Delhi Bikers

Like chained elephants they rumbled by. On our way up we had wondered why all those Indian Army trucks had metal chains around their wheels. Now when we were on the other side of Changla Pass, stuck in knee-deep snow, we knew why. Soft snow + road tyres + high altitude = what were we thinking? With fresh snow to fall into and plenty of people to help us up, s lipping and sliding we squeezed past the one truck that had blocked all the traffic. Layer upon layer of Vanilla Ice Cream. The ride down was spectacular! With all the taxi’s held up at the pass, we had the entire road to ourselves all the way to the police check post in Tangtse. By the time I got off my bike I was thoroughly intoxicated by the experience.  Stopped to register at the Tangtse Police Station. Got to pet the dog for free. We hoped the person who rode this is still alive. A wrecked Enfield at the check post put things i...

Morning view from our guesthouse window This year the Zozilla Pass opened very late. Hence when we flew in by May end Leh was just waking up and local ladies could be seen haggling for flowers freshly brought up from Srinagar. Mohan the Enfield Master We spent our first day trying to tune the rented Desert Storm Royal Enfield’s at Mohan the Mechanic. He was from Jammu and for the last two decades he and his brother had been at the outskirts of Leh reviving battered Enfield’s that had survived the ordeal up the land of the high passes. He said business was good but the crowd had dramatically changed. From predominantly foreign bikers his customers were now mainly locals and domestic bikers. Unlike those tourists on shoestring budget, the new clients paid well. We knew it was risky to rent a bike in Leh because rental companies have one agenda, to quickly cash in their bike before its totally trashed. Novice bikers who have never ridden even an automatic scooter bef...

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 be...

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 passi...

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” ...

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...