Mat Rempit

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One of Mat Rempit's favourite 'Aerodynamic Pose' a.k.a. 'Superman' seen on the street of Malaysia.

A Mat Rempit is a Malaysian term for 'an individual who participates in illegal street racing', usually involving underbone motorcycles (Kapcai) or scooters. Minah Rempit can refer to either the female counterpart, or a female companion of a Mat Rempit. Not all Mat Rempits involve in street racing, some of them just ride their motorcycle's dangerously on public roads. Mat Rempits usually travel in groups and race in bustling city centres on weekend nights. As of recently, Mat Rempits have been linked to gangsterism, gang robbery^[1]^[2], fighting, vandalism, thefts and bullying. Most motorcycles used by the Mat Rempits do not meet standard specifications, or have been modified extensively. Additionally, some Mat Rempit do not have valid licenses, do not pay road taxes, and ride stolen motorcycles. ^[3] ^[4] More and more housing estates were turned into racing tracks.^[5] It is estimated that there are about 200,000 Mat Rempits in Malaysia. ^[6] The terms of Mat Rempit also used in Singapore and Indonesia for the same reason.

1 Common Mat Rempit motorcycles
2 Lingo and Tricks
3 Modifications
4 Misconception of Mat Rempit
5 Dealing with Mat Rempits
6 Pop Culture
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Common Mat Rempit motorcycles

The motorcycles commonly used be the Mat Rempit are the underbone (colloquially: "kapcai") motorcycles from Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Modenas, most models of which range between RM3000-RM7000. The Honda EX5 is one of Mat Rempits' favorite motorcycles because it is very reliable, affordable and is especially wheelie for beginners to perform a wheelie due to its high power to weight ratio. The Honda EX5, a predecessor of the Honda Supercub, has a 100cc, 4-stroke engine. A stock Honda EX5 is capable of reaching 120km/h. Other than the Honda EX5, other favorites of the Mat Rempits include the Modenas Kriss (110cc), Suzuki RGV/RG Sport (120cc), Suzuki Panther (150cc), Yamaha TZM (150cc), Yamaha Lagenda (110cc), Yamaha RX-Z (135cc), Yamaha 125Z/R (125cc)and Honda (90cc).

[edit] Lingo and Tricks

Wheelie: standing motorcycle on rear wheel while front wheel on the air.^[7]

Image:M001.jpg
Wheelie.

Superman : Laying on the bike with both hand still hold the handle.
Baring : Laying on the bike where the leg is touching the handle, the inverse way of Superman.
Skating : Standing on the motorcycle with a leg on the handle bar and the other on the seat.
Cilok : Weaving left and right between cars at high speeds.
Wikang: The name wikang is actually a contraction of wheelie belakang in Malay. [1]
Korner: Rounding a turn with enough lean to bring the side of the motorcycle in contact with the ground.
Pacak: Literally means standing idle like a stick in Malay, the pacak technique is the technique of lifting the motorcycle 90-degrees vertical with the front wheel raised. The pacak technique is almost as same as the wheelie, but is performed when the motorcycle is stationary with the rider standing.

[edit] Modifications

Larger carburetors - One of the most common engine modifications is the installation of larger carburetor to deliver more air-fuel mixture flow to the engine, which increases the engine power at the expense of fuel consumption.
Performance exhaust systems - Many Mat Rempits install low restriction custom exhaust systems. These increase power slightly and make the exhaust note more pronounced which is generally preferred by riders.
Removed air filters - A typical air filter element for an underbone motorcycle is made of either a paper element of a foam element, which restricts air flow. Furthermore, the air intake duct is often facing backwards. Removing the air filter can not only provide zero restriction for the air flow but also provides 'ram-air effect' which may improve the engine power further.
Larger bore - Increasing the engine's bore increases the engine displacement, thus increasing engine power. However, the rebored engines may have shorter service life due to risks of engine overheating and jammed pistons.
Cylinder porting - Some 2-stroke Mat Rempits make more transfer ports at the cylinder to deliver more air-fuel-2T (2-stroke lubricant) mixture to the combustion chamber for a significant power increase at the expense of fuel and lubricant consumption.
High-lift camshafts - Some Mat Rempits who use 4-stroke motorcycles modify their engine aggressively by using high-lift camshafts for better volumetric efficiency which may significantly increase the engine power but with the risks of the valves hitting the piston.
Performance CDI - A capacitor discharge ignition module controls the ignition timing advance for every engine speed. A performance CDI module provides more advanced ignition timing than the standard ones which may increase power and torque, but users of performance CDI modules can only use gasoline with higher octane rating numbers (RON) - commonly RON 97 in Malaysia - due to the risk of detonation.
Smaller rims and tyres - A smaller rims will increase the bike acceleration due to smaller size tyre that touches the road but with poorer handling at sharp corners.
Removed cover sets, rear lights, etc. - Many Mat Rempits remove components from their bikes for weight reduction, including essential components such as rear brakes and lights.
Tinted rear lights - Smoked rear lights, indicators, fog and brake lights to give the motorbike a custom look.
Shrunken number plate - Reduceing the size of the number plate for aesthetics.
Modified braking system - Some Mat Rempits modify their braking systems for better stopping power. For instance, front drum brakes are replaced with disc brakes, while those who have already got disc brakes replace the stock disc rotors with the larger ones. However, there are some Mat Rempits who remove rear brakes for weight reduction.

[edit] Misconception of Mat Rempit

Most members of the public, the media and even the politicians misconception about Mat Rempits. For them, Mat Rempit means anyone who is riding an underbone motorcycle or a low budget motorcycle. In Malaysia, motorcyclists are fond of zig-zagging/squeezing in and out between other vehicles (cars, lorry, bus) on the road to overtake them. It is a normal but irresponsible practice where the motorcyclists move between other vehicles by zig-zagging and overtaking each other during a traffic jam. But this also been practise in many countries with small motorcycle or scooter such as Taiwan, Singapore, Greece, United Kingdom and Japan.

There are a few reasons as to why motorcyclists prefer zig-zagging during traffic jams apart from wanting to arrive at their destinations quickly. The other reasons are the hot weather in Malaysia, smoke from vehicles around them and the engine heat coming from other vehicles. While keep moving will helping them to get more fresh air to cold them down. Due to their small sizes, underbone motorcycles and scooters are the fastest forms of transportation in a city with lots of traffic problems. However, they usually cause traffic accidents and other mishaps. Especially hitting the side mirror of other vehicle.

Many blame on motorcyclist who refuse to use the motorcycle lane which provided in some major roads/highways in Malaysia. Most of the motorcycle lanes are in bad shape due to the lack of maintenance and poor planning before construction. Most motorcycle lanes are sandy, covered with potholes and flooded even though the weather is dry. The width of most motorcycle lanes is about 2m which is considered too narrow and is only half of the width on the actual highways. They have dangerous and sharp curves and corners compare to the main roads and when at night, the motorcycle lane become dangerous as there are many tunnel that some of them are very dark and there are sometimes robbers waiting at the end of the tunnel to rob the motorcyclist.

One good example is the motorcycle lane on the Kesas Highway. Most of the motorcycle lanes are not provided with streetlights and countless robberies happen on these lanes, especially during late hours when it is dark. It become a trap at night when some culprit work by putting nail on the motorcycle lane, and advertise for replacement tire for motorcycle at a ridiculous price.

[edit] Dealing with Mat Rempits

According to some former Mat Rempits, it is very hard to approach the Mat Rempits and bring them to be useful assets to the community, as they are very stubborn. It is due to the fact that most Mat Rempits are often under high influence of drugs (especially marijuana) which was said to give maximum "feel" to them when racing. As a result, they often attack policemen and anyone who tries to stop them, causing the public to label Mat Rempits as "the public enemies". Therefore, many people criticize the viability of the attempt by Khairy Jamaluddin and Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim to rebrand Mat Rempits as "Mat Cemerlang". This attempt has not only fueled anger among former victims of Mat Rempits whose vehicles were hit by Mat Rempits, but also among former Mat Rempits as well.

According to former Mat Rempits, the only way to change Mat Rempit is to provide them with legal sanctioned motor racing tournament such as Malaysian Cub Prix. Some of the successful Malaysian professional motorcycle racers are former Mat Rempits such as Shahrol Yuzy Ahmad Zaini and Wazi Abdul Hamid. According to them, if the Mat Rempits are being brought to legal motorcycle racing tournaments, their talents can be unleashed even to international level.

[edit] Pop Culture

Mat Rempit is the focus of several Malaysian films:

Deejays JJ and Rudy (The Morning Crew) from hitz.fm radio station have made a parody song of Teriyaki Boyz's Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious) called We're Not So Furious, targeted to the Mat Rempits.