Huh? What the heck is an ojek? In Indonesia, it is simply a motorcycle with a rider giving rides to strangers for a fee. Sounds like a taxi? Yep, it's unregulated motorcycle taxi. They are usually for short trips up to 3 miles or so, though it's possible to go farther, not that you want to risk your life (or knees) for any longer than necessary. You come up to a street corner where most of them congregate and negotiate a price. There are no meters on this motorcycle taxi.
You then get on the motorcycle as a passenger. Most of them will give you a helmet to wear since it's the law in Indonesia to wear helmets. Indonesians are known to strictly follow traffic laws. If you don't mind the cooties, sweat and other unsavories from countless other people who have worn the helmet, by all means wear it. Though the way these guys drive, it's a good insurance.
The motorcycles here are mostly what's called an underbone motorcycles. It doesn't have a backbone and a tank that you straddle like most in the US. It looks a little bit like scooters, but without the flat floor for your feet. Also, the maximum legal displacement for the engine is 250cc. Most people get a 125-150cc, rarely do you see anything larger. With them not being allowed on the toll roads (the only kind of freeway they have here), there aren't many places that you can go fast on a motorcycle.
Because the bikes are so small, when I got on, my knees are spread out away from the bike. In a V formation. Quite a bit wider than the motorcycle and the rider.
As we zoomed in between cars and other motorcycles, getting up on the curb and onto the sidewalk, avoiding people, I feel quite safe. Despite not wearing the helmet provided. The reason I feel quite safe is because I'm worried, quite worried about my knees. Either I'm lucky or my rider is one heck of a rider. My knee would scrape other cars and motorcycles ever so slightly. If he had missed by 1/4", my patella would have been crushed when it hit the back of the car or the motorcycle, or another knee.
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