Revving Up Nostalgia

Why are retro motorcycles so popular? We find out with insights from Classic Legends CEO, Ashish Singh Joshi

- Niraj Kakade

There's something intrinsically rock-and roll about motorcycles. A feeling that runs deeper than comprehension. I've always considered them as time-travel machines. Not because they can travel through the fabric of space, but because of their ability to suspend it. A badge of honour they so flamboyantly wear on their sleeves with the way they look. Lately, though, many of these two-wheeled Tardises have started to look the same. Old, but not really. Retro, but not really. Boring, some of them yes, definitely.

It appears as if the boundary for motorcycle design has somehow been pushed the other way around, and not always because of heritage, but to capitalise on a trend that has plagued today's zeitgeist. So, why is the needle moving backwards? "The trend of classic motorcycles is riding on the coattails of legacies, especially those of Jawa and Royal Enfield, where a lot of millennial buyers spent their childhoods with the originals in the immediate family or close circles. Internationally, the current lot of affordable, retro motorcycles have given new life to born-again bikers," says Priyadarshan "PD" Bawikar, Assistant Editor of ZigWheels and BikeDekho.

What Bawikar implies is the pull of a simpler time that has us looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses. But if the past was this good, why did we even change anything? "There are eras to motorcycle design," shares Ashish Singh Joshi, CEO of Classic Legends, adding, "You have to look at motorcycle design through three different stages pre-war (WWII), post-war and the '80s. Each of these eras represents three different and distinctive design languages, the first two of which were led by British or European designs."