CHAI SPRINTER

Our favourite 100cc two-stroke gets a total makeover

- Keshav Teiva Poumai

Of late, every time I find myself in front of that little red door that opens to the Bombay Custom Works garage, I feel like a kid just about to unwrap my Christmas presents. This time, all the more so, because this time I was to ride a custom RX 100 cafe racer. Owning a Yamaha RX 100 myself, especially since it was the first motorcycle that was truly mine, I have fantasized time and again about customising it in various formats. The most recurring one would be in the form of a cafe racer. And there it was standing in front of me, a prime example of what I would have described to have envisioned, in the light of a solitary incandescent bulb, as if it was a dream. I almost had to pinch myself, but it was real and as stunning as ever.

Wheeling the motorcycle out into the narrow street outside the workshop, everything else seemed to slowly fade away into a distant blur. It was just me and the machine, slowly developing a temporal connection of sorts as I swung my leg over it, turned on the fuel tap, pulled the choke lever and pumped the kickstart a few times before going for the money shot. It burst to life with a rambunctious clamour, rising to a crescendo before slowly falling to a steady racket (courtesy of the custom exhaust). I was suddenly aware of everything around me, and I realised that I was standing in the middle of a fairly busy street, staring at a motorcycle with a foolish grin plastered on my face.