Thread Approved

Let me add to the list of 'Reasons to ride'

1. I once rode Pune - Mahabaleshwar - Charanpur Temple of the movie Swades - Pune to check FE of my bike. (Turns out it returned an excellent 46kmpl)
2. I once rode 1600+ km inside 28 hours of ride time because I missed my train, even though I had reached the station 2 hours before the train. (This was NOT a saddle sore attempt)
3. My best bud and I rode Nasik - Saputara - Nasik many times, to have tea at Saputara bus stand at 3/4 AM and click a photo with the board saying 'Welcome to Gujrat' .

Let me add my viewpoint: Its June 2, my second day at work. And not just any work: being a College Faculty, a noble job I believe. My dad was a teacher (retired) and my mom is too. I have that Teacher's blood in me. And that shows somewhere or the other.

But when I was 18, I rode a TVS Centra and loved something about riding it... and 7 years later, here I am, dissatisfied with my life because I can only ride to work and back. Wish I could get a job at an automobile firm for assembling/ checking/ testing/ riding bikes only. Or a racing contract. After all, I lean on every given opportunity on the road, that too on a inferior-handling bike... that's enough skill I have accumulated, or is it...?

Nope... Frankly speaking, none of this will ever happen, except in my dreams. But despite that, I still love riding, even if its just a 6+6 kms commute. And you all too, if you're reading this. Try 1 week without riding at all: What is this uneasy feeling within you after that? Something like looking at the Black and White window and feeling morbid... Feeling slow and different. Yeah, its the lack of riding.


Once I went on a long trip, because an internet friend (DJ) told me to do so...
Another time I rode hard, because it was a challenge I put to myself, Can I do 570 kms in one day with a 5 year old bike? And I did.

But the reason I ride is beyond a friend's request or some kind of a ego challenge I put to myself. Its something about it: the freedom, the lush green locations I commute through, the air flowing thru my riding jacket or maybe something else. Difficult to pinpoint exactly what, but there's something that motivates us to ride...

I will continue to commute, and count my commute itself as a blessing...

I will not contirbute to this thread. It would end up like a long list of spam which would look like excuses to ride :P
From Coffee to Wedding to break away to work. Guilty.

Thank for you starting this great thread sir!


Reasons to ride are plenty.. Most of them not the real reason!

There is always one real reason for every ride, and that is rightly mentioned by you "Freedom" !

Agree with all the gentlemen above, reasons are way more than one can hear and the funny part is, the reasoning is directly proportional to the distance longer the distance , stranger the reasoning.

Riders don't need excuses, they just ride.

-When I use to live in Chennai, every Friday after work I use to ride to Mahabalipuram to have tea.
- When I was shifting houses from Mumbai to Hyderabad, I rode my Bullet continously for 12 hours (950 kms) in peak summer, as I was not sure if the Movers and Packers guys will shift my ride safely...don't want to see a dent or a scratch on my bull.
Though married and settled , I still ride out, now and then, in the night towards unknown destinations just for the sake of feeling the cool night air inside my lid.

put my dark tinted lid on.. i am isolated from the world. twist the throttle and its electrifying... even if i have to go to the tea shop...

its burning sun... getting tanned. another moment the warm wind gushes in the jacket you feel the sweat drying up...and there is no more sun..

what more can be weird than looking at the bike for long like and keep smiling...
the city road end and the higway open up and rider soul is in heaven...

Beautiful thread. Read everyone's response (as of now). As it was rightly said, freedom is the word. If it's a beautiful weather outside, then the satisfaction, the bliss, you get after doing a ride is just incomparable to any drive. Same when you complete a difficult ride through rough terrain, smeared with mud or covered with dust, the feeling of accomplishment is just next to none.

When I bought my 220, I used to just wait for the time to ride, be it while returning office or doing short Sunday rides. I clearly remember that few years back, in winters, I went out for a short ride to have breakfast 25 kms away from my place, Manesar McD. It was cold, very few vehicles on road. It was Christmas holiday followed by Saturday & Sunday. Many had planned to go outside/ a trip. I just wanted to have breakfast at McD & return. I was filling petrol worth 100 bucks at a petrol bunk when I saw 2 bikers going past by me. One was 220& another enfield. Both riders totally geared & they were going on a long ride taking advantage of long week end holiday. A voice inside me called, shaming me of the fact that even after buying my dream bike I was yet to do a ride!!! Having enough of that, I asked the Petrol attendant to fill up petrol worth 500 & went to Jaipur to have breakfast!! Called up mom & said that I am just bit far away from Manesar & will return in the evening. When my mum asked how just far I was, I told her that I was in Jaipur. hearing that, she almost fainted. That was my first longish ride on my 220

Awesome thread




My Signature

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One day, I will take it easy. Today won't be that day...
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@antz.bin & samarth 619- Thanks for the approval & your inputs

The excuses bikers sometimes make up just to go on a ride makes interesting reading.

During the course of my decades of riding there are many stories to tell. I'll try to narrate a few as and when I remember them.
During my bachelor days here in Bangalore our "gang" as we liked to call ourselves had a motley assortment of bikes. A couple of Yezdis and Rajdoots and a lone Bullet. For those who may remember a friend also had a Rajdoot GTS (the Bobby bike) a strange looking contraption with small wheels and high handle bar.
We loved to go on long rides and our parent's permission was a must. We often came up with the most hilarious excuse to leave town- including a non existent "friend's" uncle's third cousin's daughter's wedding engagement to another non existent friend's grandmother's 100th birthday !

Bandipur, Mudumalai and Ooty used to be our favored destinations and riding on the old single lane Mysore road with only Fiats and Ambassadors on the roads for company was blissful ! Petrol was ridiculously cheap those days but then so was our budgets. with pooled in pocket money and shallow pockets we had to make do with small roadside eateries for food and 'one by two' coffees. Sleeping was often in dormitories but the camaraderie and laughter we shared after the ride is difficult to match. Just any reason would do to go on a ride.

Apart from the pure joy of biking, there sometimes are more serious reasons to ride. For those who have missed it, please read our own Sunilg's 'straight from the heart' thread. It will touch your heart. It has touched mine.



Cheers Guys & Ride Safe

I reckon the list would be endless if every biker has to put down all the reasons
I guess it's better if we mention the core, the one and only one, reason which propels us to embark upon our rides, which seem crazy to the rest of the world

For me that one and only reason is...it brings out the kid in me and I forget everything else

I suppose this is what pushes many amazing bike trips

Coffee @ Ooty!

A reason to ride, yeah, it was always a reason and never turned out to be reality.

During my college days, had a couple of trips from Coimbatore to Ooty, just to drink coffee and have baaji in a small shop just before Connor!

and it usually happens just after dinners,
Friend 1: Its boring da!
Friend 2: Ooty mapla?
And the next second we would be heading towards the nilgris for a night ride in ooty hills!

Damn, missing those college days!

Copy pasting from
'Spark' goes riding ! - Satyen Poojary