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Not too long ago, you had to work for your horsepower. Extracting more juice from your lemon (a reference to your motorcycle) meant you squeezed it harder. Fancy flat slide carbs and the like were only seen in glossy foreign motorcycle magazines and instead, filing out the jets in your bike’s carburettor only brought you back to reality.
That tuner ‘uncle’ told you that there’s more fun to be had by bumping up the compression ratio. So you stole your neighbour’s window pane and bought some sandpaper with the pocket money you’d been saving. After what seemed to be an eternity, rubbing the engine head in a figure of eight motion on the paper stuck to the glass sheet, you cleaned it and bolted it back onto the bike. A short test ride later, in all probability, you needed to go through the whole process again. And again, till you got what you were looking for.
With nothing available in the Indian market, if you wanted to ride competitively in the dirt or on the track, you either were on the receiving end of a handsome inheritance and imported stuff, or you built it yourself with whatever you had lying around to make it truly shine.
Okay, so now for the introductions. People, meet Malcolm Ilavia, a motorcyclist right down to the marrow within his bones and a bloke who was born with a bike attached to his hips.
Motocross is what Malcolm is most passionate about. Good, now that you all know each other, we can move on.
If you want to ride in the dirt, you need to have a ride. Skimping on the vada pavs allowed Malcolm to collect enough cash to buy himself a second hand (wait for it) stock Yamaha YBX. And that was only the beginning.A pair of knobbies, a slightly polished exhaust port, fork travel increased by an inch and one larger rear sprocket later, Malcolm and his YBX were ready for whatever the dirt could throw at them. They’ve been through a lot, may I add, competing actively in motocross events across Maharashtra with much success.
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