After a recent successful launch last year, the Original na Bida Campaign steadily creates a following. Filipinos riding the Big 4 brands are supporting the campaign for high quality, safety, and original design.
Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha are thankful for the continued support from the motoring public. On the social media platform, the Original na Bida Facebook fan page has reached over 6,000 fans. These fans provide living testimonials to the advantages of owning original motorcycles.
The Campaign’s page on Facebook has become a community where Filipino riders reach other riders. Many of the posts on the page are inquiries on where to find original parts for motorcycles. Many also share their thoughts about the Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha brands.
Original motorcycle parts and accessories are available through the dealerships of each brand. Unlike other brands, dealers of original motorcycle units provide after-sales service for their respective customers.
Customers of each brand share in the page their sentiments regarding their own motorcycles. They post and comment how durable and reliable the units are, how it performs on the road, and how safe they feel whenever they ride.
Despite owning different motorcycle brands, most of the fans on Facebook agree on the advantages of owning original motorcycles. Like the Big 4, these customers are one in promoting original Japanese-designed motorcycles and parts. With the Big 4, riders are guaranteed of high-quality motorcycles that are backed by extensive research and development, strict quality control and thorough product-testing.
Many customers also commended the Big 4’s effort to unite and promote original motorcycles. Some said: “‘Efforts like this should have been made long ago. Others note the ‘good job on the campaign’. Owning original motorcycles has given customers a sense of pride and involvement in this campaign.
In turn, these people become the voice of the Original na Bida brand. Many of them are Facebook users. They suggest the campaign’s page to their friends, telling other people to support only the original.
Even TV personalities supported the campaign. Aside from the brand ambassadors of the big Four, accomplished newsman Mike Enriquez is also a supporter of the Original na Bida campaign. He often mentions it to the listeners of his radio programs. Like him, the Big 4 surely will not stop going after motorcycles that offer low quality and inferior after-sales service.
To know more about the Original na Bida Campaign, you may log on to www.facebook.com/OriginalNaBida.
Legend has it that this club started out as regular Friday meet-up where cruiser enthusiasts, particularly China-made cruisers, hang-out and share stories. And regular means nothing special or different. But this would change later on as the original crew has visions of things bigger than a “regular” club.
Let’s start where it all began. In the mid 1800’s – just about the time when our national hero was still in a diaper riding a Spanish made wooden bicycle, a man in Great Britain named George Townsend founded a company that produced and sold complete bicycles under the name “Enfield”, named after the location of the company. It was also during this war time era that they started manufacturing precision rifle parts for a company called the Royal Small Arms Factory. Through this combination location, client name and products made, it was not long before they renamed their company as “Roya
l Enfield” that manufactured motorcycles with a slogan trademark “Built like a gun and runs like a bullet”. Since then, the legend of the “Royal Enfield Bullet” name has grown into a worldwide sensation reaching record sales, having numerous makes & models, winning races, getting awards internationally and creating a unique & impressive motorcycle sub-culture throughout America, Europe, India, some Asian countries and in some other places I can’t pronounce.
This “hardcore” company will be the official and exclusive distributor of the Royal Enfield brand in the Philippines so if after reading this article you feel compelled to purchase one, try your best not to tell your wife where the showroom is and we’ll see you there with your checkbook. Don’t bother looking anywhere else.
When you get there, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the 5 key things you will be informed of regarding the bike. I’ll give it to you now as a heads up – 500cc, 38kpl (Yup, you read it right – 38 kilometers per liter of gasoline), bullet-proof & classic. That’s all you need to know. You don’t need to know that it’s a 4-stroke, high torque, single piston, computer controlled electronic fuel injected machine with front disk brakes, modern metallurgy, halogen light, rust proofed to the gut chassis, hand-painted tank and an overall bullet proof design. That information is really and honestly not that important – because Royal Enfield bikes are a whole new ballgame unlike anyone in this country has ever seen before.
Owning one is not simply like buying any other bike. You buy an Enfield not to out-class your other ride buddies but rather to share with them the piece of history you have become involved with. You ride an Enfield not to outrun everyone else on the road while carving out new grooves on mountains streets with your pegs but rather to interact with everyone you meet on the road while being an icon of awe and nostalgia for all to see. Owning a Royal Enfield is not about possession or pride. It is quite simply a relationship with something magical. The kind that will see you through many happy years of riding that might even rival your marriage.
You see, Royal Enfields are not just motorcycles. They are classically or “retro” styled time machines on two wheels. I kid you not. When you look at it, you get transported back in time simply because nothing about it say “modern” when you look at it cause all the modern technology is hidden behind that classic Brit war time façade. The bike just screams “classic”. When you start it up and hear it quietly rumble, each “Thump” you hear is a day its legacy has spent on the road with you as the new torch bearer. When you ride it, you become part of a citizenship unknown to many. But to those who know, you are a brother (or sister). They bring you back to drive-in movies, boogie, Jose Rizal, wooden bicycles and black and white TV. Sounds like a dream? If it were, the technology as modern as Facebook and iPad that built that dream will ensure your dream ride goes on and on while keeping you confident, safe, happy and complying with the most stringent international emissions regulations as long as your gas tank will take you.
And that gas tank filled, combined with the EFI will get you through 90% of the entire Luzon loop without needing to check out the local gas station in each province. You can put your butt to sleep mode as you whiz past all the scenic routes at a comfortable 100kph which the bikes will not even break a sweat on maintaining. But if you do want some action, pushing an Enfield to its limit of about 140kph is possible but that defeats the purpose of having one in the first place so why bother? One of the most enjoyable things you can do on an Enfield is carving out the hills of our provincial roads. They stick to the pavement surprisingly well and you’ll be surprised at how nimble i
t can manage itself around corners. But if you really want to push your Enfield to the limit, go where no classic bike has gone before apart from the Enfield – the Himalayas. Yes, boys & girls, that tall, icy, treacherous mountain known all over the world – the Enfield goes there and they call it the “Himalayan Odyssey”. It’s an annual gig for all Enfield owners worldwide that lasts days and weeks. There, friendships are formed at covenant levels both with other riders and to their Enfield motorcycles. It is there that the Enfield saying truly comes to life, “The Thump that binds”. Now THAT is what I call a proper “track day”. Beat that for reliability.
