Have you ever seen a 150cc motorcycle do a 9-second quarter mile?
A century ago, Americans’ appetite for motorcycle performance was insatiable for the same reason why that’s the case in Thailand and other Asian countries today. When cars cost too much for the majority of the public to consider them for daily transportation, plus clogged roads favor those on two wheels, motorcycles reign supreme. As a result, Thai motorcycle racing is an unbelievable experience, as you’re about to see in the video accompanying this article. It’s also something few foreigners have ever beheld.
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YouTube channel CB Media visited Songkhla International Speedway, which is located in southern Thailand. They were onsite for the 9th annual NGO Street Drag Bike Party. It features a bike show, a festival-like atmosphere, plus a red, white, and blue giant hand giving the hang ten sign. That, and they have tiny bikes drag racing at absolutely blistering speeds.
What’s truly incredible about the motorcycles being used in the races is that they’re all 100cc, 125cc, and 150cc bikes. That’s laughably tiny, but what they lack in displacement they make up for with shocking speed.
To make them as quick as possible, the owners strip down the motorcycles to their bare essentials for getting down the drag strip. As you can see in the video, they’re also purpose-built with all kinds of additions. But weight is obviously a big factor, so they’re not bolting anything superfluous onto the frame.
Adding to the insanity is that there’s nothing separating the crowd from the drag strip. Someone could reach out and touch a rider as he’s staging, not to mention if a rider were to wipe out it could end in disaster. In fact, you see some of these guys are riding on some pretty skinny tires and they’re definitely wobbly after launching.
Plus, there are mass drag races where people on just about every hooptie bike and moped you can imagine just line up however, then try to beat each other in the quarter mile. The fact there aren’t a ton of injuries at the event is nothing short of a miracle.
