Kapchai Days

Back in college i used to own a kapchai. It was a Honda RC80, and my friends call it an old uncle motorbike.

Surely a far cry from the modified bikes mat rempits and mat motors ride these days, but it was enough for me.

Even back in those days, my bike wasvery close to the BOTTOM of the motorbike hierachy in Malaysia, only slightly above the old green vespas that old uncles rode, and the guys who had to make do with their father’s ancient 70cc motorbikes. There were also this Honda Passola that aunties used to go to the pasar pagi to buy sayur. It’s like a bicycle with a fish tank motor.

One step above mine were guys with their new 100 or 110cc bikes, with clutch (although most of them never used it). Chinese guys usually went with Honda and Suzuki, Malay guys more with Yamaha. No idea why.

For those Malay guys with better scholarship money, it was Yamaha RX-Z. First thing they did was remove the hodoh looking visor at the front. If you didn’t take it out, you spend most of the time hearing the line, ‘eh, bukak lah visor hodoh tu.‘

A step up from the legendary RX-Z was Kawasaki Ninja, but it was mostly owned by rich Chinese guys whose ‘father is businessman, lah’. Some Malay guys also preferred the Honda Raider or Panther, but it was phased out quite early. My friends refered to the Raider as ‘koon choy (coffin) motor’ because the rear light looked like one. Not a good omen if you are doing 150mph on the highway.

My kapchai was severly underpowered, and the handbrake and horn never worked properly no matter how many time i fixed it. By the time i graduated and bought my first car, it was it pretty bad shape.

Last year, my dad sold off my old kapchai for RM600, pity the poor guy who bought it…