pranay

To shed light on this topic even I had to go through frequent outings and had to do some research. During the early 1980’s the only bikes that existed on the underdeveloped Nepali roads were the legendary Honda CG 125 and Yamaha 125’s and very rarely Suzuki 200cc double-silencer bikes (which kinda looked like the RD). Though the Suzukis and old Yamahas are nearly extinct there are some old bike enthusiasts who have them and can still see them on the roads. BUT coming back to the CG125, many still have them……the two-stroke magic seems to work for them…..the black Honda stripe running across the fuel tank and the very clear CG125 logo still exists and in numbers I might add…..

During the 90’s Hero-Honda took over…I still remember as a kid the ads aired of the CD100, CD100ss and the sleek….What captured my attention (even when I was a kid) was the Sleek’s designs. Well, atleast in Nepal, Sleek was the only bike of that time that looked “sporty” or close to “sporty”. That multi-colored sticker running across till the back of the bike was awesome. Some of the CD’s and the Sleek have been upgraded but many of them still dwell the streets of Kathmandu. If I were to name 1 bike that made the most impact on the nepali biking market, it would be no doubt – the splendor. Even now there are COUNTLESS, I repeat COUNTLESS amount of splendors on the roads. It is evident by the number of ppl giving their license trials on it everyday. Yes, there were the Boxers, and later the Callibers that consumed the market but splendor was the bike that started the BIKEfest.

During the invasion of Hero Honda, foreign bikes were a minority but there were a few -namely, the Suzuki GN125 and the GN250, the HONDA CM 200T, and of course the HONDA 125XL, 185XL. From Korea, there were the DAELIM and the KYMCO. In the villages, the first bikes visible were the Honda XL, simply because of their off-road capabilities. But how can I forget the first time I heard the BULLET…it scared the **** outta me. Thought it was some form of mechanical beast ready to go through anything that came in its way. My uncle had one and I would refuse to go to his house simply because that bike was there.

When the Indian bike market grew as the decade grew older, years like 1995, 1996 and 1997 saw Hero Honda get competition from its rival two-wheel maker, BAJAJ. At the time, BAJAJ was loathed for its quality (dunno why). It wasn’t until the Caliber was launched that BAJAJ had a firm hold on the nepali bike shares. The success of the Caliber was further helped by its successor, the Croma. These bikes really put Bajaj on the map and since then the competition has only grown. Yamaha also had its fair share of success by the launch of the YBX, and YD125, CRUX. Suzuki Fiero was the quickest bike till date. Then the bike that everyone was waiting for, the bike that defined the sporting genre in the bike segment, the first real performance bike with sporting good looks hit the stage….the CBZ. It had everything in it to make it a outstanding success…awesome media coverage, special offers, mind-blowing looks and obviously the performance. Everybody wanted this bike…it was to young bikers what SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT was to teen music fans…in a few months of its launch the CBZ had been quite a success and the roads were now experiencing new speeds brought by it. It enjoyed its rule for a few years…

After the CBZ era, LML launched its Adreno FX, first commercial bike to hit Nepal with fairing closest looking thing to a sports bike. It too had its share of success but sadly the Energy FX did not perform quite as well. The Kinetic GF125 – well what can I say? Lets just say that however potent that machine was…the word KINETIC and “collaboration with Hyosung” turned people off. Eliminator, yes the first true cruiser brought into Nepal with not so affordable price – its main downfall. I personally hoped this bike would do well but it didn’t turn out that way.

Another invasion started soon after 1998 when the Chinese bikes hit the markets of Kathmandu. Believe me when I say this…THEY SUCK. The switchgears, the build quality, the structure, everything was so tacky. They tried to copy all Indian and foreign bikes. Heck soon after BAJAJ launched CAL115 as ‘Hoodibaba’ there was a Chinese bike named ‘Goodibaba’. I am not kidding. Now, there are so many Chinese bike companies in Nepal that you can just blurt out something in Chinese then a bike company with that name will exist. But that’s not what stupefies me. What stupefies me is SEEING PEOPLE BUY THEM AHHHHHHHH. I don’t know why people buy them even when they know its going to fall apart after a year or so…The only good Chinese companies that offer standard bikes are LIFAN and JIALING. The rest are just cheap fakes.

Enter PULSAR. It had the catchy name, it had the robust build, it had the power and it had the media coverage. Some ppl liked the looks, some ppl hated the big round headlamp, but it all doesn’t matter. The success these two bikes brought to HANSRAJ HULASCHAND & CO. (P). LTD, the authorized dealer for Bajaj in Nepal, was unprecedented. It was a constant hit like the CBZ. It was at this time when CBZ was dethroned as performance champ. For nearly two whole years it enjoyed its reign on kathmandu roads. But there is still 1 FACT that amazes me - the sales of the P150 outnumber the sales of the P180 by the ratio 4:1 (asked the dealer). These figures are the total sales of the bikes until October, 2003.

Many bikes were released thereafter, Bajaj with Boxer upgrades, BYK [the first bike which I ever heard of with a better mileage (100) than top speed (80)], Caliber 115, WIND, HHML with Dawn, LML with Freedom, Yamaha with ENTICER and CRUX R. Among these Enticer has been seen most and is still going strong. CAL115 went for some time then sales slowed due to the launch of WIND. Kinetic Aquila and GF170, LASER never made it to Nepal. Then the day I and probably ALL P180 owners feared the most arrived, the day HHML launched Karitzma. I was sure this bike would eat everything alive and I was sure it was 20+ bhp. But to the relief of many, it was stated at 16.7 bhp. I personally rode the bike the day it was released here and didn’t find it to be VERY FAST. Yes, it was quickest among all but people here were imagining a real Sports Bike with sports bike like performance, you know CBR stuff.

Well, as all of you know, there are few bikes that make ppl’s head turn and make their jaws drop. There was always few in every city and Kathmandu is no different. Dream Bikes spotted here are the Kawasaki Ninja 650, Honda CBR650, Suzuki GSX600, Honda Goldwing, a monster BMW (dunno which model, dint get a chance to see its engines and structure, was toooooo fast). I have also spotted a couple of Yamaha Virgo V, a kinetic aquila which the guy brought it from India. BUT the KING in this country till date is the blue 2001 R1 brought by Yamaha dealers. I almost crashed my bike onto head-on traffic the first time I saw it behind the window panes of the Yamaha showroom. Went in and asked the dealer “whats the price tag on this?” The bitch smiled at me and went “Hehe, its not for sale, bhai?”
“what is it doing there, then?”
“uhh, its for show…”

When we talk street racing in Nepal, everything comes down to the driver’s skill and his ability to zip through traffic. Forget all the BHP, torque, power etc. Drags are VERY RARE because you will go hardly 200metres before you find car’s rears. Roads are narrow and most of them are 2 –lanes. You can almost forget about it if you have a pillion behind you and the guy you’re racing is single rider unless you have a powerful bike or he has an underpowered bike in which case you can sometimes zip by him when you get an open road. You will need to go the wrong way almost everytime you need to overtake. Risks taken are a dozen times higher. So, when it comes to race in the streets of Kathmandu, you gotta be very crazy or you gotta be crazier.

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DoN\'t LivE tO DiE, dIe tO LiVe