Ten organisers and supporters of the Llangollen Motorcycle Festival recently returned from a 1000-mile trail bike tour of Vietnam, where they helped some of that country’s poorest schools with gifts and cash donations.
Most of the riders (seven from North Wales, two from England and a Canadian) were on Yamaha XTZ 125s – tough little workhorses that they all came to respect – and two others rode Honda CBZ 125 road bikes that coped amazingly well with some pretty rough terrain.
There was also a Honda XR 150L, which was a seriously good mount for Vietnam as it had everything to cope with larger Westerners.
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“Anything bigger would have been a waste of money given the conditions and speeds,” said LlanBikeFest co-organiser John Hutchinson from Bodelwyddan. “Vietnam definitely isn’t BMW G5 country.
“Trail bikes are rare in Vietnam as the locals do fine with step-throughs, mostly Hondas. We’re all fairly handy trail riders, but on one long climb that we rated between three and four on a scale of five – up on the pegs for a steep, rocky gulley with steps, stones, boulders and sand – we were humbled by meeting a Honda step-through coming happily the other way with a family of three aboard!
Read more in the April issue of OBM – out now!
