French · 7 years on Samui
French motorcycle tour guide living on Koh Samui for 7 years. Marc leads group rides across southern Thailand and knows every road on the island.
Updated: May 2026
At the Chaweng rental shop last January, an Australian rider with nine years on Honda adventure bikes - Africa Twins, CB500Xs, and a brief experiment with a Tenere 700 - asked for the largest bike available that was still accessible to ride on a rental for a week. I pointed to the CB500X. He sat on it, adjusted the windscreen, and checked the seat height. Three days later he had covered 180 kilometres on the ring road circuit, the Nathon mountain pass, and the south coast - and returned the CB500X having never once felt it was working at its limit.
Riding the CB500X on the full island ring road circuit last February - 52 kilometres at highway pace - the 471cc parallel twin at 80 km/h was running at approximately 5,500 rpm, well below its peak power of 47 horsepower at 8,500 rpm. The CB500X on Samui's ring road feels deliberately relaxed - a machine being used at 60 per cent of its capability. For a touring rider who wants that margin of unhurried confidence on an island circuit, the CB500X provides it in a way the CB300R approaches but the CB500X exceeds.
Seven years of motorcycle tour guiding on Samui has shown that the CB500X attracts a specific category of rider: those who use Samui as a starting point for southern Thailand touring. The CB500X's 471cc twin, 160mm ground clearance, and semi-adventure capability are significantly better suited to the mainland highways, mountain roads, and mixed terrain of Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces than the CB300R or MT-03. For a rider renting for 10 to 14 days and planning both Samui circuits and mainland days, the CB500X is the correct and only choice in the fleet.
Carrying a second rider on the CB500X from Chaweng to the Fisherman's Village last November - 18 kilometres of coastal and ring road tarmac - I measured the two-up experience: the CB500X's long seat, 47-horsepower engine, and suspension designed for 192-kilogram load capacity made the two-up experience genuinely comfortable rather than merely manageable. On the CB300R with a second rider at 75 km/h the motor works noticeably harder; on the CB500X with the same load the motor barely registers the additional weight. For couples who want comfortable two-up touring on Samui's roads, the CB500X is the correct bike.
At the Lamai rental shop last October, a rider returning a CB500X after a week said he had found it too large for Samui's market streets and beach road café-hopping. He was right. At 196 kilograms and 830mm seat height, the CB500X is not a beach road town bike - it requires space to manoeuvre in parking areas, attention in slow traffic, and comfort with a heavier bike. For riders whose entire Samui plan is café stops at 30 km/h, the Honda Click 125 is a better match. The CB500X is for touring, not town use.
Seven years of observing and riding with CB500X renters on Koh Samui has produced a consistent profile: experienced on larger bikes, planning extended circuits or mainland days, comfortable with a heavier parallel twin, and looking for a bike that keeps pace with their ambition rather than limiting it. These riders return from their rentals having covered more ground than they expected, because the CB500X's 471cc engine and range make extended days effortless rather than effortful. They are the most route-ambitious riders in the Samui rental fleet, and the CB500X matches that ambition exactly.
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