Bombay Bikers (http://www.bombaybikers.com ) has completed just over one year riding the roads of Free India in the expanded freedom of Motorcycles. As we met many youthful riders and a diverse demographic of citizens in our trips, we wanted to add the element of a ‘distinguished purpose’ to our rides. As is, we ride to see the beauty of our vast culture and geography. But then why stop like tourists, when we can ride further into the mind-space of our fellow Indians.
Peace Ride 2007 is our effort to bring to focus the invaluable cause of truth, justice, human rights and non-violence as propounded by our greatest of leaders during India’s Freedom struggle. The voice that still echoes across schools and villages is of course of Mahatma Gandhi and his eternal, devout and memorable message of peace and brotherhood for all mankind. It will be our endeavour to reach out to our busy workaholic nationals and inform them about their basic human rights and privileges as covered by the Constitution and Laws.
Bombay Bikers will be riding with support for ‘Save India Family Foundation’ ( http://www.saveindianfamily.org/ ) across Mumbai streets. Save India Family Foundation is a pioneer in informing and assisting people who are victims of misuse of legal procedures. The Foundation aims to help victims find justice by applying the legal process as it should be and not how it could be, by miscreants who find loopholes to forward their vindictive agenda. In celebration of Gandhi Jayanti, Bombay Bikers will spread this NGO’s scope and purpose with the Peace Ride. October 2 marks Birth Anniversary of the Father of the Nation in India.
INTRODUCTION
Bombay Bikers is a team of riders with a desire to ride whenever, wherever. We encourage riders to be confident of their ride and riding. We ride in formation and in teams, the lead rider guides the team and the rest keep pace. No rider is left behind and there will always be someone to lend a hand when the need be.
The idea is to form a weekend getaway team of riders and distance has never been a constraint. Emphasis is on riding on your much loved wheels and exploring interesting places. Honing our mechanical talent and discovering trusty friends, we chart a route out for the long road ahead.
Why motorcycles? Why not? These wheels let you feel the road, breathe the atmosphere, live the location and we are close to nature. The thrill of riding is only known to a rider.
We come together for a journey that stays with us through the highway of our memories.
PREPARATION
Thursday Night
Ride was on Sunday 30th Sept 2007 and on Thursday we decided that we needed to be prepared for the peace ride 2007. Preparations involved, road permissions, gathering around 50 bikers, arranging T-shirts and caps, printing stickers, making instructions and very importantly making a road plan. So keeping all these in mind we started working on our preparations. The tees, caps, stickers and banners were finished in 2 days. Till then we also had around 30 confirmations (bikes and bikers). The ride was a Peace Ride 2007, so we teamed up with a NGO called Save Indian Family. They confirmed another 10 bikers. This now seemed like a good number to ride on Bombay roads showcasing peace and promoting Gandhi-giri.
Friday Night
Friday night it was decided to have a dry run to form the riding pattern, halts and route map. Around 11 bikers and total 16 members were present. It was a good number for the test ride. The most marvelous thing was that, we had newcomers coming for the test ride. Meeting time was 10pm and we started at 11pm. A formation on 2, 1, 2, 1, was decided and the first halt was Mahalaxhmi race course.
Riding speed was 20 kmph. It was so slow even walkers-by were overtaking us. The route taken was Tulsi pipe road. Then suddenly we raised the speed to 40 kmph. A halt at the race course was taken. Riding pattern was accepted by all. The leader was accepted by all. But still everyone had their inputs to be aired. After a lot of discussion the riding speed was decided on 30 kmph. Some more riding tips got cleared and we continued (This all by 12.30am).
We proceeded further and at Bachelors juice center, we remembered that we were hungry. We still rode further to get more practice of riding. And finally we halted at Regal theatre for more views and corrections. At that time there were not many errors and we proceeded to Parag juice center to fill ourselves at 2am. Few plates of pav bhaji and few glasses of juices were sufficient to fuel us with energy. We bid adios to all and reached home by 3.30am.
Saturday Night
We again decided to take another test ride with another set of bikers. We wanted to be perfect. We again had 10 bikes and 15 people. The meeting time was 9pm and the ride started at 11pm post discussions. One biker went across 12 police stations taking acknowledgements for police stations. It was very nice of Bombay police to be so supportive towards our cause for the ride.
The test ride, through the same route got over by 1.30am. We all left, to meet again on the big day. Few friends stayed back with us. And full with vigor and excitement we were not able to sleep till 4am. Finally we had to force ourselves to take some rest, as morning was to bring a very important endeavour of our biking experience till date.
Constraints
Our efforts with the police resulted in the route being modified to weed out VIP sensitive areas and group riders limited to a maximum of 30 bikes. We had positive & good intentions for the ride so decided the riding pattern to cause minimal problems for Mumbai’s routine life.
Final Route
Bandra Reclamation >> Mahim Church >> Mahim Station >> Matunga Station >> Tusli Pipe road >> Lower Parel Flyover till Big Bazar and Pheonix Mill >> Mahalaxmi Station >> Haji Ali Signal >> Tardeo >> Nana Cowk >> Wilson College, Chowpatty.
PEACE RIDE 30th Sept 2007 Sunday
Sunday morning we woke up to phone calls of riders who were already on their way and were about to reach the meeting point – Bandra Reclamation, end of the flyover. We hurried, got ready, had breakfast and were all set to ride. Rally was to start at 10:30 AM. Ashish, Ujjwal & Vishal had stayed overnight at Kamal’s home for last minute co-ordinations. We stepped out on Sunday morning only to find front tyre of Ujjwal’s Bullet punctured; so others carried on while he got it repaired.
We reached by 9.10am. It was amusing to see a good amount of crowd already waiting for us. Hat’s off to the volunteers! We reached Bandra Reclamation and saw bikes lined up in the formations like we had decided. Babu, Karan and Reema took the responsibility of distributing the t-shirts and stickers. Ashish distributed instruction sheets to volunteers who explained other riders how to follow them, on wearing helmets, following all traffic rules and since it is a peace ride no one would honk, only hand signals. We were to ride in single file on flyovers to avoid traffic jams. Afraz, another Bullet-eer took responsibility to check if all bikes were in good condition also checking air pressure and fuel in all bikes.
The Media reached on time as well as the SIF representatives. There was a crowd of 47 bikes and flashbulbs of cameras while SIF guys gave interviews.
As decided Hussain and Sid (Pulsars) were at lead and as usual Kamal and Ashish were at the sweep. And Big guy’s Ishmeet, Bawa, Rajat (Bullet-eers) decided to reach the end point and welcome the rally.
At 10:30 AM, all engines were started and bikes roaring to go. Narial (Coconut) for Shri Ganesha was cracked for good luck. Final instructions were given to all riders to follow the rules. We left and cop’s vehicles were behind us to make sure that every thing went smoothly.
We were being noticed by passersby and people from cars and pedestrians were waving at us. A smoldering snake of motorcycles rode through the ‘naka-bandi’ at Lilavati. Soon we reached Wilson College past two traffic signals where we were greeted by our big fellows and a Cop Van. Since we were on a busy street, after some bonding all riders were asked to disperse and ride home safely leaving a memorable picture in the minds of Mumbai citizens who witnessed the Peace Ride.
Special Thanks to all who contributed their time and efforts for this event. Our sponsor Sundaram books has supported us crucially and the Mumbai Police were very cordial at this idea even though it meant extra work for them on a Sunday.
