Cruising away to glory

It was a dare that turned 62-year-old Nimmi Suri into the avid biker that she is today. “I turn 63 next week,” she gushes like a 16-year-old. She will be going to Goa during her birthday week for the ‘India Bike Week’ with the Tusker Harley-Davidson Group and is looking forward to meeting thousands of bikers and bike enthusiasts. “Since I am a new rider, I don’t plan to ride all the way to Goa. I want to take precautions and I don’t want to slow down the other riders too. I plan to fly from here but once I reach Goa, I want to have a lot of fun and ride there,” she exclaims. “There are many women bikers coming from different places too. I am excited about meeting them too,” she says.

A Punjabi, Nimmi was looking after a business in the United Kingdom. “My parents are from Chandigarh but we moved to the UK when I was eight,” she recalls. She returned to the City a few years ago for its weather and greenery. “The City was not as crowded and polluted back then as it is now,” she says.

It has hardly been a year since she developed a passion for biking. “All my life, I had no inclination towards biking. But last year, someone told me that a woman my age cannot ride a bike. So I took up the challenge as I wanted to prove this notion wrong,” she recalls. She learnt how to ride from scratch on a smaller bike and slowly moved to a Harley in August.  Today, she rides a Harley Street 750. “I regularly go on rides, especially on Sunday mornings and evenings. Since Harley is a cruiser, I prefer to ride when the traffic is less,” she adds. She says for regular bikers, it’s important to train. “I train thrice a week with my gym trainer and focus more on strengthening my arms and legs as it’s not easy to ride a bike as heavy as a Harley,” she explains. Ask her if she has been on any other long distance rides and she says, “I really enjoyed riding to Yelagiri though I rode only halfway.” Does she have any more dream destinations in mind? “The very fact that I am riding a Harley with so many established bikers is like a dream. It’s not the place that you are riding to that matters, it’s the people you ride with that matter — it’s a group that cares for you.” 

What tips does she like to give budding riders? “One surely needs to have the confidence to ride in a City like Bengaluru where the traffic is horrible and the road is full of humps. I will say go for it but be safe,” she sums up.