those motorcycling days - (1)


in retrospect, i think the friends i made at balestier hill secondary - the school where i started my teaching career - influenced and steered the course of my life somewhat. the same friends who got me started me on hitch-hiking also got me hooked on motorcycling.

we started with small bikes and progressed rapidly to bigger and more powerful bikes. my first motorbike was a 175cc yamaha which i bought from my school colleague. not long after, i changed to a 250cc suzuki hustler, which was a choice bike then. those days there were many motorbike gangs. there were the green hornets who rode souped up vespa scooters. there were the yamahas, hondas and the suzukis.

a favourite haunt of these road racers was orchard turn, near to where the dhoby ghaut station now stands. one popular racing circuit was the changi coastal road. it was very easy to start a race. all you needed to do was to rev your engine when you were next to another biker. that's an invitation to a race.

once we stopped at the traffic light near the novena church where one big group of bikers had also stopped. my friend who was a more skilful and daring rider than i revved up his engine. when the light turned green, there was a loud roar and the race was on. i tried to keep up but could not because during the race, they did not stop at red light.

i rode back to our usual meeting place, a sarabat stall at the whitley food centre to wait for my friend. he later related to me how they had raced down orchard road, bras basah road, shenton way and ended the race at mount faber. he made a few new friends after that challenge.