What did you dream about the most back when you were sixteen? It will surely be some supercar or a superbike if you are a devoted petrolhead like me. You turn sixteen and the one thing you want is a nice powerful bike before anything else. You graduate out of junior college and you are already bored with your 100 cc commuter bike and now you want an upgrade to a 150, 200 or if Pop agrees, even a 250 cc bike. Guys are always looking for the coolest of everything. Your mobile phone has to have the biggest touch screen display and mp3 compatibility is a must or else it will be termed as junk.
That’s what the young generation of today keeps demanding day-in and day-out. It is tough to be a parent in the 21st century. That said, its tough to be just a parent in the first place. This is not something I am saying from my personal experience. I just don’t qualify to share any such experience with you guys at the moment, you know what I mean? Sometimes I feel that, I have been quite considerate in my life and this allows me to carefully study the behaviour of folks around me. I have cousins who would go to extreme lengths to get what they want.
As a teenager, convincing your parents to get you your first bike could be one of the toughest things you’ve done in your life especially if you are from the early 80s, sort of, like me. Now though, its a totally different picture altogether. Our generation was the last of those who fancied computer games like Pac-Man and Paratrooper (both in monotone). I remember during schools days, fights used to break out in the computer lab over the games. Then came the consoles which was again an upgrade everyone dreamed of and Contra was not just an 2D action game but a necessity.
Hero Honda CBZ Star
It was a similar story in case of the first bicycle. I was fortunate enough to get one of the best bicycles of my time. I had a Hercules TopGear- the original, in black. It had 5 gears which was a novelty back then. In my profession, I come across many who are hardcore bikers and love riding more, than a comfortable and safe ride in a car. If you ask me, I don’t really enjoy riding but I do respect those who are crazy for two wheels. Frankly, I am just not into bikes. As for the options I had back when I was out looking for a ride, there were just a handful of bikes that really came anywhere close to being termed desirable. The Hero Honda CBZ was one such bike that I was really fond of.
My friend hand one. Not the original but the CBZ Star in blue and silver which was even more attractive. The riding position, the acceleration, the sound, everything about the bike was brilliant except of course, you had to be careful with your right grip for it would drink like a sportsbike should. I think, that was the only bike from the Hero Honda stables that I would’ve gone for back then. Hero Honda (now Hero Moto Corp.) may have upgraded the bike but they’ve done this at the cost of what the bike was good at in the first place.
Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark 350
Once in a while I used to visit my cousin down south in Bangalore which was like the Royal Enfield territory. My cousin too had a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 which was the definition of cool. Even today there is a huge fan base who worship these classic, all metal hunks. At this point of time, I would like to mention of one of my close friends and a well known figure on autoatclick.blogspot.com, Jay Prashanth who has a Royal Enfield Machismo LB500 in Stage 1 tune. I knew, this was not the bike for me either. Today, if I were to buy a bike for myself, I’d probably go for the Honda CBR 250R or I could save for a year to buy myself a proper sportsbike.
In the past few years, the two-wheeler market in India has picked-up like anything. Next year, we will have the KTMs coming to India and the KTM Duke 200 could be yet another success in the making for Bajaj Auto. Will I buy one? Well, it certainly looks the part and should be quite exciting. But, if I were to save a few bucks, I would go for a 600 cc bike instead. Sounds a pretty expensive proposition but then, it is bikes like these that catch my imagination and that is exactly why I’m not into any of the part-commuter, part-sports bike of the times.
Ducati Monster 795
If you want a bike, get a proper one instead. That’s my funda. Ducati is also on my radar. There is a buzz going around that Ducati might bring the Monster 795 for a whole lot less than its current range which sounds quite intriguing and does compel me to go for it. You might have got the hint that I am not exactly a fan of the cruiser and hence Harley Davidson isn’t up my street. However, I do maintain that they do make some of the finest bikes on the planet. That said, Harley Davidson’s range starts at Rs 5.5 lakh for the Super Low.
So there we are, the coolest bike isn’t the one with the biggest price tag. In fact, superbikes like the Suzuki Hayabusa are just horrendous to look at and I would’nt want to be seen riding a ultra-expensive amoeba, for sure. So, choose wisely and if you’re still wondering what on Earth is the coolest bike then I think we would have a consensus on Batman’s uber-cool BatPod. What do you think? While we are on it, I do feel the sense of agreement on that. Anyways, that’s it from me. Join me next time for some other weird story. Oh, and before I leave, in case you haven’t guessed what takes me around the glorious city of Pune everyday then, it is the humble, reliable and cool- Honda Dio (1st model in grey, done 37,000+ km and is still going strong). Adios!
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