Thursday, March 22, 2007

Jogja Touring - Bandung 1st Destination

Friday, March 16, 2007, Me and my wife packing some stuff before we go out for touring to Yogyakarta. We choose Friday 07.00pm, because it's the most suitable time for us. First, we don't have to take leave permission and we can get more rest time.

Before that, I'm discuss with my friend, especially with Mocky. We discuss about several time for starting time. Our first destination is Bandung, after that we go to Jogja. After a long discussion, we pick a different time. He pick Friday morning, while I pick Friday night.

After office hour has ended, I go to my wife office to pick her and meet my other friend at some point. After I arrived at the meet point, Pram was there already. After a while, I saw Rangga and Bayu arrived. We discuss so much thing. But on the outside it is getting rain, I'm so worried about this. Because it will disturb our trip to Bandung. When I look at the outside, Cucu has arrived. Now it's complete. After praying for our trip to Bandung, we get hurry to our 2nd meet point to meet other friends. And catch our schedule time if we don't want get late on the road.

At the 2nd meet point, we only found Bene in there! Where is Lukman? 1 hour wasted just waiting him.

Now, we are ready for our first journey.

Lukman leads, and the others follow him. Our route is thru Jonggol. It hard trip indeed, because we pass it on the night. While the road condition is not good enough, lot of hole everywhere. And the road are wet either.

One thing is very riskying is the braking light of SR and LX are very bright, and that my eyes can not see the road clearly if they push the brake handle. Suddenly the is a big hole in front of me. Oh no... I'm gonna crash this time, because I can not avoid if this close. Fortunatelly, I can hold my scooter. If not, noth of us will fall down into the hole. I saw my wife almost fall down, but she hold on very tight to me, so she won't fall if I'm not. Thank God.

Second thing that very dangerous is, don't make a slalom move while you are on the touring group. You will make rider on your back confused.

After taking a deep breath, we continue our trip.

When we almost reach Bandung, suddenly our friends rear tire get trouble. Someone contact Dutamatic to get help bring some spare tire. Very long long wait, just to finished changing the tire. It takes about 3 hour to finished it.

Now, we must get hurry to Bandung get rest as much as we can. So, we open the throttle as fast as we can. I look at the speedometer, it reach 95kmh! Amazing! Riding a 100cc scooter in tandem, can reached that speed. Wow, it's a damn crazy. I look at the throttle, I think I can get faster than this, but my wife pull out my jacket. I know this sign, she want me to slow down. Oh ok, I will, I will be steady on this speed.

Finally we arrive on Bandung. But wait something wrong with our group, Bene is missing. Where is he? We open our eyes and look for him. We ride slowly, just because we don't want to loose him. It's not funny if he is missing on Bandung. On the branch of road (I don't know the name), we stop and wait, maybe he is on our back. Waiting with nervous for him. Suddenly Dutamatic friends that help bring and changing spare tire arrive with Bene. We are so glad that he is not missing. We split our group. Me, my wife and Bene follow Lukman into his house for taking a rest before we continue our trip to Jogja.

We have only about 1 hour left to rest. We must use it wisely. Me and my wife taking a rest on the sofa, while Bene rest on the carpet with a pillow. This is not a good sleep I think, but the time forced us to get prepare for other trip.

At 05.00am, we prepare our selves to the Dutamatic. Now this is the real journey begin. Wait and see, what will happen on our next trip.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Complaining The Tire

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, I want to complain about my rear tire by phone, because it puffy. So I seek the tire producer on the internet. I found it; but there is something weird about this. The official website tell me that they only produce tire for bicycle!

So who is the one that produce my scooter tire?

Forget it, as long as I can complain this tire and get the new one. I call the number that exist on the header site. I call it once, and it busy. I call it twice, and it keep busy. And the third one, it worked. Some woman pick up and answer my phone. I tell her about what I want. And she said that if I want to complain about tire, this is not the place. I have to call to floor 10th. She gave me the number to call it by my selves. What is this! Is she can not forward or transfer my call to the complaining area that locate on the floor 10?

That made me so angry, why the customer service is not good. Is it because there are a lot of complaining about their product or what? Lot of my friend said that the tire that I used is not good, it often puffy for this brand. They told me to switch to another brand.

I think I should change it, but I don't wanna loose for this one. I tried the number that she gave to me. Someone pickup and I said hello, I want to complain about your tire product. But without any word, she forward me to another one. Is this some kind of joke?

After waiting for a while, there is a man voice. He ask me, "what can I help for you?". Oh this one is kind and pretty good in customer service. I tell him about the tire quality and what happen to the tire that i bought a few month ago. He ask me where do leave, and he told me to go to the main supplier that near to my home and complain to them. This is great, because I don't have to ride to bring the tire just to complain.

I call it to the main supplier, and I said I want to complain about my scooter tire. The one that on the end of the phone forward it to the warehouse section. Mr Rachmat answer all of my complaining, including the procedure that I must take. He told me that I must complain it to the store that I bought. Ok, I said, I will complain it to the store. But what if they can not help? He said that he will help me.

I closed the phone and call the store. After a long debate, I give up. The store is not accept any complaination for the tire. So I call back to Mr. Rachmat to tell him about it. He said that he will help me. But he is not promise that this will succeed, but he will try.

Saturday, March 10, 2007, we plan some points in our todo check list. One is bring my rear tire to Mr Rachmat. After I meet him, he test the tire and sign the puffy spot. He made some document and gave it to me and he said that he will contact me if the replacement for my tire arrive. And he tell me that if I want to buy a new tire again, he can help me too.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Dangerous Ride In The Rain

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, I ride my scooter with my beloved wife to the office. This morning it rained. So we wear our two pieces rain coat gear (jacket and pants) and seal all of our stuff with a plastic, so it will not get wet or dirty.

I rode 40kmh 'til 60kmh, because this is the best speed for lowest fuel consumption, and I think this is the best speed for great handling when the road very slippery.

When we got on a medium traffic, I look at my mirror. I saw a man and a woman riding with a motorcycle and wearing a ponco rain coat both of them. I ride steady at the average speed of 40kmh, because I can not get faster beacause of the traffic. But this motorcycle suddenly on my side and very close indeed. And he is faster than me, I think he is to fast for this traffic condition.

In a few second, his ponco suddenly hook on my right handle bar and he is keep faster. Oh no.....

Me and wife crashed down with my scooter. Fortunately, I'm not riding faster so the wound is not very bad, just some bruised in my knee. Someone help us out of the traffic, we are so glad about that. Thank you for your help sir, I'm very appreciated that. I saw the one who made me down is running away. I'm in deep sad. I look at my wife, how is she. She said that its alright, just some bruised on both of her knee. I look at my scooter condition, there are some scratch on the plastic.

After we are ready to continue our trip to the office, we said thank you again to the man that help us out. And we continue our ride to the office.

So the conclution is: "DON'T YOU EVER WEAR A PONCO RAIN COAT ON A TWO WHEELS, BECAUSE ITS DANGEROUSING OTHERS AND YOUR SELVES"