Pro Tip: Have no regrets. You kept the motorcycle lifestyle alive. And the bike helped you in life at a crucial time.

Motorcycle COE prices have been over SGD $10k since the beginning of 2022 and I have wondered how bike shops survived with low volume of sales, so much that you could track each bike leaving the shop by the number of customers photographed and posted on the dealerships' social media. There are not many smaller motorcycles on the road save for dispatch riders, yet we see large numbers of brand new luxury cars and giant SUVs congesting the roads every day and nights - it doesn't make sense.

So COE is really not effective at "limiting the number of vehicles" as intended. It is simply artificially inflating the cost of mobility.
Nevertheless the sudden drop of motorcycle COE in May 2023 reinvigorated interest to purchase a motorcycle; bike shops open late on weekends and report record patronage.

The question for the rest of us is our regret to have purchased a motorcycle before this month - especially hire-purchase customers who find that they have barely scratched the loan principal since; and could have made a full cash purchase of an entry-level commuter right now.

But we shouldn't play into the hype and believe we lost out - all is not rosy as customers on the ground to report they already had run out of $5002 COE and have to wait for next bidding cycle once you've secured your choice machine. It is very likely next month the COE prices will surge once again due to the dramatic rise of interest.

The fact is, you needed your motorcycle at that point of time and should not regret your purchase. Every two (or three) wheeler on the road today is doing great service as a commuter or a delivery machine taking up significantly less footprint and resources than a car. It brings people and communities together with the nightly Grabfood/Panda riders gathering near popular restaurants, and every few weeks or months we see large motorcycle convoys going "up north" and back.

For people like me, owning a motorcycle wasn't just a quality of life improvement but a health benefit as well. Alternative transportation eliminates reliance on public transport and the crowds that give me stress with inconsiderate queue cutting and squeezing. Ditto the social phobia no-thanks to stressful and discriminatory work environments.

With the motorcycle you are your own boss and can even do higher paying jobs on hours no one else finds convenient. You are once again a road warrior, a cyberpunk "Samurai" living your own principles. That might explain the decal style...

Night Shifts with enormous shift allowance? Cross-country medicine deliveries with express fee? All this were made possible with the humble Yamaha N-Max 155 that barely sips petrol and maintenance seems like its optional save for oil changes and obvious wear items after 20,000km. 

Owning a motorcycle restored me to good health; 2 years ago I could barely stand up and walk up the stairs with chronic knee pain, but now it's gone completely, without any therapy save for pushing, mounting and parking my bike. Life at 100kph made me new friends, a new love for culture, language and travel, and enabled me to find my place in the post-Covid world. Ride to KL and I can say, "hello fellow N-Max", with a smile.

People are asking me, it's time to upgrade to Class 2 - I tell them, what for? Life is not a linear track of materialist consumption. The future of urban mobility lies in social responsibility and the smallest physical footprint possible. In Europe, even executives commute on two wheels. We should welcome anyone new on the roads with their 5K COE machine and say, welcome to the club. Finally, measures are taken to make essential mobility open to all.

But first it was you, the one who braved the high COE, the long loans, the naysayers everywhere saying "motorcycles are dangerous", you were one of those who kept the spirit of freedom alive that the Government is finding ways to make motorcycling more accessible again by reducing the COE - or so we hope. 

And for the rest? They'll see me rolling by, in full face helmet and scooter decked out with enough storage to fight a small war.
They can't judge me if I'm always 25 minutes early, lanesplitting to infinity and beyond

So I look at that price of admission to the motorcycle lifestyle and think, that was the price of exclusivity, and to me it was worth it.