My First Bike

Its a Kawasaki Vulcan EN500cc. Bought it on 5 March 1997 while i was still attach to Oriental Bank Berhad. The idea of having the bike was initially set up by En Ahmad (my Head of Credit and also the big brother of famous singer , Aris Ariwatan). He thought it was a good idea for me to buy the bike since I have enrolled on a evening class after office.

I used to remember back in those days when I was still a bank clerk at Balakong branch, after office at 5pm , I had to rushed to attend my evening class at Amset Business School in Petaling Street. The class starts at 6pm , so the idea of having the bike just fit the bill. It was a 500cc bike made in Japan with a weight of 200kgs. The interest to the bike make my dreams come true and during those days most of my buddies and even my dad was puzzled on how I managed to ride the bike , as I don't have any motorcycle's licence before. Not even can ride properly a kapcai.

It was a love for the first sight for me , with the selling price of RM17,612, I started experiencing sleepless nights imagining about having the bike. The dreams finally come true as on the month of March 1997 just right after Chinese New Year holiday , the bike was officially owned by a guy name Muzafar Abdul Karim. To add to my happiness is that my best of buddy, Syeikh also decided to have one!! Mine is a red silver, and his bike are purple silver. Later on I was also known by my friends as MuzVulcan. A synonym to the bike I am using.

He got his bike later than mine because Kawasaki was having limited distribution for purple silver and finally in May 1997 , our dreams of riding together comes true. We went out almost every nights to have just a simple 'teh tarik' in a nearby mamak stall. We went out riding as far as Malacca (south) and Ipoh (north) together with another one of our ex-school mate, Raymond Jeffrey. It was our glory days and we do it all just for the love of the bike and the enjoyment of riding. All that us can think of during those days are just riding and talks only on matters concerning big bikes.

Our riding days becomes to a halt, when Raymond sell off the bike because he shifted to work in Singapore after his father passed away in 1998. Syeikh was getting married in year 2000 and stops riding permanently, and I was the only sole biker soon after that. It was not easy for me as I used to ride with Raymond and Syeikh alongside. However, nothing lasts forever and I have to accept the facts that I am the only biker left riding among the three buddies.


I change the bike's colour three times during my close relationship with the bike.Now I have also sold the bike to a man from Batu Pahat after owning it for almost 11 years. I parted with the bike exactly 2 months after my mum passed away. One day, I think I should pay my ex-bike a visit and meet again.

Ayah - As I Was Told (Part 1)

Haji Abdul Karim Bin Mohd Ali
(Aug 8 , 1933 - May 15, 2000)

He was born in Hulu Yam Lama at Hulu Selangor to a big family of 10 siblings.
His dear father , Mohd Ali Hussein, was a very respectable man and was chosen to head the village for almost 10 years.

The whole family shifted to Kampung Baru, KL (Jalan Raja Uda) as the situation in the kampungs especially rural area in the middle of 1940s until late 1950s back then was very chaotics and not safe due to the guerilla attacks by the Communist. Many families took shelter to the urban area as this area are much safer and were covered by the army and police.

He then continued his primary studies at Sekolah Jalan Raja Muda, KL and completed his secondary education at Victoria Institution (VI). He was crazy about football and the teams he supported back then is of course, Manchester United with players such Duncan Edwards, Sir Bobby Charlton, Billy Foulkes, Eddie Colman (as I can remember from his non stop stories about his beloved team).

He represented his school (VI)football team and he was also selected to play for Selangor team after finished his Form Five, which is called MCE at that time. He was selected by Dato' Harun Idris as the team defender and plays for Selangor in the late 1950s, regularly alongside Datuk Abdul Ghani Minhat and Edwin Dutton.

During his days, there were so many great players representing the national team as the national team is also the strongest in the South East Asia region.