Stunt biking is about identity crisis!

Last year in July, Karan Pandey was fatally shot by the police while he, along with 30 other bikers, was allegedly performing stunts on Parliament Street. Next morning, newspapers were flooded with articles criticising the bikers.

At that time, Mohit Ahuja, founder of Bikers for Good, decided to take to the roads and do something. His purpose was not to protest against the police but a few stunt bikers, who tarnish the image of the entire biking community.

“I was not judgemental about right or wrong but my main concern was this apparent ‘identity crisis’ amongst stunt bikers.”

“Keeping this in mind, more than 300 bikers who were part of the community gathered at Jantar Mantar to talk about the cause,” says Ahuja. But this was not an easy task. After all, the police did not want any tension to simmer. So, Ahuja received a call from B S Tyagi, DCP Traffic, Delhi Police.

“He asked me about the reason behind the gathering and when I told him about the cause, he appreciated our effort of making youngsters realise the true meaning of biking,” says the young biker, instantly pointing that they were the first one to talk about the ‘identity crisis’ afflicting bikers, soon after the incident.

It is their support for a cause and creating awareness about safe biking that makes Bikers for Good different from the other biking communities populating the city.  
Members of this club don’t go for a long distance ride, instead they roam in the City to create awareness for a cause and raise donations and support for it.

“We initially started with a cause to support children suffering from Down’s Syndro­me. As many as 57 bikers participated in the ride and collected Rs 56, 000,” says Ahuja, who was personally attached to the event because his sister suffers from the same mental ailment.

Notably, it was also the first ride organised by the community. Later they did ‘Beat the Heat’, where bikers from the group, whose number has escalated by now, served shikanji to poor and then they provided cold water to traffic policemen stolidly manning Delhi’s wayward traffic under the hot summer sun.

Also, the bikers lent their support to the cause of education for the underprivileged. More recently they launched an ‘appreciate the City police’ drive and gave free hugs to policemen for taking care of the City.

“We do such rides only once in a month because the reason for the ride needs to be convincing,” says the founder. Since the inception of the group in October, 2011, 36 rides has been conducted so far and bikers from other groups too have joined them. “Even those who own superbikes want to be part of us,” says Ahuja, who is also
a photographer.

Interestingly, many NGOs and some Delhi University Colleges too are also approaching the group to get associated with them. Ahuja was recently approached by the SGTB Khalsa College to give lecture on safe biking.

“ We have been promoting safe biking as we don’t support biking stunts. We only have one stunt biker in our group who has participated and worked in reality shows. We don’t allow bikers, who are callous about the safety measures and traffic rules, to participate in the race,” he says.

Presently, the group is getting popular in other states as well. They have been organising rides in collaboration with local biking groups in Kolkata and Lucknow.