A Rider’s Tale through 50mm!!

Roads less travelled are not explored in a day or alone…it needs a serious passion... commitment… responsibility…. co travelers and of course fun. Such is a tale of Jeypore Bike Riders with whom we explored the other side of highways around Jaipur.

One day as I was just scrolling down through walls of Jaipur Photographers Club and suddenly my eyes got glued to a post mentioning “This Sunday we will explore some Adventure Sports Photography with Jeypore Bike Riders, the route would be decided by Jeypore Bike Riders” sounds interesting I said to myself… but route... why keeping suspense… wink wink.. .whatever… I am in for the ride... err… shoot.

Finally the ride day was here...and I was all geared up with my machine…oops...I mean my lens machine to capture the ride, as per plans photography club members met at pink square and moved to next meeting point on Jaipur - Delhi highway approx 6kms from pink square….at this pit stop we took onboard few more of our photography enthusiasts… but wait where are the bikes... riders… we were not able to spot them anywhere around… I was just about to ask… Anil sir… to call them... and suddenly... a roaring sound was heard and we saw approx dozen of bikes approaching us which filled the air with excitement.

And within few minutes… NH 8 was alive….as we all with riders moved to explore… explore??? Yes to explore... roads… paths… ourselves... which never thought even existed. After few kms we took a left on a narrow road… which welcomed us with some potholes and traces of recent rains…moving further on deep curves... we stopped at a crossroads soon... which as per the riders was the last wide space where we can have a group shot before flagging off the journey... after few quick shots together it was decided that we will move ahead and will take positions at different locations to capture the whole ride… live. We moved further through Kukas back roads and various villages… and took our positions and waited to capture for riders to pass by so that we can have some diff angles…and point of view, we clicked some shots when the mean machines passed… Dukes… Honda CBRs… Pulsar’s… accompanied by two- three Royal Enfield’s being ridden by dashing dudes.

After a short ride of few kms and when bike group moved ahead of us... we all moved again in our four wheels to catch them at their natural pit stop… once again with same strategy we all moved further leaving behind bikers… and now as we moved ahead we had to climb small hills(part of Aravali range)..which turned out to be a most scenic drive offering hills on other side and vast fields and some small valley on other side giving us the feeling that... yes this is what we were looking for in our city which can fill everyone with energy and freshness… we stopped at one high point and again took the position at height this time… so that rider’s can be shot cleanly... wink wink… shot with camera I mean!!

Further moving down the hills we moved through one more village and to our surprise… road we were travelling off disappeared suddenly and we moved down to a river bed(some river might have flowed here few centuries back)… and as we drove down… a deep cut…welcomed us…to give a feel of off-roading… we carefully moved our Xylo as it was not a 4x4 machine... and once got through this we stopped at river bed in between mustard fields and once again eagerly waited for some rider’s who were on the way… to show us some dirt magic… and they didn't disappoint us at any point of time… colorful dukes... mustard fields… wet sand… were complimenting each other… and as they moved through fields on river bed… the sand made little difficult to ride on but that’s what off-roaders are meant for… difficult hai… I’ll do it man… the bikes and their rider seems like they have strong bonding with... dirt... sand... fields... rains… and are made for each other. We captured some off-roading skills of passionate and responsible riders of JBR… and some relaxing moments….with all these excitement... captured moments we moved back to city.

Journeys are made by the people you travel with... and on this small journey we had made few friends too… and it’s not the end to this journey as many more will happen to see unseen and travel on roads less traveled….to make a new path to lead.

Being Vivek

I am Vivek Kakkar but I call myself as "Being Vivek", a Healthcare IT Professional into Amateur photography. I like to spend time with camera to explore dimensions of life. Nature, People and Street Life are some subjects I like to click and feel photography is the best way to connect with nature, life and self.

Motorcycle Diaries

                                          

Vroom Vroom friends!!! 

I am Sumedha Bhattacharyya, with roots in Kolkata, a Member of JPC (Jaipur Photographers Club) and pursuing B-tech in ECE. Photography and Classical Dance are my hobbies. I have been learning from the age of 5. I am a disciple of Pt Birju Maharaj under the guidance of Guru Saswati Sen from 6 years. Now lets start with the story...

On an “ Inelastic “ Sunday morning,  the most lethargic mornings of a week, where all kinds of procrastinations are at its peak,  this Sunday ,Jeypore Bike Riders in collaboration with Jaipur photographers club planned for a different Sunday altogether, @6 am in the morning, that too on a monsoon-ish weather But what was so different that day? …

 Pink Square, was never so deserted, where we the JPCians met & headed to Dhobiyon ka Chauraha near Jal Mahal, where we waited for the “so-heard-about” bikers. Our gossiping was interrupted by the diacritic sound of debonair bikes that approached (no offence, Bikers!) Duke, Honda, Bullet is what I can recall.   And finally, an unknown journey started on Jaipur-Delhi highway. 

Bikers paved the way for us, and we followed them. I had never seen such heavy bikes together. So I was sitting upright and taking glances from the backseat. Sometimes we overtook them, and when I turned, I could see all the bikes with their glowing headlights, all the bikes in a diagonal in dawn, picturesque!!! I had preconceived that this ride will go on the highway only for about 100kms at most from the town, and, and we would get down and take photographs etc... But suddenly and unexpectedly the bikes turned left leaving the slick highway… from here started the real journey.

Roads got narrow & treacherous and then we found a wide open space took the ritualistic group photo. Meanwhile as all the bikes were at one place, I had a closer look at all of them, who knows after this when I would actually be able to see them together!!

And then we decided that we would stop at a favorable location and the bikers will come in five minutes after us so that we can be in position to pull the trigger and shoot them. So this is how it went.  We crossed some villages and the road started winding along the hills.  We positioned ourselves for the shoot. The bikes with the lights on zipped through… what an experience. Soon after them we continued and we reached the advent of a spectacular village, Chaapradi…  And as we dug in more through the roads, narrower it was getting and all of a sudden roads vanished and here we encountered crevice-prone area, hats off to our valiant car Xylo which managed to go through, Annnnd… that’s when the real action began, the rainy weather also added to the fun of the off road trail. Soon the terrain changed to hilly, and bikers ameliorating their skills rode through the rough rocky track. We photographers (oops moto-graphers!) again found ourselves new spots in these terrains to click and click and click…

Spending some time together we headed to a new trail with altogether a different terrain, but unfortunately we couldn’t get into the trail as the start of the trail was blocked by the farmers. The disappointment suddenly made us realize of the scorching heat and the humidity. So we bid the JBR gang good bye!!  But with a promise from them for more of such collaborative walks in future and have to be bigger too.

This walk not only gave me an opportunity as an individual to meet new people, but also steered in me a greater fascination for bikes. I witnessed they are not only symbols of aristocracy but can be taken as a passion too by people from all walks of life...!!! 








SUMEDHA

JBR...The Effort Gets Noticed...

The Effort in bringing up Jeypore Bike Riders gets noticed by a US based magazine GEARBOX and they did an interview with Anukraman Singh Rathore about JBR. You can read the MAGAZINE online. The image files of the INTERVIEW have been uploaded here but you can read it in the magazine itself, to have the real feel of it.

Jeypore Bike Riders - A journey...

This was the coverage of Jeypore Bike Riders published on an online portal dedicated to offroading after one and a half year of its inception...

Jeypore Bike Riders - The Biking Aspect...

Western Motorsports has always wanted to take Motor Sport to the masses. This thought was very significant in inception of Jeypore Bike Riders. The name “Jeypore” came from, how the British used to address the Pink City Jaipur.

For The Monsoon Ride; now shelved due to sponsorship issues despite getting huge participation, great media coverage and perfect execution; lot of recces were done for exploring new routes in remote, often desolate area. As the motto was to amaze the participants as well as media with terrain Rajasthan possesses with abundantly sprinkled with heritage structures and not just to conduct a rally. The trails we used to tread on would have no habitation and no one to ask about the track. Many a times difficulties were faced when we hit a dead end or non negotiable track for cars and to turn back or reverse on narrow tracks and due to these problems sometimes tracks were left unexplored. Soon it was realized and also advised to use motorbikes for recce purposes on such tracks rather than using a four wheeler.

Two bikes were marked and prepared for these sojourns and it benefited a lot, the freedom of a motorcycle was a great boon. The routes explored came out amazing and were used in many events, not only by Western Motorsports, but were also used by other organizations to conduct their events. Pictures of recce were shared on social networking sites as normal practice and soon requests to join these rides started to come I, But as these were recces for rallies people could not be taken along. The requests kept building something had to be done for that but through a different platform and form. It was a golden opportunity to promote Adventure Sport and build up a base for it. Yet another tool was found to fulfill the “MOTTO” of Western Motorsports of taking Motor Sport to masses and at the same time showcase the heritage of Rajasthan and promote it as “THE” destination for adventure sport.

And Jeypore Bike Riders was born…

The primary objective of a two wheeler has always been commuting but as JBR came into existence with an initial thought of promoting motorcycling as an adventure activity among the masses, and wanted to make it a tool for adventure activity and not just a commuting medium. Motorcycling is Lifestyle.

Soon this was realized that the safety aspect also has to be taken care of and started working on it. Full mask helmets, gloves came in. The confidence and the group started to grow, so did the length of the rides. We were soon doing 300+ kms in a day and graduated to 2 day rides with campouts. We were breaking the barriers real fast and started doing multiple day rides with per day kms reaching 600 mark. The off road trails were getting into focus. And the riders also stepped up with safety. Today you find most of the riders well kitted and the basic safety norms are never breached.

After completion of two years and around 60 rides; that is riding every second weekend; we are a strong community of around 50 bikers out of whom 7-8 bikers turn up for rides every time. Though the following on Social Network is much higher, but they are yet to be bitten by the bug. The induction of new riders has to be slow to maintain the discipline and this way the new comers easily gel into the group too.

All sorts of bikes and bikers from any biking groups are always welcome to ride along till the basic safety and ride discipline is not breached.

Keep Munching the Miles...

Ride safe...

"Do not go where the path may Lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"