Restoring the lost glory

When Pradveen Shanoo and his friends relocated to the city a while ago, they had a chance to attend a programme knit around ‘World Motorcycle Day’.

     Pradveen saw a whole lot of bikes and biker clubs. However, he didn’t see any club for Yamaha RX bikes. This prompted him to start a club exclusively for RX Yamaha owners.

 Established less than a year ago, Rx Owners’ Club -  Bengaluru, has grown and now has 200 members. The idea, says Pradveen, is to reclaim the lost glory of the RX Yamaha, which is one of the earliest Japanese speed demons to have conquered the Indian market in the 80s.

Every member of the club is passionate not only about their prized possession but also about adventure, exploring new places and understanding the mechanics of this bike.

“People have a very negative impression about RX Yamaha. Our idea is to revive the lost glory of this bike. Every member is passionate about the bike, respects and values it,” he says. Santosh Babu, another founding member of the club, says, “You don’t get to buy this legendary bike anymore. Even the spares are hard to come by. This club serves as an excellent platform to network for spares.”

“We never venture out without wearing safety gears. All the members respect and follow the rules,” he adds. 

There are people of all age groups in the club. Fifty-eight-year old Ronald Daniel, says that he has made some good friends in the club. “I regularly go for all the rides. It’s nice to hang out with a group of like-minded people,” says Ronald. Madhukar Subbarao says that it is the opportunity to meet different people and exchange loads of information about vehicles and travel that made him join the group. “I’ve travelled on my RX Yamaha to Ladakh and hope to travel from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Spending time with the members of this group is like being with your own clan,” says Madhukar.

The group has a handful of women bikers who say that they feel safe and secure when travelling with the group. Anuradha Khapare, a student, says, “I am passionate about bikes and I chose to ride with this group because I found them to be just as serious about bikes as I am,” says Anuradha.

It was DY Bhavana’s childhood passion to buy her own Yamaha RX someday. “I was always in awe of my brother’s Yamaha RX and regularly rode with him and my father. When I started working, I saved some money, and bought myself a Yamaha RX 100 a while ago,’ says Bhavana. She finds the members of the group enthusiastic and encouraging.

There are a few other members like Jashwanth Kumar, a designer, who also happens to be a good mechanic.

“I rebuilt and restored my Yamaha RX. I also help some of the members of the group whenever they have trouble with their bikes. The discussions that we have about the bike are informative,” says Jashwanth.   

Keerthy Swamy, a network engineer and an enthusiastic bike stunter, adds, “I used to regularly perform bike stunts when I was in Chikkamagaluru but now after coming to Bengaluru I stopped doing the stunts. After joining the group, I’ve found a bunch of people who like stunts. My weekends are always reserved for rides with the group,” says Keerthy.


(The club can be reached on 9036264499)