Resident of Saudi Arabia Aiza Sets New Record for Traveling to Europe on Her Own Motorbike

Men and women have always been treated in different ways. But when it comes to passion, this discrimination does not apply to either gender.

This is the story of a woman who was born and raised in Malaysia and had a great passion for motorbikes. Residing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since 2019, it comes as a surprise to learn that this lady maintained her involvement in the construction industry for more than 14 years, and currently working on giga projects in Saudi Arabia. She didn’t realize that her passion was also growing rapidly in her heart.

Let’s travel together with this interesting lady, Aiza Zainal from Malaysia who owns two BMW motorbikes in Saudi Arabia, first ex-pat female to receive her Saudi motorbike license in 2022, and travel with her motorbikes in Saudi Arabia, and travel to Europe and the Middle East.

Beginning:

It becomes a great passion to explore Saudi Arabia when she first came in 2019, and she choose to ride a motorcycle instead. With great interest and passion for big motorbikes and cars, Aiza bought her first motorbike in Saudi Arabia in 2020, the special edition of a cafe racer type, BMW R Nine T 1200CC, Vintage 21. It was bought for her birthday in June 2020 and with this model, her social media accounts are named after this motorbike, 21 on the tank.

Aiza started to ride to her workplace in Riyadh city and continue riding for longer distances to Ahsa, which is in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It was too tiring to ride the cafe racer bike without a windshield to protect her from strong winds and sandstorms, then she decided to get the bigger motorbike for her to travel conveniently to other places.

A year after she bought the special edition of BMW GS 1250 R also on her birthday, in June 2021. It is a special edition of BMW GS, celebrating the 40th Anniversary of BMW GS. On this adventure motorbike, Aiza is the first to own this type of bike in Saudi Arabia, and travel to Jeddah, and Tabuk a couple of times. 

As a female owning two motorbikes with big engines, riding almost every day in Riyadh city, she becomes noticeable and recognized among the other bikers, including females who are inspired to learn to ride motorbikes too. Aiza is the first ex-pat female to obtain a motorcycle license from the kingdom. 

An unforgettable trip to Aiza:

In September 2021, Aiza transported her adventure bike, or what she called the bike Dracula (Drac), from Riyadh all the way to Europe. She sent the GS bike to Kuwait by road, fly from Kuwait through Istanbul then to Heidelberg, Germany. She started her journey with her Saudi friend in Heidelberg, Germany, to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and then back to Saudi Arabia.

One-way air shipping plus the passport for the bike cost her around SAR12,000 which only took about four days from Kuwait to Frankfurt. In Europe, It is common for people to rent cars and motorbikes in Europe but Aiza decided to bring her bike instead from Riyadh all the way to Europe to experience riding her own motorbike and do camping instead of staying in hotels. The trip lasted for one month and was almost driven over 5,000 kilometers.

It was an unforgettable trip and incomparable in every way. The most remarkable thing was that she was the first female from Saudi Arabia to travel to Europe on her own money and ride a bike throughout the continent. This fact is unknown to a great number of people, and not many people can afford to do this. It’s her great achievement that she put all of her efforts, money, and sweat and she wanted to repeat that again probably in other European also to Asian countries.

Maintenance:

As far as maintenance goes, it was a new bike, so it has normal maintenance, like changing the oil, which is all it needs. There’s no question that it costs more than regular bikes in every way. Whether you look at how much it costs to buy or how much it costs to keep up, it is expensive in every way. But nothing seems expensive when it comes to passion. We maintain positive relationships with local BMW retailers. They keep us informed about new editions and provide us with the required concessions, considering the fact that we are long-standing clients of their company.

Parking:

Aiza has her own parking space at home to park her two motorbikes. In some places in Riyadh, there are many businesses that provide parking facilities on a monthly and annual basis. Some people who don’t have their own parking spaces might want to consider renting parking spaces while their motorcycles are being taken care of 24/7 hours.

Reaction:

As this is not common in Saudi Arabia to see females on motorbikes, not as passengers, but as a rider. Aiza receives a lot of different reactions when people see her on the road. Some of them look shocked, do thumbs up, take videos, and also ask for her Snapchat account to see her daily snaps on motorbikes as this seems unique to the young people.

Countries traveled till now:

I’ve taken this bike to four European countries and the United Arab Emirates. I feel more at ease on a bike than behind the wheel of a car. People here find it very strange to see a woman on a bike since women just started driving cars recently. I never thought about what other people might say or think about me. I do what feels right to me. Here, not everyone is the same. If some people make videos, then some people smile in a very nice way, and it seems like they appreciate me. It gives me a lot of courage and makes me feel very confident about myself.

Revolutionary Saudi:

In Saudi Arabia, many things have changed a lot in the last two or three years. I agree that this is a positive step for women who ride motorcycles. With my wealth of knowledge and expertise, I am in a position to advise and instruct others. As I’ve said before, passion knows no bounds when it comes to sexual orientation. Based on what I’ve seen, I think there should be a platform in Riyadh where people can talk about motorcycles. Through this platform, people who drive motorcycles should be told about the basic rules of the road. When I’m riding my bike, I have often seen that bikers do not know which lane to go and what speed to maintain.

Bike Riding Risky?

It seems dangerous for people who don’t know how to ride a bike. But if you get the right training, there is no safer or more fun ride than this one. As you get better, you can easily deal with the weather and the road.

Getting bad reviews:

In every time period, there are both good and bad people. Some like it, while others don’t. The group that is criticizing is split up into two more groups. One type of criticism is positive, and the other is negative. Positive criticism has helped me build a strong personality and character. But bad criticism includes making fun of the fact that I wear jeans and a hijab. I don’t care about this because I know I’m not doing anything wrong.

What do you like to do besides ride your bike?

I also like cars. Even though biking is my passion, I also like driving cars and learning about new updates about cars. I like to see new places, too. I have a long list of places I really want to visit in the next few years.

Message:

Don’t change who you are. Don’t wait for someone else. If you have a passion just do it. Don’t turn back because someone said something bad about you. If someone gets inspired by me, they should try it, but if they don’t get it, they should leave it. Everyone is different.

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