Big Wheels Motoring in association with Management Institute for Leadership and Excellence (MILE) flags off the first Time and Trial biking event near Pune

Considered by many as the biking Mecca of the country, Pune over the years has become a hotbed for numerous biking clubs and communities, coming together for a single purpose, to celebrate and uplift the spirit of biking. On one hand we have a growing number of automobile-theme restaurants and motoring cafes in the city and on the other, a growing awareness about the biking fraternity in and around cities like Pune and Mumbai, whose activities have so far remained underground.

In an attempt to break this so called "cult" status ascertained by the biking clubs of the region, the co-owner of a recently established motorcycle-theme based restaurant, Ashutosh Mahadik and his Big Wheels Motoring co-owner Kamal Jagwani recently organized a special biking rally of sorts at the “Slopes of Hell”, located near Kamshet along the old Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Bikers from different clubs, namely the Road Shakers, Renegade Devilz, Indicompus, Fire Lords etc participated in the inaugural motoring event organized by Big Wheels in association with the Management Institute for Leadership and Excellence.

The participants assembled on Sunday morning 30th January, at the Big Wheels Motoring Cafe (its on the old pune-mumbai highway, before Tony da Dhaba) and by late morning, the café had turned into a bikers hub, with a range of modified and custom fitted bikes and motorcyles all parked in line gearing up for the event at a hill about 3kms away from the restaurant.

Coming with as many as 25 volunteers, MILE took up the cudgels for the co-ordination of the event, and provided able support to the bikers participating in the hill climb challenge. After a quick recky of the steep hill that rose is a serpentine manner to the top, the bikers prepared themselves for the final time trial. A total of 3 kms to the top of the hill, the path laid before the bikers was anything but well paved, and after an initial 100mts of cobble stones, the path broke into dust, loose gravel, jarred rocks and all that along an ascending road that just keeps getting steeper steeper and steeper.

The bikes were chosen at random, and every biker was given a fair chance to race up the hill on his custom fitted motorcycles and moped’s (yes! There was one of those too) as fast as they could and return fast enough to set the fastest time.

The Royal Enfields (Classic 500 and Machismo 500), which came in a plenty for this particular event were the ones charging up and down the hill in full throttle and almost eased their heavy yet sturdy frames over the broken down path, clocking some of the best times at the event.

Next in line were the Bajaj Pulsars in the 150-220 cc range and the TVS RTR 160-180’s which despite their lean and sporty builds were struggling to charge past the initial ascent due to large rocks and loose gravel imbalancing the bikes on several occasions.

There were also Hero Honda Karizmas, which fared decently on the demanding up hill road and returned to finish line with decent numbers. A two-stroke Yamaha Escorts and a TVS Scooty Pep were amongst those present and after being cut down to their bare minimum their lightweight skeletons climbed the hill with little pain and again managed to complete the up and down hill course in a satisfactory manner.

A number of Royal Enfields, Pulsars and motorcycles of other makes had upsetting falls and minor collsions in their effort to reach the top of the steep climb. However, with the able support of the MILE volunteers vigilant from the base to the top of the hill, the riders were supported in every way possible to get back on their saddles and continue their upward charge.

After every participant had completed the course, the entire troupe headed back to the café, where the best times clocked were evaluated for the top three winners positions. Here are the results:

1st - Dhaval Toke - Roadshakers
2nd - Amrut Khire - Roadshakers
3rd - Baljeet Singh Kocchar - Roadshakers
Outstanding Performance - Mihir Deshpande - Rennegade Devilz
Club With Outstanding Performance - Roadshakers
Club With Maximum Participation - Rennegade Devilz

Speaking on the occasion, Ashutosh Mahadick, Co-owner Big Wheels Motoring Café said, “We did not want the focus of this event, to be on the bikes for the very first event. Probably next time around, when the participants are a little more experienced we will consider bringing a competitive edge to the event. Lots of bikers generally get into road rage, but when offered a platform to participate in events like the Time and Trial, biking enthusiast from all over will get a chance to channelize that energy constructively.”

With an exciting response to its first Time and Trial competition, Big Wheels is planning to organize the motoring event on a quarterly basis. They are also focusing on a racetrack, which will be located in Pune. It will be India’s first privately owned international standard racetrack. It will not be an off-roading or a dirtrack, but a full-fledged racing circuit, and should be ready with this by the end of the year.

credit : zigwheels. com