Circa 2009 - “I will never ride a bike again in my life”

These were the exact words iterated by me when I dashed my friend’s bike against a signboard while he was teaching me how to ride. Back in college, friends used to make fun of me when I couldn’t even kick start a bike. To top it all, I used to justify this by saying

“Arey hum Mumbai waalon ko kya karna hai Bike ka…We have a Rs. 2 million worth of personal mode of transport for daily commute (read Train). Why spend a bomb on bike, its maintenance and petrol !!”

Circa 2011 - “I can never stop riding a bike ever”

From vowing to never ride a bike to finding petty instances for riding a bike, it has indeed been a strange journey. Ironically, it all started from the day I lost my license.

Since I was pretty confident of my “riding” skills, I preferred not to buy a bike and go for an Activa instead. Sweet, simple, fuss-free and easy to ride. It couldn’t get any simpler than this. However one freak mishap and it made me lose my license for 6 months. It took me some time to recover from the shock, but I thought, heck, why not make use of this time and try giving learning the bike one more chance! And that is how it all began.

I started learning on Yamaha RX 100, still a cult favorite amongst many. Being light in weight, it helped me quickly recover in case I lost balance or put in the wrong gear or accidently over-rev the vehicle. I realized that those few months of riding an Activa helped a lot as it made me familiar with basics of 2 wheelers like balancing, acceleration, braking etc as well as riding in a real environment under real traffic conditions. And no sooner than I knew it, I was riding a bike, all by myself. A week of practice and I was ready for the real test; riding in my local market on a Sunday at a rush hour between 7:00-8:00 PM. Kalwa’s market is a dreaded place where few newbie driver’s dare to tread. Its a place swarming with shoppers where no amount of incessant honking can budge them to make way for any vehicle. Instead of keeping eyes on the road, the shoppers are busy looking at groceries, vegetables and many other wares sold by a horde of vendors doting the road side. Somehow, I did manage to get past them, without bumping into anyone, without knocking anything over and always ensuring that engine doesn’t turn off due to improper clutch-gear positioning or low power due to  lesser acceleration. That was it; I had successfully overcome my fear of riding a Bike and unknowingly I had made myself an obsessive fanatic of this wonderful world of Bikes and Bikers.

I got myself a white TVS Apache RTR 180 in December, 2010 and have   never looked back since. I have also registered myself on XBHP, a one stop portal for all your biking needs, queries and much more. Now onwards, this blog will also feature travelogues of all the trips which I make on my Bike along with pictures and travel tips.

A million thanks to Akash for putting his life on stake and teaching me how to ride and to Nikhil for lending me his RX 100. Due credit to Sujit as well for trusting me with his Apache whenever I asked for.

To summarize, the below mentioned adage says it all,

Its One Life, so Live it and Its One World, so See it

Cheers to this new found love. Keep riding !