The Art of Cruising

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?

Psychedelic 60s: The era I grew up ...

This is my new background for my Regal Raptor's Bobber site on Facebook after fooling around with the colour balance of this photograph which I'm fond of ... taken at a time before the Bobber was vandalised.

Project Ignition Cable

  I was so excited after upgrading the original ignition cable core of 0.75mm with the imported  ignition cable core of 1mm. There was more responsive torque throughout the power band. Best part is to use the highest gear over a wider range of speed, going slow no jerking thus no need to down-shift as before. It is experienced on all gears. Engine is less rough noise than before. The exhaust note now sounds slightly deeper. The headlights: high and low beam are brighter. Twisting the throttle all the way back quickly pulls the bobber forward at a rate I've never experienced before.

Police approved side licence plate holder

This afternoon, I left Petaling Jaya for Subang Jaya then came to a police road block by the motorcyclist lane at the Federal Highway-Jalan Lapangan Terbang roundabout. I am usually not asked to stop but as I was the only one riding, I was not surprised to be asked to stop. One officer looked at my road tax and seeing it was valid, didn't say anything. Another officer at the back of me checked my license plate and caught me by surprise by complimenting for having it clearly displayed. He even took a snapshot to serve as a good example for others. With that, I gave my salam and scooted off. That the license plate holder was attached to the left side of the bobber was not an issue to them. What they were more concern was it must be easy to see, easy to read plus of course, a valid road tax.

Outstanding frame I did not know until I read it here

This Peruvian web site is one of the best sites I've come across that has attractive photos of the bobber (also for other models at their respective page). It also has some outstanding information like the bobber's frame is the FIRST bike with a hardtail frame to awarded the European 3 Certificate of Homologation. That is impressive to say the least yet local retailers do not know how to exploit such information to their advantage.

Facial mask courtesy of wifey

Little things mean a lot to me and here, it's the facial mask bought by wifey when she was in South Korea with the school troupe. Yes! In zebra stripes and now it's my regular facial mask and as it is of good quality, I find it very effective in keeping out the dust whilst making it breathable.