I’ve been intimidated by the Teutuls. Whenever I spy one of their bikes burning across the picture tube, I sink into this mental mire trying to imagine how you could ride a machine that looks so obviously off kilter. To me, choppers are disproportionate, unwieldy and while their visual presence is undeniable, I believe they digress from the functional honesty that makes motorcycles so evocative.
So when Akshai Varde of the Mumbai Motorcycle Company offered me a ride on Big Red, I was in two minds. One part obviously wanted to slide right in, get past the shattering kick start process (it is a well-kept 350cc Bullet motor, after all), clunk into first and roll off. The other part instantly wanted the comfort of clip-ons, a tipped onto the head riding position and razor-sharp steering... my spiritual home,
so to speak.
But then, I did slide right in – after Akshai started the bike. He explained how the gearshift had been cleverly swapped to the left side. The shift linkages drove a shaft that crossed the downtube, concealed in a decorative chrome tube, to the actual heel-toe shifter on the left side. So I promptly made an ass of myself, riding off in second gear and complaining about poor performance. To Akshai’s credit, he kept a straight face and then proceeded to demonstrate that Red was anything but slow. In fact, the process of chopping actually did a return to the root sort of thing. Red is lighter than a stock Bullet by more than a few kilos and its straight line performance is further liberated by its arcing, ear-splitting straight-through one-off exhaust.
I was quickly aware that I was well out of my depth when it came to handling this beast. That fat rubber at the back, and the reclining chair sort of rake at the front (the trail is probably more the wheelbase of the average entry-level motorcycle!) give Red phenomenal straight line stability. Once you get used to spanning the grips (some four feet apart) and the duality of the steering’s feel – great leverage from HUGE bars as well as a humongous amount of weight thanks to the excessive trail – riding is a doddle.
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