One man’s passion for restoring and customising Bullet motorcycles has made him a wizard of the trade. Over the years, Bobbee Singh has produced a line of stunningly beautiful customised Bullets for clients in India, Europe and the United States.
Bobbee set up his company, fittingly called Old Delhi Motorcycles around 1990s. He says he is blessed with a gift to read a client’s mind after speaking to him for sometime.
“I get to understand what kind of a man he is, I begin to visualise the kind of bike he wants, the shape of the tank, the kind of colour he prefers, the mud guards and other fitments,” he says.
He is currently customising a Bullet for an American named Billy Payne, who is a huge fan of Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged”. Bobbee shows us the tank cap that he has made for Billy’s bike with Enfield Shrugged etched on its top.
Some clients bring their new bikes for customisation. Usually, Bobbee ends up acquiring old Bullets himself.
Among the bikes he has customised is one which he turned into a replica of a WWII German army motorcycle with a sidecar and a machinegun stand. He has mostly worked on motorcycles from the 1960s.
Bobbee doesn’t customise more than four or five bikes a year. It is an elaborate process from acquiring a bike to its customisation. The first job is to locate a motorcycle.
“For example an old zamindar who has a Bullet half-buried in his backyard but doesn’t want to sell. I convince him that a bike has to serve and not rust. He eventually sells it. Once I get it to Delhi, I take it apart. I retain the engine, but parts which need to be replaced are then made by master craftsmen.”
Noting that different craftsmen take care of different parts of the bike, Bobbee says a maestro makes tanks with his hands, a master painter takes care of the colour schemes. “I am very particular about the things I want. If a tank doesn’t match what I need, I reject it and it has to be made again. The man who makes it understands what I need, but there are times when his hands don’t listen to his head,” Bobbee explains.
The entire customisation process takes four to five months. When everything eventually falls into place, Bobbee assembles the bike and it is virtually the birth of a new motorcycle. He charges between Rs. 3.5 and 4 lakh for customising a bike that includes paying different craftsmen. But he says he doesn’t do it only for the money. And he doesn’t entertain every potential client who comes to him.
“It is so satisfying when clients send me pictures of their motorcycles from different parts of the world like a Bullet parked in front of a café in Paris. That feeling is something no money can substitute.”
Born in 1973, Bobbee was smitten by the Bullet motorcycle as a child. In 1991, his mother gifted him a Bullet. Bobbee stripped the 1968 model bike completely and redesigned it. He retained only the engine and the frame as he went about giving it a signature look.
He also used a two colour scheme for the bike which is painted crème on one side and peppermint green on the other. He calls it Mother Superior.
“It was the first time two different colours were used on a bike. And it became a hit,” he says.
He later designed a sidecar for the motorcycle and named it Jelena’s Chariot after his Serbian wife.
“Every time I take the bike and sidecar out for a ride, I hear somebody or the other sing ‘Yeh Dosti...’ from that unforgettable movie Sholay . It makes my day.”
Beyond his fanatical passion for his work, he is quite laidback.
He pines for the old world charm of motorcycling, rues the rise of malls at the expanse of traditional bazaars and can’t understand why young people are so stressed today.
In a complex world, Bobbee has learnt to keep it simple. Perhaps it is the sound of a Bullet that is the balm for his soul.
