Best Bikes in India | No.1 Two Wheeler Magazine
The motorcycle stunt scene in India may be in the shadows for most part, but it has always been very active. There are a few responsible riders, who, with regular practice, deliver quite a performance when called upon. We speak to India’s youngest bike stunt girl, [Read more…]
I’ve had an endless number of people ask me this question time and time again: ‘Why do you ride?’ My reaction to this question is always promptly answered with a big grin on my face followed by the words ‘Because it’s so much fun’ and there’s no better feeling in the world.
So you can imagine how overjoyed I was when I happened to come across a documentary film titled ‘Why We Ride’. It’s a story about who we are, as bikers. Individuals tied together across the world by the one longing to discover and explore the world on two wheels. Getting away from the four walls of our offices, the routine of mundane life and chores and to just go out there and ride while sharing those moments together with biker friends. It’s a story about the journey, not the destination. We haven’t seen the movie yet but will hopefully get a copy of the DVD soon, meanwhile, the trailer is more than enough to get you drooling over the release of the film and will get you geared up to ride. From a kid’s dream come true, to a retiree’s return to freedom, from a family riding together on the sand dunes, to hundreds of choppers carving through the canyons – the film talks about the passion of the riders and the soul of their machines. That feeling when your senses heighten as the world rushes in, your heart beating to the pulse of the engine, that moment of pure freedom. The film is independently financed and no sponsorships were allowed to ensure the creative integrity of the documentary and so that there wouldn’t be any favouritism given to any one group.
For more info on the film:
https://www.facebook.com/WWR.WhyWeRide
http://www.twitter.com/Why_We_Ride
http://instagram.com/WhyWeRide
Story: Rommel Albuquerque
The 2013 edition of the Indian Superbike Festival took place at Amanora in Pune. We bring you the highlights.
Images: Jim Gorde
Chennai recently woke up to the sound of 300 Harley-Davidson motorcycles roaring through the city. H.O.G. chapters across India from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Indore and Kochi came together with their families making this a big milestone for Harley-Davidson in India as it was the biggest zonal ride ever. The posse made their way through the streets of Chennai to Mahabalipuram in celebration of the 2nd Southern H.O.G. Ride. The three day event, organized featured live music, stalls having the latest Harley-Davidson merchandise on display, a tattoo parlour and a “Swap Shop” where riders could exchange motorcycle accessories and install them on the spot.
“The Southern H.O.G Ride has always been one of my favourite regional rides. I attended the first Southern H.O.G Ride in 2012 which was nothing short of fantastic. This year’s edition has been equally fabulous if not more. These three days passed in a flash, as I made new friends, shared my riding stories and will now be riding back home with a whole new set of brothers” Bala Chandrasekharan, Director, Coromandel H.O.G, Chapter, Chennai. Coromandel Chapter is the host chapter for the Second Southern H.O.G. Ride. As the men at Harley-Davidson say, ‘You’re not just buying a bike but an entry into a culture and lifestyle that the brand offers’.
Story: Rommel Albuquerque
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is a global event where bikers from 110 different cities hit their local cities’ streets simultaneously on old-school rides wearing formal clothing. For the first time ever, an Indian city in the form of New Delhi was also part of the event, and it was hosted by a bunch of Royal Enfield enthusiasts, both men and women, who go by the moniker Royal Mavericks.
The ride took place on the 29th of September across the globe, which included the New Delhi leg, in which 72 bikers took to the streets on their Royal Enfield. Tarique Afaque, Founder, Royal Mavericks, was quite proud at how the event turned out, he said, “It gives us immense pleasure and honour to conduct the DGR first time ever in India. It is very exciting to see the riders come out in huge numbers and participate in this momentous occasion. Royal Mavericks takes immense pride in being associated with ‘Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride’ (DGR) for a special cause in the Capital for the first time in India and we are looking forward for such rides in future too.”
Following a highly successful inaugural run in 2012 which was held across 64 cities, the Ride has built on its original premise of riders celebrating their bikes’ vintage lineages and inspirations, and paying tribute to biking culture of the yesteryears by dressing up in strictly formal, vintage-style clothing for the event, by incorporating the task of raising awareness and funds for a charity to its list of aspirations along with the aforementioned celebrations and the joy of riding. This year, the issue the ride aimed at raising awareness for was Prostate Cancer, with the proceeds from the Indian leg of the ride going to the The Prostate Cancer Foundation, Australia.
Story: Harket Suchde
India’s streets were rife with independence day celebrations as the country completed its 66th year as a free nation. Harley-Davidson’s owner groups from across the country got in on the act as well, adding to the festivities with their own unique twist. Members of the Harley Owner’s Groups (HOG) from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Chennai all participated by taking to the roads in their respective towns as a collective, with many of them even taking the opportunity to contribute to various causes while they were at it.
The highlights from this countrywide ride included Chandigarh’s ‘Himalayan’ chapter of the HOG, who rode down to the iconic location of India’s Wagah Border in tribute to the country’s soldiers protecting our national boundaries, ultimately spending the day with them. Chennai’s ‘Coromandel’ chapter took the benevolent approach to celebrating Independence Day by undertaking a fund raising effort through their travels. They raised money for and spent time at a school for the underprivileged. Kerala’s ‘Spice Coast’ chapter also marked the occasion by contributing to a noble cause, they visited the residents of an old age home in Karuna. The HOG from Ahmedabad, ‘Nine Bridges’. meanwhile celebrated the memory of Mahatma Gandhi by traveling to the city of his birth – Porbandar, and also indulged in some philanthropy by making donations at an old age home.
The various owner’s groups responded magnificently to the call of contributing to the countries 67th Independence day festivities, filling the streets across India with the tell-tale roars of their Harleys.
Story: Harket Suchde
The recent Cartier Vintage and Classic Car and Motorcycle Rally held in Mumbai left a bad taste in the mouths of true aficionados. Here’s why [Read more…]
Bike India was invited to witness the highly popular Ducati Week in Malaysia recently and that too in the august company of Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss. Here is a brief account of that memorable experience
Story: Aspi Bhathena
Photography: Ducati
The Ducati Week has become extremely popular among the Ducati owners across the globe. More then 500 of them attended the Asia Week in Malaysia recently. There were owners from Australia, Hong Kong and the Asian region. This event was organised by Naaza, the importers of Ducati motorcycles in Malaysia. Bike India was invited to take part in this biking festival.
Quite a few events had been organised over the MotoGP weekend and, for the kick-off of the Asia Week, we had the honour of having dinner with Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. The following day we had the pleasure of meeting Loris Capirossi over dinner. On Saturday night there was a street party where there were a couple of hundred of Ducati motorcycles lined up along with a few exotic cars like the Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ford Mustang. On the race day all the owners rode to the Sepang track in a convoy with police escort. The icing on the cake was an opportunity to ride with Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss on the Panigale on the Sapang MotoGP circuit.
On Sepang Race Track Astride The Ducati Panigale
I was lucky to do one lap behind Loris Capirossi on the 848 Ducati Street Fighter before he waved me through. That one lap was good enough to learn the lines. The 848 was a good bike to learn the circuit as it was neither as quick nor as demanding as the 1199 Panigale that I rode later. At the conclusion of the session it was nice to hear that Loris was impressed by my riding capability: a remark like that from a double world champion is something special indeed!
After exiting the last corner in the second gear you start shifting up without rolling the throttle back or pulling the clutch thanks to the built-in power shifter. At the end of the start-finish straight you are flat out in the sixth gear and also flat on the fuel tank under the tiny screen, trying to avoid the wind buffeting you as the digital speedometer is well north of the 250-km/h mark. As you approach the first corner, you start squeezing the front brake lever with two fingers and increase the pressure once the weight has been transferred to the front wheel and simultaneously shift down from the sixth to the second and you don’t need to blip the throttle thanks to the slipper clutch that prevents the rear wheel from locking up and prevents the engine from over-revving.
Half way through the corner you release the brake and start feeding the power, but have to keep it tight so that you remain on the correct line to get a good drive out of the second left-hand corner. From here it is flat out through the fast right-hander that leads on to a short straight where you get full RPM in the fourth gear before you brake hard for the 90-degree second gear right-hander. As soon as you hit the apex of the corner, release the brakes and start powering out of the corner, you can feel the traction control kicking in. From here onwards it is flat out in the third gear through the left and you ease off a little before you enter the next right and it is up to the fourth gear before you come down to the third for the double apex right where you carry a lot of speed and where you are actually braking in the first part of the corner and powering out as the second part opens up.
Then it is up to the fifth gear and back down to the second for the left hairpin. This is another corner where you trail-brake right to the apex of the corner before you start to wind the throttle as the next right is quite tricky and you have stay as wide as possible and disregard the first part of the corner or you will not make it through the second part of this long right-hander. This corner is done in the third gear, then it is up to the fourth and back down to the third for the left-hander and back to the fourth before you brake deep into the tightening right-hander and keep to the extreme left before you tip it in and start powering down the back straight, using all the track and a little bit of the kerb before moving back to the right side of track and shifting through to the sixth gear and back on to the brakes and down to the second for the final left-hand hairpin and powering back to the start-finish line.
The Panigale is a sweet handling motorcycle, but is extremely demanding physically when you are pushing hard and trying to keep up with someone like Troy Bayliss.
At the conclusion of the session it was nice to hear that Loris was impressed by my riding capability: a remark like that from a double world champion is something special indeed!
A custom building legend with the Midas Touch
The word ‘versatile,’ has been mercilessly bandied with many famous people of recent times but we really think it is appropiate in the case of Kenneth Robert Howard, or Von Dutch, as he is popularly known to his legions of fans the world over. Besides being a motorcycle mechanic of repute, he was also a pin striper, a knife maker, an artist, and a gunsmith.
His father, Wally Howard, was a Los Angeles sign painter; and, by the age of ten, the young Kenny Howard was able to paint and letter at a professional level. The Von Dutch nickname was intended to mean “stubborn as a Dutchman”. In the early 1950s he started of earning money by doing pin striping along with fellow pin striper Dean Jeffries. Von Dutch has been a major influence in the customizing vehicles from 1950 onwards till today. Some of his famous award winning work include the flying eyeball and the custom Kenford truck, along with numerous award winning custom motorcycles and custom cars. Many custom car and motorcycle enthusiasts, regard him as one of the fathers of custom culture in the world.
Von Dutch also designed and produced the Mare’s Leg, a cut-down Winchester rifle for the very famous television series Wanted: Dead or Alive. After a prolonged battle with alcohol addiction, he died in Spetember 1992, but not before he became a poster child of rebellion, biker attitude and creative free-thinking. Kenny Howard’s legacy still endures to this day – the Von Dutch company is now a licensed American multinational brand operating in more than a dozen countries and favored by celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.
Over the past two decades, Shinya Kimura has risen to the top of the heap of custom bike builders with his stunning ‘zero style’ design of custom bikes
Up until now, custom bikes have mostly been the fiefdom of the West. Arlenn Ness, Jesse James, the OCC family – name any renowned custom builder off the top of your head and chances are, he will be American. But, slowly but steadily, the rest of the world is also waking up to the art of custom craft and creating a name for themselves in a field that requires enormous artistic talent, painstaking attention to detail as well as a thorough knowledge of metallurgy. Somewhere near the pinnacle of this list lies Shinya Kimura.
Shinya Kimura is a Japanese born custom bike builder and founder of Zero Engineering and Chabott Engineering who originated the “zero style” of custom bikes. A Zero-style bike is typically based around a rigid goose neck, a pre-1984 Harley Davidson engine, springer front end, spoke wheels and often includes parts of the bike remaining in bare metal.
In 2006 Kimura set up his own shop named Chabott Engineering to build both custom bikes as well as moving himself toward the world of art. He has also co-authored various books like “Art of the Chopper by Tom Zimberoff” and Zero Chopper Spirit – Samurai Bikes from the East and has also taken part in Biker Build-Off where he was put up against another great builder in the form of Joe Martin.
Shinya Kimura will be premiering two of his famed retro custom builds at this year’s Calendar Show. While the first of these two is a recently completed 1973 MV Augusta 750S named “Blue One”, details about the other remains undisclosed up till now. The former has already won the Quail’s Custom/Modified 1st Place Trophy and the Cycle World “Elegance in Action” Award in another event held previously. Over the past two decades, Shinya Kimura has built up an enviable clientele of motorcycle connoisseurs willing to pay top dollar for works of art that truly stand out from the usual breed. Like actor Brad Pitt, seen here in the picture with one of Kimura’s creations, the ‘Flash’ Café Racer.
Photograph courtesy: www.vanishingpointbikes.wordpress.com
