A brief history of my bikes

Let me tell you a short history of all the bikes that I’ve owned through the years. When I was in college, my first bike like so many up and coming Malay students at that time was a red Yamaha RXZ. It was (naturally) a second hand bike bought for cheap. 2,000 ringgit at that time I think. It should have been 500 ringgit more as the market price at that time but since mine had a huge dent on it’s tank (probably from an accident or two), I got the 500 ringgit discount. Anyway I had a fun time modifying and looking after that bike during my time in college. It was not the fastest bike in the block but I managed to get into a street race or two .Lost all of them naturally since I didn’t tinker with the engine much and I wasn’t exactly a moto GP rider or anything.



My second bike was a major upgrade, a Honda NSR RR. It was a big thing to be riding an RR back then. I could just snap my fingers and girls would be riding at the back. Ha ha you wish! I didn’t have many girls riding tandem on my bike although my girlfriend then (now my wife) spent a lot of time there. She has known me since my RXZ years really so it wasn’t about the bike. After a year or so the second hand RR was acting up a lot. I spent nearly a thousand ringgit fixing it, a problem after another. Until one day I got fed up with it all and trade in the bike for my 3rd bike ever - a second hand blue Yamaha 125Z.



The 125Z was a quite popular bike of choice for teenagers back then. It was 2 stroke and it was lightweight and fast. I had that for a few years until I got married in fact. Then as always with all my previous second hand bikes, the 125Z started acting up as well and after a good 2 years or so of using the bike I traded it in for a brand new Yamaha Lagenda bike. The Lagenda was the first brand new bike that I’ve ever bought. It was 4 stroke, light on fuel, not so fast but it was very reliable and got me places.



I used the Lagenda for a few years until I bought a second car for my new job, during which I didn’t use the bike much. In fact it just sat there under my apartment for months at a time. So I got the bright idea to sell it to my brother in law who just got himself a job in the city. It was perfect timing. I didn’t have the need to use a bike for a year or two until I got myself a job in downtown KL. I drove myself to work in my first month but then I had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and leave home before 6:00 or else be caught in a terrible jam and be late for work. After a while I realised leaving for work so early every day is no way to live my life. Eventually I thought about getting a new bike for myself except that I don’t feel like paying for another expensive long term instalment for a brand new bike. So I thought I’d get another second hand bike on the cheap instead. My fifth bike was a beat up Modenas Krisstar. It had problems from day one but it was only around 2,200 ringgit and the shop agreed for my 3 months instalment proposal so I didn’t think much about anything else then. I was desperate and didn’t have much choice.



I used the bike for 2 months before the problems started getting more numerous and serious. One day the bike didn’t have much acceleration at all so I sent it in for a repair at a workshop in Equine Park. A few days later I was 800 ringgit poorer after doing the overhaul for the engine. I managed to use the bike for another 2 years before the engine started acting up again. One fine Sunday afternoon, I was making my way to Pandan Indah in KL to buy some IT equipments for my customer on my bike. My bike is not exactly in tip top condition. The engine sounded terrible and the piston is making this loud knocking sound whenever it’s running. Why don’t I fix it? Well the cost naturally. Last time I did an overhaul of the engine it cost me over 800 ringgit. Therefore as you can see, I dread the thought of spending another 800 ringgit fixing my bike just to do it again 2 years later. So I kept delaying and postponing doing something about my bike until that fateful Sunday afternoon when it died on me somewhere in the middle of Pandan Jaya.



Lucky for me the bike went dead just next to an LRT station. So I slowly pushed my bike aside and parked it near the station. Since it’s near Kampong Pandan I had only one person in mind to call — my good friend Fadzir Aziz. I didn’t have any luck the first 5 times calling him though cause he didn’t pick up the phone but as I was mulling leaving my bike overnight at the station and picking it up later, my call got through and Fadzir came to the rescue. He pushed my bike with his to his place and then drop me off at another LRT station. So now I’m left without a transportation mode to work. Lucky for me my brother just got posted to teach in Sabah again. He was kind enough to lend me his Honda Future bike for me to use for a while until I figure out whether to fix my damn Krisstar or just buy another bike. Guess what I did in the end? Tune in for my next blog post to find out :)