RIDER MANIA Goa, India with Royal Enfield

Goa, India November 2020

Rider Mania

What and Why go to Ride Mania? Royal Infields largest Motorcycle festival in India. RE launched the Slide School to educate India riders on flat track in a country that has never seen flat track in person!

If you would have ever told me I was going to fly to India and ride flat track I would have said you’re crazy. This was never a thought in my mind, to be honest I didn’t really have a clue where on the map India was when I got the call to jump on a plane and put on a demo and train the future Slide School trainer. But hey, Im up for an adventure and I love teaching flat track! I packed my bag and jumped on a plane the weekend before Thanksgiving, which I also had a Flat Track Futures AMA sanctioned 3 event week planned over Thanksgiving. 4 flights and 33 hours later I was in India, but my bag wasnt, it was 1am in the morning and a taxi van waiting to drive me another hour , but was only 20 miles away, little did I know 20 miles in India is not 20 miles in the States. Bag-less, wearing the same clothes for now 2 days I headed to the festival grounds in Goa India on scooters. Hundreds of scooters on the road already at 9am plus cows walking down the street, locals sweeping their front porch which was basically the road front, it felt like I was trail riding, fingers on both front and rear brake ready for anything, rules? What are traffic rules in India?

The land the festival is held on has some type of rule that NO heavy equipment is allowed on so they build a 1/12th mile short track by hand, then watered and swept it by hand, yup gallon by gallon. There was so much about the event that was so cool, bike shows, off road racing ( grass track TT racing on Royal Enfields) soccer on motorcycles, lots of beer, lots of food, multiple music stages, and more.

Why they asked me to come over was to put on a flat track demo, riding with Gary from Sideburn UK, RE test rider Paul Young who is an Australian road racer that raced years in UK and now also races in the DTRA UK Flat Track series and Nelly the local India native that will run the Slide School. I was also asked to provide Nelly with as much information on flat track and training tips that I could over 3 days in between demo sessions. The first day we didn’t demo, but got to look over the bikes, talk with Nelly, meet a lots and lots of people, and pick up a few RE tshirts as still NO gear bag. So we then went on scooter rides around the village and off to dinner.

Still no bag on the first demo day, I borrowed a RE helmet, a vendor at the event personal boots, RE Jersey and geared up. The CEO of RE kicked off a little mock race waving the fag, much like 99% of the other people in attendance they never saw flat track, the slide, and seemed excited but didn’t really didn’t know what they were all in for. The 4 of us started passing each corner, slide passes, and banging bars, and the crowd started to go crazy, they loved it, then I wheelied the finish, which then turned into doing donuts to amp the crowd even more. Our first demo was a huge success, the CEO was stoked, the crowd knew me as wheelie dude, taking pictures with me, of the bikes, of the track, and telling all their friends they have to see the afternoon show. I’d say it was a success and now there are hundreds if not thousands hooked on flat track now.

After the evening ended we called the hotel to see if the bag showed up yet, nope, and now I’ve been wearing the same black jeans for over 3 days and just rode flat track in them as well! What ever…

Off on the scooter again, this time a 2 minute ride to the beach to have dinner, stunning! Cows again just walking around this time not only on the streets but on the beach!

Day 3, the last day I was there( yes I was on a plane to India longer then I was actually in India), I woke up as the sunrise and rode around the village before everyone else was really up, just me, the cows, dogs, on the road. I found an amazing vegan/yoga cafe that I sat at for a few hours, reading a book, watching monkeys swing in the trees, basically adapting a dog and enjoyed pancakes, latte, and some green goodness juice :) We did our final demo, I then jumped on my scooter rental for the week, did I mention that it was about $5 for 3 days, and that included a full tank of fuel and a helmet! I got back to the hotel, showered, a friend went and bought me another pair of socks and underwear and for the 4th day put on the black Levi jeans that I’ve also road flat track in! A taxi picked me up and headed the 20 miles to the airport, yet this time it wasn’t 1am in the morning and was Sunday mid day so it was about 3 hour drive in traffic, roads covered in scooters with full families on the scooters, ladies sitting sidesaddle, dogs, kids, plus groceries! I get to the airport and finally my bag showed up in customer service. Guess what first thing I did? Went and changed my dam pants! Now its about 10pm and my first flight should be getting ready to board and nope, no plane, yup going to miss connecting flight. But I have to say the airline worked hard to find me another option and totally re arranged my flights and got me on a flight about 12am to Mumbai to London to JFK to Atlanta. Finally 30 plus hours again, Alysha and the kids picked me up the next day at 8pm ( was a 10.5 hour time change…..) and we headed to the Winter Olympics Flat Track Futures race I was promoting!

This trip was something special. The perspective I left with was life changing, it also showed me how much people really love to ride motorcycles. They didn’t have to be the best track, didn’t have to have the best bike, they were all there to enjoy two wheels and each other.

I know can’t wait for the next trip to India, who’s going? I recommend packing a carry on with a change or two of clothes :)

Look for more adventures in 2020 with Moto Anatomy, experiences to train, ride, travel together!

JL