About TBB Tours

 

A short bit of history – scroll down if you’re not interested. TBB Tours origins can be traced back to 2002 when an English expat by the name of Tony Cook noticed a gap in the market and started renting his own “big bike”. Big bikes in Thailand were basically anything that weren’t the domestic step-thru scooters and were relatively rare with the biggest locally produced motorcycle being the Honda “Phantom” which was an under-powered single cylinder 200cc four-stroke cruiser. Tony had a couple of imported 400cc Honda Super Fours which, by comparison, were huge, fast and sexy – how times have changed!

Tony continued this formula of buying secondhand “big” bikes and offering them for rent, imaginatively naming his rental outlet “Tony’s Big Bikes” (TBB). In 2005 Jeff moved to Chiang Mai from the UK and after a spell as a bar/restaurant owner, fell in with Tony and in 2008 bought a 50% share in the company. Using his former IT background, Jeff wasted no time in creating a web presence for TBB and the rental business grew rapidly.

Whilst this was going on, the major manufacturers were cautiously dipping a toe into the Thai motorcycle market, with Triumph being the first, followed by Kawasaki as the first of the “big four” with any meaningful presence. With the increased availability of new, reliable bikes, came the opportunity to offer not only motorcycle rentals but also guided tours – an idea that had initially bought Jeff to Thailand in 2004 with the thought to run a route in the south taking in several beach resorts over a ten day period. Unfortunately, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami shelved that plan by causing unprecedented loss of life and property over a wide area. Years later, Jeff ran this idea past Tony but alas, it was not to be. If my (Jeff) memory serves me correctly, the words that came out of the rather portly Mr Cook at the time were “You must be joking if you think I’m going to sit behind this bloody desk whilst you swan around enjoying yourself”. The concept was lost on Tony and once again, the idea of guided motorcycle tours was shelved.

Fast forward to 2013 and Tony was now feeling that 25 years in Thailand and more than a decade running “the shop” was enough. He was looking to sell his share and fortunately for him, Jeff’s friend and riding buddy Duncan Green saw the opportunities and stepped in to purchase Tony’s 50%. With new blood came new ideas, top of which was using the company’s assets to run guided motorcycle tours, and with the new partners agreeing to run the shop for 2 weeks at a time, this created regular windows within which to run tours. Using both our experiences of the local roads and attractions, plus leveraging some ideas from friends, the tour side of the business was launched in September 2013 and it quickly gained momentum.

Now jump forward to early 2018 and the two sides of the business were running very comfortably, although it must be admitted, both partners looked forward to being out on the road rather than driving a desk in the shop! Then, out of the blue, the landlady announced she was selling the block our shop was situated in and the new landlord would honour the terms of our lease until April but after that, if we wished to continue, we’d have to swallow a 50% rental increase! Now, as the vast majority of the business was conducted via the internet, it was a no-brainer to walk away from the shop and establish a base to continue running the tours whilst forgoing the rental side of the business which is exactly what we did and is still the current situation today.

So now, in 2023, TBB celebrates being in existence for 21 years and the successful partnership between Jeff and Duncan celebrates 10 years. To commemorate this, the two partners thought it about time to retire the “Tony’s Big Bikes” moniker and re-christen  the business to “Thai Bespoke Bike Tours”. Thus keeping the TBB but now having it reflect our core business – formulating and delivering the absolute best guided motorcycle tours in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. We’d like to thank all of the thousands of former customers for putting their faith and valuable holiday time into our business over the years and look forward to working with both old and new clients to continue to keep sharing the wonderful riding and off-bike experiences this fantastic part of the world has to offer.

Thank you for reading. Continue scrolling for pictures of hunky dudes and hot chicks! 😉

Jeff & Duncan. March 2023.