• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bike India

Best Bikes in India | No.1 Two Wheeler Magazine

Pulsar NS400Z – CHALA APNI

  • Home
  • News
    • Upcoming Launches
    • Latest News
    • New Bike Launches
  • Reviews
    • First Ride
    • Road Test
    • Comparison
  • Features
  • Our Bikes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
  • NG Auto
    • AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA
    • CAR INDIA
    • COMMERCIAL VEHICLE
  • Brands

Bikerpartheid

August 4, 2015 by Harket Suchde Leave a Comment

Sign_Board web

I’ve already touched upon this in my Triumph Speed Triple – Golden Quadrilateral travelogue that you can see in the bumper 10th anniversary August issue of Bike India magazine, but I felt that bikerpartheid needed more exhaustive deliberation. Bikerpartheid, or the discrimination against vehicles with two wheels comes in many forms. Today though, I’m focusing on only one of this dreaded social malaise’s many proponents, our Country’s various state governments.

Anytime you see a glorious stretch of tolled tarmac laid out to connect two bustling cities, this malevolent social anathema raises its ugly head. You ride along, aquiver with excitement, chomping at the bit to open up your two-wheeled asphalt-muncher. When you reach the beginning of this glistening, inviting, and spanking-new stretch of tarmac you see an insolent sign with a silhouette of a bike and a huge red ‘X’ running across it, and like a toddler popping a balloon, all the excitement just fizzles out.

Yep, no bikes allowed, and on a lot of the country’s most superlative highways; the Pune-Mumbai Expressway and Ahmedabad-Vadodara one are but two top-of-the-head examples. Today I’d like to question the logic (or lack thereof) of this decision. The usual excuse given for this heinous bigotry is that a lot of the bikes in use in India are 100cc commuters that will cause a hindrance to their faster four-wheeled (or more) counterparts.

Well there are two things wrong with that argument. One, the TATA Nano and the Maruti 800, both small capacity commuter cars don’t go much faster than your average commuter bike, if at all. Two, trucks. Trucks are allowed to go on any highway they jolly well please, and when was the last time you saw a truck go faster than 60 km/h? Even those speeds are an absolute stretch for your average trucker.

The second argument put forth is safety. How are bikes any safer on national highways than on expressways? People drive and ride as fast as possible on any highway, so if you’re not wearing complete riding gear, you’re fudged either way. In fact, having better surfaced roads with greater visibility and wider run-off areas means you’re better off on an expressway as a rider than you would be on a conventional highway.

Above everything else though, my strongest argument against those who advocate bikerpartheid is the Yamuna Expressway. This 165 km super highway connects New Delhi and Agra, and bikes are allowed here, and expected to pay tolls and everything. If two-wheelers are permitted to be ridden on one of India’s biggest, baddest expressways, then why not everywhere across the country?

What do you think? Should bikes be discriminated against? Do you have any insight on this topic? If so, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Harket Suchde – who has written 167 posts on Bike India.


Email • Twitter

Related posts:

Riding on the Wind

Idle Chatter: Team Up Folks!

Idle Chatter: The Bikes Are Here, Now the Roads Should Follow

Filed Under: Blogs, Rider on the Storm Tagged With: 2015, ban, bike, bikerpartheid, Blog, Harket, highway, India, motorcycle, opinion, Ride, Suchde

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AlphaOmega Captcha Classica  –  Enter Security Code
 ⟲    ➴
 


* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

LATEST ISSUE

Pulsar NS400Z – CHALA APNI

19TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Bike India - India's no. 1 two-wheeler magazine

Bharat Mobility Visitor Registration

Triumph Street Triple 765 R and RS Review | The Best Street Triple Yet

Ducati Diavel V4 Review | Devil of the Mountain

Royal Enfield Hunter 350 first ride | Aspi Bhathena

SPECIAL Featured Story

Yamaha FZ-S Fi Hybrid

Yamaha FZ-S Fi Hybrid Launched

The Yamaha FZ-S Fi Hybrid has been launched at Rs 1.45 lakh (ex-showroom). Yamaha claim that this is India’s first sub-150-cc hybrid motorcycle. 

More about this.

Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025

Recent Posts

  • Tobias Ebster Joins Hero MotoSports Team Rally 
  • Spec Comparo: Vida V2 Pro v Chetak v Rizta Z v VLF Tennis
  • Brixton Crossfire 500 XC v Royal Enfield Interceptor Bear 650 Spec Comparo
  • MAY 2025

Car India

Car India Magazine - Get your Digital Subscription

Footer

Latest News

Tobias Ebster Joins Hero MotoSports Team Rally 

Royal Enfield Hunter 350 Updated

Updated TVS Apache RR 310 Launched

Details of 2025 ARRC TVS Asia One Make Championship Revealed

Pulsar NS400Z – CHALA APNI

Pulsar NS400Z – CHALA APNI

Bike India: India’s no. 1 two-wheeler magazine

BIKE India covers the two-wheeler industry in its entirety, both from the local and the international perspective. Also delivers the most definitive verdict on machinery and performance by explaining the hows, whys, and whats on every new bike in a lucid and user-friendly manner. BIKE India is the India’s most authoritative two-wheeler publication, a magazine for people with a passion for bikes and everything to do with their history and heritage.
SiteMap

Copyright © 2025 · BIKE INDIA INDIA’S NO. 1 TWO WHEELER MAGAZINE, BY FAR! ·