People-profile-Suroyo

People-profile-Suroyo
JP/24/W00
JP/24/SUROYO

Suroyo, Yogyakarta's 'Gazelle bike king'

Bambang Muryanto
Contributor/Yogyakarta

Following the government's decision to raise fuel prices by an
average of almost 100 percent on Oct. 1, many people are thinking
of returning to bicycles.

However, H. Suroyo, a silver handicrafts businessmen in
Yogyakarta's Kotagede, has never parted with his bike, regardless
of fuel prices. He has dozens of old Gazelle bikes made between
1950 and 1960 in his collection. One of these is worth Rp 75
million.

Fifty-six-year-old Suroyo has loved cycling since he was
young. His father, an agricultural crop vendor, always went about
on a bike. It was when he was still very young that Suroyo began
to enjoy riding a Gazelle.

First produced in 1902 in Dieren village, the Netherlands, by
Willem and Hendrik Kolling, Gazelle bikes are usually strong and
comfortable to ride. You can travel a long distance on them
without tiring easily, one reason why a Gazelle, often referred
to as the Mercedes-Benz of automobiles, is very expensive.

The price of a Gazelle, which has the logo of a running deer,
is reputedly based on the price of gold. In the 1950s, a new
Gazelle was worth two ounces of gold. "In 1968, someone wanted to
exchange his Honda motorcycle for my series-10 Gazelle," said
Suroyo, who still has a healthy physique.

In the 1970s, when he was a student at the school of economics
of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) Suroyo did not ride a
motorbike. Instead, he went to university on his Gazelle. "I
never felt tired," said Suroyo, now the owner of Sus's Silver
outlet, about the time he rode his bike covering a distance of 18
kilometers between the UII campus and his house, then somewhere
near the Prambanan temple.

After getting his degree, Suroyo worked at the local highways,
traffic and transportation office. In 1989, he decided to retire
early and return to Yogyakarta, whereupon he met his Gazelle
series-9, the bike he rode to university.

Following the "reunion" with his old bike, Suroyo felt a
burning desire to collect old Gazelles. He began hunting for the
bikes -- no easy task -- because they were already a rarity.
Slowly but surely, Suroyo became a familiar figure among bike
collectors and received a lot of information about Gazelle owners
wishing to sell their bikes. That way, he was able to expand his
Gazelle collection.

Once Suroyo bought five series-11 Gazelles from someone who
urgently needed money for a haj pilgrimage. In the mid-1990s, he
found in Bandung, West Java, a Gazelle that was about 95 percent
new. Rarely used and kept in a shed, the bike still had a 1950
bike tax sticker on its frame.

Suroyo was really overjoyed to be able to buy the bike because
everything about it was original. The yellow coach line along the
frame and the Gazelle trademark inscribed on the lower part of
the saddle were still there.

"These things make a Gazelle very expensive," said Suroyo, who
also holds a master's degree in transportation from Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB). He said he had to fork out Rp 30
million for that particular bike.

It is now the best in his collection. Today, the bike, which
was designed for use by women, is worth Rp 75 million. It is no
easy task to persuade Suroyo to display this particular Gazelle,
the bike that confirms his position as the "Gazelle bike
king".

"I'll never sell it," he said, adding that a Gazelle of such
quality might not surface for another decade.

At one time, Suroyo had 39 Gazelles in his collection. When
taking part in highlighting the first Yogyakarta Arts Festival,
Suroyo caused quite a stir in the city. He and his 15 employees
each rode a Gazelle.

"People were surprised to see them and wondered how I could
have collected so many," he said.

Suroyo collects Gazelles not only as a hobby but also as a
side business. That's why some of his Gazelles have been sold to
other people, bike collectors or otherwise. He has sold bikes to
government officials from Yogyakarta and other cities.

Today he has only 15 Gazelles in his collection, and most of
them are still in their original condition. The cheapest is worth
about Rp 15 million. All are still in excellent condition because
Suroyo and his employees take good care of them.

Some of the Gazelles are now kept in a store in his house
along with his collection of paintings. Suroyo is also an art
collector and has in his collection expensive paintings produced
by famous Indonesian and foreign artists like Hendra Gunawan,
Trubus and Walter Spies.

As a collector of Gazelle bikes, Suroyo also collects original
Gazelle spare parts, which can be costly. A musty but original
saddle, for example, costs over Rp 2 million, which is also the
price of a pair of original, white tires.

Suroyo regularly rides his Gazelle. "After dawn, I ride on my
Gazelle round the city for an hour," said Suroyo, known to be a
hospitable person. Sometimes, along with other Gazelle-lovers, he
rides to Parangtritis beach, about 30 km from Yogyakarta.

Indeed, Suroyo's life is inseparable from his Gazelles. For
him, a bike is not just an ordinary means of transportation. A
bicycle always reminds him of the journey in life from the time
he was a nobody until now, as quite a successful businessman.

The lesson he has learned from this long journey is that
genuine success takes a lot of patience.