Owning a motorcycle is a dream. How else can you explain the feeling of holding handlebars, seated on a little leather cushion, an oblong piece of metal between your knees, and turning your wrist to press forward into the wind?
I wasn't sure about getting one to begin with. My mum would never have allowed it, and my grandma was militant against it. In a way that might have stopped me. But once I was in the army, and my camp after basic training and sergeant course was in Choa Chu Kang, it was basically a done deal. The only thing was how long it would take me to get the licence, a 2B, for 200cc bikes. 200cc is not a lot of cc. No, it's not a lot. And the other thing was what kind of 2B bike I would get. Anyway, it doesn't cost a lot to take up the licence. It is a pain in the ass to pass, because it's pretty hard, and I had to take a bus to the training school at night. It's good that it's hard, actually. It saves a lot of grief down the road, and at higher speeds. But the grief still gets to you, to be honest.
My first bike was a little Honda CG125, the really old kind. I mean, it was really old. It looked old. It was a little thin go-fast. Boy, it would take a bit of coaxing to get to 75 kmh. That's the funny thing about it, it was sort of anaemic. The other funny thing about it was that while I got it at a very very low price of $450, in 2007, with probably three or four years of entitlement left in it, it had to have a gasket replaced for the engine. I knew about it, but I assumed that it was not that important. That would not turn out to be true. It suffered a jammed piston somewhere on Jalan Eunos one night, and my dad had to drive up with a bottle of engine oil. But it was dead. It still feels bad, to be honest. Anyway the thing about it not going very quick was that I used to tell myself, 60 kph is either very fast, or very slow, depending on how you look at it. But it got me up and down from Tampines to camp, with my duffle bag and guitar and all that. Oh the other thing was that it was a kick starter, and on rainy days it wouldn't go. That was funny, learning about that. Anyway my abiding memory of this little bike is that the day I got it, I wanted to show it to someone. Being on the road for the first time ever felt like freedom and belonging and relief. Sort of like joy, but behind a glass panel. They weren't home.
My next bike was a poor little cub-kia (this theme will continue). It was a Honda Wave, which I bought at $1050 in 2008, again, with probably three or four years remaining. The thing about it was that it's con-rod was pretty much rutted, and I would eventually have to overhaul the engine quite soon. I think that came up to $400. Anyway that bike I used for awhile into university, because I remember how it ended. One day after the new year I found it where I'd parked it on the third floor of the carpark, without both its wheels, and without its disc brakes. I had to drive my dad's car to school that day. Anyway, I was pretty reckless on that bike. I used to ride it with a singlet and slippers. That was frankly idiotic, and I paid the price more than once. It had little thin tyres, too. Not great for stopping on. Going to school with scraped arms and knees was pretty common. I don't know why I didn't think more about not being an idiot. But hey let me tell you, it was still fun riding that thing. I remember doing 120 kph to the airport, and that was before the overhaul. Pretty stupid guy. In school I used to tell my friends that an accident, a slip or whatever, basically would come every two years. Those numbers have changed, but the risk is like that. I still think so.
The third was a Daelim 125. I bought it off a Korean fella somewhere in Commonwealth or something, right around 2011 perhaps, for about $1700. He said he'd bought it and fixed it up but his parents would not let him keep it. Anyway that was in a pretty good condition, to be honest, but being a 125 and slightly bigger, it was slow. It was slow. It would kinda not like to do more than 90 kph, basically. I thought it was OK, but I don't think I really enjoyed riding it. Perhaps I'd had a 2B for much too long, and I was sick of getting killed off the starting line by basically 80% of all the other bikes. For the record, the Daelim is not a common bike (this theme will continue). Yeah, it was slow. It did the job OK. I think this is the first bike I started taking protection more seriously. Boy, it got hot out there being a bit more covered up, and in a way I remember that when I covered up I hardly ever got hurt. Anyway I took that bike up to Malacca with another guy on his Honda Phantom. It was fun, but not really. His was faster, and I felt like I had to do 95 kph all the way, which was basically straining it. It didn't feel good, but we had a good dinner, beer and a massage (not in that order).
A bike I had the pleasure to ride was a little Suzuki 175 chook chaser. It had a bit of spark, that one. It sure taught me a lot about riding on rough terrain, and going uphill, on sand and rock, all that sort of thing. I learnt that sliding the rear wheel is the perfectly correct thing to do at speed, so long as you're balanced and you've got a leg out. It's very interesting riding on rough terrain, I loved the crap out of that and gaining confidence on a bike. Oh, you just have to avoid the rabbit holes and the fence wire, really. John bought it for AUD 740 and and together with his neighbour mate they fixed it up. Aussies are good at these things. It took awhile to get going because at one point the mix was too rich, that it is had too much fuel and not enough oxygen. They had to retrofit an oxygen filter or something. And it was loud as hell, so John did the old thing and rolled up some wire mesh and stuffed it into the exhaust. That gave it some back pressure, too. After that it was a peach. Boy, I learnt a bit about cars and bikes in Adelaide with John. Anyway one afternoon in Adelaide it wouldn't start, and I had to hitch a ride back to the house. It turns out it had a kill switch, something I would realise when John said there it is, I flipped it on and it kicked right into life. I had spent only about 45 minutes kicking it before that, and giving up. Kill switches!
My fourth was a Honda CBX250. Basically it was a tiny CB400, and a lot less intriguing. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else ride it. It was a nice thing to have because it was obviously twice as strong as the previous one, and that is a great thing. I mean, being on it and turning the thing, yeah it responds a lot better. 2A bikes are very expensive, I came to realise. Especially the 400cc ones. It's lame. Anyway I got this at $5800 in 2016, with a remaining entitlement of 8 years. Frankly, that's value and a half. It was twelve years old, and with me, it's become a lot older. The cool thing about this bike is that halfway across the world it's ridden a lot, as it's made in Brazil. I found a very old blog by this man who basically had emblazoned on his website, the words, 50 Anos de Motociclismo, or 50 years of riding. One of his bikes was this very same CBX250. And in he he wrote about his joy of riding when little 50cc bikes first came out. I mean, how wonderful is that, that's exactly how riding is. I recall he liked the CBX250 (I checked again, and he adores it). Anyway like I've said, it's become a lot older in my hands. I could list twenty things about it that are not right, probably 8 of which are seriously not right. Basically I wouldn't ask anyone to ride it. It's pretty terrible. Boy, I sure learnt a lot about old bikes from riding this one.
Yesterday I bought a Bajaj Dominar 400, for the princely sum of $16,000. It has a remaining life of 9.5 years, which is pretty amazing at current market rates. Right now ten years costs $11K. I managed to get the shop to throw in a free rear box, and to loop the IU device to ignition. God, I hope I get some mileage out of this thing. Hardly anyone uses it, the salesman said so himself. I got to turn it on, and the throttle feels very light. The engine is basically pretty strong, but Bajaj choked it down a little to get better fuel efficiency out of it. I don't mind that one bit, seeing as I'm not really intending to burst down the roads here. I just want it to be a fun ride, to be honest. And it sure looks the part, a nice red fuselage and side trimming to go with a black torso. Boy, I've been riding for fifteen years, and I finally get to sit on a 400. That feels pretty cool.
I still tell myself to take a ride as if I'm on a nice ride to somewhere I want to go. That sorta makes the traffic and the heat bearable. The feeling of moving, without having to push with your body, is the best thing on earth. Taking lines, leaning a little, reading danger, smooth on the throttle, dusting the brakes, boy, I'll tell you, riding is a dream.
