Answering the call of Borneo's open roads

As appeared in Hobbies
The Brunei Times - May 25, 2007

LONG straights, tight corners, the joy and freedom of the open road -- it's the dream of any rider on two wheels, and Brunei's hobbyist bikers are no exception. When the chance for a long, rip-roaring ride comes, the weekend motorcyclists get all geared up to go, and there's no bigger highlight for their year than the journey to Pontianak on the northwestern tip of Indonesia's Kalimantan.

The trip, which will in all cover 10 days and some 3,500km, takes them along the island's highways and byways to the Borneo Island International Big Bike Festival (BIIBBF).

As members of the Darussalam Motorcycle Association (Pemoda) gathered in Jerudong on Tuesday for the flagoff, there was a mixture of excitement and concern, a meld of impatience to push off on their adventure and calm checks to make sure everything was in place for a safe journey.

Pemoda Treasurer Ahmad Shariffudin Taib said it most succinctly when he emphasised that safety was the group's biggest worry. "This is our paramount concern, as we want to ensure a good trip not only in terms of sights and sounds but all the members getting there and back safely," he said.

The 27-year-old banker, who rides a Honda GoldWing touring bike, said preparations for the trip were made months in advance, including arranging for an escort vehicle complete with the required flashing lights and several back-up vehicles. "The back-up vehicles carry our luggage, emergency fuel and spare riders," he said, adding that the fuel was in case bikes, which had much smaller tanks compared to cars, found themselves stranded dry in between petrol stops.

"As for the spare riders, we have at least two in case our bikers fall ill or get too tired. If the riders tire, we would rather they stop than push on trying to meet a deadline and get careless." Such dedication to safety is nothing to be sneezed at, as according to Ahmad Shariffudin, Pemoda had a good record, with only minor incidents, on its past trips.

Rider fitness is another facet of safety and the participants had trained up in the past months by taking long rides around the sultanate. "Our golden principle is that you control your bike, don't let the bike control you.

"So the riders need to be aware of their own physical and mental limitations, how much speed and power their bodies can take," he said, adding that the trip to Pontianak, which meant some 10 hours on the road at times, took riders out of their comfort zones.

Pg Ariffin Pg Said, 47, agreed with the assessment, saying that he had been riding every weekend in the past three months to get himself fit as well as to familiarise himself with the Yamaha V-Star Classic touring bike he bought last November. "I took a ride to Bintulu once, and joined a three-day trip to Sibu in February," the TelBru staff said. "But for this trip, I knew I had to be fit, so I went on three-hour rides for practice."

Aside from keeping the bikes in good condition, breaking in a new machine is a must for a long ride, one which an owner of a sports bike did in the two weeks between buying the bike and setting off. Idzam Norhaidi Mashud said he rode his new 1,000cc Kawasaki ZX10-R hard to make it on the trip, which he would not have missed for the world.

One of the founders of Pemoda, the 30-year-old civil servant has been to six of the past seven Borneo bike festivals and is considered by the other riders as the daigo (old hand) of long distance rides. On what makes such a hard ride so pleasurable, Idzam said the bike fest was "a gathering of old friends, a reunion for the motorcycle brotherhood that feels more like a family".

The undeniable appeal for most, though, is the almost endless length of tarmac in front of their wheels. Teacher Mazran Mohd Jamin, 29, who rides a Suzuki GSX-R1000, said he had only been to Kota Kinabalu and Miri previously and was looking forward to hitting the roads."Of course I'm looking forward to the corners, as any sports biker would, but most of all, I want to experience Borneo. "I want to know the road conditions, the people, culture and way of life," Mazran said.

Pg Ariffin added that travelling on bike was completely different from a car journey. "I've been to Pontianak by car, and this will be different," he said of the straights and the meandering curves which tourers love. "On a bike, you can see more things and it will be really nice to take in the largely unspoilt environment and pass the many longhouses and villages along the Interior roads. "When we pass the villages, we get greeted by children, who wave and cheer us on, and that just lifts our spirits."

As the open road beckoned, Idzam added that one day, he hoped he could take a ride around the whole of Borneo island. "Currently we can only go as far as Pontianak, as there is no paved road from there to Banjarmasin.

"I'd love to go on further, all the way to Balikpapan, that would be a great trip," he concluded as the riders suited up, donning their leathers and helmets for the ride of their dreams.

And as the bikers roared past my photo vantage point just beyond Jerudong, I couldn't help wishing I was going along for the ride.