Mean machines, adult entertainment

Jayanti Mewada, 68, is the happiest man on earth. Last month, his son Mahesh bought him a super bike - a 650-cc machine. Twice a week he leaves behind his Merc at his Prahladnagar home to enjoy long drives on his Hyosung ST7, a cruiser bike, along the SG highway.

Narendra Verma, 62, a Vadodara-based industrialist, booked a Harley Davidson last week and is still waiting for his big moment. Verma had gone to a bank where he saw a sales event of the bike and booked it despite his wife's frowns.

"I remember driving a Harley in the US 30 years back. So when I saw a few men standing with the bike outside a bank last week, I relived those days," says Verma, who runs a chemical unit.

Mewada, Verma and many like them are scripting a story for this new-age 'Motorcycle Dairies'. Inspired by biker Bachchan in 'Bbuddha Hoga Tera Baap', these 60-plus men have fallen in love with super bikes.

"I have to resist excitement that comes with the attention I get on the bike... I always stay below 100 km per hour," says Mewada, who takes turns driving the mean machine with son Mahesh, a pharma enterpreneur.

There is another Mewada family on the same trip. Siddharth Mewada, 33, has gifted his 60-year-old father Deepak a super bike. "I felt it will take time for him to adjust, but he proved me wrong," says his son, who works with an IT company.

Bike makers too are surprised by the 60-plus clientele. "The bikes are heavy and powerful, and we earlier believed it's the young who will go for it. But now these men in their evening years have proved us wrong. They are more enthusiastic about bikes than some young professionals. These men are a new market for us," says Shivapada Ray, GM, sales and marketing, Garware Motors.