Jawa’s day out

A group of 20 riders decide to roar over to the Big Banyan Tree on Roadkings. Here's a first person account

Jawa's day out

A group of 20 riders decide to roar over to the Big Banyan Tree on Roadkings. Here's a first person account

If my left hand had not been healing from a recent fracture, I would have bought it crashing down on the alarm clock at 4:30 am on Sunday, January 25, 2009.u00a0

But since my hand was broken, I shut down the alarm meekly and woke up.u00a0

Why did I want to wake up at 4:30 am on a Sunday? I was joining a group of Jawa fans, who were riding from the Rajarajeshwarinagar arch on Mysore Road to the Big Banyan Tree, and therefrom to the Manchanbele Dam, which is nearly 35 km from Bangalore city.

Why do I ride a Jawa? That, I will tell you later.u00a0

Dream trip

Deepak Padmanabhan, who lives one floor below me in the same apartment complex, was the person who told me about the event and I reluctantly agreed reluctantly because my Jawa, though older than me because it was born before me in 1973, was new to me though I had driven Yezdis for over a decade.u00a0

We reached the Rajarajeshwarinagar arch at around 6:45 am and waited a while for the rest of the gang to join up. I was a little proud because I had a 1972 Jawa but this pride was dented when 62-year-old Balakrishnan rode up on a Jawa made in 1962. This bike actually had an ammeter on the tank a rarity indeed.u00a0

While some of the bikes were the modern Roadkings, there were also a few other older Jawas, most of them maintained in mint condition. There was also one single Oilking (which has an oil pump like the modern 100cc bikes) and one Yezdi Monarch (same as the Roadking, with a larger wheelbase).

Bonding, biker-style

We drove to the Big Banyan Tree at a decent speed. When you are new to a Yezdi, you tend to over speed I once did 100 kmph on Kasturba Road in the afternoon of a weekday in 1998u2014but after a while, you realise that a cruiser is best driven at a speed of around 60 kmph. Also, Brian, Lokesh and Amrit, the three people behind the event, were emphatic that there should be no over speeding because this was a team ride and not a race.u00a0

On the way to the Manchanbele Dam we stopped at the Big Banyan Tree for a photo shoot.u00a0

We reached Manchanbele Dam and there I spoke to Vivek, who at 21 was the youngest rider. Why did he buy a Roadking? Vivek said he was inspired because his dad had owned a Jawa a long time ago, so he too wanted one.u00a0

In the Internet age, we have something called Gen D where the 'd' stands for digital. Similarly, we could define Gen J as those chosen few who have fallen for a Jawa irrespective of their age.u00a0

We came back to Bangalore after discussing where to ride out on Jawa Day, which falls on Sunday, July 12, 2009. Tired but happy, I had a snooze and then headed to the office to meet with the cast and crew of Venkata in Sankata and also to hammer out this article.

You still want to know why I ride a Jawa? To answer this question, let me borrow from a popular ad.u00a0
There are a lot of things that money can buy.u00a0u00a0

For everything else, there is a Jawa.u00a0u00a0