Maybe this is true to some but whether it reflects your own life or not; we’d say you will feel the same about how risky it is to be a motorcycle rider on the road. What happen is, you wake up one day and realize that you don’t want to face the heavy traffic; at least not every single day. Maybe some of you have different reason, but what the heck we all end up buying a motorcycle to get us to places. You may feel that it’s the best decision ever but everything comes with a price and this one is no exception. But still, what we’re gonna be discussing here is only the beginning. We will dig deeper through time to really uncover how worthy it is to invest and risk so much to become a motorcycle rider.
The very first thing that will be on the table for us to become a rider is the cost of being one. No matter what type of bike that you’d like; it’s always gonna cost you something. Now we’re discussing from the point of view of buying one for yourself, so to those lucky people who just so happened to be given a bike as a gift; well good on you mate. So after spending from a few thousand Ringgit to well more than a six figure price; you now are officially an owner of a motorcycle. But the thing is, you’re not yet a rider; no you’re not qualified yet to be one as you will be needing a piece of man-made printed paper or card that we call as a license.
The license to ride a motorcycle can be between RM100 to RM1,000 depending on which class and with whom you are dealing with. Once you passed the test and what not; which on our opinion has not much of a value to the real world riding situation, you’re certified to ride on the road. Nonetheless, we all need one. So now that you’re equipped with that magic card of yours; you soon will be needing a few more things to be on you. Next come those accessories which will help to protect the idiot who is riding the most unstable motorized vehicle on the planet (maybe we’re exaggerating a little bit). These accessories which can cost around RM100 to RM3,000 or more in total; and that ladies and gentleman is just the beginning of our journey to be a rider.
As soon as your journey begins, immediately you are welcomed to this horrible odds of having an incident with a 50-50 chance for it to happen. On top of that if you’re indeed involved in one, you will have a 50-50 chance of surviving it. Now you see, after spending all that money in order to become a rider; you’re suddenly living in a very risky world of either hurting yourself and your pocket or losing your life entirely. After putting it this way, there is a small part in ourselves that thinks how we are all idiots to spend so much just to have those risks. It doesn’t really matter what happen on the road while we’re riding, it can be others or worse; we can even cause ourselves danger. So what makes being a rider as something desirable for most of us?
Apart from the needs to commute faster or maybe it’s the only thing you can afford to own, there are people out there who are seeking to ride on a bike just for the sake of riding. After considering all the cost and the risks, why do we still feels like it’s worth the investment? From what we can truly say, it’s about the pleasure and the feel of freedom while riding that really glued us to our seats. Those deep feelings that we can’t really explain may be our strongest reason to deny all the cost and all the risks that we have to cope with in becoming a rider. It is something beyond the logic of our mind, something that strongly attached to our feelings. Ultimately, does it worth all the trouble to be one? It certainly is, and it’s not about to slow down as people are being more and more inclined to showcase their choice of lifestyle in this social media era.
image credited to:
Rnickey Mouse
Notanotherphoto of DeviantArt
Malaysian Riders 