Fifty-one-year-old Praneeth Perumal, an avid biker, still remembers riding on empty, almost deserted Bangalore roads in the 1980s when he could count the number of people on the road.
But today, he dreads riding within the City and whenever he gets the urge to do so, he takes off to the outskirts and heads straight to the hills.
Praneeth has been riding for as long as he can remember and has inspired many young men and women to hit the road with the same passion. “There were a lot of races that were held in the 1980s. A bunch of us would just decide and have a race. We would even modify the bikes to suit the roads. There was a thrill in handling real bikes and challenging ourselves to negotiate the toughest roads and hitting the non-motorable terrains,” explains Praneeth.
Praneeth still has a lot of young men and women who come to him, to pick up tips on riding and one thing that he reiterates is discipline on and off the road. “There’s definitely a certain thrill in speed but I stress that even speed must be exceeded in a disciplined manner. There must be respect for motosports and respect instills discipline,” stresses Praneeth.
He clearly thinks that youngsters need to have more respect for riding itself. “I’ve noticed that most of the young men hit the roads without basic safety gear such as wearing a helmet. All riders must first wear their safety jacket, helmet and then think about riding. This should be done not only for their safety but that of the fellow traveller,”
he says.
Every biker shares a special relationship with his machine. “The relationship between man and his machine in motosports is indeed special. When you decide to hit the race track and get on the bike, the first thing you do is to trust your machine and then focus on the road,” he shares.
Interestingly, the skeleton bike in Puneeth Rajkumar-starrer, ‘Anna Bond’, which caught the fancy of a lot of people, was conceptualised and designed by Praneeth, “I was given a very short time to design a bike. And I took inspiration from the bike in the ‘Ghost Rider’ and modified the basic concept to suit the local tastes. The skeleton bike, I understand, has become a huge hit,” he signs off.
