ESCAPE FROM KL
Rocking up to the MMG offices at around
8:30am on day one we were greeted by Feizal
and Zahed, the tour operators. We’ve known
these guys for a while via Facebook but this
was our first actual meet and they’re two of
the nicest blokes you could hope to spend
some time on the road with. We would be
accompanied by Zahed and one other guide,
on bikes (one at the front and one trail), for the
whole tour. Feizal joined us for the first couple
of days.
Our first task was to transfer our luggage from
the suitcases we flew to Malaysia with into hard
panniers and top boxes. We even surprised
ourselves when everything fitted with room
to spare. That was followed by a briefing from
Feizal and Zahed on road rules and etiquette
which also gave us the opportunity to meet the
other riders on the tour. Sarah and I were both
riding solo and there were two other rider/pillion
pairs joining us for the whole tour, and another
couple who were to stay with us for a day or so
and then head off on their own.
The bikes were a Kawasaki 650 Versys for me
and a Yamaha XJ6 Diversion for Sarah (as she’s a
shorty... and the Versys isn’t). The bikes are well-
maintained high mileage units fitted with Givi
hard luggage, and they’re the kind of bikes that
are well suited to 250-350km a day as they’re
comfortable, relatively frugal in terms of fuel
consumption and easy to ride. I ride a Speed
Triple and an early model FireBlade at home
and Sarah has a Yamaha MT-09, so, in theory, the
hire bikes were a significant step down from our
usual mounts, but we found that aside from the
fact that the XJ6 could really do with an extra
gear, the bikes were well-suited to the kind of
riding the tour served up.
The destination for the first day’s ride was
Melaka, around 230km to the south and with
the briefing and bike prep done, it was a little
after 10:00am when we eased out into the KL
traffic. Although the worst of the rush hour had
passed, it was still a fairly intense introduction
to riding in Malaysia. Despite the volume of
traffic, it quickly became apparent that whilst
KIWI RIDER 35