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It is commonly referred to as an American icon and characterised by a thumping engine sound that bikers venerate the world over. Harley-Davidson,which will open shop in India next year,has also been the envy of Delhi roads. Ask Rakesh Kohli,54,who has a dozen vintage Harleys parked at his Sainik Farm residence and is planning to get a Harley dealership as well as buy the latest model. The biker community is excited about the official arrival of the Harley,but the bikes love affair with India started even before Independence, he says.
Kohli runs a successful Harley spare-parts business that his father started almost 40 years ago. We used to export Harley spare parts to dealers in the US,Australia and the UK. We provided gear boxes for the phatphatias used in Delhi, he says. His favourite in his collection is a 750 cc 1948 WLA that he bought from a friend in Kolkata for Rs 2,000. I ride her once a week, he says.
After World War II,old Harleys were abandoned by American soldiers at Indias ports,and these were resurrected as body parts of the ubiquitous motorcycle rickshaws called the phatphatia. A rundown workshop at Motia Khan in the congested lanes of Paharganj is one such address where these phatphatias were made. For five decades,owner Vinod Sharmas family has been repairing and overhauling Harleys. I am the third generation in my family to enter this trade. My brother migrated from Peshawar in Pakistan after Partition and set up this workshop, he says. We would take 1942 WLA army-issue models and tear down the body around the engine. We would attach new wheels and transform the bike into a phatphatia.
Ever since the Delhi government banned phatphatias a decade ago,Sharmas Harleys have led a quiet life in his garage. He owns the 1000 cc 1972 Sportstar,a 700 cc 1942 WLA and a 1400 cc 1948 knucklehead as well a heap of Harley body parts. These bikes are special. I wont sell them for any price, he says. They are a status symbol.
It is a sentiment echoed by entrepreneur and biker Rajeev Khanna,54,who owns a red-and-white 1945 WLA which he bought from a Karol Bagh scrap yard for a few thousand rupees as well as a 1994 Fatboy,the model that Arnold Schwarzenegger rode in Terminator II. After I saw Arnies bike,I just had to buy it, says Khanna,who imported the bike in the late 90s from the US. Like him,lawyer Hemant Sahai,member of a bikers group called the Founder Members of Harley in India,comprising 23 members from Delhi,swears by the two Harleys,Night Rod and the 1981 Fatboy,that form part of his fleet of modern cruisers. They are reminiscent of an old-world cult of bikes and nothing can replicate them, he says. When Harley opens shutters,Sahai will be in the queue to buy an Electra Glide.
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