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.