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"

…stepping up for an adventure

Finally, the day for which I was waiting for past few months arrived. I remember when our seniors told us about their experience at Western Motorsports, how they worked day & night, their learning and all. The same day I thought that such kind of experience will be a good way to test my abilities, to go for an adventure and to enjoy the Real Motor Rally, I had just seen such kind of rallying on some sports channel but seeing the real event with my eyes will be just amazing.

I remember the day when Anukraman Sir came to our college with his team members and gave a briefed all of us followed by a small aptitude test. Those questions were so easy that sometime it made us feel that is this really they want to ask us or we are misinterpreting the questions, but when in last they discussed those questions answers with us it made us chuckle on our own mistakes. But got a lesson with the same that never take life too seriously, sometime solution can be found much more easily no need to make things complicated in your life.

Day after that we were called for a small get-together with the team Western Motorsports and 6 of us went together at the meeting spot from where we all were taken to the place which was a surprise for us. Wooooow!!!!! It was the damn track, full of muddy soil, we were not able to drive our bikes properly in that soil, but it was giving a feel like “YES” this is the place where we want to come again and again and can ride our bikes however we like. The muddy soil was giving a feel of a dirt racer to us. Anukraman Sir also briefed us about, how the whole process works, he told us about the importance of selection of routes for the racing track and how traffic moves. It was a great experience. Waiting enthusiastically for the great event to start and to be part of that event….

VIKRAMADITYA SINGH RATHORE