Dirty And Single

Oh, and quite wet, too. Our annual muck-about usually ends up this way

- Sherman Hale Nazareth

Downpour is dreaded by all. Especially if you live in a cramped up, filthy city like we do. Outside city limits it’s quite heavenly. But Bombay usually turns into quite a mess around this time of the year. And that’s me putting it lightly. It’s usually a mine-field of floating garbage, cavernous pot-holes and sewage-infused flood water. In fact with Bombay’s road conditions, I deeply contemplated why we even needed to leave this city to ride these motorcycles off-road; the same conundrum I faced for last year’s Slush Fest. But waterborne pathogens and unending droves of stationary traffic tend to suck all the fun right out of it. So we chose to ride to cleaner pastures instead. Our pasture of choice was seemingly void of humans, so we could proceed with our annual ritual of rollicking around in the muck with a select group of singles and not be judged or interrupted. Before you get any crazy ideas, I meant single-cylinder motorcycles, not single humans. This is a respectful (not!) affair. Okay, I meant there weren’t any groupies or peace-pipes involved.

There were, however, the four motorcycles that are positioned as adventure tourers that have the right ingredients for India in my book. By that I mean they’ve got single-cylinder engines that are lighter than their multi-cylinder counterparts. They’re a more manageable size than the big ADV bikes. They’ve also got heaps of glorious torque that lug you out, quite clumsily, of deep slushy situations. And you won’t need to go back home on a stretcher because you’ve absolutely exhausted every fibre in your body. So what exactly does this menu look like?