The road ahead is long and pretty rough. This is India with its unforeseen challenges, the crazy driving
and the general disdain for two wheelers on the road. Five internationally
acclaimed motorcycle adventure bikers will travel 3000 kms over ten days pass
through ten cities and meet over 500 Indian bikers. This hardy group will
comprise two women riders who will aim to encourage more women to take up
riding.
It was a very quiet early morning outside
the International Centre in Donna Paula when the five bikes revved up and
started off for the long journey for Mangalore. The 5 am start meant they
avoided the early morning traffic that generally comprised buses bringing in
tourists from other parts of the country. This ride organised by the Big Biking
Commune, one of the largest aggregator platforms for the motorcycle community
in the country announced their World on Wheels (WOW) rides starting with the
Spice Route Odyssey. In what is a first-of-its-kind ride, 5 riders will start
from Goa on November 6th winding their way past Mangalore, Bangalore, Mysore,
Kochi, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Dhanushkodi, Pondicherry and culminating at
Chennai on November 14th. On the way, the riders will capture the magic of the
Spice route in South India and open up opportunities for tour discovering new
destination on a motorcycle.
Among the five riders were DeClan McEvoy an adventure
motorcyclist from Ireland, who goes by the motto – Dream the impossible and
live the dream. He has conquered the Tuktoyaktuk on the Canadian Arctic to the
Magadan in Far Eastern Russia to the Svalbard’s. Declan has been associated
with the RoSPA (Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents) and is an instructor
in advanced riding skills and safe riding practices. Journeyed across 68
countries and has lived in Ireland, Australia and the USA. He is held in high
esteem in the biking community and is respected as a peer, mentor and
inspirational motivator for bikers across the world. For Karolis Mieliauskas
resident of tiny Lithuania has visited India on several occasions but will be
riding for the first time on the roads of India. An inspirational speaker and
passionate biker fondly known as the Coldstride, he has managed to go to the
coldest spot on the earth on a motorcycle in February 2019. Plans to go around
the world in 40 days in a motorcycle. Believes that his consciousness is so
wide that constant cognition of it is one of the most important things in life.
Deepak Kamath popularly known as the Adventures of Armstrong on
the social media, Deepak is a true enthusiast and an avid biker by heart and
has been riding for the past 30 years. Known as the only Indian biker to have
ridden on all 7 continents including from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, the
Trans-Siberian ride, Round the World ride, he has done it all long before
others began to follow his footsteps and match his records. Having clocked over
500000 kms across the world, he is also a motivational speaker and has helped
many budding bikers in finding their true calling. Part of this group is Simas
Suminskas an avid hardcore motorcycle enthusiast, he is also an Art Director,
Book Illustrator and Founder of Linija-Vilnius. His artworks speak for itself
and are a collective visual masterpiece. He is a passionate photographer and
pursues film photography which he follows till date. The two Indian women who
will be riding along have very interesting biographies. Veena Shetty is an
entrepreneur and avid biker by passion has been riding since 2000 and
hastravelled on motorcycle across the Rann of Kutch, Bhutan, North East,
Ladakh, Kanyakumari to Kashmir and other major parts of India. She recently
rode the Golden Quadrilateral route & took on the unexpected challenges
while on it. She founded the Roaring Riderz club about 3 years ago, focusing on
riding passionately, keeping safety, respect and solidarity for one another. It
holds workshops to train its riders to fix their own bikes and be less
dependent on the roads. She stands tall as an inspiration to many young women
especially who want to take up biking as a passion & as a sense of
empowerment to explore and experience newer geographies. Speaking to the Herald
she said was a tomboy who is was unlike everyone else in the family. She said
“I would be sent over to the village during the summer vacations and I chanced
upon my uncles’ bike. I would gun it and ride it through the fields. My father
promised me a bike if I scored 85%, I was good scholastically and scored it
easily. I was given a bike and my journey commenced. It has been fun. I have
travelled across the country and that is what wanted to do. Riding a bike gives
me a sense of freedom. It is absolutely brilliant”.
Mandeep Kaur MerwahMandeep Kaur Merwah aka Mandy redefined the
logic of learning how to ride a bike. She took to the road on a motorbike at
the age of 45 and has now grown to spearhead a training academy that trains
women to ride motorcycles. Mandy has explored many locations on a variety of
motorcycles. She is equally passionate about art and painting. She paints and
restores cherished pieces of furniture, transforming them into beautiful works
of art.
Some
years in the future, this trip perhaps will be looked as the one that helped
bring about a lot more women on bikes on to the roads of India.
