SPRING FORWARD TO ROAR BACK INTO BUSINESS

Modern classic motorcycles... it's not an oxymoron any more. Retro is the flavour of the season with a number of cult favourites being revived to set the roads on fire once again

- Dhiram Shah

YEZDI

YEZDI IS a brand that holds a lot of sentimental value among a big section of the motorcycling community in India, which thankfully led to its deserved resurrection earlier this year. Back in the early 1960s, Farrokh Irani and Rustom Irani founded a motorcycle manufacturing company named Ideal Jawa in Mysore and sold licensed Jawa motorcycles under the brand name Jawa. Later in the '70s, the company decided to Indianise the brand by renaming it Yezdi. The Yezdi 250 Roadking is still widely considered the most popular offering by the manufacturer.

It was based on the CZ 250 motocross bike that found a spot on the podium in the 1974 Motocross World Championship. While the brand went on to earn cult followership over the years, it shut shop in 1996 due to financial troubles caused by the onset of the 4-stroke era. A quarter of a century later, the iconic Indian brand was brought back from the dead by Mahindra & Mahindra through their Classic Legends subsidiary. The brand was relaunched in January 2022 with three different models that are thoroughly modern but still with the classic Yezdi flavour intact.

TRIUMPH