How Much Is Cost to Overhaul a Honda Supra?

My Honda Supra XX has 13 years of ages and worked good before i neglected it almost one year ago. For human, the feel of being neglected could be very painful and that was what my bike got. It became cranky and didn't want to live anymore. The metals on some parts got rusty, and the engine was absolutely dead no matter how hard your effort is to kick down the starter pedal. The tires was flat and so heavy that i must leash extra energy to push it to bike workshop, even after i pumped up the tires.

In the hot sunny daylight, i got sweated of getting my bike repaired. The workshop is not too far from my apartment (about 1 kilometre), but with the bad condition of my bike i think i could'nt bring it there by my self and foot. So, i called an ojek driver (taxibike) to help me get there. He, laboriously, stepped his right leg on my passenger foot pedal, and gas his bike in order to push my bike. We ran parallelly through the way to workshop.

In my first attempt to fix my bike, i went to an authorized Honda workshop near my living. I dropped my bike there and asked the mechanic to calculate the repairment cost. After took a look at my bike condition, he wrote down "the prescription" for fixing the bike and its price. He said that my bike need big repairing job that contributes to large portion of the cost, called Machine Overhaul (in Indonesian is "Turun Mesin"). By the way, the cost (based on mechanic's early prediction) was about Rp2.000.000 (USD180), but it had a great possibility to increase during their operation.

I just got a little shock as i read the cost on a paper they handed to me. In my short response to them i said, wow, the price is just as big as down payment for your new bike!

I started to think about selling my old Supra XX bike and buy used Scoopy bike (they also sell used bikes). But at the moment i can't decide wheter fixing the old or buying the new one. I asked one week time for thinking. My bike was left in the workshop for a week.

After one week passed away, i got back to the workshop. My decision is to not sell my old bike. The bike has really much memories with me since i was in high school. Even with its condition, at least i would keep it as a display. In my trip to workshop, i asked to my ojek driver about unauthorized workshop near me that can fix bike cheaply. He told me about his brother's workshop located in a small alley. I then came to the workshop to find a small house, splitted into two for its small garage.

The workshop's name is Bengkel Kenthunk, the owner is called by his nickname "Kenthunk" because of his fat body like a character called Kenthung in a movie. I was welcomed warmheartedly by Kenthunk and served a glass of hot brewed tea by his mom. This welcome is far nicer than authorized workshop i went before since they didn't offer me a drink.

My bike soon got checked by Kenthunk's subordinate, a young boy apparently a student at mechanical high school (STM). The owner asked me to left the bike and gave them 1 day to fix it.

Inspite of 1 day appointment for taking my bike, i just could get there a week later due to my tight schedule. I came back to the workshop, and Kenthunk took my bike from main building of his small house. He took out two other bikes before dragged out my Supra. He showed me that my bike had been waken up from its dead by started the engine. Surprisingly it worked! I love the engine sound.

 My oldie bike is getting washed after long hibernation

However, i got much more surprised to know its repairment cost. It only takes Rp225 thousands (about USD 18) for buying components. For service fee, Kenthunk gave it up to me to decide how much i will pay him. I gave him extra Rp125 thousands so it became Rp350 thousands in total.

I am really happy that i just paid only 17% of the price charged by Honda authorized workshop for an overhaul job.

Kenthunk's workshop is famous as a workshop for underground motorbike racing in East Jakarta. As for me, this workshop is great alternative for bike repairment outside an authorized workshop.

Buying a Refurbished Iphone (My Own Experience)

Iphone is a popular phone that ever made currently. Its design and technology really inspriring other phone vendors. In fact, Iphone used by many famous people in this world, even we heard from news that some bosses of Microsoft also use this phone athough they sell their own Windows phone. Iphone is the real phone, said Apple fan boy.

In my story, i used to rely on my android phone, a Huawei P1 for about 2 years. I loved my phone until it became aged in the year of two. The phone was getting slower in that year. The battery also became more fast drained, that i had to recharge up to 2 times a day. I thought that was a time to buy new android phone. But instead of buying a phone, i bought a tablet called Asus Fonepad 8. The new one is extremely far faster and more powerfull than my P1. In short, i did'nt need my old phone and intended to dump it into trash, but before doing so, someone pickpocketed it from me when i was in train.

Using a tablet to do calling and texting is not that easy. I must stick "the board" to my face for making a call, this surely will withdraw any attention from the crowds. Finally, i realize that a tablet can't substitute a phone, it is just phone's complementary. So i browsed in Blibli.com for a phone that fits in my under-2 mio Rupiahs-budget. I just did fad typing on search menu, "Iphone", and some iphone offerings appeared  on screen. I looked at phones offered below 2 million, and found amazed at Iphone 4s that sold at only Rp1.443.000,00 (about USD120) for 32GB storage model.

Iphone 4s is an old model but the spesification still can catch recent spec. Later on i bought one from the online shop, my good came after 3 days waiting (apparently it was shipped from Jogjakarta).

First of all, i checked the box. It seemed modest, sealed with a label sounds, "Don't accept if seal is broken". The usual box is plain white with apple text, but mine is covered with iphone picture.

Picture of the box-taken directly from my Iphone 4s (Size compressed)

After opened the box, i found some stuffs inside; the black phone, a charger, a headset, a small booklet of user guidance, a sim card needle, and warranty card. I didn't find Apple sticker here.

The warranty card really confused me. It say that in order to activate the warranty i must send the half piece of the card back to the Guarantor 10 days after the purchase. However, i couldn't find the guarantor address in the box or even on internet. I just found service center address of it. I ended up with not sending back the warranty card.

The second thing i found about it is the headset is not working perfectly, because the right side is dead. This con actually is not really disturbing me because i have lot of stock of headset, but it is a bit pain to know. For the main stuff is the iphone 4s itself. The colour i chose is black. The fisrt impression i get of the phone is that it is a small beautiful phone that i never dream to own due to its high price. But, since many people outhere selling refurbish phone, i can afford this luxury phone for just half price. Normally, this phone is sold at about USD300.  

The ultimate concern about this phone is, can it work just like non refurbished iphone? 
To answer that question, i tried to switch on and use it. First, I create an apple ID with no problem. I can access Apple store with my ID, downloading some good applications. 

The first hands on experience was amazing. Its animation and user interface is interesting. The apple way is really different with android.

PERFORMANCE

Talking about my Iphone 4s performance is mainly about battery life (the capability of this-Dual Core Proc and 500MB RAM-phone to run games and applications is just the same with my android tablet with quad core and 2GB of RAM). The battery life is quite poor at my first hand on. But after reading some articles about how to make the 4s battery long lasting, in later days i can get my phone live almost a whole day, from 8 AM to 6 PM, with just remains about 10% of power. 

The secrets to longer the battery life can be found on the internet, but mostly it's about to reduce pushing mail activity.

After all, i am really satistified with my refurbished iphone 4s, and do hope that it can live until years later before i get enough money to buy newer iphone (i am not interested to get back to android anymore after the hands on experience).

If you want to buy refurbished iphone, i suggest you to check the rating of the online seller, including the comments from its buyers. If the rating is good, then just go for it.    

Experiencing Say Taxi in Jogjakarta

I was on my work trip to Jogjakarta, a traditional cultural city in Special Region of Jogjakarta province. Having sightseeing around the beautiful city of Jogjakarta i catched a glimpse of some cabs, Chevrelot Spin cars, scattered at some spots of the city. The back of the cab is covered by sticker, SayTaxi-Download the app on Google play market and ios store. I was amazed  and thinked that an online taxi order service just like Uber and Grab Car is now also available in this city. Hence, i made decision to give it a shot.

Say Taxi logo

In my return to Jakarta, i ordered a cab using Say Taxi app that i just downloaded from play store. The application is pretty good. It has similar feature like Uber and Grab, and the GPS showed me accurately my cab position and its moving. In my opinion, the maps is actually better than Grab maps in showing the movement. It just took 7 minutes and the cab's presence time is punctual, maybe due to my order time at dawn.

The app also showed me how much i will pay for the trip from hotel (i stayed at Grand Aston) to Adi Sutjipto airport. It calculated estimation fare of 53.000 Rupiahs (quite cheap) and can be paid in cash only (the app is not offering credit card payment yet).

Shortly after the cab came, i entered it and looked at the meter display above the car dashboard. The cab driver turn it on and the meter is running until i reached the airport.

My amazement is reduced by the fact that the fare is not fix just like Uber or Grab car, but instead it still used conventional meter method.

Finally, i paid for 42.000 Rupiah, the amount was just under the estimation fare. But, i acknowledged that if i used it in rush hours time, it could charged me above the estimation calculation.

My review here highlights some points:

1. The Say Taxi app (founded by an Estonia company) is just offering intermediation service for cab users and a local cab company in Jogjakarta. Outside the city, its service is currently spanned broadly over other 14 cities around the world.
2. Eventhough it succesfully eliminates the need for phoning the cab's call center, the fare is still based on a running meter counter-method instead of fix amount of bill (the meter system is also used by Grab Taxi-another service from Grab). Thus, it can make the cost fluctuated and is basically not recommended way for people who would have a trip in some crowded big cities like Jogjakarta (But unfortunately, as far as i know, there is no alternative taxi service that offers a fix bill in Jogja).
3. The cabs car is a new good car (the chevy spin) which can accomodate up to 5 passengers on board, and the cab company is planning to offer premium ride using Toyota Alphard. So, if you want to try a car other than regular Xenia-Vios taxi, you could order the Spin from Say Taxi (although not all of the cabs is using Spin, happily you can reject other vehicles at anytime on the app so as to get Spin ride!).

Hoping this my short experience on using Say Taxi can help you when travelling to Jogjakarta!

Should I Buy a Macbook or Its Counterfeit?

In this post i want to share my point of view and experience on buying a new laptop. Some days ago i wanted to buy a laptop to enable me continuing my old hobby, blogging.

In order to get the best-worth in every penny-laptop, i did research by watching some videos on youtube and reading some reviews on tech website. My skyhigh dream is buying a new Macbook air laptop, but i realize that my financial can't afford that prestigious stuff, even for less cheaper laptops from other vendors. So after hours spent for research. i finally found a good and the most important- inexpensive-Macbook Air's twin that has similar design and sleekness.

You must be surprised to know that HP has done such a great job by producing this laptop, an HP Stream 13. Its design does really like a Macbook Air, if you don't believe me let me show you its picture below:

an HP Stream (credit image: computershopper.com)

the purple one (credit image: amazon.com)

Wonderful! By spending only around Rp3 millions (about $270), i can have sleek dan lightweight laptop to help me produce some word, powerpoint and other word processing things. 

I love it because of its simplicity, but the most lovely feature is its battery life. It almost near Macbook Air in duration, 7 hours compared to 12 hours of Macbook Air. I think it's not bad for the far lower price computer, indeed it beyonds the average battery life of $500 laptop class.

It comes with original Windows 8.1 that can be upgraded to Windows 10 freely (but i am not interested anyway).

My judgement relied on some web's review and score that one of them gives HP Stream score 4 of 5 stars. It was enough to make me ordered it on Lazada website shortly for the Purple one! 

Dear My Valuable Readers!

Dear lovely readers,
this is my first post on my super notes blog. Thank you for flocking here, it's really pleasing me.
Throughout my following posts, i want you to read my own (and personal) insight of some interesting issues. The issues will come from anything, it can be from my daily life, recent hot news, and maybe some heavy writing on our economy outlook and government topics (the field i am working in).
Therefore, I hope you will enjoy every posting i made, and also wouldn't mind to drop your good comments on them.

Your sincerely,

Dea Avega Editya
(the writter, editor and so forth)