Two-Wheeling in Việt Nam

Maybe you are a dedicated motorcyclist in North America, Europe, Australia, or other industrialized country  – or maybe you are newly arrived in Việt Nam and you’d like to make things a little easier on yourself and ride one of the ubiquitous motorbikes seen all over the country.  They are easy to rent, and cheap to buy.

The Vietnamese call them a môto, and they are quite different from a motorcycle.  Yes – they look pretty much the same.  They have two wheels, a small engine, and a seat designed to carry two people (albeit small Asian people.)  There is a throttle on the handlebars operated by the right hand, and a lever for the front brake.  There is a foot pedal for the rear brake, and a foot lever for shifting the gears.  It has a headlight, brake light, and turn signals.  Sounds like a motorcycle – but it ain’t.

A môto is intended to be an inexpensive people mover around an urban area.  Motorcycles are intended to be ridden at American highways speeds.  (I’m not talking about dirt bikes here – that’s another story.)  The engine in a môto cannot be bigger than 125 cc, and can only be one cylinder.  Bigger than that, and they are taxed at a much higher rate.   I cannot think of a street bike in America with an engine smaller than 250 cc, and they are usually twin cylinders.  The môto is geared for lugging heavy loads around at slow speeds.  I seldom use first gear – even with the Mystery Guest Blogger on the back – simply because I don’t need it.  First gear is suitable for pulling tree stumps.   In normal driving around Huê, I seldom go faster than 30 kilometers per hour.  (About 18 miles per hour.)  Pretty slow, eh?

Môtos are also easy to ride.  They have no hand clutch, but rather an automatic  centrifugal clutch that engages the gears as you add power.  Need to shift gears?  Just back off on the throttle, then snick the front of the gear lever down.  (Motorcycle riders can be confused by this at first – you want to use your toe to lift the gear lever, but a môto is designed to just rotate through the gears by pressing down all the time.  You can downshift if you want, but you do it by stepping on the back part of the gear shifter.  If you are not a motorcyclist, and have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it.)  Pay a few thousand dông more, and you can buy a môto that looks like a scooter and has an automatic transmission.

A motorcycle is designed to carry a person at highway speeds with neck-snapping acceleration.  Maybe – just maybe – a môto will go 60 kilometers per hour (about 38 miles per hour.)  In America, you will get run over at that speed.

A môto is intended to be primary transportation.  Few people in the west own motorcycles as their only transportation – a motorcycle is a luxury for having fun.

Probably the biggest deterrent for most foreigners to riding a môto in Việt Nam is the daunting traffic patterns – or, in reality, the lack of traffic patterns.  When you arrive in the country, and are riding through the streets of Sài Gòn or Hà Nội  in your air conditioned bus, the traffic looks positively chaotic.

And, it is.

How to learn the traffic patterns?

Ride a bicycle for a few months.  You can’t learn the traffic patterns from a car window nor while walking – you need to be in the traffic on two wheels.  A bike is the safest way to learn.  The Mystery Guest Blogger wrote an excellent story about bicycling on May 30th.  Also take a look at the posting on Antidote to Burnout, a blog by a man making his first sojourn back to Việt Nam since 1972.  It’s true – there is no road rage in Việt Nam, and its also true about people cutting you off, turning into traffic ahead of you, turning right from the left-hand lane, kids riding four abreast on their bikes, and riders doing other things that would irritate a saint in America.  But there is no road rage.

Read both postings – then come back for more on Two-Wheeling in Việt Nam.

Comments

[vunguyen]

Pay a few thousand dông more --> I guess you mean millions ^^. Oh, or perhap you mean rent, not buy?

[The Hoppy Mailman]

I was trying to remember how "big" that bike of yours was in Atlanta? With the price of gas now around $2.80 a gallon here in Denver, you see more and more people on Vespa scooters. You just have to worry about other people not seeing you.

[Chris]

Have you seen the "xe mini" which started to appear in Ha Noi around June or July? It really is a mini bike, barely as high as your knee, and weighing in at less than 20 kg. The motor is only 30cc, but this bike can reach 50-60 km/hr. It costs around 5000 dong. They look like toys and it's funny to see a grown man riding one, holding on to the handle bars positioned below his knees. It's even funnier if he is riding beside a regular motorbike. There are some problems though. Due to the fact that this bike is so low, visibility is reduced both for the driver and for others, who don't see him coming.

I've just discovered your post. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Excellent writing. I was in Hue for two weeks this past March and really loved it. Have to come back. Where in Hue do you live?

[Doug]

I hope some of you come back to check your comments.

Nguyen - yes, millions! Those "scooters" are expensive!

My bike in Atlanta was small - a mere 350 cc, or over 3 times the power of the moto.

No - have not seen the new xe mini -

And - would the commenter from Harvard please post another comment and leave your email address? I'd like to talk to you.

[VuNguyen]

I have a few advices for those who are new to the traffic in VietNam:
1. When you walk across street: don't worry, leave the 'job' to the riders, they will try their best to avoid you. No need to walk too slow, but dont walk too fast, keep normal speed so that the riders can see you and can predict your movement. It's VERY important that they can predict your movement, DONT stop, run, change your speed suddently.
2. You can try riding, but please do taking the Driver License first. I know most of the time the police wont bother asking your DL if you are a foreigner. But it'd be YOUR disaster if you are involved in accident without DL. You may go to Jail.
When you ride, do as you walk: you may want to keep to the right side of the street, keep normal speed(well, dont ride too faster or slower than everyone), dont change your speed, lane suddently.

[Kim-Son Nguyen]

Hi Doug, my contact info is in this post. Looking forward to "talking" with you.

[Paul Stanley]

Great nuts & bolts description of motorcycling and Vietnam. For those wanting a few comments from my time in Vietnam on two wheels, check out:
http://taco.typepad.com/soujorns/2005/04/sa_pa.html
and
http://taco.typepad.com/soujorns/2005/04/curbing_buffalo.html

When I returned to the states, my re-entry to big motos was more jarring than I thought it would be. I miss the tossability of the small ones, and someday hope to have a reason to use one wherever I live.

[Barry]

10,000 fatalities. Such a conundrum. You can't help but to scratch your head and ask, no scream, WHY??

You've really helped readers to get a handle on this seemingly inexplicable behavior.

Some of the accidents I witnessed during my 5000km journey across the length of Vietnam and 2 1/2 months for the journey were simply horrific. Did you say that there is an M.I.T. student researching accident phenomena in VN? Let us know more what he finds.

Barry

http://picasaweb.google.es/Bostonbarry/VietnamI/photo#5053422837829942354