Much ado about sons on bikes

It started with a simple question: May I have a motorbike?

Theoretically, there can only be two answers: either a “yes” or a straight “no”.

But when one is dealing with a teenage son, it’s not as straightforward.

That the requester rode up to his mother’s car after school one day, on a friend’s borrowed two-wheeler, wearing a joyous grin and appearing as if he had never known any form of sorrow in all his 17 years, did not help at all.

Of course, this mother had taken a video of the scene and posted it on social media.

Comments came aplenty on whether a request for a motorbike was to be accommodated.

For all his edgy public persona as the founder of a metal rap band, Dragon Red, Chandrakumar Balakrishnan — better known as Land Slyde — was against the idea.

“It’s a no-go. Get him a small car, ” wrote Land Slyde, who himself is a father of two teenage boys.

“Be careful of the ‘New Era’ mentality, ” wrote Datuk Davy Woo.

Beside his comment was a meme of a cyclist zooming ahead at full speed.

“Look after him (referring to the requester) well. Love him, yes, but don’t overdo it, ” he added.

Land Slyde and Woo had known the motorbike requester since he was seven.

But the motorbike requester had his own supporters.

One is a relative.

“Buy him one. It is part of life’s experience. My father bought me one. He bought one for himself too and rode with me to school for a month. After that, he let me ride by myself, ” commented this relative.

His mother’s schoolmate was another.

“I was worried too when my boy wanted one. But I felt better after sending him for riding and safety classes. Now, he is waiting to take his P licence for a 500cc bike. I had to learn to get over my worries and trust him to be careful and aware of other drivers, ” she wrote.

For that, the motorbike requester reacted with a love emoji to her comment.

But for his mother, the fear is real.

In her 2018 keynote address on how Malaysia Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) can play a role in reducing road fatalities for 2020, former Miros director-general Siti Zaharah Ishak pointed out that Malaysia was ranked fifth in the world for motorbike accident fatalities. From the total number of fatalities on our roads, 62.7% were from motorcycle accidents.

Careless riding, speeding, traffic light violations and dangerous turns were named as the main causes of accidents.

Forty percent from the overall casualties were aged between 16 and 25.

A safer option would be to downgrade the request to a bicycle where the average yearly fatality rate is only 1.7%. Safer still if he took the bus where the rate is at a 0.4% low.

But how popular or cool would this decision be to a teenager?

Not at all, for sure.

After all, didn’t his mother say that she had plans to ride to Thailand with her sons one day in the name of adventure?

And doesn’t her own head turn when a superbike whizzes by? It took a colleague at work to set things straight.

For sure, the motorbike requester can attend rider and safety lessons. No doubt, he will be made fully aware of road safety, the dangers of operating an automobile in a reckless manner and the irresponsibility of drunk driving.

That he must be suitably attired — full-face helmet, no slippers or shorts, boots, high-visibility armoured jacket and padded jeans — goes without saying.

But who is to pay for his new machine, riding lessons, licence fees and the accessories that are to come with it?

As a secondary student, it is highly unlikely the motorbike requester will be able to afford biking gear, let alone pay for fuel as well as maintenance.

Not that his parents would not be able to afford this for him. But what kind of impression would we be giving him on thrift and the importance of standing on one’s own two feet?

Don’t worry, assured my colleague.

“If he wants a motorbike, let him save up and pay for it. Meanwhile, there is the LRT and MRT. If it rains, that’s what umbrellas and raincoats are for.”