satyenpoojary

The Ugly Indian

You are cordially invited

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™ Satyen Poojary

plasmabhai

First things first, modern cars in India beat most modern bikes hands down! No point even talking about that. But this will change in a couple of years, at most 4! (And 200cc and above riders, please you are such a minuscule minority that there's no point taking you in the statistics & i so envy you guys!!!)

That said, there are jack asses on both sides of the line. I have seen so many bikers who JUST DONT DESERVE A BIKE. These include chapri taporis who ride rx100s with broken silencers to R15 owners with daytona kits installed to just a 16 year old lad on his dads splendor. But on the other hand I have also seen car drivers who should never have learn't to drive in the first place. And these include owners of scorpios who purposely harass bikers to irritated taxi drivers at the end of their day to late night call centre cabs to giant volvos stuck in city to the clueless lady driver!

I am not trying to stereotype anything or anyone here, all I am trying to say is that:

You can either be smart or else be a dumbass. Its your choice. Choose wisely!

Vishakh

Very good topic you came up with. I am a native resident of kerala and stay in Trivandrum. And I am not proud to say this. But this is the truth. In most of the accidents that happen to bikers most of the time it is the fault from the riders side. I have been riding/ driving for more than 4 years ( eh I am 20 only now though ).

The main reason is the unawareness among the vehicle users. In city riding bikers twist and turn through every gap and overtake even if a KSRTC bus comes against them ( Trust me I see this every single day). They don't even bother. And often they end up getting squished under the tyre. I can't understand till now where they get the guts to do this. Or they must be stupid enough .

My daily commute involves travelling through the road which is the most accident prone area in trivandrum city. Atleast once in two months someone dies in an accident in this route. And almost all the time it is two wheelers who fall as victims to this .

I am not blaming here I am also a biker but it makes me really unhappy to face this truth. It is mainly because of the economic situation here a 100cc bike is used by the entire family two children, wife and the rider. And the problem is that the rider has no sense or thinking that his family is sitting behind him and he should ride atleast in a safe manner. End result is pretty obvious.

And behind that comes rickshaws and cars and buses. Car drivers are pretty much better according to me. Yes still there are idiots among them too. But not to an extent as bike users.

I have been riding through these years and I can sure tell that the changing attitude of the road users. Honestly they are far better now ( or maybe I feel like this because I got a better powerful bike? ). On highways the heavy vehicles dim their lights for me during night time. Car drivers overtake at a safe distance. And KSRTC bus gives side to me for overtaking when I honk . And obviously they won't be nice to only one person right?. The highway traffic is pretty descent here. ( Well I am saying about the majority here). There are idiots too. I hope they will change with time.

Awareness is the only remedy and let others learn from you. I do drive responsibly and I am sure atleast one person will be motivated by me. Whenever I see a pedestrian trying to cross in a heavy traffic road I stop my bike for them. And I just let them cross and seeing me others along me does that too FAIR ENOUGH .

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srini

We Indians love to whine don't we.Not just "we" here,the mango people included. We can find faults and start complaining at the drop of a hat. Its a scary proposition to just ride a bicycle on the leftmost corner of the road coz you have rash cab&SUV drivers to your right and pedestrains & footpath riders to your left..and autorickshaws everywhere else. Add to that aunties and uncles with fancy cars who drive slower than I can cycle on an pretty empty stretch of road. People are forced to overtake from left coz apparently the right lane is reserved for big heavy buses and trucks. And if we were to overtake,a car/rick parked in the left decides to join the road with no regard as to check oncoming traffic from behind,not even bothering to use the god damn indicators. We're just trained to adjust from a very young age and we do just that,simple..Problem solved
It's time we stopped adjusting and do things right. Awareness should get across by people who care enough to bring about a miniscule amount of change.

Nice one..couldnt be more wrong.

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The Monk

Thanks for sharing the link

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Biking is not about what you have between your legs, its all about how well you use it!!!!!!!

The Mountain

Thanks, Vishakh. This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. The whole point of existence for this board is supposed to be to elevate the state of motorcycling in India. Not just to promote it, but to improve it. What so many riders seem to lose sight of is that they are a part of that. As long as there are riders saying "don't bother calling for change, it'll never make a difference" or demanding that they be exempt from personal responsibility (essentially saying either that they won't ride correctly unless forced by the government, or that they shouldn't have to change their riding style because everyone else should be forced to accommodate them), the problems we all face will still exist.

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ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time!

Your helmet should be on your head, not your mirror!

Put the phone away and ride!

shadcool786

I soo agree with you on this one..

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151 Kmph on Stock Feb 2012

The Mountain

To go off-topic just briefly, litter was a huge problem in the US back in the 60s and 70s too. People thought nothing of tossing food wrappers, cups, and all kinds of other trash along the roadsides and in parking lots. I don't think it ever got quite as bad as it is here, both because people did still use trashcans in their homes and businesses and because there were just fewer people, but it still looked bad. Then, a series of public campaigns got started. There were TV commercials about it (one well-known one was "Woodsy the Owl", who exhorted you to "give a hoot, don't pollute!"), and posters in the schools, and everyone's attitude (slowly) changed. Scout troops did litter projects, cleaning up parks and streams. Many cities and states imposed huge fines for littering or dumping. In Texas, for example, littering was and is a Rs50,000 fine! It took about 10 years for the attitude change to complete, and about that long to finish the majority of the cleanup. Now, most highways are pretty nice to look at. City streets are well-kept and parks are pleasant places. I look forward to the day India goes through that. This is an incredible country, and will look amazing once it's cleaned up.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled fisticuffs.

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ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time!

Your helmet should be on your head, not your mirror!

Put the phone away and ride!

rakowli

This discussion will help and should help a lot of people in the way they ride or even drive. We should make these threads sticky as "Responsibility of Rider when on road".
This should surely improve and polish our riding skills.
Thanks for this wonderful discussion. This has helped me alot in the way i ride, i am always careful and alert when riding on road but this thread has polished my skills more.

Vishakh

There is no point in hoping for a drastic change in attitude of people. A miracle should happen for that. But slowly slowly there is a change. New rules are coming up. New security systems and equipment for cops. And awareness ads on TV. Government and people are evolving with time. But the thing is that this should have been done from in the 1990's itself. But corruption and various other hindrances always cause the delay in a country like ours.

And moreover that India is still in the developing phase. There is still a lot of things which should be done. Economic condition of people has to improve a lot. Until that day we have to wait. All we can hope and wish for is that the attitude and view of people towards using vehicles wisely and have concern about safety improves at a faster rate than it is now. And we xbhpians always contribute to that .

__________________
Cheetahs are faster but the lion is still the KING

Being In Love with a Girl is like being a superbike fitted with SPEED LIMITER