Brotherhood of Biking - Introducing IBR

Biking, they say, is a passion; a passion that has grown manifolds in the last few years or so in India. To put it in a common man’s language, it is indeed just another passion.

But then, there exist a set of people for whom biking is not just a passion but a way of life. For these biking enthusiasts, it is not just about riding a motorcycle and travelling to exotic locations, but about exploring one’s own self and finding yourself in the middle of nowhere while riding your motorcycle. It is the sheer joy and pleasure of getting to spend a few quality moments with your buddies, along with the inexpressible feeling of being closer to Mother Nature that drives and defines these so common yet so unique individuals.

India Bull Riders, popularly known as IBR, is a hub of such biking enthusiasts who have not just been covering the lengths and breadths of our country for many years now on their Royal Enfield bikes but have also broken the geographical barrier to go beyond the borders and explore the picturesque locales of Nepal and Bhutan.

Founded in the year 2007 by Sajeesh Nair, IBR had grown from just a city specific club to a national biking community within a very short span of time with its chapters spread all across India in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Udaipur. A man with a composed head and an immaculate vision, Mr. Nair revolutionised the concept of a motorcycle club in India by breaking the geographical barriers to make IBR India’s first national motorcycle club with multiple regional chapters. “The vision behind founding IBR was to build the world’s largest Royal Enfield Motorcycle Club. The idea was to promote group and sane riding, and forming IBR was the first stepping stone in that direction. Through IBR, I intended to give the passionate riders a common platform to take on the most treacherous of routes across the globe without any fear or second thoughts. And today, I am glad to see my dream coming true in the form of the ever-growing IBR family.”, reveals Sajeesh.

Now, we keep using the word ‘biker’ a lot without actually bothering to know who a biker really is. Does biker mean anybody who rides a motorcycle? Let us hear it from the co-admin of IBR himself, Robbie Ghosh. “There are two types of motorcyclists in the world - one who use it as a means of daily commuting and the other who wants to feel the wind against their faces while cruising at 100 kmph on a highway. A ‘biker’ falls in the latter. The passion of biking amongst the youth has grown drastically in the last decade. Previously, there was a stigma attached to motorcycling considering its safety. But nowadays, with the easy availability of so many protective gears for the riders to escape from minor accidents, the passion is really gaining momentum. Moreover, a motorcycle also gives you the unique flexibility to visit places which are otherwise either inaccessible or quite painful to reach at.”

And that’s not all. “For many decades now, biking has been portrayed as a sign of freedom – the freedom of movement, the freedom of meeting new people on the road, the freedom of being on your own, the freedom of traversing to places which we have witnessed only on television or fancy travel magazines. In a nutshell, biking is a trust between the rider and his/her machine. And it is this unquenchable pursuit of exploring new places and feeling the wind on your face instead of sitting in front of a laptop in an air-conditioned room is what makes a person a ‘biker’.”, sums up Robbie.

So does that mean that these so-called bikers do nothing but just ride their motorcycles? The answer is a big ‘NO’. When being asked that what do they do when they are not aboard their mean machines, we were amazed to find out that they are as normal a human being as we are. They go to office, drop their kids to school, take their wives/girlfriends to movies and dinner, take care of their parents, get scolded by their bosses, get stuck in the traffic and so on and so forth.

Make no mistake, they are no rebels or social outlaws but very normal people that we meet in our day-to-day life. Take out those heavy duty jackets and protective armours and they would very easily pass off as ordinary people. In fact, the next time you go out for a movie or a dine-out, the person sitting next to you might just be one of the many hundred IBRians across the country, dressed pretty casually and sitting quietly, minding their own business.

But what makes them stand out from the crowd is the fact that they all have a heart of gold, a clear conscience, the courage to speak their minds and the confidence and self-belief to do what they like. While they may not flaunt it too much but these guys have been continuously doing their bit to uplift their surroundings and the society as a whole to make this world a better place to live in.

So whether it is providing groceries and medicines to those homeless elderlies and listening to their stories in an old-age home or spending a day with the little souls in an orphanage or distributing clothes and quilts to the needy across their respective cities, IBR Community Service ensures that they stay connected to their roots while giving something back to the society within their own limits.

As I stand to conclude this article here, let me remind you once again that for an IBRian, biking is not just a passion but a way of life; for them, it is not just about the destination but the journey itself that matters. And while you will be reading this article from the comfort of your home sipping a cup of hot tea or coffee, these biking enthusiasts will probably already be aboard their beloved machines, riding to yet another serene and picturesque location, in their quest to pursue the never-ending journey of self-exploration.