For the month of June, yours truly shall be hard at work at the SAF Driving Circuit in Bedok(FARK! The old DC was apparently at Bukit Gombak - shows just how screwed up life can be sigh - 1.5 hr travel time) learning how to drive a motorbike.

Yeah for you ppl out there who think it is dangerous, let me enlighten you. The SAF bike we are given is SUPER safe. seriously. I have seen someone lost his balance and causing his whole bike to fall on top of him. However, after the getting over the shock, he simply rammed the bike into an upright position and drove off with hardly a scratch. Don't believe? Too bad i can't take a picture. Ok first there are crash bars in front of the hand grips(so you don't hurt them when you fall) and there are crash plates in front and behind your legs(yeah so they wouldn't be squashed if you fall) and lastly every rider wears enough protection gear to survive a 100km/h burnout(helmet = years of sweat blended into a potent aroma, perhaps the only thing i hate about the driving course, it stinks worse than my kevlar helmet and it is always wet... + elbow guards + knee guards + leggings which are like tough leather surrounding your ankles - basically from head to toe.)

A typical training day would be from 7 to 5. It is split into a theory and a practical session. We have just cleared our highway code test so it is onto situational problems for theory. Practicals are the BEST!!! Hey where else can you find people to pay you to get a license (albeit a military one). After a quick check of the machine and settling the paperwork(typical SAF - admin to cover their own asses), everyone is off to warm up the engines!

Every bike has an electrical starter for easy starting of the engine but as trainees we have to use the kick-starter(not that i mind it's jolly good fun!) you really need the strength to kick the farker. At first i was a little hesitant to damage the merchandise but after seeing how the instructors treated their machines, I started to really kick the starter. It feels good when you hear and feel the engine start. Vrrroooommmmmm!

The rider's left hand rests upon the clutch while his right is on the throttle. The clutch is the link between the bike's engine and it's wheels. When the rider pulls it, the link is broken so the bike is effectively "gliding" without any engine power. In order to change gears, you gotta pull the clutch too so riding a bike involves quite a lot of movement that you wouldn't realize until you are actually riding it. The training ain't easy (due in no small part to the instructors who would fuck you over some small mistake like "throwing your clutch" or not keeping your eyes on the road) I was a hot target for the first few sessions but I have escaped now haha it gets easier after a while.

We spent most of our time waiting because there are 70 bikes, 24 land rovers and a couple of tunnels sharing the small circuit and I probably breathed in enough exhaust fumes to cause me serious damage but it is really really FUN! When you break away from the queue and zoom off towards the long straight road, your movements are automatic. Open throttle, pull clutch, up gear to 2, open throttle, up gear to 3 and so on.(Max is gear 5 for abt 70km/h). I find that gear 4 is the most suitable for the circuit. The engine purrs smoothly at abt 40km/h and it's just nice for easy control and it is enough for you to get the sensation of speeeeeeeddddddd. Whoa it's just like riding a bicycle down a slope but faster and more SHIOK! Just imagine this: On impulse, you open throttle hard with an adrupt twist of your wrist and you feel the bike respond with a kick and the speedometer climbs rapidly up and the wind starts to really get in your face and the road seems to be flying by so fast and the engine sound is so loud and so smooth and then the end of the road appears......

Yeah it's really fun and i m thinking of getting a civilian license(! my mum must not see this !) cos a bike would be cheap and it would be damn fun to ride around (kinda like a souped-up replacement for my now defunct and missing bicycle, bless it's rusted soul T_T) maybe next year when every thing settles down....