Happy World Motorcycle Day!
Another day to celebrate?
*Scene from Malliketh’s office*
cue melancholic music
I applied for a leave citing an extremely important day. Told them its a very dear occasion. My manager was extremely compassionate and immediately approved it. With great curiousity, he asked ‘What’s happening tomorrow?’. I respond ‘I need to fuel-up on the 95 Octane fuel (higher grade), check my tyre pressures, put on my riding gear and ride out to a hill near Mumbai. IT IS WORLD MOTORCYCLE DAY AFTER ALL! wohooo’. My manager picked up my tall adventure riding boot and smacked me with it.
Meh. Hence here I am, working from home (yeah, the leave didn’t go through and the above conversation is fictional, obviously) and writing about WORLD MOTORCYCLE DAY. For people who are going to come at me saying ‘aye, why do you need ‘a’ day to celebrate something’, to them I say, I KNOW but hold' up. Celebrate it everyday but take a day to especially celebrate something you dearly love. So today we will celebrate motorcycles.
What is to celebrate here? Let’s dig in.
I spoke to this on my very first post. You ride for only two purpose - commute (pure utility) or out of passion for travel or a mix of both. In a country like India, it would be heavily biased towards commute but there is a significant strength of community where people ride out of passion. Passion that was either passed down generations of 2-stroke owning families or generated in a young man’s heart during college or a middle-aged person’s heart when he finally pulled a trigger on a decision he waited a long time for because life got in the way or in a young girl’s heart when she thought she wants to break the glass ceiling and ride out because physics is equal for all.
So for people who fall in the first category - commute.
Here’s what I have been thinking about for the longest time. In a country like ours, the kind of independence a two-wheeler can afford is unparalleled. For starters, a two-wheeler (be it an Active, Splendor or a Royal Enfield Classic), is what a family starts to afford before they can move to a four-wheeler. This is what allows for the freedom of mobility. For me personally it was the freedom to travel to college without the hassle of changing multiple modes of public transport (and the rush) AND it was cheaper on the pocket (nothing can beat Activa’s mileage). Similarly for my current commute to work, I ride my bike to work because it allows me the comfort of choosing my own time of leaving for and from work. I don’t have to work by the schedule of an office bus, local trains or a colleague. This is a topic for much further exploration in another post.
Second category - the passionate.
You know who you are. You ride because you can. It rained? No problem. 45 degrees outside? No problem. Friends ditched? I’ll ride solo. Going to the mountains? Shipping my bike. There’s a trail? Let me clean my chain and see you there. You just need a reason to step onto your stead. If you don’t find one, you’ll make one. As one of the Musafirs organizer (the group I ride with) wrote on the first monsoon ride last year - ‘People will look out of their cars at us and say ‘Kaun hai ye *expletive*, jo baarish main nikle hai?’ Can’t be described better.
To both of these categories, today is as good a day as it can get to take a pause and look at your motorcycle. To take a moment and appreciate the freedom it has bought you in your daily life. The adventures it has taken you on. The size of the two-wheeler never mattered (if you look down upon a scooter, you’ve definitely haven’t rode one in the city to experience how much fun it can be). If you haven’t taken your motorcycle out in a while, fuel it up and take it out for a spin on the weekend. If you love motorcycles but don’t own one yet, go take a test ride of a bike you love. Dreams are never too far away. If you ride your bike regularly, maybe time to clean and lube that chain (you know you ignored it at 500km interval). If your Activa needs that part changed, go treat it to that repair.
Bikes are ever giving with little they ask in return (hiding my accessory bills!). Hope you take a moment to look back at your two-wheelers today and acknowledge the role it plays in our short life. If you did something fun (or plan to), let me know in the comment below.
Ride Update - Rode to Jahwar, Maharashtra last weekend. 130 odd-kms. Expected it to be the first monsoon ride but instead got steamed in rain covers. More details in the next post.
Happy World Motorcycle Diwas. Ride safe. AGATT (All Gears All The Time). Until next time.
