Hi guys...I am middle age man working in Bangkok. I am considering buying a motorcycle to ride to work, shopping and gym, etc. mainly in Bangkok. I reckon get a car is not essential for me because I live just within 5 km from the office and the cost of petrol lead me to consider other option, a motorbike. But I am not interested in getting a small bike or too big one. I would like to get a bike with engines between 200cc to 400cc bike. I am very much interested in Honda Phantom and Kawasaki Boss.

As a first time buyer, I dont have much information and experienced to make a good decision now. Would you please advise which bike maybe appropriate for me? My budget is up to B200,000 (or a little bit more). I am thinking to get a new bike rather than second hand because of less maintainance cost. I like the look of Honda Phantom but I have no idea how good it is to ride in Bangkok and cost of maintainance, etc.

Those of you who have experienced in riding Honda Phantom and other bikes, please advice me.

Thanks

Nat

The Honda Phantom is something I would never recommend; it has lots of cheap looking plastic and even with all this cheap plastic the weight to engine performance magnificent bad. If Honda sold this bike in the US they probably got lawsuit after lawsuit for having dangerous road control and poor quality...

For everybody with a budget fewer than 100,000 Baht looking for an easy ride I would say go for a Kawasaki 175 Boss. And if you live not far from a Tiger motorcycle dealer I would advice you to look at the Tiger Boxer 200PX or the latest upcoming Tiger Boxer 250 RS which are both still will under the 100,000 Baht range.

If you look for something a bit better, Kawasaki is going to offer two 250cc motorcycles within a few months, first the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, and second the Kawasaki D-Tracker 250. The first the Kawasaki Ninja 250 is with its cost of about 160,000 Baht probably the best buy if you like a powerful little motorcycles. For daily riding, the riding position can be a bit uncomfortable in downtown traffic. The second the Kawasaki D-tracker, which is a single cylinder 250cc Motard style motorcycle, with a straight up riding position and comfortable city riding is probably the best choice. It will cost about the same as the Kawasaki Ninja 250R.