On February 20 and 21 more than 12,000 riders and bike enthusiasts rode cross-country to Goa to celebrate the spirit and lifestyle of the Indian Biking community. Here's what happened at the annual bikers' meet at Vagator.
Photograph: India Bike Week/Facebook
The festival saw ace cricketer and bike enthusiast Yuvraj Singh, known for his enthusiasm for automobiles, grace the event. He is associated with Autologue Design -- a car and motorcycle customisation company that has plans to launch its new custom bike designs at IBW. Yuvraj, as a first time biker, rode all the way from Delhi to Chandigarh on his friend's borrowed bike. Now, with his passion growing further, he has expressed his interest to be a part of India Bike Week 2016, perhaps on his own ride.
Photograph: India Bike Week/Facebook
Commenting on his participation at the India Bike Week 2015, Mukul Nanda of Autologue Design said, "The event is the biggest platform for all the bikers in the country and is organised in a massive scale with professional bikers participating in it from across India and even abroad. Thus, the company chose India Bike Week as a great launch platform."
The Event
Photograph: India Bike Week/Facebook
India Bike Week in its 3rd edition saw double the number of enthusiasts in comparison to the previous two editions. The event brought together veteran as well as new age riders; an interesting mix we would say. However, a lot many things happening at the same time made it quite confusing for everyone to keep track of the goings on.
Photograph: India Bike Week/Facebook
The indoor expo was nicely organised with brands putting up their wares for sale; ranging from tee-shirts, riding gear to brand merchandise. As we progressed further, we walked through the parking areas allotted to various bikes except Harley and, we must say, the number of bikes standing in that parking area were huge and in large numbers.
Moving further down was the Big Trip tent wherein prominent speakers and riders were called upon to share their ride experiences. And this surely was the most riveting part of the event where the speakers starting from Major Gen R K Jain, Kedarnath, Sangeetha Jairam, Sushanth Shetty and many more kept us enchanted with their travelogues. Diagonally opposite was a tent dedicated to all women motorcycle riders who shared their inspiring stories and travels from across the world.
Photograph: India Bike Week/Facebook
India Bike Week offered an opportunity for bikers to congregate and for brands to unveil and showcase their products. Benelli unveiled eight models at IBW of which 5 of them were unveiled last year at another event.
Triumph Motorcycles launched two new bike models for the Indian market and with Triumph doing so well, we are sure these new models will be well accepted in the Indian market.
The Harley Owners Group (HOGs) of course made a loud entry into the rally. There were almost 2000 Harley owners camping out in Goa for the event. What made the event more special for the Harley owners was the brand completing five years of its presence in the Indian market.
Starting right from their first Auto debut in 2010 to the launch of the Street 750, the brand had one big party in Goa. Harley Davidson had their own set of awards: the BIG 5 winners and Chapter of the year. The Big 5 is awarded to Harley owners who complete the four zonal rallies and the HOG National Rally within a year. The Chapter of the year is awarded to the most active chapter in the country and was well deserved by the Delhi Capital Chapter.
