First motorbike swap meet to open in Vietnam — TalkVietnam

First motorbike swap meet to open in Vietnam

Posted on July 6, 2014 Written by vovnews Leave a Comment

(VOV) -Motorcycle enthusiasts will have the chance to touch, see and feel the merchandise, or just chat with experienced motorcyclists about the hobby when a bike swap meet is due to open in HCM City later this month.

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The event, dubbed “Silk Road Flea Market“, is expected to attract at least 300 vendors setting up kiosks and stands of all kinds bartering and selling used motorbikes, parts and bike related paraphernalia.



At the 4,200 square meter market, bikers will have a chance to collect old items from classic motorcycles such as handbrakes, wheels and headlights, which most often can be found only in antique shops.

To display or exchange components and vehicles at the market, participants can send their item’s images via email chophien@vietnammotorbikefestival.com. Registration is free of charge.

The market, the first of its kind in Vietnam, is part of this year’s Vietnam Motorbike Festival 2014 set to kick off in Ho Chi Minh City on July 27.

Vietnam Transportation

I don’t want to set the world on fire | Look At Vietnam

I don’t want to set the world on fire 

June 24, 2012

I just want my Chaly to burn to cinders

At least 324 motorbikes have caught fire, in the past two years, and none of them have been mine.
Last month, researchers from the Ho Chi Minh City Refinery and Petrochemical Technology Research Center released a report citing the presence of ethanol and methanol in the town’s gasoline as the possible cause of mysterious vehicle fires.
The researchers noted a rise in the importation of cheap fuel additives into Vietnam and cautioned that these chemicals could cause leaks and excessive heat in automobile and motorcycle engines.
The report was hailed as to the first and only plausible explanation for the fires, but I found it lacking. After all, the authors had failed to mention my rusty Honda Chaly or its refusal to burst into flames.
I bought the bike because it seemed “cool.” By that I mean the bike was far too small to be driven by a grown man. Most of the paint had rusted off the body and the fenders had been replaced by pieces of white plastic.
I quickly learned that the notion of “coolness” doesn’t translate well here. Few things that qualify as “cool” in America could be considered tuyệt cú mèo (interesting owl). No Vietnamese owl, for example, would be caught dead on a dirty old Chaly.
After bringing laughter to stoplights all over town for a few weeks, I began to dream of getting rid of it. I had purchased the Chaly for just US$200 and doubted that I could find anyone to buy it. But my antiquated bike seemed like an ideal candidate for a fantastic vehicle fire – and what would interest an owl more than a daring motorbike blaze?
“Foreigner’s cool bike catches fire” the headlines would read. I might even get some sort of parade.
Early government reports had attributed the fires to arsonists. Naturally, I considered picking a fight with some arsonists. The problem was, I didn’t know any.


But, my bike looked like it would have no trouble catching fire all on its own. A tangled mass of old wiring poured out of the body and snaked into a dim headlight (the vehicles’ only functioning electrical feature), which turned off and on with the help of a jury-rigged orange light switch.
The filthy 49cc engine had the horsepower of roughly one sick pony — barely enough juice to shuttle a Japanese person from the 70’s around town, let alone a heavy American from the future and his frustrated passengers.
In an effort to overheat the tiny engine, I pushed the bike hard.
At full-throttle, the Chaly reached staggering speeds of up to 40kmh and emitted a pathetic high-pitched groan. After a few weeks of steady abuse, the engine began to leak a combination of oil and gasoline. A promising bouquet of fumes accompanied the drip and I began offering smokers free rides.
At the same time, I tried to keep the Chaly on a strict diet of dangerous additives, by buying all my fuel in plastic water bottles at shady roadside kiosks.
Sadly, nothing could get my Chaly to burst into flames. In the end, I felt like a fool. After all, my motorbike has been not catching fire since 1977. In recent weeks, I’ve stopped hoping for the immolation of the Chaly. Instead, we’ve come to a strange truce. After all, we can’t all be cool—owls be damned.

By Calvin Godfrey, Thanh Nien News (The story can be found in the June 8th issue of our print edition, Vietweek) 

Scrap motorbikes, huge waste

Hundreds of motorbikes left on pavement for years – huge waste

April 15, 2012

LookAtVietnam – Hundreds of motorbikes of all brands, which belong to traffic rule violators, have been left outdoor on the pavement of Hanoi’s Phu Doan street for a year. They are now scrap.
A street cleaner from the Hanoi Environment and Urban Company says that last July 2011, she saw a truck carrying motorbikes to Phu Doan Street and left motorbikes on the pavement.
These vehicles, which are valuable assets of Vietnamese, are left outdoor for nearly a year and they are not taken care of by anyone. They have been ruined to become scrap.
Local residents say that they feel unhappy because such valuable assets are not used and being ruined.
Correspondents are investigating who take responsible for the vehicles.

Tien Phong

It’s a national disaster | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

It’s a national disaster

January 15, 2011 about News

Victim of a motorbike accident sits on a sidewalk in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District.

Sometimes, disasters are not so in-your-face, like a tsunami or an earthquake.
They could happen in bits and pieces, in trickles instead of a deluge, and we are not likely to see them as a full-scale disaster.
Last month, a national conference on traffic safety in Hanoi reported that 11,449 people were killed in 14,442 traffic accidents in the country last year. 10,663 others were injured.
Compared to the previous year, the number of cases increased by 1,788.
While the death toll went down by 47, the number of injuries went up by 2,500.
The figures get scarier if we look at them closely, and make a few calculations and comparisons.
The latest death toll means 31 people die every day, 217 a week - the casualty rate of a plane crash. At the current rate of traffic fatalities, the equivalent of the entire population of a mountainous district of 30,000 people would be wiped out in less than three years.
The consequences of these accidents don’t stop at the loss of life and the injuries sustained.
A report by the World Health Organization says that road accidents cost between 1-2 percent of GDP in developing countries. That kind of money, which can be used to help thousands of poor people, is spent on treating victims of traffic accidents.
The government set up a National Traffic Safety Committee, and several agencies to enforce traffic laws. Traffic safety news is aired every day on national television, and thousands of community activities are held to promote traffic safety.
But traffic accidents have not decreased. Why?
More than a month ago, I caught a bus from the central province of Quang Tri to Nghe An Province. Like most other buses running from the north to the south, this one was also old, and very crowded.
When it rained, the whole windshield became opaque, as wipers broke down. But, the driver was still speeding and almost crashed into vehicles running in the opposite direction many times.
It’s unbelievable that the lives of people on the bus were at risk because of broken windshield wipers and an irresponsible driver.
If traffic officials agree to take a trip from north to south by motorbike or an old bus like millions of ordinary people, instead of by plane or car, they will understand better the risks involved, and come up with more effective policies.
We are lucky to live in a peaceful country. But how peaceful is it when we face the threat of traffic accidents whenever we go out.
We have talked so much about the causes of traffic accidents – increasing urban population density, increasing number of vehicles, poor awareness of traffic regulations, infrastructural deficiencies and so on.
But, as long as we aren’t fully aware of the reasons behind and consequences of traffic accidents, we are doomed to revisit these figures every year. We have to recognize the scale of this problem: it is truly a national disaster.

By Le Duc Duc (Tuoi Tre)

Dragging pork on Hanoi streets | Dragging pork on Hanoi streets

Dragging pork on Hanoi streets

VietNamNet Bridge – In the early morning, dozens of motorbikes drag slaughtered pigs from Hanoi’s biggest slaughtering house in Thinh Liet street to markets in Hanoi.

These photos were taken before the slaughtering house closed.

Source: VNE

Surviving Saigon on Motorbike

  Kaitlyn Barrett surviving Saigon on the back of a motorbike. There ought to be a medal for something like that.
You know how you’re driving and sometimes wish you could just turn around in the middle of the road, reverse until you get to that exit you just missed or haul ass down a one way street going the wrong way? Well, in Saigon, you can. Just go over there from over here, crowd into the same lane as the other five motorbikes and the car and the seven bicycles and the bus, ignore the stop lights and go as fast as traffic will allow. Sidewalk? No problem. One way street? We laugh at you. Painted lines on the street? A waste of money and a waste of paint. Red light? Green light? Both mean Go. It’s hair raising.
Let’s clarify that I did not drive. I would not be writing this story had I tried to drive. I ventured a trial run down the alley but was not up to Saigon standards so I forfeited and my friend Jack drove. And the minute we got on the bike it started to downpour. Of course. And we only had one rain poncho. Naturally. So he wore it and I hid under the back. Ever tried to navigate with a sopping wet copy of Lonely Planet Vietnam while hiding under a poncho on the back of a motorbike  in a tropical rainstorm as street signs you can’t read whip by and you’re driven through traffic circles of death? No? Well, it’s tricky.

View from the bike

I’m not even sure Jack heard many of my navigational suggestions as he just kept muttering “Merge seamlessly… Merge seamlessly…” and dashing around little old ladies on bicycles. After an hour of this harrowing adventure, we finally made it out of the city and drove past a market and I yelled up that it might be nice to stop and get something to eat and maybe take a break from the Death Race 2010. So, he stopped a block away, turned around and drove against traffic until we got back to the market. He’s hardcore.
We parked at the market, staggered shakily off the bike and walked down the street to where we saw a restaurant. But when we walked in we realized it was a gentleman’s club. Not only were there no Westerners, but there were no women there who weren’t working. The owner stopped us at the door and Jack gestured at me like, “Is this ok??” The owner looked at us, took a minute and then nodded. So, we sat down and the girls ran up to attend us while a hush fell over the whole place and everyone watched every move we made. Then we got menus in Vietnamese. With no pictures. And no one sitting next close enough to us to point and say something like “Bring us some of that!”
But here’s where your choice of traveling companion is paramount and mine was stellar because Jack just rubbed his hands, grinned and said “I love menu roulette!” He started flipping through pages pointing at various things saying “Is this good??” in English, while the waitress looked at him blankly. Then he covered his eyes with one hand, flipped the pages and pointed at something and parted his fingers to peek at her.
Our waitress started laughing when she got the game and soon all the girls were standing around our table watching the show. As he pointed to more things, some of them shook their heads and made faces like “Yuck!” So Jack kept pointing until they all nodded. The girls wrote our “order” down and took it away and we decided that the only potential downside was if we liked the food and could never order it again because we had no idea what it was. Which is exactly what happened.

Street food

Some kind of tofu with pork in a spicily sweet barbeque type sauce arrived in a big steaming pot. Delicious. When we finished it the waitress brought over a dish of grilled hot dogs cut into pieces, plunked it on the table, said “Free!” and left. I’m pretty sure that meant “We never get Westerners in here but we hear this is what they eat so we want to treat you to something we’re sure you’ll like.” Isn’t that lovely? An hour later when we left all the girls waved goodbye and shouted things in Vietnamese that probably meant “Goodbye! Thanks for coming in! Learn some Vietnamese for the next time you come back!”
Then we got incredibly lost trying to get back into District 1.
Five hours later we were finally having a drink at the bar telling stories about our brushes with death and inspecting our wounds. My knee got bashed up pretty good from a small misjudgment about how close we were to a neighboring motorbike; and I have a bruise on my arm, another on my foot and a scrape on my leg, all of which kind of stopped a bike from running us over. Jack got off pretty easy with just an elbow that had a very close encounter with a headlight; but he did have to drive, so I think the psychological scarring will show up later. As we told stories to the Vietnamese guys we rented the bikes from they laughed and showed us the scrapes and bruises and scabs all over their arms and legs from their most recent drives out in the city. Good to know it’s not just the tourists who shed blood all over the streets.
So here’s the thing: In one day I saw most of Saigon from the back of a motorbike huddled under a poncho. If you think you can handle NASCAR and you have the reflexes of a lightning bolt, I would definitely recommend it. Just rent a bike, start driving and see where you end up. And remember: Merge Seamlessly.
Written by Kaitlyn Barrett

Hanoi supermarkets win on “Golden Sale Promotion Day” | Look At Vietnam

LookAtVietnam – Supermarkets in Hanoi witnessed a chaotic day on November 15, when Hanoians flocked there to purchase goods on a promotional day.

At Big C, 2,000 customers reportedly waited in front of the supermarket before 8 am. The road outside the supermarket was a constant traffic jam and the motorbike parking area stayed full. VnExpress reporters noted that they could see many cars with strange plate numbers from other provinces.

Inside the supermarket, there were so many visitors that the escalator stopped working because of overloading. Visitors had to move step by step at stalls.

Kim Hanh, a housewife from Ha Dong, left home at 9 am, but she could not reach the second floor of the supermarket until 11 am because of traffic. Hanh still could not shop at 11 am because of too many other customers. She and her son left for lunch and returned in the afternoon, when many visitors had left already.

The same situation could be seen at many other supermarkets. Pico Plaza was full of visitors from 7:30am onward.

The “Golden Sale Promotion Day” on November 15 was the focus of a promotional month initiated by Hanoi City, under which customers have been promised to enjoy 30-50 percent price reductions at big supermarkets like Metro, Viet Long, Fivimart, Big C and Nguyen Kim Shopping Centre.

In November 2009 as a whole, customers can purchase goods with discounts of 15-50 percent at nearly 1,000 sale points across the city.

Ngo Thanh Dat, Head of the Marketing Division for Pico Plaza, said that Pico had to use all officers it had to serve clients while the supermarket was overcrowded.

The promotion really helped heat up November, because people delayed purchases until the “golden day,” so as to enjoy the hefty discount rates of 30-50 percent.

At supermarkets, discounts have been offered for a wide range of products, including food, drink, consumer goods, apparel, footwear and electronics. Electronics like digital cameras have discounts of up to 50 percent.

Dat said that digital cameras, washing machines and LCD TVs are the best sellers. He said that the sales of LCD TVs were five times more than on an ordinary day. Pico had sales of 12 billion dong just from yesterday morning.

“The number of visitors was four times bigger than normal,” Dat said, adding that a lot of visitors had to park motorbikes outside the supermarket, because its parking capacity of 3,000-4,000 motorbikes was not enough.

Big C’s Deputy Director Nguyen Thai Dung said that the number of visitors was twice as on previous weekends and triple ordinary days.

In general, supermarkets expects to sell 150 billion dong worth of goods during the promotion month, double previous months. On November 15, the price discounts of 30-50 percent were offered for 20 percent of displayed goods.

VietNamNet/VNE

First motorbike tour through three countries

First motorbike tour through three countries: "The Ho Chi Minh City-based Viking Tourism and Communication Company, in conjunction with the General Department of Tourism of Thailand, will hold the Vietnam Motor Caravan 2009 on April 25th.
According to Viking’s director Tran Xuan Hung, in just 8 days, riders will complete an itinerary of around 3,000 kilometers, from Ho Chi Minh City to Cambodia and Thailand, visiting various beautiful and historic sites in the three countries.
The caravan will draw the participation of 40 motorists on 35 400cc-engine motorbikes, selected from motor clubs in Ho Chi Minh city and Nha Trang.
Source: thesaigontimes
Translated by Vu Hung"

Motorbike taxi team for tourist in resort city

Fantastic! Only in Viet Nam!” – that was the comment from David, an Australian tourist, about the motorbike taxi team for tourism in the foggy city Da Lat.
That is a special riding team of 78 members undertaking long-time tours through Viet Nam, some of which are roughly a month. All of them are very fluent in English. Some can even speak German, or French. The team also owns a quite ‘western style’ website: http://www.dalat-easyrider.com.vn/
The outstanding figures
It is quite difficult to arrange a meeting with these motorbike riders as at this time they are on Hon Khoai Island of Ca Mau Province, another time they are exploring Nguom Ngao Cave of Cao Bang with tourists.
At last, we scheduled a meeting with them, not at a certain street corner or sidewalk, but at a deluxe café specialized in serving foreigners on Phan Dinh Phung Street, Da Lat City. ‘Rocky’ Thien, a member of the team, told us while busy with his computer, “Our daily task is to check our e-mail and Web site to give advice as well as to accept booking requirements of tourists to any places in Viet Nam.”
“At first, we were quite afraid when encountering foreigners since we are only good at their languages, not at cultural and historical knowledge of Viet Nam or other countries. However, because of the urge to earn our living as well as our passion for traveling, we trained ourselves in those fields and our tourism competence, thus becoming very professional”, rider An said.
Rides take tourists to Dac Lac, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, and Ninh Thuan and help them get accustomed to the job. Their salary is now more than enough for the daily needs of their family. The team operates in an orderly way with a captain, a vice-captain, a discipline board, a financial board, and a money keeper. ‘Rocky’ Thien said, “They are solely to ensure an effective operation. They take no salary for these tasks.”
‘Rocky’ Thien was born in 1979 and got acquainted with the job of a taxi motorbike rider when he was still a tourism student at Da Lat University. From a part time job, it has become his main pursuit until now. Other team members from different areas have done various jobs before: ‘Rocky’ Thien used to be the owner of two restaurants, Mr. Duong was once a soldier, Mr. Long Duc used to be the leader of an interpreter team for Vietnamese workers in Germany, and ‘professor’ An was a French language teacher before 1975.
Many interests

more info-->>VietNamNet - Motorbike taxi team for tourist in resort city

Vietnamese buying less gas after price hike

Gasoline companies are paying for Monday’s price hike as Ho Chi Minh City residents are switching from motor scooters to bikes and buses to avoid the new costs.
Le Thi Anh Man, deputy general director of Saigon Petro, said the company’s sales had dropped about 30-40 percent since the increase in gasoline prices.
Though deputy director of Petrolimex Region II Company Nguyen Van Canh said his client stations in HCMC were still buying the same amount of gas, he admitted that sales in the provinces, where people are generally poorer, had fallen 15 percent since the price hike.
M., a salesman at a Petrolimex station in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3, said the number of customers at his station had declined noticeably and that they were buying far lower quantities of gas per trip.
Customers used to buy at least two liters of gas for their motorbikes but now most of them asked for only VND20,000 (US$1.19) worth of gas, he said, adding that some even insisted on one liter exactly (VND19,000), demanding VND1,000 in change.
Going electric
Kieu Tien, a telephone operator at the HCMC information directory, said she just bought a new electric bicycle to ride to the office, even thought the trip already took her 30 minutes by motorbike.
She said it used to cost her VND35,000 to fill up her motorbike every four days but after the gas hike on Monday she had to pay VND53,000 for the same amount of gas.
After riding her electric bike to work for just a short time, Tien said the bike paid for itself with the money she saved from not buying gas.
Many electric bicycle shops along Vo Thi Sau Street in District 3 said their sales had increased since the surge in gas prices.
Shop 152’s sales have jumped 50 percent as the store is now selling eight bikes per day.
Two shops selling Asama brand electric bikes in District 3 and Tan Binh District said they’ve sold out of popular bike models and many customers had paid deposits for bikes that were on order.
Asama is a popular brand from Taiwan.
According to Asama’s Vietnam sales department, the company manufactures 250-300 electric bikes in the country every day, but the number was not enough to meet the needs of the Vietnamese market since the gas hike.
Secondhand bicycles are also selling quicker than before.
Many shops on Bui Huu Nghia Street in Binh Thanh District are refurbishing old bicycles to meet the new demand for gas-free vehicles.
A bike shop owner named Luong said average secondhand bicycles cost only VND250,000, while higher quality Japanese bikes could cost up to VND1 million.
He said his customers were mainly average-income blue-collar workers who didn’t need brand new bikes.
Catching the bus
Nguyen Huu Nhan, deputy head of Rang Dong Bus Cooperative, said more people were now buying monthly bus passes than before.
Phung Dang Hai, general director of the HCMC Transport Cooperative Union, said the number of passengers on the cooperative’s buses had increased by 5-10 percent over the first three days this week.
The cooperative was expecting a 30 percent increase in passenger transport once major road projects were completed, Hai said.
According to the HCMC Public Transport Management and Administration Center, the number of bus passengers in the city generally increased by about 10 percent after every gas price hike.
Source: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam adopts Euro II standards to cut emissions

Vietnam today will implement Euro II emission standards for all new cars and motorbikes in a bid to reduce air pollution.


Trinh Ngoc Giao, head of the Vietnam Registration Administration, said while new vehicles must conform to Euro II standards, all road vehicles starting today will be subject to a compulsory verification of exhaust fumes emission whenever they undergo maintenance check-ups.

The required check on vehicles’ emissions will not increase the fee the check-up package, Giao said.

He said during the past two years of Euro II standards application in five cities – Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Da Nang and Hai Phong – the new regulation has received support from the public and vehicle owners.

He also said inspectors from his agency would conduct spontaneous probes at local registration stations to verify emission standards and resolve negative issues, if any arise.

Euro II places a cap on emitted sulfur at 0.05 and limits benzene and aromatics content in fuel.

Sulfur is blamed for acid rain and lung problems.

Around 850,000 cars have been registered in Vietnam.