chaly giving me problems but i still love him

ok since today is sunday, i’m not going to talk about politics or any current news/issues. i’m going to do a personal post. actually i had written this on friday (before my trip to ipoh) but i let wordpress publish it on today, sunday.

i’m going to talk about my chaly. it will be a long-winded post. if you are not into personal post, then better stop reading now.

for the past 2 months, my chaly had been giving me problems. the engine dies off suddenly when chaly was stationery after moving. it all began after my chaly was repaired by anothe mechanic… not my regular mechanic. ok let me begin from the beginning (yalah, how else to begin. haha).

it all started on 19 feb  when i, as MAFREL member, together with other MAFREL members visited the ACA office on 19 feb. after lunch at the new world park with friends, when i want to start my chaly, it can’t be started at all. being a sunday, there was no motor shop opened. i walked round the new world park area in the hot sun (burmah road, argyl road, and so on) looking for a shop but to no avail. then i have no choice but to leave my chaly at the new world park and hopefully it won’t be stolen.

so from the new world park, i walked to the church at macalister road. it was at the church that i try calling some of my friends to see if they can help me to start or see what was wrong with chaly (picture you see here is my chaly taken about 10 days ago in my office).. thank god one of them was kind enough to go to new world park to see what was wrong with my chaly and how he could help. well i didn’t know what he did exactly but he manged to bring chaly back to the church.

i thought chaly was ok then so the next morning (20 feb) i started chaly to go to work but it can’t be started. i have no choice but to call my mechanic to come and take my chaly for repair. problem is i did not have my regular mechanic telephone’s number (lost it when i changed phone). so left with no choice, i call the mechanic just opposite the church to come and have a look at my chaly. he came and took back chaly and did some repairs that cost me RM38. he did tell me what he did with it – 3 things – but silly me, i forgot what just after 2 days!

ok so henceforth from that day, now and then when i ride chaly, sometimes the engine will die off while i’m riding it halfway and most of the times it will dies off when i stop at traffic junction. it happened occasiionally until i cant’ stand it any longer so took chaly to see my regular mechanic, SHL.  at first he just did some slight adjustment and said it is ok now but after i used it, the engine sitll dies off, so asked him to check again. again he checked yes, did something and return chaly to me but again same problem came up! after 3 times of sending to and fro for repairing/checking, finally he said, it could be a major problem now and he had to dismantle the whole bike to check which could take one day or at least half a day.

well he found out that something was wrong with the valve which needed to be change… and told me that an original one cost RM68! beside the valve, he change/repair other things too and you know what? all together it comes to RM219.90!! gosh! chaly made me poorer by RM219.90!

(note: picture here is of the original chaly, taken from the net)

ok i would have thought after spending over RM200 on the repairs, chaly would not be giving me problems anymore… but horrors!.. still same problem befall chaly! the engine will die off when i stop or even when i slow down. i am very scared if the engine die off while i’m in the middle of a traffic junction as i felt embarrassed being in the middle of the road kicking and kicking the pedal to start the engine. most of the time, i can’t get it started too and had to push my bike to the side (the gate of some shop) to start it so as not to block traffic.

well of course i called my mechanic and told him so why after so costly repair, still got problem. this time he said maybe something’s wrong with the carburator and need to check it. he wanted to know what the previous mechanic did to my chaly but i can’t remember what he did! it could be he adjusted something that was not right… well… the problem started immediately after he had chaly repaired. anyway, ok so my mechanic took chaly back and did something to the carburator… and phew! finally! no more ‘engine dies off’ problem… but for 4 days only!

on monday 14 march, suddenly it was difficult to start in the morning, then ride only short distance, engine dies off! like always (the couple of days ago), had to stop at the side to place chaly on double stand to kick start it, as only that way, can give more power to the kick! despite numerous kicks, it can’t start. a man on bike saw my predictment and decided to help me. though he kicked and kicked it can’t be started too. then he checked petrol and said maybe my petrol not enough so asked me to switch on the spare cod (for reserve petrol). at the same time, he notice there petrol was dripping from chaly too! anyway after switching on the spare cord, yes chaly finally started.

it was just a short distance to my office so i managed to reach my office. then i thought the petrol would be enough for me to go to the petrol station during my lunch time but during lunch time, while i was riding chaly halfway, suddenly the engine dies off completely again!! i took a look at my petrol tank and horror!! it was all dried up!! ayoh! no wonder lah! but how come all dried up as each time i on the reserved petrol, i knew it could last me certain distance. then it suddenly dawned on me that the petrol could be dripping out until teeny weeny left just enough for me to go a short distance then dies off. again, i had to call my mechanic who was kind enough to come with RM2 worth of petrol and at the same time checked the petrol dripped. he found out that a tube from the petrol tank that connect to dunno somewhere is faulty – broken and too big hole that was why the petrol dripped. so he said he will come to my office later to change it for me. again i have to fork out money for chaly – another RM15 for the tube. so total now RM235! wah! bad chaly made me poorer by RM235! this month must eat only maggi mee and biscuits during lunch. pokai already.

and you know almost daily i had been kicking and kicking the pedal that my leg ached! true! haha. like that also can ah, you asked. ya can lah… this shows i’m not a healthy person. once i was wearing a very thin sandal when i had to do this pedal kick exercise, i kicked so hard and so many times that my feet got blister as a result of it. true! see the picture here. haha. sorry ah. might sound gross to show you my feet but never mind, you can’t smell on the net. 🙂

now maybe some of you might said my mechanic bluff me or cheated me or what but no i don’t believe he will. he had been my mechanic for more than 10 years, mind you and i trust him very much. he is always willing to give personal service that is to come to my office to repair chaly or to take chaly back from my office to his shop to repair then sent chaly back again to my office. and don’t forget when i was halfway on the road stranded with chaly giving me problem, he was willing to come with just a phone call, and he did not charge me service charge. all in all, it was about 10 times that i kept calling him to come and see chaly!

on friday, 18 april, when i can’t start chaly in the morning 8.30am, i called him. he came at 10.00am said he’ll see how and adjust something then say it is ok, can start very easy, no engine die off. however at 12.30pm when i try to start it…. again the engine came on just 1 second the died off and again when i try to restart it no matter how many times i can’t. so i called my mechanic again and he came! well he can manage to start it! he watched how i start then he notice i kick-start in the wrong way! so he showed me how to do it and give me some tips and guidelines how to handle the engine, how engine and petrol works and so on. well i hope henceforth, i will have no problems whatsoever.

this was the first time chaly gave me major problems (having to spent so much). in 1996 i did spent near RM300 to have it overhaul – that time was the only major repair/service.  after that overhaul, no problems whatsoever… until that fateful day 20 feb when another mechanic touched my chaly!! so i can’t say chaly had been consistently giving me problems. on the whole chaly had been very good!

yes i am proud to be the owner of chaly… because you know what? it seems that a number of people are interested to buy chaly from me. within the past 3 weeks i had 3 offers from strangers wanting to buy chaly from me!

once, as i was riding on the road, suddenly a man on a motor that zoomed past me suddenly called out "hello! motor mahu jaulkah?". i was shocked as was in the middle of the road, didn’t expect someone to call out to me. i just shook my head.

the second time, after i went to the general post office, i went to AIA insurance. when i parked at AIA, suddenly a man on bike approached me and said "are you selling your bike? i saw you at the post office, wanted to talk to you but couldn’t catch you so i follow you here." wow! imagine tagging me behind just to ask if i’m selling chaly. well he told me that he is from some ‘kelab mini’ and need my bike for his club. he said it is very difficult to find chaly honda in penang. and so when he spied me, he quickly make sure that he caught up with me. he said that i can even trade in my chaly. of course i told him i won’t be selling chaly as i need chaly. i can’t find other bikes that are so low like chaly (good for shorty like me!). he said in case i change my mind, asked me to contact him, so he gave me his handphone no.

then the 3rd time, it was this man who helped me on 14 march (refer above story). he also said he is interested to buy my chaly. i was quite silly to say last time when i bought chaly from the motor shop (at RM2400), the motor shop owner had said he was willing to buy back chaly at RM2000 from me. that was about 20 years ago! this man said "2000…. 3000…. people will also buy." hmm… so next time when people offer to buy chaly, i shouldn’t open my mouth to say it is worth at least RM2000. well this man too gave me his phone no. to contact him when i want to sell chaly.

on thursday when i was talking to my mechanic about people offering to buy chaly as antique, he told me that i should sell it off for RM5000!! he said those who wanted to buy it as antique usually doesn’t wants the whole bike as they will know if a chaly had been modified and not 100% original. what they want then is to get several chaly bikes. from one chaly, take apart the not original parts and assemble it together with the other chaly  – all to make into one very original chaly, then they can sell it for near RM10000! (not forgetting repainting it of course to make it very brand new).

well i said i will not sell chaly. after all if i do sell it, how on earth do i find a bike that is so low like chaly? my mechanic though told me that yamaha ego is low like chaly and advised me that if people want to buy chaly at RM5000, i’d better sell it and buy yamaha ego. this is because he said in years to come, there might be more problems with chaly and in that time, there will be no more spare parts available. i don’t know yet… still contemplating… ok to sell or better keep (and use) it and continue using it. well if i am rich, i can buy a new one (as advise, yamaha ego) while keeping chaly. then i’ll have 2 bikes – better for me as 1 i can keep in church while 1 keep in house. haha. but i can’t afford lah. if want to buy new bike, must sell chaly to get the money first.

well my chaly had 2 modified parts – the seat and the mud-guards. as you can see from the original chaly picture, the seat is very small. at one time when i need to give my mother a lift almost everyday, my mother being a little on the overweigh side found it difficult to sit on the small seat with just a little space! so i change to a bigger seat – the normal C70 honda cub seat. it is a pity i did not keep the original seat.

at first when i bought chaly, it was red and orange in colour. then about 5 years ago, i had the orange repainted (actually it was sprayed with colour right?)  to dark green. again 2 years back i had the whole of chaly repainted blue – as it is now. when it was first painted blue, it was so nice. you can see chaly with the new ‘blue suit’ in this post. then as time went by, i don’t know why the petrol keep spilling from the petrol tank once in a while, especially after i filled up the tank full (too full maybe!). so much so that you see, it turned so ugly (on both sides), as you can see from the picture here. hmm… i wonder can it be washed cleaned? i try soap but it can’t! guess chaly is destined to be dirty? lol.