By Amanda Yong

IT was double trouble for a family of motorbike enthusiasts on their trip to Malaysia last month.

First, Mr Muhammad Farhan Mohamed Tohar's bike was stolen when it was parked overnight in front of a Kuala Lumpur (KL) hotel.

Then, when they were on their way back to Singapore the next day, his uncle's bike was nicked at a rest stop.

Both bikes were not equipped with anti-theft devices.

Mr Muhammad Farhan, 22, an IT administrator, said that in the second case, they had seen the thief riding pillion on a Singapore-registered motorbike just moments earlier.

He had travelled with his father, his uncle and his brother to catch the MotoGP race in Sepang three weekends ago.

Mr Muhammad Farhan was excited as it was his first time at a MotoGP race. The MotoGP fan had previously only caught the races on television.

He said the trip 'was supposed to be a happy event' but turned out otherwise.

The family had set off from home at 4am on 18Oct and met up with a group of more than 20 other Singaporean bikers at Gelang Patah in Johor.

The convoy then rode to KL and arrived at about 9am. Mr Muhammad Farhan and his family checked into the Prescott Inn, while the other bikers stayed at another hotel.

As they were regular customers of the hotel, the family were allowed to park their bikes in front of the hotel lobby.

When they gathered at the lobby around 7am the next day, they discovered a gap in the row of bikes.

Mr Muhammad Farhan's year-old Honda CBR1000, which he had bought for $23,000, was missing.

'When we questioned the hotel staff members, they said they last saw the bikes around 3am,' he said.

Damaged

Mr Muhammad Farhan added that his uncle's bike had also been damaged.

'They (the thieves) tried to steal the bike but didn't succeed, so they tampered with the front brake, dismantled it and released the oil.

'Thankfully, my uncle managed to repair the brake himself,' he said.

They then went to Sepang, about a 45-minute ride from KL, where they caught the first two races featuring the 125cc and 250cc bikes. They each paid RM80 ($33) for grandstand tickets.

But the group had to give the main event, the 500cc bike race featuring 2008 MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, a miss as they had to return to KL to lodge a police report on the stolen bike.

'We tried to lodge a report at a mobile police post in Sepang, but they said we had to file a report at the incident location,' Mr Muhammad Farhan said.

Back in KL, they experienced more frustration at the Dang Wangi police station where they tried to file a report.

'The police told us to return later that afternoon as the computer system was down and had to be rebooted,' he said.

They finally filed a report around 7.30pm, four hours after their first visit to the police station.

Tired and disheartened with the loss, the group cancelled their second night's stay at the hotel and left for Singapore that night.

On their way back, they decided to take a break at a rest stop in Machap, Johor, and parked their bikes at the bike bay.

But barely after sitting down at a coffee shop, Mr Muhammad Farhan's uncle's bike was stolen.

Apart from his three-year-old Yamaha YZFR1, worth $12,000, technician Kamaruddin Che Mat, 42, also lost his passport, handphone and $400 cash, which were in the bike's compartment.

Mr Muhammad Farhan said he had sensed something amiss when he heard the loud revving of a bike engine.

He turned and saw a man whiz past on his uncle's bike. Another bike, a white Suzuki GSX1000 with a Singapore-registered plate, was following it.

'The guy on my uncle's bike was earlier riding pillion on the Suzuki,' Mr Muhammad Farhan claimed, saying that he had seen them at the rest stop.

Hopping on his father's BMW bike and with his uncle riding pillion, Mr Muhammad Farhan pursued the bike thieves to Machap town.

But they decided to give up when they lost sight of the thieves.

It was then around midnight.

Worried about safety

'We didn't continue to chase them because we found ourselves in a very dark kampung area surrounded by oil palm plantations. It was scary and we were worried about our personal safety,' Mr Muhammad Farhan said.

They headed to the nearest police station, at Simpang Renggam, to report the second theft.

But the computer system was also down. They filed a manual report and were told to come back another day when the system was up and running.

Mr Muhammad Farhan and his uncle successfully filed a police report when they made a second trip to Malaysia on 25 Oct.

As both bikes were insured for theft, the victims will receive payouts from their insurance companies.

When asked, Mr Muhammad Farhan said he would still ride to Malaysia in future but he would take precautions such as padlocking the front and rear brakes of his bike and chaining the bikes together.

His father Mohamed Tohar, 57, said: 'We've rode up north so many times, even to as far as Phuket, and had never faced such problems before.

'We had heard about other people who had their bikes stolen, but this time around, it happened to us.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 5, 2008.