Being a rider or a biker, you must have had these experience of people approaching you to ask a few of their most favourite questions to fulfill their thirst of curiosity or maybe they just want to annoy us. Despite of how we feel about it, we still entertain these questions with much interest and passion to show that we are really a biker. In all of that excitements of Q&A, have we ever really think about the relevance of answering these inquiries for their benefits or ourselves? Understandably, the conversation serves as a social activity between us human but can we really say that we’re talking about the real deal or just some bullshits just to make it interesting or make ourselves looks intelligent.
MONTHLY COMMITMENT. We start with the question of money and this is probably the least relevant due to the fact that it reflect one’s economic situation. No matter how rich some of us are, most of us are still bound to buy our motorized vehicles using the much needed bank loans (or creditors). This discussion touch on the range of bikes from the smallest to the biggest that we can find, and all of these will require us to pay as low as hundreds of ringgit (in some cases below the hundred mark) to thousands of ringgit. We usually being asked this question as a benchmark of others to see if they can afford the same commitment to own the bike that they’re interested with.
THE SOUND. Moving on from the monetary question, we are usually being approached for the question that is more irrelevant than the one before. We don’t even have to ride our bike during the time for this question to arise and sometimes it goes to a point where we’re being asked about other models that we don’t even own. This is where we begin to showcase our “knowledge” to others about how these machine sounds like and for some funny reason, we usually can differentiate the more subtle differences between two inline-four engine. This weird question of sound usually comes from the imagination and desire of people to own an attractive vehicle to impress others or self-pleasuring their ears. This topic also creates the unproven theory of having a loud exhaust save lives (They’re not actually, stupidity kills; not the lack of noise).
THE WEIGHT. This particular question that we got as a rider of bike usually reflects to the one that rides a bigger capacity machine. Riding a bike can sometimes be intimidating especially when it looks bigger than the rider itself. Therefore, this weight related question becomes the top 3 of the most asked question as a biker from those who don’t ride or just about to get into riding. The weight of a bike actually has a small relation to a bike’s ridability, as a matter of fact; a rider that needs to be the one who knows the proper technique of riding to tackle any kind of motorcycle. But it does help to know beforehand from others on the weight of a bike; at least it would’t be too much once you swing your leg on one. A misguided information on this particular question will actually deter one’s view on riding a bike.
MAINTENANCE. Probably the one question that is still being asked by a lot even from a very experienced rider sometimes. Its a huge topic to discuss if we really go deep into it, but generally people just want to know if the motorcycle is affordable to be taken care of; thus the question becomes one of the most frequently asked topic. To make it short, a bike’s maintenance is mostly similar to one another when it comes to a standard or normal maintenance. Things only becomes different to one another when there’s a need to change a specific part of a bike. We can obviously differentiate the cost of changing a specific part between a Modenas and a Ducati. Even with that, people still like to ask around about this even when they don’t even own one yet (most probably not going to buy one anyway).
TOP SPEED. Behold, the top most frequently asked question for us as a biker or a rider; how fast can you go on that bike of yours. To be honest, this is probably the most irrelevant question to be asked anyway; as it does not prove anything if you’re a shitty rider. But of course, most of us thinks that we’re a damn good rider on the road. The speed of a motorcycle correlates with how the bike is being setup and also the power produced by the engine to carry the bike’s body. The top speed of a bike differs from one to the other and we can confidently say that most bikes have about the same especially when it comes to be ridden on the road. But this is where we begin to bullshit them facts at large by saying more than what you actually achieve. Even after all these, people still love to ask the question anyway; so might as well just tell them we can go 220km/h on a Ninja 250 yeah.
Malaysian Riders 