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Message: <blockquote data-quote="okow" data-source="post: 381601" data-attributes="member: 14">Thanks to Climenta for categorizing and cataloging the 'history' of bike and biking from the 90's. Lets see how far back can my memory take me...Japanese made Motorcycles were introduced into Malaysia in the 60's by none other than Mr Loh Boon Siew of then Boon Siew Motor fame..authorised dealer for Honda....before they manufactured cars. Mr Loh brought in the Honda Cub 50cc and it was almost an instant hit especially with Uni students.Well, bikes here were around much earlier than that but were mainly British made, BSA, Ariel, Triumph, Indian and Nortons ruled our roads in those days. Unfortunately most were exported along with the expats and RAF when they left our country.Biking in the 70's was sheer freedom and fun and there was certainly a very clear distinction between the pleasure riders and the commuters. Wearing a helmet was more a fad than mandatory by law. I was fortunate enough to pleasure ride and commute on my 100cc 'scrambler'... dirt riding, motorcrossing and trail riding gave me very good basics. Next came my Yamaha DS7 350. So, I wasnt very aware of what the other smaller capacity bikes were but I think the popular rotiman bike was the Honda CG110 and the cops used the Suzuki T500 Titan. In the 80's Yamaha introduced the RD's which evolved into the RD250 and 350LC (liquid cooled) Suzuki had the X7. This was the turning point for bikes and bikers as manufacturers were churning out very fast and sleek looking 2 stroke bikes that also handled very well. It had disc breaks compared to the conventional drums. Alloy wheels as opposed to steel and spokes.There were NO rempits back then ...only illegal racers held either by individuals or bike shops and always backed by towkays and bookies. They would finance a mechanic (rider) from a bike shop and the rewards and prize money was huge...up to RM30,000 per race, 1 brand new bike for the winner and a girl for the night...that sort of started the bohsia culture....but thats another story for another day.Popular stretches used were Federal Highway, the old Damansara Semantan road (no street lights then) Jln Tun Razak, Pandan roundabout etc.These I believe this gave rise to the rempit culture and as bikes became more attractive looking with roads being better conditioned and law enforcers closing one or both eyes...it spead like wildfire. Now they ride in packs with 'herd' mentality. It also doesnt help when there are loopholes in the system where one can avoid taking a driving test but obtain a licence. What makes it worst is that when caught, it just takes as little as RM10-20 to get off the hook. Enough from me for now...</blockquote>

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