Youth refurbishes antique bikes in quest for old charm

NASHIK: Sachin Shankarrao Khathe’s passion for bikes started as a child when he first saw Rishi Kapoor riding the Rajdoot GTS aka Bobby in blockbuster ‘Bobby’. Today, in his late 20s, Khathe takes pride in riding a 1978 model of the iconic Bobby he collected a few years ago and refurbished it.
The garage of this commerce graduate, who works in the mechanical department of the Bhujbal Foundation’s Mumbai Education Trust, in Dwarka, has a number of mean machines — a Java (1970), a Rajdoot (1980), a Yezdi (1983), a Lambretta (1970) and two Lambys, to name a few — lined up, all refurbished by him and in working condition.
“My recent buy is a 1984 Bullet from a government auction and I am busy bringing it back to the original condition. The next bike in my garage will be a Java (1957). It’s lavender in colour and I will have to spend around Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000 to get it,” Sachin said.
“I am collecting all these two-wheelers for myself. I have to spend around Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 for refurbishing each, depending on the make and availability of spares,” said Sachin.
Finding spares is, however, the biggest challenge for Sachin, besides saving money from whatever he earns to buy and refurbish each bike and scooter. “Most of these companies have shut shop and spares are rare. I have to get spares from Pune, Calcutta, Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Mumbai. For example, I got the Bobby emblem all the way from Bhopal. You find a nice collection of vintage cars and two-wheelers in Calcutta, which is a good source of spares,” he said.
Sachin’s another concern is finding the right mechanic. “Where do you find mechanics who had once worked on the two-wheelers, production of which has stopped for quite some time now?”
He said each two-wheeler that he has in his garage has some “unique stories” to tell. “The gentleman from whom I got the Lamby had set a condition before giving me the papers. He asked me to get the scooter refurbished and then wanted a photograph of him sitting on it clicked for his personal collection. I agreed. I got the papers only after his conditions were fulfilled. By then, I had spent Rs 55,000 on the scooter from the Lambretta stable.”
Sachin’s pride for the “beautiful machine” is understandable. “Every time I go out on my Lamby, people just can’t stop staring at it. Some even seek permission to sit on it and get clicked. It's a work of art,” he said.
The youth wants to organize an exhibition of the bikes that he has in collection in 2016. “I want the exhibition in my city only. Nashik has many enthusiasts like me and it’s time they got to a common platform. My passion for bikes has its roots in Bollywood films that I have been watching since my childhood. But my favourite is the Bobby. It's too cute,” said the youth and the proud collector of two-wheelers, mostly manufactured several years before he was even born. — Saumyadipta Chatterjee