The ballad of easy riders

Their love for bikes and passion for riding got them to start the club — ‘Bajaj Avenger Club’. Started by a group of six members, ‘Bajaj Avenger Club’ currently has 480 members solely in Bengaluru.

“The inception of the club dates back to 2012 when we started with six riders.  In just three years, we have reached an international level and cater to 11 national branches and one international branch in Colombia,” says Srinidhi S Hebbur, the president of the club.

Explaining what the club focusses on, he says, “Our main motive is discipline riding. We want to erase the negative image of bikers from the minds of people. We want to spread the message that not everyone is into rash riding or are careless riders. We strictly follow the rules of the International Motor Safety Foundation, we also follow the army convoy style and use a lot of hand signals during our rides.”

The other core members of the group are Siddharth Selvarajan, Ankit Gandhi, Vinay Manjunath, Vivekanandan Dhanpal, Sunny Sawrav and Gowtham Shravan Kumar. While they concentrate on creating a better image for a motorcyclist in the eyes of the public, they also look forward to creating a brotherhood across India. Ankit Gandhi says, “I joined the group in 2012, the year I landed in Bengaluru. I always had a passion for biking and photography, and I was looking for a group to join, and that’s how I got introduced to ‘Bajaj Avenger Club’. Though there are numerous biking clubs in the City, what makes us different is everything in this club is organised and discipled. From the briefing to the planning of the rides, we have a set rule and we abide by it.”

He adds, “This club has given me a lot of memories to cherish and a lot of experiences. We strictly avoid races and stunts and safety is our priority. I have seen the club grow in number and also experiences. When I joined initially, there were only five to six people going for rides, but today we have 20-50 people accompanying us for long rides and 50-55 people on short rides.”

The group has traveled to different places across India, including, says Vinay, another active member, Kanyakumari, Spiti Valley, Goa, Leh-Ladhak and Rann of Kutch. “I joined the club when it started. Since then, we have made trips to different places across the country. We intend to visit North-East India as well, but it is a long term plan.”

Ask him if they want to go for international rides as well, and he adds, “We would definitely like to do that. In fact, we are planning for something next year. The trip would start from Kolkata and we will cover Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand, but again we have to go through thorough selection process which will take time. But we are looking forward to something next year.”

Since most of their members have a family, the club encourages even them to join them on their trips. Vivekanandan says, “We meet up every month and for long rides, we make a trip once in every three months. Many times, we are also accompanied by families of our riders on our trips.” As for safety measures, he adds, “Our priority is safety and we make sure everyone who is part of the trips abides by the rules. We always have medical and disaster management kit available wherever we go. Apart from which, we make sure all the riders are wearing safety gears starting from full-faced helmet, shoulder guard, gloves, riding jackets, knee pads to riding shoes.”