A Biker & his Bikes

       I start with a quote by U.S. president John F. Kennedy, “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” That is so true about biking, it sure is a pleasure enjoyed by a lucky lot who ride their beloved machines. In the wee years of my life I don’t exactly remember when this love, this craze, this fever for bikes took over & captured my imagination, the earliest memories I have was of these collages which me and my brother used to make during our summer vacations and the topic of our interest was bikes, with pictures cuttings from various magazines and newspapers we used to adore at our own creations for months at length. I used to save my pocket money to buy those international cars & bikes magazine (second hand) and was quite popular in the group because of them.

      My first bike ride (well sort of) was courtesy my friend who, after a lot of cajoling… reluctantly handed over his bike keys to me, but refused to sit behind. I had learnt to ride bikes a lot of times…. In my head that is…for hours I used to imagine  my bike rides, used to observe bikes on road and used to mentally plan my moves….  But this was the real thing… the first actual physical ride. After confirming the gear position I set off.. only to come to a standstill after about 10 meters…thud… the bike went dead and all my confidence and hours of planning went down the drain. The most relieved person was my friend who promptly took the keys back and hurriedly took control of his bike, giving me no chance to explain.

      I got so nervous about the whole gear and clutch combination that couple of months later when the time came to buy my first own two wheeler I opted for the, then nation’s most loved non geared scooter ‘The Kinetic Honda zx’ (kinee), I loved the high revving auto gear engine, flat footboard,  it was complete freedom the in mind as well as on the roads… I was always first off any red light leaving behind all the other bikes and scooters and I just loved the small races to the next red light… on the open highway well it was no match to the bikes but yeah in the city where there are more red lights than trees, this little kinee was the king. About 3 years & 37000 kms later I parted with it but the memories of those days are so fresh that even today I remember the petrol bunk guys used to fill half litre petrol for 10 bucks and that I used to squirm if anybody called my kinee a scooter.

      My next bike was a Hero Honda Passion.. the fill it-shut it-forget it tagline company was becoming popular as people were now more concerned about rising petrol prices and ‘kitna deti hai’ was the probably the first question on everybody’s mind. The trusted 100 cc motor, improved handling and better looks were the plus points of Passion over its older sibling ‘Splendor’. With this bike I could go further on the same quantity of fuel than my kinee.. it was a no-nonsense bike, it never once let me down mechanically and I loved the go anywhere attitude of this bike. I even changed the colour scheme and gave it a complete makeover in its mid-life. It was my true companion in my job struggle years & its frugal nature only helped. It gave an ultimate final sacrifice when we parted as the money helped me buy a plane ticket for my first international job assignment, for this reason and many others it will always be a long lost true friend.

     As some bike lover has rightly said “Only Bikers understand why dogs love to stick their heads out car windows”, therefore when I came back to motherland, the search for a two wheeler started again, for a few months I relied on a friend’s Hero Honda CBZ, the bike was faster compared to my earlier one and the increased cc only gave me more confidence to look out for a bigger bike as my next companion.

    The Royal Enfield… the name gives me goose bumps even today as it used to when I was a kid collecting pictures for my collages. The company had come out with a new twin spark engine and many reviews suggested it to be a vast improvement over its previous editions. I went to the showroom with the intention to have a look at the lineup as I was aware that the prices were steep and out of my budget. 1 hour and 10 minutes later I walked out of the showroom after having signed the dotted line, I was smiling all the way back home and my face shined as bright as a well lit marine drive…. and all of this was even before I got my bike home.

     The Royal Enfield Thunderbird twin spark came home in late 2009 & since then it is living with me. The moment you start the bike you realize rich legacy of the bike and you are overwhelmed the fact that the company has been churning out heart thumping bikes for over half a century with the same passion. My relation with this bike has been getting stronger by the day. I have been on many solo and group rides and every time I have come back with a greater respect for this legend.

    Today I don’t aspire to be off the red light first (though I know this bike is very much capable of doing that), I don’t engage in those red light races. This bike has taught me to be a more mature human being, but still even today every time somebody gives a second look at this fabulous machine, I have the same hint of grin I had when I first booked this bike.   

I finish with a quote from another biker “Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul.”

  

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