Saturday, February 17, 2007

Riding the Bullet. OK – Media hype – What’s that?

You are in a class of your own as you ride your Royal Enfield Bullet – and the combination attracts enough publicity. So I don’t think Bulleteers need any hype.

Our very small group of enthusiasts on the Yahoo groups as Trivandrum riders’ way back in 2004 when I found them on the Internet is now Silver-Bullets in 2007. Not that it has made any difference to us – A Bullet in any color gives the same thump. Yes definitely we have been able to get more active members and are seeing activities in different geographical areas.

I remember an instance of a journalist wanting to do a write up on us in 2004 and Jay and myself did go and explain everything. Forget the coffee, we sponsored him – absolutely nothing happened. He never even returned a call.

He was probably scouting around for some fillers and backup stories and failed to discover our soul and passion. I think we guys are content the way we are. –Media Hype or not.


Today 17th Feb 2007, we guys got together in maximum possible “Trivandrum” strength base for a photo shoot and views on our Bullets for a leading fortnightly magazine.

Yes. We had a great time. Posing with Bullets at Kowdiar junction and at a CafĂ© nearby. Conversations naturally turned to Bullets and we guys went our way admiring and discussing our bullets. The photographer had a tough time repeatedly asking us to assemble and pose, as we just couldn’t stop looking and talking bikes. (See how important media hype is to us!)

I was admiring Subodh’s Machismo windshield and wondering if I should have one on my Electra. A few others were admiring Anil’s free flow - Goldie exhaust pipe. I think Jay has collected bulk orders for that from Bangalore. Dr. Gopu was trying out cruiser handles on his Bull. Varghese was back to riding after his marriage last month. Sreejith was on one of his endless classic Bullet talk. It was nice meeting new Bulleteers – Ajit and Praveen. Praveens’s custom motorbike side boxes were excellent and real neat. Me too wanna have it!

Oops we forgot the journalists. Seena patiently jotted down all our views on the RE Bullets as we ordered cold coffee. After our discussion she probably is convinced that Bullet maniacs do exist in your friendly neighborhood.


Our discussions were interrupted by cops who objected to us parking our bikes on the footpath – on the widest multi lane road in Trivandrum with the least traffic. [The Bullet is a born attention grabber isn’t it?]


We had lined up the bullets on the footpath for a few snaps and forgot about it as we rushed to give our opinions to the journalist. Lucky to escape the fines.

Lets hope we do get a good write-up on the magazine about our passion – the Bullet and we do hope other genuine Bullet enthusiasts do gain something from our activities. I would like to thank the photographer-journalist team for the time and effort.

Publish or not – We had a great time!

So I guess you can see how passionate we are about our Bullets - talking and going crazy about bikes while the photographer team has a tough time asking us to pose or the cops who had to remind us the difference between a footpath and a road.

Yes, you will definitely see us riding someplace, somewhere, sometime…..on a Bullet !


Thump on.

BT

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful write up Babu!

    Thump on & hope to meet up the SB TVM gang sometime ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, you are right "Publish or not--we had a great time".

    She really felt our passion but I don't think that she understood why we ride :)

    Anil

    ReplyDelete
  3. nicely written BT.....What u told is right......whether it comes in media or not...we love our bullets...

    neway it was an interesting meeting.. truly speaking it was a pleasure to meet BT, gopu, sreejith, varghese, aji and all bulleteers + their bulls... rather than the journalist.. ...
    SUBODH

    ReplyDelete
  4. hey!
    so I guess that was a good reason for a real get together, and that too a long awaited one, The last one I attend was the ill fated Ponmudi ride :(
    Hope to meet you guys soon!
    --
    jsr

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good one...
    See, it is hard to get a journalist who has the real enthu for bullets and rides on it. Those who came to interview you, not sure if she's really able to digest the 'ride factor' and the 'bullet love factor'. For most it is just a craze for some people around and they see it and present it that way.

    ReplyDelete
  6. hi there .. found ur blog while searching for Goldie exhaust .. i'm from Bangalore and own a T Bird .. n been looking for a good exhaust .. heard Goldie is a class apart .. in case you know someone who deals in this .. and could give me lead would be great help..

    cheers
    keeny
    keeny76@gmail.com
    http://www.royalenfield.com/keeny

    ReplyDelete

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