The Way of the Battered Husband Ep. 5 - My Fascination About Motorcycles

Again, I'm really sorry if my content are taking ages to come out.. As promised I have written this as soon as the last one had been rolled out. And as with this one, another is in the works. Let me know if I'm doing good with my content by leaving an upvote and follow me here as well that way you won't miss any of my content!

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With that out of the way, let's begin..

Motorcycles and Me

Ever since I got my driver's license, cars and trucks were the only things I operated for the majority of that time. I've never owned, let alone operate a motorcycle till fairly recently. I've always had the interest for cars and motorcycles, but my interest in riding motorcycles started when I came across a motovlog. I'm sure some of the newer riders who would be reading this would be telling the same. Just seeing how riding a motorcycle is from the lens of the motovlogger had me curious enough to want to ride a motorcycle.

And after researching more into motorcycle ownership I found that it has better mileage for a smaller tank and overall just better price to performance than cars. But that goes to say that you do sacrifice carrying capacity and protection if you do plan on owning one over the other.

Going back to the motovlog that piqued my interest, I came across an American Youtuber that goes by the name "Yammie Noob". At first he started motovlogging just to show his parents that he's fine and as safe as possible when he first started riding motorcycles. As time went on he started to get a following and his content started to add topics he would ramble on about as he rides his motorcycle through town. But other than his memes or the topics he'd be musing on about, I was more on the parts where he just takes us all on the ride, making me ever so curious of how it feels when I would ever get my first motorcycle. True enough as soon as I hopped on my first Motorcycle, it was kind of an out-of-body experience like I was basically in a YouTube video that I watch dozens of times.

My "First" Bikes Throughout the Time

The First Bike that I owned was a Suzuki SV650. As someone who isn't that experienced in riding, getting a bike like that is just asking for it. Not that far into riding it, I managed to pop the front tire up and it's all downhill from there. I crashed and fell hard on the ground, luckily no one else got hurt when I had this accident but it also meant that it would take time again for me to ride a bike. For some, an accident like what happened to me will have most stop riding motorcycles or driving cars altogether. My previous experience with vehicular accidents tells me that I need to get back onto it or else the fear and trauma will take over.

I sold the bike and bought a smaller bike that's still tollway ready. It's the Café 400 by Motorstar, a local motorcycle brand in the Philippines. I had doubts with owning one at first since the bike was modeled after a bike from China. There had been long-standing biases to the quality of anything Made in China, but further research and opinions of owners have me believe that China is slowly moving up the ranks in quality to match that of known western manufacturers. The likes of CFMoto, Euro-Keeway, and those brought in by Motorstar and RUSI paved the way to challenge this bias.

Since the pandemic hit, we couldn't go out on long rides or the highways, I traded in my bike for a smaller one, this time from Bristol Motorcycles (known as Herald Motorcycles in the EU). The Bristol BR250. It basically gave me the best of both worlds; A Western Brand with parts that originate in Taiwan for cheaper but still high quality products. The BR250 is my current and long standing bike. I actually had the most fun riding this than my first two bikes. The position of the handlebars and pegs, as well as the classic aesthetic gave me smiles as I take the bike through the countryside. Like they say "It's better to ride a slow bike fast than ride a fast bike slow.." and the BR250 just proved it time and time again. I highly recommend this as well to newer riders, get a cheap but good quality bike first. That way you'll have more time in honing your riding technique than worrying that you might crash it and pay more than you planned for.

What's Next

My riding journey has only just began, there will be more to experience, bikes to try out, and I'm not even scratching the surface.

I just recently acquired an old Kawasaki Ninja from 1985 (Basically a Bike older than me), the GPZ400 as a project bike. If you're not familiar with the model, this is the baby brother to the bike that Tom Cruise used when they filmed Top Gun, the GPZ900.

I plan to turn this into a Café Racer and I'll write more about it in a future blog. It's currently in the shop to get reconditioned and modified. So I can't write much about it for now.

Thank you so much for reading all the way through. I'll leave you with the sound of it's engine when we popped it open for repairs. This has been your Papable Panda Bear, See you on the next one!

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