The King & I

It was nice to have individuals asking me and enquiring about my next article, road trip, expedition… etc. So here it is, this time as my title suggests, what I will be sharing is my experience with the King and I. Not any king but the Yezdi Roadking. I received a post on my Orkut wall informing me of a rally organized to acknowledge the great Jawa and Yezdi motorcycles. For those of us who are not familiar with these motorcycles, all you need to know is that there were one of the greatest machines that were produced and that roamed the Indian streets right from the 60s till date.

The agenda for the day was to be part of the rally organized to mark the International Jawa-CZ-Yezdi day. We were to meet at 7am at Victoria statue, note the statue has nothing to do with the motorcycle; it was just a common meeting place. Once we met, the newspapers came in to do their thing. While the motorcycles were receiving all the publicity, the bikers were exchanging stories of what their motorcycles meant to them. I recall Nitin saying, ‘If I can wake up every morning to the roar of a Jawa I would need nothing else’, these men were like kids showing of their toys. Every model that rolled of the assembly line was present at the rally. The Jawa 250, Jawa 350 Bison, Yezdi RoadKing, Yezdi Oil King, Yezdi Monarch, Jawa Jet, Jawa scooter and the list goes on. There were enough models to represent every decade that the motorcycles were manufactured.

It was 8am when we came across the most amazing site that any of us experienced in all or biking years. It was a lady who looked like she had seen quite a few decades, more than any of us present at least. She had been riding a Jawa motorcycle for the past 44 years and to top it all she was 79years old. The look on her face, when she stood at the side of her Jawa, was a look of much Pride and satisfaction. She made it clear that in all her riding years only two people were lucky enough to get a ride on the Jawa, her son and grandson. I tried my luck getting to ride the 1964 Jawa, but my charm failed to work this time round.

Anyways, the 70 odd bikers who decided to get on the ride took of at around 9am. The sound of the engines, the smell of the fumes gave everyone a high. Even the women were interested in what was going on, there were girlfriends, wives, significant others…. Enquiring about the various makes and models. And when the usual formalities were over, the flag was raised and we were off. You could sense the atmosphere to be different from the other rallies that you come across. The riders, the motorcyles, the attitudes… everything was different. One thing that stood out was the fact that it was all about the motorcycles. Everyone cruising along enjoying the rumbling beats of their engines. I was riding on a 93 model Yezdi RoadKing, completely spruced and shining jet black. We were riding on and little did I know I would be experiencing a little bit of history by the end of the day.

We enjoyed the ride and a couple of hours we reach the coffee day at channapatna. Once there we grabbed a bite and feasted our eyes on maroon 1963 Jawa, with shining chrome exhaust, the miles per hour taco meter just looking at you and another 1967 Jawa that had a rare trolley attached to it, then the 350 Bison and many more. Once we thought we had enough, like any other trip of mine we had to do something unplanned. We were talking about the old Ideal Jawa Ltd, the manufacturer of the entire range of Jawa and Yezdi motorcycles. We knew it was based in Mysore, what we did not decide on was to pay homage to the great building that once upon a time housed thousands of motorcycles and promised to position itself as one of the greatest bike manufacturers in its almost 4 decade reign.

We left to Mysore hoping to capture a few minutes in front of the old run down factory. On the way we managed to get an address and directions to the building. After asking our way around we were there, we were up front and in person with a piece of history. However, it was disappointing to find that where once stood a monument that introduced Jawa to the world of motorcycling in India, a monument that rolled out mean machines that changed the way Indians looked at motorcycles, now stands a range of buildings coming up to house families. All that remained from the factory was a 12x12 room, we got a few pictures of that and on our way out we noticed the gate with the old ‘IJL’ emblem. That made the whole ride worth it. After riding 150kms we managed to have the old RoadKing, which we were riding on, reunited with its place of birth. We stood there only picturing all the hustle and bustle through its life time, rolling out one Jawa after another, one Yezdi after another just to satisfy the ever hungry bikers during that era. We felt proud to be standing on the ground that changed motorcycle history in India.

At the end of the day as I was riding back on the RoadKing, I could only look back on the day I spent with the (Road)King. I felt great to be part of a group that so treasured this fine art of machinery. Listening to the beats of the engine and opening up the throttle to let her rip gave me a thrill that I am sure I won’t experience on any other bike. Finally, we returned only realizing that an era of manufacturing these machines have come to an end, however the passion that exists within each person that showed up on Sunday morning ensures that the Jawa and Yezdi will live on for generations to come.

I will leave you with this for now, please feel free to leave your comments.