Sub-culture on wheels

November 2013 was a milestone in Indiarsquos motorcycling history It marked the introduction of one of the most enduring motorcycle cultures to our shores with Royal Enfield launching the Continental GT cafeacute racer and Triumph coming in with the iconic Bonneville and the Thruxton cafeacute racer Just a year prior to that in 2012 Vespa had entered India with its twowheeled heritage of a different kind We take a look at the Rockers subculture that led to the creation of cafeacute racers and the Mods who made scooter riding fashionable back in the rsquo60sThe RockersBack in the 1950s and rsquo60s if you were a workingclass youth growing up in Britain and in love with motorcycles yoursquod find yourself donning blue jeans a pair of strong boots and a black leather jacket just after dinner at eight You would then head to the garage strap on your pudding basin helmet and goggles before firing up your souped up British motorcycle and then head out to meet your chums And that pretty much sums up the average evening in the life of one of motorcyclings everlasting icons mdash the Rocker The Rocker look was made immortal by Hollywoodrsquos Marlon Brando in the epic 1953 film lsquoThe Wild OnersquoWith their love of fast motorbikes the principal aim of a Rocker was to touch 100 miles per hour Those who did came to be called the lsquoTon Up Boysrsquo their name inspired by the British slang lsquotonrsquo denoting the 100 mph speed For the rest racing motorbikes from one transport cafeacute to another was what gave them the lsquobuzzrsquo Typically they would head outto a transport cafeacute meet other Rockers listen to the latest rock lsquonrsquo roll on the jukebox and then race to the next cafeacute Sometimes they would play a vinyl record and then try to do a specified circuit back to the cafeacute before the record stopped playing mdash jukebox racingMotorcycle RockersThe fondness for such jukebox racing and cafeacute racing led to a majority of them modifying souping up their motorcycles to make them quicker Modifications involved replacing regular handlebars with lowset clipons putting a single seat with the petrol tank being stretched out and narrowed down These modified motorcycles came to be known as lsquocafeacute racersrsquo courtesy the use they were put toModsWith their aura of spirited romanticism the Rockers essentially took the sport of motorcycle racing and turned it into a streetbased lifestyle statement that has endured over decadesThe ModsAlongside the Rockers another very different twowheeler culture was rapidly taking shape in the 1960s Inspired by the emerging consumerism in an increasingly prosperous Britain the Mods culture was based on style and fashion They too listened to a lot of music on jukeboxes but their chosen venues were coffee bars and allnight clubs instead of transport cafeacutes The Mods preferred RampB modern jazz ska and soul music They were the ones who made the sixties so swingingInfluenced by the style they saw in Italian and French films the Mods were very conscious of their appearance They wore cleancut tailored suits with narrow lapels buttondown shirts narrow ties and loafers or pointedtoed boots They wanted to be seen as sophisticated twowheeler riding urban folk in contrast to the greasy Rockers Women riders sported miniskirts and short hairstylesWhere the Rockers gravitated towards fast motorcycles the Mods chose to lounge around on Italian scooters like Vespa and Lambretta often adding cosmetic embellishments that would help them stand out visually in a crowd One of the most popular additions to a Modrsquos scooter would be a large number of headlamps giving the diminutive scooter a curious manyeyed buglike look Crash bars twotone custom paint jobs too were very popular The fact that Italian scooters had cleancut lines curving shapes and gleaming chrome only added to their appeal with imageconscious Mod Not to mention in the 1960s they were cheaper to buy and run than carsScooters also provided more protection for the Modsrsquo fashionable clothes Where Rockers turned bike racing into a roadgoing phenomenon the Mods took the mundane and practical scooter and turned commuting into a fashion statementUnfortunately the Mods did not last beyond the mid1960s Good news though is that with a growing interest in classic forms of twowheeler riding means the Mods are growing In India too the better looking lsquoaspirationalrsquo scooters are becoming available Their growing popularity amongst urban youth means that nearly fourandahalf decades after the Mods faded away in Great Britain the scooter has once again become the choice of young wheels for the imageconscious and increasingly consumerist Indian society So are we seeing a late rise of the Mods here Something to think about