Scooters that time almost forgot roar on the street again
Like Volkswagen beetle and Harley Davidson motorcycle buffs, scooter owners are now racing each other to dress up their vehicles. Scooter clubs, which disappeared for years, are roaring back in many big cities. K. Basrie of The Jakarta Post filed this report after meeting with scooter enthusiasts in Bandung and Jakarta.
JAKARTA (JP): Around 70 colorfully customized scooters were parked inside the Ragunan Zoological Park in South Jakarta last Sunday, stunning the crowd of weekend visitors.
On that day, some of the 200 members of the Jakarta Vespa Club, or JVC, had gathered at the city's favorite zoo for an annual meeting.
The zoo was chosen because one of the club's executive members is a manager at the zoo.
Stunned by the dazzling decoration of the bikes, which in the old days were the main means of transportation for teachers and elderly men, some of the visitors got up close and took pictures.
The scooters, mainly Vespas produced in the 1960s and 1970s, were rebuilt, remodeled, painted and accessorized.
One of the club's favorite symbols, most of the bikes' seats were missing. The mufflers were extended, making the scooters look like ducks. Some had spare tires set on special stainless steel crates on the back seats.
The colorful images on the bodies included Mickey Mouse and Spiderman. But the star that Sunday was a 1961 Vespa, with a side car, heavily remodeled by participant Warsito. He replaced the handlebars with a model produced in 1948. He put his own homemade lamp in 1950s style on the front fender.
The front wing-plates of several Vespas were chiseled into the forms of stars and blitz raids. An artillery shell was put on the front part of the side car, which also housed a complete audio system. The 125cc scooter, named Commando, was painted army green.
Old timers
Marwan, 73, a war veteran visiting the zoo, commented: "This Vespa is a combination of a scooter and an old war vehicle in the 1940s. Only a talented hobbyist could build such a work."
The owner, Warsito, spent around Rp 2 million (US$832) on his bike, which someone once offered to buy for Rp 4.5 million, though Warsito refused to sell.
"It's not for sale," said the owner.
In February, Warsito, his wife and child, used the bike on their Idul Fitri holiday trip to their hometown in Brebes, Central Java, about 300 kilometers east of Jakarta.
According to Ronny, leader of the club, the rebuilding of old scooters and the establishment of clubs in the capital has become more popular in the last few years.
Several scooter clubs established in the 1980s woke up again after sleeping for many years, he said.
"Besides JVC, there are 30 other clubs with hundreds of members in this city," said Ronny.
JVC was founded at Ronny's service repair shop on Jl. Wijaya I in South Jakarta in 1978. It came back to life last year.
The JVC, which holds sports and social events every year, also supervises two other clubs, Ayama and Vespa Rest Clubs.
"The big problem is not looking for sponsors but mobilizing the members," Ronny said.
In Bandung
A day earlier in the West Java capital of Bandung, about 40 members of the famous Scooters Owners Group (SOG) gathered at their home base on Jl. Nangkasuni, waiting for Saturday night.
Judging by their decorations and attributes, the Bandung enthusiasts are more creative than their comrades in Jakarta.
They also have built contacts with several clubs overseas, such as those in Britain and Spain.
"We want to make Bandung the center for scooter clubs in Indonesia," said SOG leader Beno Hendarin.
The scooter paint jobs ranged from an apache Indian, a giant cobra, fox, the Lion King, a black panther and Frankenstein.
Each rearview mirror was different, some even used those from Harley Davidsons.
The sexy, old-style headlamp rims were also favorite attributes. The other SOG style was the removal of the back cases and the plating of the engines with chrome.
The seats varied. Some owners covered them with biker-style leather seats and others pulled the back seats out.
"Except the SOG logos and black cloth uniforms, the drawings, color and accessories always differ from one scooter to another," said Boy Yanuar Ariska, a senior member of the club.
The other impressive thing about the two-year-old SOG is the names of the scooters, including Scooter for Blues, Embea (referring to the noise a goat makes), Flipper, Apache, Don, Green Cobra and Disneyland.
The ambition of the SOG members to make Bandung the home base for all-Indonesian scooter clubs might not just be a daydream.
"Everybody knows that scooter owners in Bandung are more creative than those in any other city," said Nonot Marsono from the Jakarta Vespa Club.
According to SOG leader Beno, the club now has around 700 members, including 50 females, in Bandung. It also supervises 440 members from three clubs in the nearby towns of Sukabumi, Subang and Garut.
"Hundreds of our members can be seen hanging around along Bandung's main street of Dago (now called Jl. Juanda) every Saturday evening," Beno said.
The SOG members are often "hired" by private parties, such as companies and recording firms, for commercial activities.
"We hope the construction of our new office on a 2,000-square- meter plot at Pasteur in western Bandung is completed by August this year," said Beno.
Besides Jakarta and Bandung, there are still hundreds of scooter enthusiasts grouped in similar clubs in other cities, such as Surabaya in East Java and Bogor in West Java.
The Vespa Club in Bogor has 800 members, said leader Lukman.
Each club has its own prerequisites and scooter specifications. The clubs have set monthly membership fees of between Rp 500 and Rp 1,000 per person. Any age can join.
"But it's funny for an old member like me to paint my scooter with colorful drawings," said Akbar, 65, of SOG.
On the weekends, the members normally gather at certain places to show off, or just exchange information on the latest accessories.
In Jakarta, for instance, the scooter devotees have chosen Monas park in Central Jakarta and Blok M plaza in South Jakarta as their meeting places.
Many scooter enthusiasts spend their holidays exploring several cities to look for the required scooters or accessories.
As a result, the prices fro certain timeworn models, particularly Vespas made in 1961, have skyrocketed from Rp 300,000 then to around Rp 2 million today.
If you have one at home, then you probably have a good deal!