You might have caught Abhishek Bachchan in recent interviews on the small screen complaining about not getting a chance to ride a bike in Dhoom and wondered what was special about another pair of two-wheelers.Well, here’s what.

The bikes that are set to go rip, rip, roar across city screens this month-end are among the meanest machines that kiss the face of the earth. Take the 1300 cc Suzuki Hayabusa that John Abraham, the robber with an attitude, rides in the film.

“It is the fastest in the production line,” swears the actor with drop-dead locks and looks, speaking from his Mumbai home on Friday morning. John should know, as he owns one himself.

“I have been riding bikes for the past 17 years. The Busa was my recommendation to the director (Sanjay Gadhvi),” he says. The film, for the “born biker”, was a dream come true as it gave him “unlimited freedom to ride like a madman” (read, zooming from zero to 100 kmph in just 2.8 seconds).

Dhoom is being dubbed as Bollywood’s biggest bike film. “The earlier films which had bikes have used it just as a mode of transport. But here they are a part of the story,” affirms executive producer Shanab Alam.

And the stunts (by master action man Allan Amin), as seen in the trailers, are mind-boggling. “There is a sequence where bikes pass through two bogeys of a running train. It was so dangerous that we had to plan for days. A section of a track and a train were hired, and the train ran at 60 km per hour. The jump had to be perfectly timed as it had to be done at one go. We did have life-saving precautions in place. But, thankfully, it happened without a hitch,” recalls John.

Director Gadhvi is all praise for his boys on wheels. “While John is a veteran biker, Uday (Chopra) didn’t know how to ride well. But he practised long and hard.”

Adds John: “Uday even went to London to train in a school there for two months. I might have encouraged him all the way but it was his perseverance that paid off finally.”

One can’t take a chance with these bikes as they are so much faster and heavier, feels Gadhvi.

That is something even Abhishek, who rode pillion on Uday’s 1200 cc Suzuki Bandit, must have found out.