"60 thousand for a motorcycle??"
" bete, itne me to tu car kharid leta."
1
"what is that big plate on the front(wheel)??"-refers to the disc brakes.
"my god, didi, itni sundar motorcycle hai... aap dekhna usko... achha to wo tumhari hai ?? "(one of my college lecturers told the other, over a cup of coffee . noth aged 45+ and both females, that sample of human population which have an eye for everything neat , meticulous and beautiful)
what i can not put in words here is a thousand glances, second looks and subtle glitters in the eyes of onlookers that fantasised the bike.
wondering whether a ceebeezee deserves that much praise???
welcome ladies and gentlemen, to april 1 1999, the day sunday times carried a full page print ad of cbz.
i went to the showroom for enquiries with my college mate, and on seeing the bike, he said, "abey ye bike le raha hai tu?? ye to .. racing vacing waalon k hisaab se hai."
2
well... i must admit, i purchased my first copy of overdrive for the review of hh cbz.
i got addicted forever. to the magz and to the biking.
that the addiction was because that issue had complete tests of a newly launched motorcycle by suzuki**, in what i then thought was very strange paint scheme of copper and silver and another bike, 750 cc*** by a certain unheard of european company that looked pretty in red and silver conventional paint.*
i purchased the cbz and never dreamed of other two. it didn t make sense.
from the showroom, i went straight to my mechanic buddy. appoo is a rider, hails from indore just like me, has restored a blue triumph that you might have seen ridden by salman khan on some lazy bandstand noons. appoo had to devote one full day to change my bikez handle to a clip-on one. that was a very low set originally made for yamdoots.
i paid, or rather my dad shelled out 60k for the bike. a doctor himself, dad used to make unprovoked statements since i was a kid, "beta jis din tera admission medical college me hua, nayi ki nayi hero-honda ki chaabii tere ko dunga."
3
by 1999 i was in 4th year of college, and used either my atlas rebel mtb , or his bajaj super as my ride.
and hence fellas, he didnt think twice to pay the cost of a second hand 800 for a bike. i still think, he has lived his childhood desires through my youth. salute papa!
CHAPTER 1
THE AWAKENING
HH guessed an optimistic 40% sales would be of disc braked version.
every month, each of the 2 dealers in indore recieved 10 cbz s out of which 4-5 would be disc brake versions. thats how rare it was for one full year. people paid 8-10k premium over the showroom price for the bike. BEAT THAT.
CHAPTER 2
R-EVOLUTIONS
it was a mini yuletide in mgm medical college indore, for the first few weeks a forth year boy purchased cbz.
i rolled the bike in via panchhi gate(back door, where all the seniors took all panchhis-first years fellows, for a ride.) .....................
believe me friends.....
8-10 guys were sitting on black stone staircase enjoying evening breeze and...tapp tapp tapp........ jaws dropped.
cbz was welcomed with a standing ovation. yeah. thats right, standing ovation. no exaggeration there.
ho hum. test rides. criticisms for that stupid handle bars.
praise for the smart looks the bike rendered.
pickup that made the rx100 riders want to want one.
often i'd return to the parking lot to find some guy bent down on its cockpit or whatever. and would shoot me with questions about the features of the bike.
CHAPTER 3
THE TEST RIDE
few weeks of euphoria, learning the basics of riding and maintaining a vehicle, reading bike mags, flocking footpath bookstalls to lay hands on back issues of bike mags. boyhood was being left out in style.
at friends automobiles, it was one summer afternoon when appoo heard a bike rolling in. i was getting some lessons on bike oil change/filter cleaning. without looking up to the driveway, he told me "tera ek senior aa raha hai. iske jaise koi bike maintain nahi karta hoga. poore india me."
4
curious, i looked, was greeted by a rider , on red rx100.
better than showroom condition bike that was.
appoo showed me a middle finger, guided it slowly to the underside of front mudguard. wiped, showed his clean and clear fingertip to me.
no mud, no rust, only some hints of a crazy rider there.
meherban singh was crazy.
and i didn t deny him a test ride.
he took it for a spin. with and without me. leaned. cornered. was one seasoned rider.
at the end he praised the bike. said its so stable. he d love to own one someday.
CHAPTER 4
OF LOVE AND HUMANS
back at the garage, appoo bade him farewell by kickstarting his rx.
"shucks you man, ..." meherban singh yelled . then......
he took out out a rag, and cleaned the rubber peg of the kick starter lever that now had some dirt courtesy appoo's shoes.
he left, and i decided, no matter how much i love a bike, i wont let it supercede my love for fellow humans.
one year down the line, i stopped dating a girl in the early phase of introduction. the reason- she didn t swing a leg over my pillion seat but climbed on the rear footrest and then sat on it as if you are mounting a horse using a shelf-stair. oaf!!
that same year, i went on a blind date, with a girl i met on a city chatroom.
she saw me at my college fair and she knew about my cbz. and she know its bhp and torque figures too.
i still regret my wife knows nothing about any vehicle except for how to open and close the doors shut and maybe how to lock em.
CHAPTER 5
GOES LIKE A BULLET
dad forever called my bike bullet. it was heavy. it had a bass.
and when it goes, its power could be felt.
bulleteers ridiculing me???
my best friendz dad had a 1970 EI bullet.
he was a mean brute strict dad.
everytime i rolled off my cbz in his driveway and entered his home, all the kids and his mom shouted at me..." kya bhaiyaa.. daraa diya na . hum samjhe k papa aa gaye. unki gaadi ki awaaz bhi ekdum aisi hi hai na."
5
and that continued till the last day i had the cbz. everyone used to yell at me. all except the youngest, badshah. 11-12 yrs old,
CHAPTER 6
THE CONTAGION
young badshah has admired the bike, loved it, and always wished he could touch it. his elder brother used to tell him, he should keep off the bike because i am very stinky and bad person and if something happens to the bike because of his mistake, they poor souls might have to shell out all the money in return. and for that they may have to sell the house they lived in.
the only day badshah sat on my bike, he had smiled, then grinned, and then, occasionally , i swear i heard laughters from the pillion seat.
back home,when he got off the bike, he stood by the bike with me holding the cbz. he kept grinning, and then, he caressed the fuel tank... grinned some more and uttered... " bhot super chalti hai na bhaiya?"
6
3 years down the line, a silver cbz was purchased on badshah's 14 th birthday. i still remember him staggering as drunk and jumping all day. though he knew he wont ride the cbz for few years to come, at least he could touch her daily. HE was the owner.
CHAPTER 7
VALUE FOR MONEY
on the highways, in the city, in the colony , at the parkings,
people,strangers, sophisticated and mean, classy and urchins used to stop dead, stare, ask me how much?? or gesture that that its one smart thing.
everytime i felt i have recovered my 60 thousand.
at the last count, i had enough money in form of praises verbal and visual to get few enzos and reventons along with decade worth of 100 octane fuel supply.
the most eccentric of the features, fold foot-peg to kickstart, was the cbz's biggest intrigue as i found out. people riding my cbz would mention that they are seasoned bikers. and they knew that you have to fold the foot-peg to kick start the bike.
EPILOGUE
i saw that silly grin again on 2 faces. in 2002. they came with their dad to my home one evening, accompanied by their sister, my family friend .
they sat astride the cbz. posed. snapped photos et el while the daddy sat with me negotiating the final price. he may have had his ideas about the price he would pay for the 3 year old bike before he came to my house , but he didn t negotiate a penny off my asking price of 42000 INR.
i am sure every dad in the world thinks his adolescent son's silly grin is priceless.
as does every elder brother that has a younger brother like badshah.
1"(sonny, u could ve got yourself a car)"
2 "hey you are going for this bike? its meant for those racer boys man."
3 " son , the day you get through into a medical college i'll handover you the keys to a spanking new hero-honda.
4 "here comes a senior of yours. he is the best person in india regariding maintaining a bike"
5 " hey brother, you scared us silly. we thought dada has returnrned. his bullet sounds the same"
6 "big brother, this goes superb, eh??"
* the 1999 sept. (or was it oct ??) issue of overdrive cost 30 rs then.
and carried road test of cbz.
** and suzuki GSX 1300R 'hayabusa' tested at a closed airstrip no less, and guess, it outran the strip before hitting Vmax
*** and augusta MV F4. the original 750 cc.
*$%#&@!!!! i can sell you a colored photocopy of the issue. for the price of rupees one million only. festival discounted prices!!
i am looking for a hayabusa.(yes i really am. check the ad i posted in buy/sell section.)
nothing less less would ever live up to the legend.
cbz kickstarted new age motorcycling in india where bikes for the first time faired in car prices territory, even if it was used car prices.
oh, and along the way, long back, i heard many a girls saying they dreamed of a guy who was caring, sharing, this, that and ....had a used 800.
just kidding mates. make that a cbz instead.
"le roi est mort, vive le roi"