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autoX
|January 2023
The open road never looked so good. To you, because the Indian revels in reaching for the horizon. To others, because the Roadmaster is unlike anything they've ever seen before.
In a country where size is equiated with might and luxury is often directly related to the ability of a vehicle to turn heads wherever it goes, the idea of luxury motorcycling in India becomes slightly different from the West. If you were to think of open highways, rock and roll music, and motorcycles - you might probably be thinking of a two-wheeled version of the "American Dream." But, fancy terminologies aside, what you might be thinking of is the state highways of California and the said motorcycle being a 'Chopper' which means that it has been extensively worked upon and modified to express the personality of the rider who owns that machine.
This "dream" of luxury motorcycling comes crashing down in India when you get your hands on a machine with such high luxury and stature in the world of cruiser motorcycles.
The state highways of California look like a distant dream - both literally and figuratively and it turns out what you have ahead of you are the likes of the Delhi-Jaipur highway or a sprint between Mumbai-Pune, and so on. As for the motorcycle, perhaps the most you can do is accessorise it with more lights than it already has, because the idea of a riding a "Chopper" goes out of the window when you realise that modifying vehicles in India is illegal. Your high rake-look motorcycle will probably end up getting you traffic challans or result in a lot of time wasted in awkward conversations with the cops.

This story is from the January 2023 edition of autoX.
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