Tuesday, November 18, 2014

To make a long story short, I bought a used Yamaha Nouvo scooter.



A Story With Yamaha Nouvo In Malaysia



That leaves transportation. Taxis (teksi) are quite cheap, but sometimes it's hard to find a local number to call to have one come and get me. That happened at Makro, but finally a newsstand operator was able to give me a phone number. After I called, the taxi came in about five minutes. Bus service is unreliable (at least that's what everyone tells me), and all the members of the faculty have cars, which they use even to get from one part of campus to another. I've been shopping for a motorbike and thought I had one ordered at the closest shop, but it turned out they couldn't get it for another week or more.


So Friday night, my colleague Rosni and her husband, Haznan (and their 6-year-old daughter, Nahna), took me around, and we went back to one of the shops where Daruss had taken me last week. I was looking at a Yamaha six-speed motorbike with a real clutch, but the new ones are more than RM 7,000. They had one used model, but it has an electrical problem that needs to be repaired, and that didn't sound good to me.

To make a long story short, I bought a used Yamaha Nouvo scooter. I took it for a test ride around the block of shops, and it's very easy to handle. The transmission is fully automatic, which I find completely weird, but it seems very responsive in every way (except acceleration, of course; it's only 115cc). Haznan negotiated for me, and while he didn't get them to lower the price, he got them to include a helmet, a new battery, a new rear tire, a fork lock, and a full tank of petrol. The final price, including taxes, registration, and insurance: RM 3,990 ($1,037). I left a deposit Friday night and returned (with Haznan and Nahna; Rosni was at UiTM, enrolling in a doctoral degree program) to pick it up Saturday morning.

Naturally, the bike wasn't ready. There was an additional snag in that on the first and third Saturday of the month, the post offices are closed, and we would need to go there to pay the road tax. But Monday, at last, I was able to ride my little bike home!
  
To make a long story short, I bought a used Yamaha Nouvo scooter. [Mindy McAdams]



Mindy McAdams @ flickr.com
Yamaha Nuovo, 2004

The bike I owned for eight months, in Malaysia. It's a sweet little 115cc with automatic starter and fully automatic transmission.
Most of these "underbone" style bikes are semiautomatic, with a rocker pedal on the left side to shift gears, but without a clutch. The Nuovo has NO pedals and no driver pegs, but floorboards instead. There are pegs for the passenger.


[BAHASA INDONESIA]

Mengenai transportasi. Taksi (teksi) cukup murah, tapi terkadang cukup sulit mendapatkan nomor yang bisa dihubungi untuk datang menjemput saya, ini pernah terjadi di Makro, tetapi akhirnya seorang petugas bagian informasi berhasil mendapatkan nomor telpon yang bisa dihubingi kepada saya. Setelah aku menelepon, taksi datang sekitar lima menit. Layanan bus tidak dapat diandalkan (setidaknya itulah yang disampaikan orang lain kepada saya), dan semua yang ada di kampus telah memiliki mobil, yang setiap saat dapat mereka gunakan dari kampus ke tempat lainnya. Saya telah berkeliling mencari motor dan saya putuskan untuk memesan di toko terdekat, tapi ternyata mereka tidak dapat memenuhi keinginan saya dalam waktu dekat.

Jadi Jumat malam, rekan saya Rosni dan suaminya, Haznan (dan putri 6 tahun mereka, Nahna), membawa saya berkeliling, dan kami kembali ke salah satu toko di mana Daruss telah mengambil saya minggu lalu. Aku melihat sebuah sepeda motor Yamaha enam kecepatan dengan berkopling, tetapi yang baru lebih dari RM 7.000. Mereka memiliki satu model yang digunakan, tetapi memiliki masalah listrik yang perlu diperbaiki, dan itu tidak terdengar baik padaku.

Untuk membuat cerita panjang menjadi pendek, saya membeli skuter  Yamaha Nouvo bekas. Aku mengambilnya untuk test ride di sekitar blok pertokoan, dan sangat mudah untuk mengendarainya. Transmisi sepenuhnya otomatis, yang saya temukan benar-benar aneh, tetapi tampaknya sangat responsif dalam segala hal (kecuali percepatan, tentu saja, kan hanya 115cc). Haznan menegosiasikan penawaran untuk saya, dan tidak ada pengurangan harga dalam negosiasi tersebut, namun ia [Haznan] mendapatkan bonus helm, baterai baru, ban belakang baru, kunci garpu [kunci pengaman tambahan], dan setangki penuh bensin. Harga akhir, termasuk pajak, pendaftaran, dan asuransi: RM 3,990 ($ 1,037). Aku meninggalkan uang jaminan Jumat malam dan kembali (dengan Haznan dan Nahna, Rosni berada di UiTM, mendaftar di program gelar doktor) untuk mengambilnya Sabtu pagi.

Tentunya, motor ini belum siap pakai. Ada halangan tambahan, dimana hari Sabtu pertama dan ketiga setiap bulannya, kantor pos ditutup, dan kita perlu untuk pergi ke sana untuk membayar pajak jalan. Tapi Senin, akhirnya, saya bisa mengendarai motor kecilku ini kembali!



Mindy McAdams @ flickr.com
Yamaha Nuovo 2004

 Saya memiliki motor ini selama delapan bulan, di Malaysia. Ini adalah 115cc, si mungil yang manis dengan starter otomatis dan transmisi otomatis.
Sebagian besar jenis motor "bebek" semi-otomatis, mempunyai pedal gigi di sisi kiri untuk oper, tetapi tanpa kopling. Nuovo TIDAK memiliki pedal dan tidak ada pijakan kaki, namun fungsinya digantikan oleh papan lantai. Ada pijakan kaki untuk penumpang.


Story and Photo Source:
Material Goods
Author: Mindy McAdams*)
*) Mindy McAdams is a Professor at the College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida
She lived in Indonesia for 10 months on a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant. At Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD) in Bandung, West Java  [http://inidisini.wordpress.com/]

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