"Motorcycle a lifestyle!" says Founder of SingaporeBikes.com forum

My Motorcycle and Me: Andy Ng

Founder of the popular SingaporeBikes.com forum, the biggest online Motor Biking community in Singapore, Andy shared with us his of love for the two-wheel ride and how he started the popular virtual hang-out place for motorcyclists in Singapore.

How long have you been riding a motorcycle? Or how long is it since you first rode a bike? I have been riding since 1998 when I first took my class 2B license. I took it after hearing some exciting discussions among 2 of my friends who were taking the lessons and sharing their experiences on the "tactics" to pass the various lessons. It started with a simple taunt "You think so easy? You go take class 2B license see how hard it is!” That’s what pushed me to go for motorcycle license and therefore started my riding experience. What was your first motorcycle, and why was it so special? What is your dream motorcycle, and why? Every new rider will face the urge to own their first ride; needless to say, I too fell for the temptation and actually down payment for my first ride (A Daelim Magma 125cc) at a roadshow at Suntec City. Every rider will love their first ride, regardless of whether it's a brand new or second-hand ride. It's special to me because I was still schooling at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and enlisting into NS soon so I do not have much funds to actually upkeep a motorcycle, so I sold my bicycle, depleted my savings and yes, I pretty much trashed everything I have in exchange for my first ride. So when things went extreme, logically it just bonded me with my ride, very naturally. She's all I had at that time. Frankly speaking, I do not have any preferences to any type of motorcycles. I find that each type of motorcycle provides me with different riding experiences and as I grew up and financially more stable, I started riding different types of motorcycles whenever I changed my ride. Cruisers, scramblers, scooters, mopeds, sports bike, Tourers, roadbikes, supermotards etc. My latest ride was an Aprilia Shiver 750cc Roadbike, which I traded my BMW GS650 from. You created Singaporebikes.com Forum, what sparked the idea, and how has the journey been till now – as you recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary. What is your vision for Singaporebikes.com Forum in years to come? About a decade ago, while I was still in my national service, things are getting pretty bored and I spent a lot of time on online bulletin board, and the hottest one during that period of time was actually the Delphi-forums where anyone can register an account in there and create their own sub-forum category. And due to the popularity of it, the site encountered the inevitable consequence of bad traffic bandwidth and surfing it became a drag. And after several search engine queries, I began to experiment with setting up a forum board and it started with a simple vision - Why not all the motorcycle-related sub-forum groups in Delphi-forums, migrate over to this forum board that I created and we can create the same forum groups just like Delphi-forums? It did not go as smooth as I hoped it to be. Most of the Delphi group owners were reluctant due to the fact that they felt that they will “lost control” of their board. And so, since the board is up, I might as well go ahead with creating my own forum board rather than abandoning what I have already did halfway. And that’s how Singapore Bikes Forum came about. As the founder of SBF (SingaporeBikes.com Forum), you must be very passionate about motorcycles, do you have memorable stories you could share with us (e.g. road trip? first date? etc)? My most memorable story is when both I and my wife had traveled the road of rural Vietnam on rental motorbikes. She just got her license then and wanted to do have a ride of her life. With all luggage piled on my bike and she rode on her own (with her mint license), we rode in Hanoi for 5 days, trawling through muddy trails, fell over innocent-looking flooded potholes, rode past jungles and paddy fields, caught in the rain and under the sun. Though it was tiring (and our poor bum) the whole ride was awesome – we get to experience nature, embrace in the culture of Vietnamese, dining under the stars with the sound of crickets and of course, the most unforgettable is to ride alongside with the locals during their peak hours in the city. It’s hard to explain with words, you get it when you visit Vietnam in person. Why do you prefer motorcycles to cars? Motorcycling is a lifestyle. I enjoyed riding and driving different kinds of vehicles, be it bikes or cars. Just that, the excitement factor for riding bikes is much enjoyable; it’s kind of like someone who enjoys roller coaster rides. And one of the best perk is, we get to avoid the massive jams. If you have a message to our the readers, what would it be? Go take your license for motorcycle. You have to ride on one, in order to think in the shoes of a rider. And it definitely helps to better understand how YOU too can help to make riders safer on the road. Find out more: Singaporebikes.com forum To share with us memorable stories about you and your motorcycle? Just drop us a note. In the mean time, check out our low price motorcycle insurance online and see how much you can save.