Floored by the motor-mouthed mechanics of Shivajinagar or J C Road, you let your mobike at their mercy, dreaming big about that chic, 'modified' look. But wait, this seasoned route just got disrupted by a bunch of 'customisation' designers, some taking the next big leap with motorcycle-themed cafes.
Modified, a bike could sync frills with thrills, a truckload of accessories in tandem. But 'customisation' spells a complete camouflage, a total makeover. So, a commuter, no-frills 100-cc Splendour goes in blank, returning transformed with a stunning Harley look.
Out there in those customisation workshops, they do such things with ease. Yes, it costs time and money, as Nadeem Akram, the founder-designer of Full Throttle Customs in Koramangala says. But he would go a step more to build a cafe around those customised mean machines, a trend perfected by European and American cities decades ago.
For Akram, the cafe has a purpose beyond the obvious: To let customers wander about the workshop, to trigger a passion for biking, automobile design and more. His stint at a design school in Pune linked to Dilip Chhabria had fine-tuned that fascination.
Loud colours and frills to stand out from the rest. “That's what the youth, the college kids in the 18-22 year bracket ask for with their limited budget and bikes in the 200 to 300cc range,” Akram notes.
But this dynamic goes for a mighty shift with the veterans. “Heading out for long rides to Ladakh and beyond, they seek longer handles, seats with more foam, better foglights for more visibility on highways, taller mudguards for off-roading, saddle bags and more.”
Customisation takes this to another level. “The whole design is changed, retaining only the engine and chassis. The entire look is transformed, and the process could take six months or more. People are ready to spend upwards of Rs 60,000 to Rs 2 lakh,” he explains.
As a design school student, Akram had first dived deep into customisation, an unchartered territory for him. He recalls, “There I customized my first bike as I wanted it to stand out from the rest.”
That first creative rush sparked the innovator in him. The whole process of designing and building a bespoke motorcycle helped him make the ultimate choice: A career in custom bikes, a big step of which was first the workshop, and now a motorcycle-themed café.