Riding with Rusty

As an owner of a Golden Retriever, I’m often thinking of how I can make my walks more interesting for my dog who has a lot of social problems. I’m thinking if I can take him out to different places more, he’ll get used to going to new places and doing new things.

Unfortunately, going on foot doesn’t take me very far. And as a writer living in Singapore, a car, or any vehicle on 4 wheels is rather costly to purchase and maintain.

So it hit me, why not get a motorcycle with a sidecar?

A motorcycle is a more reasonably priced engine to get and maintain. With a sidecar, I can put Rusty in there and we could go to all sorts of wonderful places.

My friend asked if I wanted to look like Wallace and Gromit. Heck why not? They’re a cute pair. No one would ever associate cute with me. Maybe it’s time for a personality change.

Unfortunately, sidecars in Singapore are a rarity. The only guys driving it are old ah peks and uncles. They look like they’re attached to a clunky red metal wash basin or look like this. And they sure look nothing like these shiny beasts. Hell, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as sidecar racing.

Before getting ahead of myself, I decided to get more information on owning sidecars. I knew already that I’d probably have to get a motorcycle license and I’d need to add that cost and time commitment into this whole plan of mine.

So I visited the Land Transport Authority’s web site. Unfortunately, I found nothing about sidecars there. It only really had some comprehensive information on car ownership. It would seem Singaporeans don’t care to purchase motorcycles. But I’ve seen them on occasion so I know they exist. So I hit the search button.

Finally! I hit on a PDF document on the Annual Vehicle Statistics 2005. Apparently the LTA thinks no one might be interested in vehicle statistics from years before. But I am. Now that I’ve found 2005’s.

After hunting through the document with a magnifying glass, I found the phrase “motorcycle with sidecar” under Note 3 in extra tiny font. Apparently, motorcycles with sidecars are in the “others” category, which includes “hearses, (and) vehicles used for specific purposes and engineering plants etc.”

Having no other information from LTA, it was time to send them an e-mail.