Riders on the storm

It was their passion for bikes and bike rides that got these enthusiastic riders together to form the ‘Bangalore Motorcycle Club’ in 2011. With over 2,500 members, it completed four years this October and the number of members only seem to increase year after year.

Niranjan Prasad, the president of the club, says, “I was working with Royal Enfield in Jayanagar. After I left the job and got into my own business, I met Karthik, Vasudev and Surendar. All of us have something in common — the passion for riding. In the months that followed, we started meeting up once in  two weeks or once a month to go on short rides to nearby places. That’s when the idea of starting a biker’s club struck us. After which there was no halt, we kept meeting more people who enjoy bike rides,” says Niranjan.

Their love for bike rides has taken them to different places in and around Bengaluru and hills and mountains. Karthik Gowda, a member of the club, shares, “The entire idea of starting this club was to ride to and explore different places and at the same time, explore one’s passion for bikes and bike rides. Every third weekend of the month, we go on rides to nearby places for short expeditions. These are usually overnight or one-day trips. However, we spend almost 10-15 days if we are doing outstation trips.”

He adds, “We have ridden to neighbouring states and  once a year, we go on long rides especially to the mountains — Leh, Ladakh, Nepal and Bhutan are some of the places we covered recently. Of course, there is North-East in our bucket list and by next year, we plan to visit that part of India.”

‘Bangalore Motorcycle Club’ welcomes anyone with the zeal, vigour and most importantly, the love for biking, to make short trips which extend to a maximum of two days. Vasudev, another core member of the club, says, “We welcome anyone to join us for the two-day rides. One can expect around 32 to 35 bikes. Cruising as a small group of people is easy to handle, but when it comes to long rides, we keep the number at 15 to 20; the more the crowd, the more difficult it is to manage them. We have a dedicated bunch of riders who have been riding with us since the inception, so of course the invitation goes to them first. For others who want to join us, we put up posts on our Facebook page and website. We get a rough idea of the number of people who plan to join and are serious about riding, as riding for 15 days is a real game.”

Anil SN, another core member, shares, “We have a list of places to visit, the rides are already planned but we don’t disclose it to any of the riders, it’s only the core members who have an idea about it. We like to keep it as a surprise element, so the excitement is alive till the day of the trip. Our meeting happens every second Saturday of the month and after the meeting, we release the posters on our website and other social media pages.”

As for the safety measures,  they share it as a collective responsibility. “We are working for so many years ensuring that every rider is safe and is equipped with safety gear like full-faced helmet, chinless helmets, riding jackets, leg guard, boots, knee caps and see that all the vehicle documents are there with each rider so we don’t face any trouble with the cops. We have certain rules while riding on the streets, it’s definite to attract a lot of attention while cruising on the public roads in a huge group, at times there are people who imitate us — we guide our riders and make them aware of such situations. Maintaining a proper distance between two riders and the speed to be maintained while riding on the highway are some of the specifications we take our riders across,” shares Roshan Manuel, another core member.

Another member of the club, Uttam Mallya, says, “I own a Royal Enfield and was always fascinated by long rides, but I could not find a perfect group I could look forward to. That’s when one of my friends suggested to me to join this group. I got proper guidance and support before I took on the road. It has been two years with the club and I have done 10 local rides to Coorg, Goa, Wayanad and Bandipur to name a few and two long trips to Leh, Ladakh and Bhutan.”

Bangalore Motorcyclist Club also encourages women riders to be a part of the club and has quite a few enthusiastic riders among them.

“Gayathri, who is a regular rider, with the other members is a fantastic rider and she accompanied us to our trips to Nepal and Bhutan which are difficult rides. We have immense respect for her as a fellow rider,” says Roshan.

For most of them, biking is like meditation and the best stress-buster. While for some of them it is a kind of freedom from the hustle and bustle.

They wait for the third weekend of every month when they are ready to rave their wheels to another place. Their future plans hold many more international rides to places like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Tibet and Thailand to name a few. “In the past 48 months, we have never rested and each time the excitement is extremely different from the previous one,” concludes Niranjan.

(For details, call 9845988986.)