Best bet to counter fuel price - Switching to two wheeler?

Fuel price for RON95 has been increased from RM1.90 to RM2.10 from 3rd Sept 2013 onward, that's sad news, but that's the fact and we can't do more to revert it.

Yet what we can do is to switch our thinking, and to change our lifestyle to cope with the burden.

There are many ways to do it. But what makes a direct impact is that we should stop using fuel wherever possible, or minimize its usage all the time. But for workers like us, we cannot save beyond the traveling distance to workplace because we have to travel. So bring down traveling expenses within the working distance is the key to save fuel money.

Malaysia's most popular bike - Honda EX-5 Kapchai

We use highways, we use tolls and we caught in jam all the time. This had caused us fatigue, stressful and costs us a lot of money to pay toll and petrol. Imagine travelling all the way from Kajang to Damansara workplace in a box with a 30km route will cost you about RM6 in fuel and RM1.80 toll fare per trip. Added up with the same return route will cost you RM15.6 in total, for just to go and back from work!

I notice there are many workers who travel alone in car, not car pooling. Hence ends up a lot of cars on the road, causing the annoying road jam. Road jams become worst during rainy days where the car stay stationary.

I still remember how I ride my bike during early days in work, all the way from Seri Kembangan to Kepong, via LDP highway. It was fast, no stuck in jam on sunny or rainy days and care not for tolls. I miss those days where I can ride freely, enjoying the oncoming wind, and breath the natural air. The Suzuki RC80 is not my bike anyway, it was a loan bike from my uncle and it is now sold.

I have always wanted a bike for some reason. I like freedom and furious ride, more than how I enjoy driving a car now. But as a family man I have to drive a car. There's no reason to ride a motorcycle when I have a car. With a car, I can bring my family out in comfort, and it is a lot safer than a bike because it felt protected. I has all the comfy, entertainment and safety features such as powerful air-cons, integrated infotainment, airbags and ABS.

But driving a car can be a problem when we need to perform some quick daily task, such as buying some stuff from adjacent grocery, heading to bank for some cash, pay a bill at Pos office and more. Hence these will be our good reasons to get a bike.

I research the Internet and found some really interesting bikes. Those with sporty look with bigger cc. I need bigger cc bike because it is easier to catch up with cars on road. So finally I shortlisted 3 of the bikes I like:

1. Yamaha FZ150i Naked bike (RM8,000++)

2. Kawasaki Ninja KRR 150 (RM10,000++)

3. Honda CBR 150R (RM10,000++)

Which would you vote? For me I glued my heart to Yamaha FZ150i for its fuel economy and price. After-all this article is about how you could save cost and fuel.

The Yamaha FZ150i comes with 4-stroke, fuel injection engine. It has excellent fuel consumption figure of 450km per tank of 12 litres. That's whooping RM0.056 per km! It even more save than Honda EX5 that runs on carburetor. Taking the same example route as above, a Kajang-Damasara return trip will cost you only 30km x 2 x RM0.056 = RM3.36, and there's no toll fare to pay!

Servicing is done every 2,000km with only engine oil change. The cost of the engine oil is about RM50. Totaling up for 10,000km servie it is about RM250. Similar to average service of a car.

So in a single day you will save RM12.24 and in a month you will save a staggering RM244.80! All by changing the transportation to bike. Amazing isn't it?