When I was a teenager, I was a cafe racer with my Yamaha RX 100, had
lots of falls but thankfully no broken bones. But with experience
learned the hard way, my driving school instructor told me to wipe my
past riding experience because the Yamaha and the Bobber have different
riding personalities due to their different structural design. The
Bobber is longer than a kapchai by half the length of a tyre so turning
radius is much wider. It means I have to meander more and slower (due to
the Bobber’s weight) than a kapchai. He said whenever I reached a
t-junction or make U-turns, I should switch early to the outside lane,
negotiate turns slowly like I was driving a trailer as if I wanted to
show off my motorbike. It works, cornering is smoother. Tight corners
can even be done slowly by lifting up the elbows like a man walks the
tight rope. This works too. Because of different structural design, I
was asked to sit upright to get better balance but I like to slouch.
Experience of failing to cross the narrow bridge for 4 days of training
yet succeeding on the fifth day for the B licence test was a result of
sitting upright and always looking chin up straight at the horizon. I
prefer to cruise lazily on local roads around 70kph but there is no
breeze so end up cruising at 80-90kph depending on road gradient. On
highways, I cruise between 90-110kph depending on road gradient but
rarely exceed 110kph except to overtake a vehicle at 100-110kph. It is
also hard to enjoy cruising faster than 110kph because the wind
uncomfortably slams the chest. Then there is also the need to be more
alert and that takes the fun out of cruising, a style of riding very
different from superbikers whose aim is to reach their destination ASAP.
How about you?
