Motorcycle diaries

[1]

To fuel their passion for biking, a few lads in Thiruvananthapuram ganged up and went on road trips. When they uploaded a video called Ghost Ryderz — influenced surely by Nicholas Cage starrer Ghost Rider — on Orkut and YouTube, it created such a buzz that many came forward to join them. Not because the video had tremendous footage but because they hadn’t seen anything like it before.

“We wanted to make more interesting videos and that is how we started doing stunts. It gave us a different and elevated level of excitement and we understood that we had truly discovered our passion. From there the growth of the team was exponential in terms of fans, brand visibility, live performances, commercial shoots, movie shoots and sponsorships,” says Mikhil Mohan, a champion stuntman of the group.
Today, Ghost Ryderz is arguably the top freestyle stunt riding team in India having done 192 shows across the country and boasts of an unofficial world record ‘for the maximum number of sitdown no-handed circle wheelies with 21 circles’.

More importantly, they are sponsored not only by Bajaj Pulsar but also by ICON Motosports, a US-based motorcycle apparel brand.
There are similar stories from other corners of the country. One of the oldest groups in India is Pune-based Rubber Smokin’ Angels (RSA), founded in 2003 by two friends, Rohit Paradkar and Chetan Manohar. “The idea was to have a biker club where like-minded people could come together,” says Rohit. “During that period, there were model-specific or make-specific groups in India. However, we wanted bikers to come together irrespective of their background or the vehicle they owned. While competitive racing and sport touring have been around for a while, stunt riding came into focus only recently.”
Coimbatore got its team, Throttlerz, in 2009 when Biju, Padma Prashanth and Sathyaraj formed a core team. Today, they have 40 members and a clutch of sponsors. Padma Prashanth is considered one of the best riders in the country. “One of the highlights was when we performed with four-time Freestyle Stunt Riding Champion Chris Pfeiffer during his India tour. We are also the first team to perform ‘drop wheelie’,” claims Ashish Ranjan, group coordinator.
Saurabh Sharma of Steel Silencerz, a team from Jaipur, says ‘bikeism’ is their faith and profession. “We are more close to each other than our families. We all sit together and chat for hours about stunt riding and how to make what improvement,” he says.
These days, what pumps up adrenaline for these boys is the knowledge that this new sport is poised for exciting growth in India. Says Ashish, “In 2014, the Indian motorcycle community is going to witness the advent of the XDL Championship Series that attracts competitors from the US, Europe and Asia. The money is in place and it will have a huge impact on all those who consider stunt riders to be punks. An example of the surge in interest was the India Bike Week held in Goa in February. It has been the biggest bike festival of India so far.”
XDL, which is the IPL of stunt riding, wants to focus on India and has appointed Ghost Riderz as its brand ambassador in the country. In an essay posted on XDL’s Facebook page, its founder-president Randy Grube stated that India could well be the global capital of this emerging sport. “India will change the significance of stunt riding around the world and in less than 10 years become a central part of the sport,” he writes, going on to point out how 85 per cent of all motorcycles worldwide are sold in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. “Countries like India will give stunt riding the critical mass it needs to become attractive to major corporations such as sponsors and media companies… Stunt riding can be to India what skateboarding is to the US,” he concludes.
“It has the advantage of being a motorsport and also an entertainment event,” points out Mikhil. “All you need is a 75-metre stretch of tarmac or a basketball court to practise and perform stunts. You don’t need to go to Chennai or Coimbatore to stunt. That most Indian bikes above 150 cc can be used to learn stunts is again a plus point.”
Meanwhile, Ashish of Throttlerz is preparing to launch in August a magazine dedicated to sportbike stunt riding. “I am trying to take advantage of this hot new emerging trend and cover this untapped segment. I want the Indian motorcycle community to see stunt riding as an action sport and the riders as athletes. Even professionals are often generalised into the category of miscreants. A rookie rider trying to pursue his dream will either be laughed at or tagged impetuous. People need to appreciate the significance and scope of freestyle stunt riding as a career and that’s where the magazine is going to play a vital role,” he says.
The best advertisements for the sport, however, will be the riders themselves. It took about three years for Mikhil, who quit his software job to turn to fulltime stunt riding, to convince his folks that he was involved in something worthwhile rather than suicidal. “I had two major accidents and half a dozen small falls. The major falls were during the initial stages of my career when there was no proper technical knowledge of stunt riding. With proper training and safety gears, stunt riding can be safer than professional football. But the image of stunt riding and perception of people towards the sport need to change. It will take time, but we are ready to wait for that day.”