In India, the motorcycle has a completely different meaning than in Germany. While in Germany the motorcycling is rather a hobby and the bike usually only carries a summer license plate and is used for special excursions and trips, the motorized two-wheeler in India is much more used as a commercial vehicle and mode of transport.
If you can’t afford a car in India, you definitely have a motorbike and the whole family can fit on there. They go to work, do shopping, take the children to school.
Often even wealthier city dwellers in India own a motorbike in order to be able to slip through small gaps in tight traffic and thus get faster in the traffic jam from A to B.
But it is not only in the private sector that a motorcycle makes sense in India, but also the industrial and service sector has learned to appreciate the motorcycle for its purposes.
Whether delivery service or transportation of goods – the Indian knows how to take advantage of the small space on the two-wheeler and transports everything from chicken cages with living contents, over metre-long wooden strips, to pots, blankets, …
That about the motorcycle use in India.
India is not only an insanely large country, but above all an insanely diverse country, both culturally and scenically, and there is a lot to discover!
According to my personal conviction, the best way to experience a region and its people is by bike. And this applies not only to India, but to the whole world. In my case, I ould always go for the push bike. But for passionate motorcyclists, there is nothing better than exploring India via Royal Enfield!
On the two-wheeler you are not only very close to the action, but also flexible – at any time you can stop, there can be small slacks and real interactions with the people take place – of course there is the driving fun on Indian roads: small village roads through the Rajasthan desert, jeepists through the high mountain region of the Himalayas, coastal roads along the Arabian Sea or winding routes through tea and spice plantations!
On the tours, big cities are shunned or bypassed – for Indian city traffic you should rather have Indian blood in you!
But through the rural regions, motorcyclists can have real fun and generally one also quickly become accustomed to the simple Indian traffic rules: look a lot around, react flexibly and let the larger vehicles take the lead.
Chalo! Travels has some great motorbike tours all over India in the program. Have a look.
