GET, SET, GO: RD bikers take to the streets of Bangalore at the inauguration of their club early this year

When I am riding another bike, I find myself slouching, but when I ride the RD350 my back automatically straightens up…’’ trails off 72-year-old Chakravarty, who is still passionate about riding his Yamaha RD350. Chakravarty, a former manager with HAL, is one of the 100-odd members of the RD350 Club recently set up in Bangalore. His comments sum up the attitude of the RD biker. Arrogant, powerful and individual.

“It makes you feel special on the road,’’ adds Christopher Johnson who works in the administrative department of Wigan & Leigh College, and who has been riding the RD for 10 years now. Needless to say Christopher loves going to office every morning. “I look forward to riding my RD350 to work daily,’’ he says. And if traffic snarls and frequent traffic signals are frustrating, it is more than compensated for by the “jealous’’ looks of other commuters.

Chakravarty and Christopher, along with a few like-minded members of the RD 350 Club, have gathered late in the evening at a popular coffee joint. What draws such a large group to gather together, after work hours, is their collective obsession with their powerful RDs. And yet, these men are by no means the rugged, aggressive type associated with the Hollywood image of a biker. From the septuagenarian Chakravarty, probably the oldest biker in town, to 30-something Abhijit Rao, a designer with a software firm and author of BikeZone.com (dedicated to his RD350), the RD350 Club has people from all walks of life. There’s the gentlemanly Satya K. Rao of Tata Automobiles, who has been riding for 18 years now. He rides his bike to work and has also taken it up to the Himalayas.

The Yamaha RD350 is a race-driven model, which was launched in the early Seventies, and it first appeared on Indian roads sometime in the latter half of that decade. Since then, the bike has had avid followers for its sheer power. Its trademark “vroooom’’ is sure to turn heads on the road. “The pitchless sound of other bikes makes me irritable,’’ says Chakravarty, adding that not only the sound but the feel and even smell of the bike add to its cultlike status among the club members.

As soon as the ignition is turned on, the bike can accelerate instantly, tearing into the wind. However, rues Aditya Nandakarni, another biker, who is in product development with Reliance Infocomm, “In the city we get to use probably only one-tenth of its power’’. That is one of the reasons why these bikers head outside the city on weekends. In fact, that is where the club makes its presence felt. “We organise events where we drive out to some resort or a farmhouse. Chill out there in the afternoon over pitchers of beer and a sumptuous lunch and then ride back home,’’ says Santosh Kumar, who runs an ‘outdoor adventure store’ rather colourfully called Get Off Ur Ass. The idea, they all point out, is to ride the bike to its full potential.

Wives and girlfriends also join in and some of them even hope to tame the bike themselves, as Darryl Edward Joseph’s wife, Melanie Gloria, a schoolteacher, suggests. Darryl, who is with the State Bank of India, has been riding the RD for over 10 years now. Weekends outdoors are a regular feature in the Joseph household, the family zooming off with Darryl in the seat and Melanie and their four-year-old daughter as pillion-riders.

The RD350-cc is a two-stroke, twin-engine bike with two versions, the 30 BHP and the 26 BHP. It is still one of the top 100 bikes in the world. And though Yamaha stopped its production in 1991, it is very much still on the road. “Many people across the country own RD bikes, but it is here in Bangalore that you see them alive and kicking,’’ adds Sanjay Joseph.

But it is a gas-guzzler. “As a rule we do not answer to the question as to what mileage the bike gives,’’ says Christopher Johnson. An RD biker, according to him, will never stoop so low. This attitude is also reflected in whom they choose to be part of the club. According to Santosh Kumar, “If you do not have an RD you are not invited, even if you are a bike enthusiast.’’ Adds Adrian ‘Leopard’ Johnson, Christopher’s brother, who is in technical support with Hewlett Packard, “Besides finding and getting together with other ‘fools’ like us, we also share information on spare parts and reliable and good mechanics.’’ This is especially important since the bike is out of production. “We believe in regular maintenance of our vehicle to ensure that it runs smoothly. It is a great bike to ride but when some fault comes up, it can be the worst,’’ says Adrian.

The ultimate adventure for an RD biker is an expedition to the Himalayas. And though short trips to the outdoors is an unwritten bylaw, most bikers dream of riding on unmotorable roads at high altitudes. Recently, Santosh Kumar, Adrian Johnson and Satya Rao took a month-long break from work to make the journey on their RD 350s to Kahrdungla, Pangong Tso, Nubra Valley and all places in between in the Himalayas. Besides, they also achieved a record of sorts without a single mechanical failure, except for a puncture.

“Such trips are a must for us before we hang up our helmets,’’ says Abhijit Rao. For the RD bikers it is “burn gas, kick ass’’. It’s all in the attitude.