Riding with my mates in Thailand | Enduro Madness Ep 1

Let me introduce you to a couple of my old friends. Hammo, who I have to thank for inviting me onto this legendary tour. And you all know GP. I'm really excited. Pick a tour bike, they said. So I grabbed the number one machine to set the tone for the week. All I've gone and done is accepted the most pressure. Come on. You did mate, that's true. Nah, this will be fun, I just want a holiday to be honest. You do mate. I've given you an AG bike to ride. An Aggie. Thailand and some mates. Absolutely. What else do we need? There's nothing else. Sums it up mate. A few of the boys on tour are friends with everyone, but most of us are just friends of friends and we're all evenly matched on these trusty little CRF300Ls. Okay, so today guys is the first day's ride. It's where we usually have most of the accidents because of all the adrenaline guys. There's no refund if unfortunately you hurt yourself in the first place. Look at the selection of outfits and open-face helmets. Look at this Evel Knievel spec. I'm just in awe of that helmet. Look at Bradley's open face with his iPhone ready gloves, you're so into this. Check the brakes. Got a rear lock up, got a front's a bit spongy. That's probably a good thing on these wet Thai roads. Just blend in. Let's go. Oh she's an Aggie. She's a high performance Thai AG bike. Look at this motley crew. Steely that grin is epic. It's too big. I've always wanted to do an adventure with GB and here he is in Thailand. With the boys and his open-faced lid, they love it and he's got his he's got his tradie glasses. Look at the way they use their motorcycles for life, like look at the veggies, look at the look at the grocery shop happening here. They're just from birth have been on motorcycles. The off-road begins. Hammer with JB. GB is riding very politely. Oh the brakes aren't all the best. Look at Ballard, 65 years old and just silky smooth. Given this is an organised tour company, appropriately named Enduro Madness, they have a team of four guides who are leading, sweeping and circulating among the group. With the first off-road shakedown done, the boys are making some set-up adjustments to their bikes before things get too serious. And with the GoPro mounted on Wonka's helmet too, we'll be catching twice the action on this trip. And as far as trail etiquette goes, when you're riding with your mates, it's basically a game of pass or be passed. And with a bunch of ex-racers in the group, there's going to be a lot of moves being executed on trail. Josh, my old mates from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Ha ha ha ha! These things are just mountain goats, aren't they? Yeah Bradley! Wonka look at him on his little trail bike. These things are GOATS! They climb anything! So epic! Looks like Bradley's right on point with his helmet cam. What do you reckon Bradley? Yeah. Unstoppable. Good line mate. Unstoppable on the hills. My helmet got caught on this. I got rinsed off the bike. Only in Thailand. Yeah there was a lot of action. Getting a perspective of the terrain ahead, it seems we're in for some serious off-road. Have you got any tigers in this jungle? Downhill action! The chaos of it all. The boys are charging in all directions. This is funny. It's funny. Josh in his work boots, military spec outfit, just getting it done, on the pegs son! For the majority of people in Thailand, Buddhism is considered a philosophy for how to live one's life, and adhere to the principles of tolerance and merit. These strong values are found throughout Thai culture, and of all the Asian countries I've have ever visited. Thailand is most certainly a peaceful place full of friendly people. Hopefully we're heading into the jungle. Oh, this looks like fun. This looks like a bit of fun. Ammo's up on the pegs and loving it. Audio, Bradley. The group is slowly getting conditioned to our antics. Wonka and I battled for years when I lived in Sydney. He'd mainly used me for cat and mouse training during his years of racing for Australian titles and championships. While it's all fun and games, sometimes our lesser experienced buddies get caught up in the runaway train. Sorry Nige, no time for sympathy while the train's running hot, better luck next time. Bradley's on! Oh nice work Bradley! Somebody's slotted in, GB's slotted in, let's see how the master performs. Jeff's moving, but I gotta try and put a pass on him, try and put a pass on the boss, it's not gonna be easy. I think they've nailed the name. Enduro Madness. It sounded a bit like... Oh you know that's that's funny okay well whatever just give it a name but it's actually the ride is actually what the name is. It's Enduro Madness. Madness on these bikes That's great. It is. You're definitely not slowing down in your statesman here Jeff, are you? No you're not. That was a lot of fun in there. Thank you very much. Conditions are unreal, aren't they? Thank you very much. I don't know, you just have a freedom out there, don't you? You do. It's funny how a rut is a rut, even if it's in Thailand. There's not southern hemisphere ruts in northern Thailand. Yeah, when you show up into these forests that have been cut to pieces with dirt bikes, it's just our territory, isn't it? Yes. You feel right, you don't mind holding it on. You forget that you're in a foreign country. I realised on the way over here looking at the map. We're actually in the Northern Hemisphere. We have jumped the equator, haven't we? Quick debrief. Thank you. . How's the day been, mate? . Awesome. . . Yeah, good. Settle down. . . What? . . It's not wasted, it was filmed. . Of course it was. Mate, the all-seeing eyes are everywhere. It was legendary. River Raid. It's a river raid with the boys. Nice. I forgot. Happy birthday, man. What the ****? Yes, that has been so funny. Today's ride has taken us out of Chiang Mai through surrounding farmland and deep into the Thai jungle towards our first overnight stop. But this recently flooded river is slowing our progress and inevitably brings us to a halt. We've actually made it to the other side, giving some of the boys a false sense of hope. Don't turn it on! Hey, don't turn it on! I think that's the bog record for today. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, here we go. Nice. Come on. Woo-hoo. Yeah. Nice. All right, today. Ah, whoo! Let the resuscitations begin. I'm still waving them through without realising we're supposed to turn further back into the jungle. Come on Bradley! Four bikes across and two drowned bikes later we finally get word from the sweeps to backtrack down river again. A little skeptical about how we're getting out of this jungle. It's your first time. This is... it's unexpectedly cold. Yeah, I thought we'd be like... Everybody is shivering. Jungle, humid jungle. Well, you know. Everybody is head to toe soaked and then you've got half an hour on the highway. Just had a great lunch in there and now everyone's gathering their senses, getting their core temperature back up. A couple of oil changes on a few drowned bikes. Business as usual. Sun, 35. I've found us some Thailand rum. It smells powerful. Sangsom. We're going to start about like that. And like that. One of them, one of them. Some of that, not too much, because it's gut rot. And then we'll seal the deal with this lion water. Oh yeah, that's going to be really, really good. Well, we've got a quiet moment. Just in the morning, Mr. Keg's already given me the news. So 7.30 for breakfast at the pool. Cheers. Happy birthday. And then all dressed, ready, on the bike for 9 o'clock. Do you have a bill? Easy. 35. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thanks guys. It's a slab of lemon cheesecake. Lemon cake. Lemon cake. Lemon cake. This is a. Lemon cake. Woo. Lemon cake. And it actually said it had a beverage. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. It's a bread You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. roll with You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. You can sell it. some kind You can sell it. of food in it.