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A celebration of homecoming
Post Harleys’ ‘HOG’ing the limelight, Benelli riders followed the parade with TNTs and GTs, like the next Tableux on a R Day parade. IBW 2016 is set to be bigger and better at a new and exciting venue being the Arpora Sporting Ground.
Bikers across the world throng the largest biking event of the country, to a place where they belonged; they came home
The gates to India Bike Week, country’s biggest biking festival opened on Friday. With thumping noise of Screaming Eagles, members of HOG (Harley Owners Group), who turned up in thousands (like 2,500 of them) showed the way to an assemblage of bikers who had gathered at Arpora in Goa to celebrate homecoming, to celebrate passion.
Post Harleys’ ‘HOG’ing the limelight, Benelli riders followed the parade with TNTs and GTs, like the next Tableux on a R Day parade. IBW 2016 is set to be bigger and better at a new and exciting venue being the Arpora Sporting Ground.
“It’s just a fabulous energy,” Martin da Costa, CEO of 70 Event Media Group said. “It was astonishing to see so many thousands of bikers from across India, across motorcycle brands joining in the Great Migration to India Bike Week this year.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bikes on the NH4, NH17 and the other roads into Goa. It was amazing to see riders from over 400 Biking Clubs hanging out together on site. You can really see the coming together of one of India’s most passionate communities this year at India Bike Week,” he added.
Launches
The biking community also witnessed several new unveilings from the manufacturers-DSK Benelli showed the TRK 502 and Benelli Tornado 302, Triumph the new Street Twin T120 and Thruxton R, Harley-Davidson the new 1200 Custom, and Ducati the Panigale 959, as contingents including hundreds of riders from each of the brand joined together in the ride towards the main stage.
Swati Mohan, business head, Fox International Channels India said, ‘‘Building on last year, this year too we witnessed an overwhelming response. IBW has grown over the years and has become a celebration of not just biking, but also a mecca for experience seekers and travellers.
It wasn’t all about the adrenaline, though; club and solo riders gathered as a community at the watering holes scattered around the grounds, with hundreds of national and international clubs mingling at the Howling Dog bar, the Beer Café, and the Knock-Out Zones.
Back for the second time, The Big Trip offered a chance to interact with legends of the road as they shared stories cumulatively gathered over the course of several decades. Some of the speakers were Bullet Yatra blogger Dhruv Dholakia; Youhan Mubaraki and Debashish Ghosh from HOI, who outlined their 25,000 km ASEAN Corridor ride to Singapore and back on their Harleys and Alankar Misra, who goes by the name of Sole Traveller and did a Trans-America ride in addition to several pan-India rides. The India Bike Week also witnessed performances by Soulmate and The Other People, with the singer-songwriters at the DSK Benelli stage.
