Week-long Coffee Run

- Harket Suchde

THERE IS A RUNNING GAG about us journos from all over the world that alludes to how we’re fuelled by copious amounts of coffee topped off with a dash of panic induced by never-ending, ever impending deadlines. As with most humour, this one is born from a kernel of truth, as I myself consume coffee by the proverbial truckload on an everyday basis. To say I enjoy my brew, then, would be selling things a tad short. The reason I bring all this up is because Karnataka is the heartland of India’s coffee mechanisation and that’s exactly where I found myself early one cold, winter morning.

Triumph India had invited us for what they called the Coffee and Spice Ride, so there I was in the capital city of Bengaluru, assembled outside the Keerthi Triumph dealership along with seven other Coffee and Spice riders, and six bikes all lined up and raring to go. Our line-up began with a gleaming red Speed Triple ridden by the ride’s organisers, Bhagirath a k a Bhagi and Pravin. Then there was Neel and Goutam on a black Tiger XCx, both members of the dealership’s staff. One Triumph owner — Vinod, the ship-builder from Shanghai — was with us on his fully kitted-out white XCx. There was also a Thunderbird Storm in the mix, ridden by Harsh of Helmet Stories, with whom Bike India had ridden many moons ago to the India Bike Week, 2014. A blue-and-white Bonneville T100 was being piloted by famed YouTuber Nikhil Sharma, or Mumbiker Nikhil, as he is popularly known, and who was also kind enough to take on shutterbug duties for this very story. Lastly, there was one black Tiger XRx which, of course, I would be riding.