooth anyway and it was awesome!

The surrounding atmosphere was very calm and relaxing. Next is the Khao Nam Kang National Park . The Park is about 200km square. Its attractions are the rainforest greens, its many waterfalls, and the hand made communist tunnel.

We arrived at Songkhla at about 1900hrs and to our surprise, a lot of the hotels there were fully booked (note to self: book your hotel room in advance). Hence, we had to look around and made lots of calls to any hotel we Googled. And when all hopes seemed lost, we found a small hotel just outside the town area called the Lake Inn Hotel . It was an OK hotel with not much to complain about, except may be the water pressure in the shower. Wi-fi is available at all floors, only thing is either you get a good signal or not.

And again, we had seafood dinner that night at the famous spot in Songkhla, Samila Beach. Our dinner highlight was the Belangkas (Atlantic Horseshoe Crab).

If you ask me, you'll like it only if you like it. Not me! Bluuueerrkk! With Belangkas, you only eat the eggs and not the meat (well, I don't even know if they have any meat). It taste horrible! But some people like it, so I guess it was just me.

After dinner, We went straight to our hotel and retire. We are heading back to Kuala Lumpur and I for one, really need the rest.

All-in-all, it was a great experience for me. Me and the guys are planning to do a trip like this again but with more challenging route and perhaps we can explore other point-of-interests along the way. It'll be a cool "discovery' ride.

Ciao!

Betong-Songkhla Expedition (Day 1)

Hi Guys. This is something different for me. Since I got my MTS...I've never rode further than 200km. So this will be the first long-distance ride for my MTS.

On 13 Sep 2013, me and some mates decided to go on a journey that most of us have never done before. An endurance ride from Betong, Thailand to Songkhla, Thailand. It was a three days and two nights trip.

We were a 6-rider party, a mixture of three MTS's, one BMW GSA1200, BMW RT, and a Ducati Monster 696. Pushed off from Kuala Lumpur at about 0730. Our first stop was at Tapah Rest Area along the PLUS Highway to have quick breakfast.

After breakfast we continued our journey. We did a detour to Bertam, a town in Penang state. There, some of us got their CTC (certified true copy) stamp on their bike grants. It is required by Malaysia Immigration for Malaysian vehicle to cross into Thailand. Sometimes, both Thai and Malaysian Immigration don't really check for the CTC stamp, but since it is required in their standard operating procedure, doing so will just minimize unnecessary hickups. 

Soon after we proceeded to Betong, our first destination of the trip. We went on a Federal trunk road going through Baling and Pengkalan Hulu and just slightly above an hour, we arrived at the Pengkalan Hulu-Betong border. 

The border was not busy, well at least not as busy at Bukit Kayu Hitam-Danok border. All six of us got everything done within 30 minutes.

In Betong, we stayed at the Sweet Home Hotel. Clean and spacious room with queen-sized bed. Good hospitality, ample parking space. The hotel is located at the town so you can just walk around. Alternatively, one can go on a Tuk Tuk. 

We had a rather long day. an eight hours ride from Kuala Lumpur to Betong. By right, time taken should just be slightly over four hours to get to Betong from Kuala Lumpur. But we had quite a few occurrences along the way. Anyhow, we did look for an adventure!

There's a few things you can do in Betong like shopping and they do have some local delicacies and cuisines that are awesome. But I think, Betong is more of an entertainment place. Many clubs, pubs, karaoke joints that you can go to. I'd recommend the Jockey Club (go and surprise yourself!). Here, you don't need Thai Baht, Malaysia Ringgit is widely accepted. The people here can either speak English and/or Malay, although a little but enough to get by. 

We didn't do much though. We arrived at our hotel at around 1600, as soon as everybody settled down, we went out to look for our late lunch. Starving! After lunch we went around town, did a little bit of pub hoping, and went for a body massage. It's bloody cheap! MYR30 for a one-hour full body oil massage. After a fulfilling seafood dinner, we retired for the day and get ready for tomorrow's adventure.

A new brain..

About two weeks ago, I installed a MIVV Souno exhaust together with a decatalytic (decat) pipe on my Multistrada (MTS). So now the air flow is tempered with and therefore has changed as opposed to the parameters set in my Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

The ECU contains a set of air-fuel mixture setting with a specific type of exhaust system. I changed the stock air filter to a BMC performance air filter hence giving better air in-flow to the machine and also, I changed the exhaust system from a stock exhaust with a catalytic converter to a MIVV Suono slip-on exhaust and a decat pipe hence giving a different and better air flow. But my ECU parameters are still factory-set settings.

To get an optimum output from my new modifications, an ECU remapping is needed. Well, of course, there are two (to my knowledge) different school of thoughts. The first encourages to remap and the other says no need for ECU remapping, just install a Power Commander 5 (PC5) or a Bazaaz will be enough. PC5 and the likes piggyback the ECU. Meaning, you can alter your factory-programmed ECU parameters without remapping and the PC5 tells the ECU what to do. As in, how much fuel for this much of air, and etc. But I chose to remap my ECU, give it a new brain so to speak.

Sent my bike to Motorcraft Performance Lab for the job. It took us about 30 minutes to remap the ECU at a price of MYR1,500 (including DYNO). It is a worthwhile investment. Now my MTS runs superbly awesome with power always at the ready! And really brings out the beast in the sound of my pipe..hehe.

I would recommend anybody to remap their ECUs especially if they have changed their stock exhaust and/or factory-fitted air filter. Notwithstanding, Termignoni exhausts always come with its own ECU or a pen-drive that contains a new ECU parameter. So for Termignoni users, I'd say there's no need for you to remap your ECU unless, you want more power on your bikes.

Well, the bike is what I have expected to be before I remapped the ECU. In fact, it's slightly beyond expectation. With the kind of power it can deliver, I don't know if I will ever change to Sport mode..haha. Touring mode is more than enough for road riding. Time to ride ! Ciao !