We at iMotorbike had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Alex Stmrock Wong some time ago. Alex truly is an extraordinary man. While others may be okay with their 9 to 5 job, Alex decided to take his life not one, but 100 steps further than the average joe. He does everything we all dream of: from travelling around the world to amassing enough motor vehicles and memorabilia to fill an entire museum.
Not to mention that he shares his collection with other petrol heads in the form of his very own café: Feast & Furious café, which is located in the lovely city Kuching, Sarawak.
Alex Stmrock Wong
As someone with a history in motorsports, we were eager to find out how Alex got into the racing scene. Alex mentioned that, although he has always been interested in cars, he was never really into racing at the start. His passion for racing was ignited back when he was studying in the UK, where he would go watch his friends practice Formula 3 racing. After returning to Malaysia, he would eventually enter the go-kart racing scene, where he participated in various ASEAN championships. However, when his brother purchased a jet ski, he knew he had to take his love for speed further than the racetrack. Soon afterwards, he got into jet ski racing, where he won multiple championships inside and outside of Malaysia.
Beforehand, we already knew Alex was a man with a passion for motorcycles. Nevertheless, we asked him about how he got interested in them. Alex noted that he really got into motorcycling when he started riding his brother’s Harley-Davidson. From there, he was hooked and purchased his first own motorcycle: an Aprilia Sport City scooter. Being the adventurer, he is, the man rode his Aprilia across Borneo. During this 14-day trip, he even swam across crocodile-infested lakes and rode under the blazing sun wearing just shorts for hundreds of kilometres.
After hearing about his collections and adventures, we were triggered to know the details. We started by asking Alex his favourite bikes that he owns. We were happy to find out that Alex had a proper taste for each category as evidenced by the list of motorcycles he provided us.
2013 BMW 1200GS
2016 Honda CBR600RR
2009 Bimota DB7
2018 Triumph Bobber
1993 Honda Africa Twin (He owns two!)
1994 Honda NSR250R (He owns two!)
Vespa GTV300
Niu GT electric
2014 BMW 1200RT
2013 Triumph Bonneville
1995 Yamaha DT125
As you can see, he owns two Africa twin and NSR250R, so we asked him why. He said it’s because of the availability and also, his love for bikes from the 90s.
After seeing an electric bike on the list, we decided to ask him his opinion on electric motorcycles. Alex’s reply was simple and straight forward. He likes his Niu scooter and electric bikes in general as they are very good for city riding because, these bikes don’t produce any noise, heat or vibration.
Apart from collecting everything petrol-related, one of Alex’s greatest passions is motorcycling around the globe. Alex told us he has done over 20 cross-country and countless cross-state trips. When asked about his favourite trip, Alex noted that Malaysia and Thailand were his favourites, as it is easily accessible and affordable. However, his most unforgettable trip has to be the Pan-America trip he did earlier. Being the fearless explorer, he is, he travelled off the beaten path and visited the most extraordinary places in every continent possible. Yes, he even came across places in Colombia where Netflix’s hit series Narcos was filmed. Alex wrote all about his Pan-America trip in his book, which you can find here.
Have you ever heard of The Cannonball Run? To put it in words, it’s a challenge where you drive/ ride from LA to New York within 24 hours. Well, Alex organized a similar monitored challenge called “The Blowpipe Run”. The name “Blowpipe” comes from the weapon native to Borneo region, similar to cannonball from the US.
Anyone with a motorcycle can participate in this challenge. Just as MotoGP, The Blowpipe Run has categories depending on the displacement of the motorcycles. Similar to The Cannonball Run, in The Blowpipe Run riders ride from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to Kuching, Sarawak within a period of 24 hours. At the end of the 1300km run, the riders are logged into a database and a patch is given. As of now, 226 people have participated in The Blowpipe Run. If you want to know more, check out one of Alex’s motorcycle dedicated Facebook pages for the Borneo region which has over 9100 members.
Alex Stmrock Wong
On top of this, Alex Wong wants to step up The Blowpipe Run by participating in this challenge with an electric bike for the very time. As it is impossible to complete this within 24 hours, Alex is planning on doing it over the period of 3 days and calling it the “slow pipe run”. Is this man creative or what?
Last but not least, when we asked him about his racing idol, Alex told us that Ayrton Senna is his favourite racer. At Feast & Furious café you can also come across the limited-edition replica of Ayrton Senna’s Helmet on display.
Not only is he creative, but he is also artistic. Alex Stmrock Wong is also an independent musician and singer who performs under the stage name STM aka SingleTrackMind. He started his journey in music as a songwriter at the age of only 14. According to Alex, his biggest inspiration in Music is Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters.
In 2002, Alex Stmrock Wong made his first stage appearance in the ROCK the World III music festival in Kuala Lumpur. Later in 2003, the first album, ‘No Reason’ came out while he was still being a member of personas jet sport. This album was nominated three times for various music awards. Later in 1st March 2007, STM released his second full album, ‘Hey’. Where nine of its ten tracks were recorded in Los Angeles, the album had two tracks (Still The Same and Light Fades) which were featured in an American indie film.
On top of the Albums, in 2004, Alex was the opening act for Deep purple’s concert in Singapore and INXS switch’s 2006 world tour in Kuala Lumpur and so far SingleTrackMind has made 34 stage appearances in total.
Check out Alex’s band, STM and the new single, ‘Bleed’ here!
Being a fulltime jack of all trades, rockstar, racer, collector and entrepreneur, Alex decided to open up a unique cafe along the way. The chances of you coming across the Feast & Furious café online are very high if you are petrol junkie. Thanks to Feast and Furious Café located in Kuching, Sarawak, you can meet fellow petrol heads and admire some of Alex’s collection while having yourself stuffed with good food.
So, we asked how Alex ended up opening a café with the whole petrol head theme. Interestingly enough, it all started when he wanted a place to store his collection. First, he came across a warehouse which could potentially store some of his collection. However, because of the hot weather in Malaysia and the lack of AC in the warehouse, Alex knew it would be a bad idea as rubber parts on the bikes and cars could melt and deform under the heat. Eventually, he came up with an idea of storing and displaying his collection within a restaurant. The end result is the Feast & Furious café which displays Alex’s cars, bikes and other collectables us petrol heads love.