Meet the night riders

Club culture

They avenge the fear of night riding with the sound of the bullets. Geared up in style, they take over the roads safely as night riders.

Started over a year ago, this biking club not only turns heads around for their night riding concept but also for the name of the club itself — BITCH — acronym for ‘Bike It To Create Happiness’. Unlike other clubs, this club does not have a president or a secretary, but has likeminded individuals who ride with comradery. Primarily catering to bikes that are 200cc to 500cc cruisers, it has 10 members who ride together as a family.

Uttara, one of the founding members of the club, goes back in time and explains how the club began with just two members. “It started over a cup of coffee. Rohin (the other founding member) and I have known each other through work. We were generally talking about bike clubs and as every third person says ‘let us start a club’, we said the same, and before we knew it, the idea was in place. The name of the club was suggested by Rohin. We argued first and eventually agreed on the name,” says the only female rider of the club, who rides a Bajaj Avenger. “No, I do not have any perks of being the only female rider,” she adds. 

An exclusive club of Royal Enfields and Bajaj Avengers, today it consists of riders — Pramod Talisetti, Arvind, Uttara, Anand, Rohin, Vinay, Shivram, Nirmal, Badri and Alessandro (from Italy). One of the only night riding clubs in the City, they promote safe riding as Rohin explains, “Most of the clubs do not look at night riding due to the fear of accidents. It is a general myth that riding at night is not safe. But I have been riding since I was 11 and have covered 1,00,000 km around the country so far, all of them being night rides! During nights, all one needs to do is follow a trucker who is not drunk and maintain a speed between 80km and 100 km. This is what we follow as a club.”

The club has a limit of only 15 members, as more members lead to politics within
the club according to Rohin, and one has to pay a subscription fee of Rs 5,000 to become a member. “The first ride you get to ride with us and we will provide merchandise, t-shirts and other accessories. Rs 2,500 is kept back and can be reimbursed in case of eventualities like accidents or other bike snags. Also, during the first ride, we provide the members with all the necessary safety gear that is a must-wear during all the rides,” explains Rohin.

Sharing great biking comradery, the members find this club to be an exclusive, as Arvind explains, “My search for likeminded bikers ended with this club. I have been riding and travelling for the past eight years. But when I heard about this night riding club, the first thing that struck me was fear and danger of night riding. Wanting to get over this, I got interested in the club and this is where it started. As there is a subscription before joining the club, one gets to see a lot of discipline among the members. With word-of-mouth and careful scrutiny of members being followed, I really love the club, which is devoid of politics and strictly caters to fun and safe riding.”

 Pramod, seconds Arvind, and says, “It is the night rides that string us all together. With lesser traffic at night, lesser things go wrong. I always preferred solo rides, but that changed after I joined this group. Also, my bike is known to break down all the time and it is good to have people around you,” he laughs. Rohin quickly adds, “Pramod comes with his own quirks! We decide on single line rides and Pramod cruises past all of us.”

The club maintains a calendar of rides with six rides per year. They have completed four rides so far and each of them were well-planned with accommodation, fuel stop and other pit stops, mapped to perfection. The members are even required to post the bike insurance details and the last service details every six months to ensure hassle-free rides.
“We all make sure that no single member is under the influence of alcohol, 12 hours before any of the rides,” explains Rohin, emphasising on safety and discipline.

The oldest and the Italian rider of the club, Alessandro, shares his experience saying, “The first thing I did when I came to India was buy a bike. I was always a solo rider and I have covered about 3,000 kms from Milan to Cape Town. I know Rohin through work and that is how I became a part of this club. I enjoy the club rides as they are offering me a unique experience to witness the beautiful landscape of India through night rides (which I haven’t done before).”

Another member Anand, who was startled at first on hearing the club’s name, says, “I did not know Uttara was a female rider until I met her. It feels great to be a part of a club that rides beyond genders.” The club has covered Puducherry, Coorg, Goa and Hampi and their next ride is to Goa again as part of the India Bike Week.

(For details of the club, email [e-mail])