Delhi Bikers

Uncle Enfield nice and loaded with 54 years of stories For many of us Royal Enfield is like one of our favorite uncles who used to bring sweets and stories of adventure when we were young. But as we grew older, we realized our uncle had taken few liberties to morph his story with other more famous tales. At first you thought it was mere coincidence that his exploits sounded uncannily similar to Rambo’s. But soon reliable sources began to confirm what you had already begun to suspect, that your uncle’s imagination was fueled not by actual experience but wishful thinking. That’s the bittersweet revelation for most Enfield owners. We buy into the exotic story of adventure from a bygone era retold a thousand times, ignoring the fine print. When the ‘rubber hits the road’ one is rattled awake by an ever growing list of annoyances. Add to that shoddy R&D, poor PR, and sheer incompetence in most of the RE service centers. We believed our uncle, this war veteran, this mysti

Riding down the South Extension flyover I scan the service lane for parked bikes.  Last month nearly 300 bikers had turned up for the Breakfast Run.  This time, I spot just one.  Warm welcome, short instructions, easy ride.   But does it matter? No. Not if there are no sponsors to please or any reputation to keep. Maybe one day no one would come. There would be enough clubs doing weekend rides that are far better organized with super deals and destinations. Then Delhi Bikers Breakfast Run (DBBR) would have run its course.  But that day was obviously not today because soon there are 150 bikers. New faces same old relaxed vibe Many new faces…almost all are there because someone personally recommended the Breakfast Run or dragged them along. And as usual over a dozen clubs are represented. DBBR attracts many first timers who eventually join one of these clubs.  And the number of ladies who pitch up on their bikes or sit pillion bear witness to the reality of

Here’s the bottom line right on top: You think the prize you will get is free, but it is not.  It will cost you your time, energy and most likely, your credibility. In the last couple of years, the frequency with which virtual vote gathering has taken off is phenomenal. You are promised a ‘title’ that proves you are a ‘better biker’ than all the other bikers in the country. It seems highly pretentious until you remember we are in Delhi where titles matter. A lot.   The irony is that most of us are so focused on scoring our own prizes that no one is really paying attention to others' prize.  If we did, we may see the absurdity of winning based on our ability to garner enough votes. But who cares as long as we get our 15 seconds of fame and couple of hundred ‘congrats’, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. Usually from the same constituency who voted us in. At the end of your vote harvesting, you may also get a fancy certificate, photo-op and vouchers for your passion for awa

A trigger-happy cop shoots a boy for ‘stunting’. Never mind that he was sitting behind the one actually riding. The boy is cremated and everyone goes on a finger pointing frenzy. To downplay their incompetence, the officials declare war on such adrenaline junkies. No apology, no regrets. Not even a “…keeping the recent tragedy in mind, we wish to remind our fellow citizens to mend their evil ways…” What we get instead is the same cold bureaucratic nonsense typical of those who have lost touch with the youth of our nation. ‘Public servants’ who have let the law beat the living daylights out of whatever compassion and concern they may have felt at some point in their career. Now they studio-hop dumping opinions about people they last had a normal conversation with in their college years.  Eventually their hired PR agency comes to the rescue with a ‘humane’ script.  “The heartless comments were from the heart, now lets get politically correct” Speaking

People say you are crazy. Then you find out, you're not the only one! Ladakh season is barely over when a Delhi Biker has to face the big dilemma. Should he/she ride to Aizwal, Goa or Chennai this winter? October to January is the bikers IPL season. When battles are fought to win the maximum ‘biker-fans’ for a given ‘event-team’. All the events have their unique attractions and flavor. While the loyalists and organizers make their annual pilgrimage to whatever validates them most, the rest prefer to hop around. Ten years from now, the one ‘must-do ride’ for a Delhi Biker will largely depend on what values motivate these events today. I rode 2000km's to forget I rode 2000km's Are they hosted for the bikers or for some brand? Are people getting value for their hard-earned money, time and energy spent to get there? Or do they feel ripped off by shoddy planning, poor or no accommodation and having little to do besides beer guzzling.   Do t

Pushing to get some air under the pony-tail - 2005 A Delhi Biker has either been to Ladakh or planning on riding to Ladakh. Interestingly there is no actual destination called Ladakh. On the way there is a Zing-Zing Bar (with no bar of any kind) and you do end up in Leh. But there is no actual place called Ladakh. It’s the name of the region and the people are called Ladakhi not Lehi. Hope you can see what’s happening. All it takes is one ride up to Leh and a Delhi Biker is an expert on Ladakh, the people, the culture, the monasteries. All dinner conversation eventually go via the Gata-Loops or More Plains and through the ‘La-La Land’. Baralacha-La, Tanglang-La, Khardung-La, Fotu-La, Zozi-La and so on. If you’re not impressed it doesn’t matter, a Delhi Biker will not stop or slow down. He has done plenty of that at the Rohtang Pass mess. Nothing like catching up with fellow bikers in the middle of nowhere On and on about the landslide, the river crossing,

Sticker Happy Delhi Biker at the front desk (Nepal Trip-2009)  Another factor that distinguishes a Delhi Biker from all other mortal motorcyclists is our fascination with stickers.  Not sure if this is a nationwide phenomenon but we seem to excel in the cheapest and quickest form of ‘bike-modification’. Who cares about performance, what matters is how the bike looks! So we wrap the Pulsar, Discover, Avenger, with more and more stickers until it weighs few kg’s more. Why? “Its my Style” says the one on the fender...the rest is in Punjabi  which I don't know.  But a t times I do feel as though I’ve had a full conversation with someone but all I did was read what’s plastered all over their helmet and bike. Stickers are how I display my motorcycle résumé. As bikers we can’t always be praising ourselves. I mean, once the blog is updated, the album posted, the video uploaded and the t-shirt printed…its only natural to summarize it with a sticker.  How else would amate

My '95 Enfield's handle bars going the Israeli way. En route to Pushkar.  A Delhi Biker is usually found roaming around his second home, that is, Karol Bagh.  What Nehru Place is for video game junkies and hackers, Karol Bagh is for bikers.  Anything you want fabricated, replicated, restored or resurrected, there is always someone who knows someone who can 'help'. You can’t possibly go on an epic bike trip and not visit its glorious gali’s (streets) to stock up on more metal and chrome you logically need. One of my regular hangouts back in the day used to be Khajanchi . It was a treasure house of assorted bike accessories. That is, before it turned into a religion and split into denominations. The irony is that these shop owners must have kitted out hundreds of bikers to head out on trips, but have seldom left Delhi. In 2002-03 outside Khajanchi you would find Israeli’s who spent hours harassing Jeetu to get them a higher handle bar,