Straight Talk

Torque, BHP, Gear Ratios, Compression Ratios, Advanced Traction Control, SOHC, DOHC, Pushrod, Camshaft, long stroke, short stroke, oil viscosity ……. Just a few words that always find their way into articles written by any auto journalist worth his salt. It took me, a self confessed petrol head more than a decade to decipher the true meaning of the above written terms. Hand on my heart, I’ll have to confess that there is much that I still don’t know.

When would the Indian journos ever realize that in our fantastic country we usually buy bikes for a reason as simple as …’because it’s there to be bought’? This reason is perhaps the sole inspiration behind this blog. I knew all along that I wanted to buy a CBR600RR. I’ve never ever been on one and hard to say if I’ve seen one on the road. I’ve seen hundreds of pictures online and my decision was made because I just loved the way it looked. No other reason!. I tried so hard online to find a biker who had lived with a 600 in India. Unfortunately my search yielded no results.

The ones I finally found were mostly in the USA and they really did not have much advice to offer for Indian conditions. Articles written by Indian journos really did not help much as they pretty much wrote more or less the same lines for all imported bikes. Luckily I found a 600 and immediately joined the Group of Delhi Superbikers. The riders are regular blokes like you and me.



If you saw them minus their riding gear you’d probably never guess that on Sunday mornings they touch speeds you’d never imagine. Once they take off their riding gear they transform into Doctors, Pilots, Consultants, lawyers, Businessmen etc. After months of riding with them I got to know the nuances of owning a superbike in India. In our country it takes special courage to spend this kind of money on a bike and the state of mind of an Indian superbiker can only be understood by another fellow superbiker.

This blog is an attempt to give you an insight on living with a super bike in India. I’ve put together a few questions and requested the riders to answer them as truthfully as they can. Nothing fancy, nothing over the top. No tough undecipherable language.Just plain simple biker talk. Why I’m a getting this done? Because I’d rather take advice from someone who has been riding a superbike for the last 5000 kms than a journo who took it for a 20 km test ride. There is no PR machinery at work here..Just the honest review of the bikes we love so much.