Why should boys have all the fun? Women bikers dive into how they have to navigate the road and men

Gurugram-based biker Sia, who was knocked off her motorcycle after a car driven by Kalyan Bainsla hit her in an incident of road-rage. PIC/PTI

Every time I ride a bike, heads will turn on the road," says Firdaus Shaikh, who's been riding her bike for over two decades now. She's one of the thousands of women who take to the road with their motorbikes every day.

So is Gurugram-based biker Sia, who was knocked off her motorcycle after a car driven by Kalyan Bainsla hit her. On September 13, she was riding her Aprilia RS 457 with a group of bikers when a car began following the group. Sia said the occupants were behaving aggressively and repeatedly gesturing for her to stop. She tried to create distance from the car, but it continued following her.

Footage from a camera mounted on her bike shows the car swerving into her motorcycle. She was thrown from the bike and slid along the road, while the car continued on. "Sia's alive because of pure luck. By God's grace, there was no other vehicle behind her or else we would have got very, very different footage," says Shaikh.

‘Bikes are a symbol of freedom.It symbolises strength, freedom, and the ability to do what you like. Because till date such unconditional freedom is available only to men,' says biker Firdaus Shaikh. PIC/ISTOCK

Shaikh says that handling male egos is the everyday reality of a woman on a bike. "They look at you like you're some kind of alien," says 35-year-old Parul Chhabra, "Because they don't expect there to be a woman on a bike. So they take your pictures, some even request to sit on a bike."

Chhabra usually rides with her safety gear. "If you're wearing safety gear, it is a little difficult to identify whether you're a man or a woman. So sometimes people try to get close to you just to figure it out," Chhabra says.

Chhabra finds that when you're a woman, there is always the assumption that you're a bad driver. "I always wear my safety gear, even if it's a short ride in the city, because you can drive safely however, you can't control the circumstances. Also, if anything at all happens, the first question won't be of my safety, but rather, ‘It's a woman driving, of course she wasn't careful' and that sticks with you at times." "Luckily Sia had a recording. Otherwise, no one would have believed her," Chhabra says.

Firdaus Shaikh, 40, has been biking since she was 18

Shaikh was 18 when she got her first bike. She comes from a motorcycling family. "Bikes are a symbol of freedom. Two decades ago women had an affinity towards certain motorcycle brands, because they were considered macho. It symbolised strength, freedom, and the ability to do what you like. Because till date such unconditional freedom is available only to men. A bike represents that freedom," Shaikh says.

Shaikh says over the years she has seen the number of women bikers go up dramatically. "There was a time when women rode bikes because they came from one-vehicle households. The man of the house had one bike, and the woman needed to go from point A to point B. So they would pick up a bike," she says.

"But now there are a bunch of us who ride purely for the love of the game. Because a bike gives you a sense of freedom. You might not have control in a lot of other aspects of your life, especially when you're living under your parents' roof," Shaikh says, "But when you're on a motorcycle, you at least have control on that one thing. You have control on how fast it's going, how it's slowing down, how it's making you feel on the inside."

Biker Parul Chhabra finds that there is a default assumption on the road that women are bad drivers

Shaikh grew up in Pune and is now settled in Delhi. The difference in reactions to a woman on a bike is drastic, she says. "In Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, there's still a fascination. People are curious. But generally, it's a positive reaction."

But in and around Delhi NCR, one doesn't always get a positive reaction. "I was riding from Delhi to Ladakh once with a group. We had a breakdown around the Sonipath [Haryana] area. Keep in mind, we're a group of women with head to toe safety gear, and yet within 20 minutes, there was an entire mob of men around saying, ‘Oh look, a chick is standing.'" Shaikh recalls, "As a society out there, they're very conservative. So in North India, even today, if they see you riding a motorcycle, they get shocked. Ego battles are common."

"In Delhi, there's just a culture to race. It doesn't matter if you're in a car, on a bike, a man, or a woman, random people will try to race you. But of course if you're a woman, egos do get involved," says Eklavya Atray, a Delhi-based biker.

Dr Paras Sharma

Counselling psychologist Dr Paras Sharma explains that in public spaces, the default idea is that they belong to men, "powerful men." "If a woman is ahead of them, they will be flashing their lights at you, honking, overtaking. It's their way of indicating that this outdoor space is their space. So then how can somebody else share that space? That too a woman. This is a way of showing that woman her place, so she falls in line."

For Shaikh, this has meant hiding her identity on the road. "This is my personal choice - I don't like letting anyone know it's a woman riding a motorcycle. A lot of my girlfriends that ride bikes pretty much have the same approach: Wear all the gear, don't let anyone know that you're a girl. Because being a woman on a bike will draw this kind of attention, especially in NCR," Shaikh says.

Chhabra says that the biking community is riddled with sexism. "A lot of men bike to their place of work, they go on rides every weekend. I'm not saying that women don't do that as well, but then there's someone like me who doesn't travel to office daily on my bike. I have other hobbies. Or sometimes it's just uncomfortable due to weather conditions to take my bike out.

"But then this becomes a way to demean me as a ‘biker'. They think, "Oh, you don't ride your bike every day. You've never biked to Ladakh. You're not a serious biker.' But I don't hear any men getting questioned like that often. So why do, I have to prove myself like that? But when did biking become all about how often you ride, how many kilometres have you biked? I like to ride and I ride whenever I can. It's as simple as that."

‘The minute they see a woman, they try to race her'

Delhi-based superbiker, Eklavya Atray, says that women bikers get more harassment than compliments on the road

Eklavya Atray

Eklavya Atray has been biking since 2003. Over the years, he's seen the biking scene evolve. "The number of women riders has also increased over the years. I see a lot more women riders now. Mostly what happens is people try to race them. Generally, even if you see any woman biker in the traffic, boys want to race them because they think, ‘She's a girl riding a bike'. Sometimes people will even compliment them. But yeah, there are some brash people who try to race."

Racing happens with both men and women, but Atray feels, "with women, it's worse because it's more of an ego thing." He says that with a man, it's more like a "bike" thing. "‘Why does he have this bike?' People generally have that urge to come and talk about it. But with women, the fascination is about her being a woman."