Me too at last!

“You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more T.V. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You are in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness”.

_Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance



Technology has never been my forte. It always scared me, and the fear continues.
However it doesn’t prevent me from gazing at or even acquainted with some of the glittering things technology offer. And if I prioritize, bikes come on the top 5. I watched it all with great enthusiasm; the Harley for mango deal to the limited edition 500cc machines from Royal Enfield. But never had I thought that I would ever learn to ride. I’ve seen my friends, one by one, learn to ride and own a bike, most of them in their teens or in early twenties. Yup, I too was forced to join sometimes, take a lesson or two; both theory and practical, but I lacked something that prevented me from continuing.

I am poor at multi-tasking or so I believe. One needs to multi-task while riding. Apply brake, hold clutch and change gears to halt safely. But how? How to do it all simultaneously? I had a tough time trying to untangle it. And I wasted many a sleepless night pondering over ‘mastering the art of riding’ rather than taking a practical lesson to ride.

Yamaha RX100, which is no more being made, had always fascinated me. It’s a good one as far as its looks are concerned. (and in all its aspects) A real hit among the youth in its heydays, it still rules the road in many a city. When I went to Mangalore a couple of weeks ago, I saw them in considerably good numbers that too at this time of new age bikes which offers even 100plus kmpl. In best conditions an RX 100 may give you 35kmpl. Still the machine is on demand and the reason cited by many is that it can be ridden so easily through heavy traffic. The unique sexy sound is another attraction. But for me the most important advantage of an RX100 is that it’s height from ground level. Astride on it I can comfortably place both my feet firmly on the ground beneath.

At last I bought an RX 100 from my colleague for rupees 11,000. I spent rupees 1000 more as it needed some repair. Then for more than a month I kept it ‘almost idle’. I observed the parts keenly. I kick-started, gave acceleration -in the process it left behind huge, dark clouds- and enjoyed the thunderous sound regularly, all invited my mother’s wrath. She often banged the door and windows at ‘us’ as dark emissions gave her sneeze and cough as me and my new found love courted in the courtyard. I am extremely fond of postponing things. And in this regard I am on par with Mr. Hamlet. So I didn’t even bother to take it to the road to learn it. By this time friends and family were quite amused by the fact that at least I intended to learn riding. One fine Sunday I took it out with the help of a kid. He instructed me how to ride. Then I did, as he rode pillion. After a couple of rounds on the road girdling my home, I gained confidence. I rode it changing gears as the kid hollered 1, 2, 3… indicating gear changes. Right in front of the Gate of my home I thought of applying brake as it was a steep slope. Brake? Where is it? And there wasn’t much time to think. So I hold it, the one which I could with my right hand. Bang, thud. Lesson No.1: Never apply the front brake when you are riding it at higher speed. As I got up from the asphalted road, I tried to figure out the moment between my applying brake and fall. But I just couldn’t. I applied brake, and I found myself on the road, on all fours. But the way I fell, the actual fall remained elusive. I was curious to visualize how I might’ve been thrown to the air, and then to the ground. Don’t get taken aback by this, inspired the kid. No tiny tot ever learned to walk with out falling. So headed the Guru and Sishya to the nearby ground. Blood was still oozing from my palm covered in a piece of cloth. My left knee ached too and had bruises. Have you ever fallen- of any kind- on an asphalted road and suffered bruises on your knees and elbows on a winter morning? Then you would know what I had been through. I circled and circled the ground and Guru, as he remained standing in a corner smoking, constantly reminded me to shift gears. I cursed those who made things this complicated by adding so many gears. Either the bike refused to move or made sounds that terrified me whenever I tried to change gear. Then one day my cousin came home and stayed overnight. The next morning he woke me up against my constant pleas to let me remain in bed as it’s Sunday. Again we went to the same ground and started circling. But still, going out with it to the main road gave me shivers down the spine. I thought of bus drivers who rule the road, speeding cars, suddenly-surfacing- from-nowhere auto rickshaws, jay walkers, school children…I observed every biker who happened to be in front of my eyes, keenly. They made me believe that it’s quite easy as they zigzagged themselves through the bottlenecks. In the end I decided to hit the roads. And it was necessary to get an emission test done and to obtain a certificate as the one I had had was outdated. I took my monster, who emits dark clouds with a vengeance, to the emission test and waited with bated breath. I felt like the father of a kid who’s pretty bad in academics and still seeking admission to a prestigious institution. I thought my ‘love’ wouldn’t clear the emission test. I even feared the worst as in the authorities would be apprised and they would grill me. But to my surprise I obtained a certificate. Is the emission test a farce?

So I came out in the open with my bike courageously. I found early mornings as ideal as there were lesser traffic during the time. And then gradually I made it a point to ride it at nights and then at any time. Often it halted on the busy roads as I attempted to change gears, I kick-started it again and people often stared at me as if they learned to ride in womb itself. The next task was to ride it with a pillion, initially this too was tough. But I overcame the difficulty. I learned how to overtake, how to zigzag, how to change gears when it’s a bumper-to-bumper ride. But still I have a long way to go. Once I took my cousin’s Kawasaki Calibre and went out, though he warned me that its front brake is not in good condition, I didn’t think it as a major problem. And when I came back as there was a steep climb to reach home I changed the gear. Since the gear system was exactly different comparing with my bike, when I pushed the gear down with my foot instead of pulling it up, the engine went off. It got halted, and it rolled down as it was halted on the sloppy road. Nopes, the front brake didn’t function and I realized within no time that I needed to do something urgently and I turned it and banged it to the muddy wall and somehow escaped without getting hurt. The hand brake is important too!

I kept my bike in the courtyard for almost a month and every night I thought of learning it. But never could I reach a solution. How? That was the prevailing question, and at times I felt too incompetent and passive. I thought of selling it and free myself from night mares. But then the feeling of giving up without even trying started to haunt me.

I’ve inspired at least a few guys who too were clueless when it comes to riding. Though not knowingly, I have instilled confidence in them. The best way to swim is jumping into the pond rather than thinking about the science of floating in the water.