Occupation: Bike mechanic
I have been running this workshop at Kowdiar since 1996 and have been a bike mechanic for the last 30 years. I open at 9 a.m. and shut shop at 7:30 p.m. except on Sunday, which is a holiday. Although I grew up in the house near this workshop, I now live at Enikkara with my wife, Deepa, and son Pranav, a student of class 10.
I was my son’s age when I began my career as a mechanic –in 1987. I joined a certified workshop of Enfield in Vanchiyoor right after my SSLC exam. I learned the technicalities of the trade and about different bikes from there. I spent 10 years there before starting this workshop.
I repair a wide range of new bikes as well as older models, including old Bullets, Yamahas and Yezdis. However, I don’t repair very old models – 50s/60s bikes such as BSA, Norton or Triumph or the latest high-end super bikes. It is very difficult to get their spare parts and they are often difficult to work on. People often say old bikes are better. I don’t think so! Their only advantage, I feel, is that they are solidly built with all-metallic bodies, unlike the new bikes which are mostly made of fibre and plastic parts. The current models have more power and give smoother rides.
Spare parts for most of the popular models are easy to get. We always stock the regularly required parts such as cables and lubricants. If we need something extra, we get it from spare-part shops in the city. Much of what I need are available in shops in the city itself. Often, though, I have to source from big dealers in Coimbatore.
As a mechanic I always try to update my knowledge of bikes. When I began working as a mechanic in 80s and even while starting my own workshop, all the bikes that I worked on were two-stroke bikes. But then four-stroke bikes began to hit Indian roads and soon the whole scene changed. There were a lot of new things to learn. I had to attend a training session in Bangalore organised by Yamaha for mechanics on four-stroke engine repair.
Earlier people who had bikes used to know a lot about the bikes they ride. That is not the case today. Technical know-how about bikes among riders have come down. There are a few passionate youngsters who are knowledgable about the bikes they ride. They get to learn a lot from the internet. Some of them even repair bikes on their own. Although most of them are interested in new models, a few of them are into old bikes. I often get to repair them. I also used to be a passionate bike collector once. I used to have a large collection of old Bullets, two-stroke Yamahas and Yezdis. You have to spent a lot of money to maintain these bikes. Even if you don’t use them, you have to pay tax and insurance premiums. So, I stopped collecting a few years back.
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