For a change, how about this?
The pull of the classic motorcycle
Modern bikes are faster, safer and far more reliable — and yet nothing turns heads like a classic. A vintage motorcycle is mechanical honesty on two wheels: you can see the engine breathe, hear every combustion event, and understand at a glance how the whole machine works. In an age of ride-by-wire and traction control, that simplicity has become the ultimate luxury.
Icons worth knowing
Every region has its legends. India's Royal Enfield Bullet holds the record as the longest-running motorcycle model in continuous production — a design born in the 1930s that still thumps through traffic from Chennai to Chandigarh. Britain gave the world the café-racer Triumph Bonneville and the Nortons that raced the Isle of Man; Germany's BMW R-series boxers crossed continents on shaft drive; America's Harley-Davidson knuckleheads and panheads defined the cruiser. Japan's 1969 Honda CB750 — the first mass-market superbike — is the machine that made all modern motorcycles possible.
Living with a classic
Owning one is a relationship, not a purchase. Points ignitions want adjusting, carburettors want balancing, and chrome wants polishing before the humidity finds it. But the skills are learnable, spares communities are generous, and there are few satisfactions in motoring like a machine older than you are starting on the second kick because you tuned it. For anyone starting out, a well-loved single-cylinder classic — a Bullet, a BSA, an old Honda — remains the friendliest teacher.
The classic scene in the Gulf and India
The UAE's dry climate is kind to old metal, and weekend classic meets around Dubai and Sharjah turn up everything from wartime BSAs to seventies Superglides. In India, vintage clubs in Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi keep enormous fleets alive, and the annual rallies are rolling museums. Wherever you are, the rule is the same: old bikes survive because people refuse to let them die.
More machines in this journal: the gold-plated Mercedes of Dubai, the Tata timeline and Make Life a Ride.
