SAHOCA 29: THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Zam admiring the innovated motor cycles at the Kedah
Pusat Giat Mara exhibition at the ground floor of the Giant.




The magnificent innovated Honda Cup 65


With our newly acquired motor bikes in 1967 , we went around
in a convoy on our motor bikes enjoying ourselves at the
Parliament round about.
The self proclaimed King of the Road, Wan Min Wan Din on
his Honda 90 with Hashim Mohd. Noor as the pillion rider .
Halim Abdullah on Osman Ramlee's Honda 90 with Osman
himself standing piilion.

Two days before Christmas 2011, Zam and I came across an Innovation Day Exhibition of the Kedah Pusat Giat Mara held at the ground floor of the Giant at Jalan Tun Razak, Alor Setar. To my astonishment, I came across a splendid innovation on the Honda Cup 65 c.c. done by one the Giat Mara students. I was very impressed with the innovation as it reminisced me on my first Honda Cup 65 c.c. which was introduced in 1967. My motor bike registeration number was KB 18 which I sold it to Che Gu Shukri in 1970 when I needed the money for the down payment of my first car, Volkswagen with the registration number KB 7080.

Nalin told me that the original Honda Cup 65 is much sought after by antique collectors nowadays as compared to Honda 70 or Honda 90. The asking price of the original Honda 65 without any added make over fetches around RM 2,000.00 per bike as compared to the original price of RM 700.00 in 1967.

My association with my motor bike KB 18 stretched back to 1966 when I enrolled at the University Malaya for my tertiary education in 1966. When we enrolled at the University of Malaya in 1966, most of our classmates in Sultan Abdul Hamid College who were non boarders at the University Colleges were boarders at the newly built NUPW Hostel at Section 14, Petaling Jaya. The hostel was built by the National Union of Plantation Workers for the benefits of the plantation workers’ children on the initiative of its famous president the late P.P. Narayanan. The NUPW Hostel has since been demolished to make way for a luxurious condominium. As the number of the estates’ children was small at that time, the hostel’s administration under the chairmanship of the late Dr. Rama Subbiah offered the places for other students from non estates background.

If I am not mistaken, some of my SAHC mates who stayed at the NUPW Hostel were Abdul Halim Abdullah, Abdul Habib Mansur, Adlan Abdul, Mohd. Daud Hamzah and Wan Min Wan Din. As the distance to the UM Campus was almost 10 kilometers, we used to take a ride on Sri Jaya staged buses and continued walking up the campus for another two kilometers. The strenuous journey to the campus for the lectures and tutorials took its toll when we found that we could not cope up the tight schedules by riding on the buses. At the end of the year, we decided to buy second hand motor cycles from the money saved from our scholarships.

Wan Min bought a Honda 90 while Halim, Adlan and Daud Hamzah bought Honda Cups 50 c.c. Compared to my other friends, I was very lucky as my late father insisted on buying a brand new motor bike which cost around RM 700.00. As my late father who himself owned a Honda Dream 250 c.c. bought for me a new Honda Cup 65 c.c. with the money he borrowed from the Kubang Pasu Thrift and Loan Society. The borrowing process was shortened in two days as it was facilitated by his younger brother Syed Salleh who was the then Honorary Secretary. We all took our driving test at the Road Transport Department located at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur.

As we were very confident with the prowess of our motor cycles together with our own physical abilities, we decided to ride our journey home to Kedah on our bikes during our yearly break in 1968. It took us two solid days to reach our kampongs in Kedah since we have got to rest for every two hours journey for the purpose of cooling off our motor bikes engines.

Heavy rains also hampered our journey as the road surfaces were were slippery and the road visibility was also reduced. During those days, motor cyclists were not compelled to wear helmets and it was indeed a treacherous journey home on our small machines with our bare heads. The roads then were narrow and winding and we were always facing the danger of the falling small woods that were used as pegs to tighten the logs on a timber lorries. We put the night at the Bukit Gantang Mosque, Perak when it was already late in the evening when we arrived at the mosque. The kind hearted Imam invited us to a home cooked dinner at his house. With the blessings of Allah, we all survived the journey back to Kedah the next day.

However, one of our NUPW Hostel mates, the late Mr Markali who joined us during the early stage of the journey met with an accident at Kepong. In the hazy early hours of the morning, Mr. Markali who rode a Ducati motor bike landed with a braced neck when he accidentally knocked against the Railway Crossing gate at Kepong. Nevertheless, Mr Markali the grand child of Saudagar Din of Alor Setar eventually passed away before reaching fifty due to kidney failure.

We have to rest our bettered body for a few days when we arrived at our homes in Kedah. We have learned our lessons well from the journey as our motor bikes then took a ride themselves on the Malayan Railway coaches on the return journey to Kuala Lumpur for our final academic year at UM. Among our group, Halim Abdullah graduated to ride super bike during our working years where as the others including myself were happy to ride on four wheels.