Urban Gypsies MC

Urban Gypsies are a motorcycle club and art collective in one, based in New Delhi.

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The Documentary - Why India is mad for motorbikes - BBC Sounds

An investigation into the deep-seated and increasing passion for motorcycling in India

25-min BBC podcast doc about the Indian motorcycling scene :D

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This will never not be the best video ever made about Motorcycles. We dare you to prove us wrong lol.

Dat delicious nihilism tho *kisses fingertips like a chef

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Via our resident thespian, Kaizad Gandhi: Mutthbed (मुठभेड़) ("Encounter"), his directorial debut is now online in a retro-style radio-play format! "What we fear is fear itself. We have all heard this at different points in our lives in many different ways. This is one such tale of Man vs Fear. A pickpocket encounters a street juggler in an isolated park in the dead of the night and his worst nightmares come alive. “Since the quarantine does not allow us to stage this production, we took the old-school route and made it into a radio / play. Sit back, put on your headphones / surround sound speakers and let us take you on a journey!"

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Big congrats to our member Kaizad for landing a role in “After The Wedding” starring Julienne Moore and Michelle Williams!

Kaizad was born into a family of actors and literally grew up in theater. When he’s not acting, directing, writing, or teaching others to hone their craft, he’ll hop on his Dominar 400 and hit the highways at the drop of a hat.

Urban Gypsies MC was founded to be a combination of a motorcycle club and an art collective in one, since every founding member had a creative streak-- from musicians, actors, artists, photographers and architects. But really, it’s all about the ride. You don’t have to be an artist to be a member. Just join us for a ride on any given weekend (well, maybe once this whole Coronavirus SNAFU blows over and we’re done with all the curfews and quarantines).

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Happy birthday to Kiran! You may spot him zipping around Bangaluru on Karma, his beloved Triumph Tiger, still rocking our UGMC original patch! Though not too recently, what with the curfew and all... :/

The distance makes you no less a Gypsy, though we do miss you up here in Delhi :’( Regardless, we hope you make the best of it and have a blast anyway... And hope to ride with you again sometime soon!

Some definitions in case you were wondering: Patched member: a core, full member of the club. A patch is earned only after a unanimous vote by existing members, after much vetting and proving oneself worthy. UGMC original: Not just a patch-wearing member, but a founding member who's been with us from the very start.

Urban Gypsies MC is a small, tight-knit motorcycle club based in Delhi, founded in 2015. Anyone's welcome to join us on our usual weekend rides (er, when the curfew stuff is over anyway) and find out what we're all about!

#UrbanGypsiesMC

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True fact: You can’t really call yourself a biker in Delhi if you haven’t at least heard of DBBR, or Delhi Bikers Breakfast Run, Delhi’s biggest group ride / meetup :D

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Just another Sunday morning breakfast ride! On that gorgeous Mojo 300 is founding member Sablok and our chief medic Dr. Sarabjot Singh :D

Unusually gorgeous weather had us carpe-ing those diems yo.

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We test rode the Kawasaki Vulcan 650 S!

We test rode the Kawasaki Vulcan 650S on Sunday, not knowing what to expect. This is, after all, a cruiser from a Japanese badge known for sport bikes. So this is kinda like going to a pizza joint and asking for a salad 🤔 

Kawasaki says this is their own unique take on what a cruiser should be, and that it's not for the herd-mentality kinda cruiser rider. And we agree. There's a lot more going on beneath the subtle, understated design. 

Test-riding this curvy, matte-black beast was Speedy (#KTM loving geek) and Winston (resident bike-builder and fan of all things old school). This means we got two different personalities, riding styles and ideas about what a good cruiser should be. And we ended up with two wildly different perspectives from their test rides. 

What do their takeaways have in common? In short, both were pleasantly surprised in several ways. 

Sport bikes can be judged on horsepower and zero to sixty times and whatnot. That's pretty straightforward. With cruisers, it's a lot more... Subjective. It's more about feel and emotion. So a big question was: is this just a Ninja 650 engine shoehorned into a cruiser body for no reason, without that quintessential character and feel of a true cruiser? 

Short answer: yes and no, but in a good way both times. Long answer: the discussion that followed after test rides by both guys was, shall we say, long and sprited 😅 

We're thinking of doing more bike reviews here at #UrbanGypsiesMC, and a lot more in-depth. Would you guys be interested? Stay tuned!

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This Sunday, our pals Bikers For Good braved the intense Delhi summer heat to hand out refreshing cool water to motorists, an annual tradition going back years. Two of us at Urban Gypsies MC were happy to join in the fun. 

Many hundreds of liters of cold, sugary sweet drinks were handed out. Surprisingly, this was more complicated than it sounds to manage. BFG didn’t use disposable plastic cups because that would just end up as litter, so a small crew worked tirelessly to sanitize the glasses for re-use. The rest of us rotated between preparing more drinks in a giant metal tub of ice, handing them out to motorists, and managing traffic so that we didn’t cause a jam. 

Hours later, we were all absolutely exhausted. But there’s something deeply satisfying and wholesome about doing something good for no real reason other than to do good. No agenda / political statement / PR stunt / religious proselytizing or whatever. The logic simply was “dude it’s freaking hot in Delhi, someone should hand out some cool drinks to all these people on the roads,” and immediately these guys were “whelp, okay, let’s do it” and that was that. 

Side note: Urban Gypsies MC’s medical officer and founding member, Dr Sarabjot Singh, was on his feet for hours on end, working quietly and tirelessly. And once we were done, while the rest of us were trying to catch our breath, he hopped back on his Enfield and rode off to the far end of Gurgaon to start work at his dental clinic. Like it was no big deal. Dude’s unstoppable.

Bikers For Good are an organization that have been organizing events and massive group rides longer than we can remember. Mohit Ahuja, founder and fearless leader of the bunch, is on a mission to show Delhi and the world that you don’t need to choose between being a hardcore biker and being a generally good guy that does nice things for others. When he’s not working full-time running Bikers For Good, he’s also running photography workshops training disabled youth so they can earn a living and even support their families. But that’s for a whole other blog post. 

To learn more about Bikers For Good, catch them on Instagram / Facebook or at their site at http://www.bikersforgood.com.

To learn more about us at Urban Gypsies MC, drop us a line via here or our Instagram and just join us for one of our weekend rides and get to know us better! :D

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Our fearless leader Winston Balman and his band The Prophets of Rock perform live this Saturday night at The Piano Man Jazz Club in Safdarjung Enclave, featuring Bobby Cash! 🤟🏽😝

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😂🤣

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Kaizad, our resident thespian (and full-patched member since 2015), has been pretty busy lately! Here’s his latest performance in the short film Ananya, about “a dysfunctional father-son relationship because of an imposed interest and expectation of parents upon their children.” 

When Kaizad is not acting on stage or in front of a camera, he’s directing plays or running theater and drama classes for all skill levels. Dude’s got boundless energy like you’ve never seen, it seems he’s always working on something new. 

But he’s still human, according to rumors, anyway. So when Kaizad needs to recharge his batteries, his go-to escape is to climb on his Dominar and hit the highways for another road trip. A full-patched member of Urban Gypsies MC since 2015, Kaizad brings the same relentless energy into our little motorcycle club as he does to the stage. 

When we said he’s always working on something new, that’s no exaggeration. He’s got some pretty big stuff to announce very soon, so stay tuned!

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#DBBR ride tomorrow!

Can you believe it’s been ten years?

Delhi Bikers Breakfast Run is the Indian capital’s biggest inter-club, bike-agnostic group motorcycle ride. In English, that means anyone on any kind of motorcycle / moped can join the ride, whether you’re alone and new to riding, or with a club and been around the block a few times.

The motto is “Ride, Respect, Relax.” Leave your ego at home, coz the idea is to just enjoy riding together and maybe make new friends.

On a typical DBBR ride, you’ll see everything from students on mopeds; absolute beginners bewildered at the sheer numbers of bikes turning up and riding together; old grizzled bikers that have been on the road since before you were in diapers; members of motorcycle clubs of all kinds mingling together. You’ll see everything from the biggest to smallest engines, from the rarest to the most common rides from all over the capital. 

It’s a fun fact that almost all current motorcycle clubs and riding groups in Delhi / NCR were created from friendships formed at this amazing and diverse meet-up… including us misfits, the #UrbanGypsiesMC. So we have a bit of a soft spot for this event.

Anyone can join the ride, provided you obey a few simple rules: helmets for everyone (including pillions / passengers); have your paperwork handy (drivers license and registration etc); no wheelie-popping or general hooliganism; and no booze / drugs as this is a family-friendly meetup. 

Check their Instagram at @delhibikersbreakfastrun for more deets, and remember the motto: Ride, Respect, Relax! 

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One of our earliest rides as a club, three years ago. 

While everyone in Delhi / NCR were busy organizing Royal Enfield-only clubs or sport bike-only clubs where membership was all about what bike you ride, we figured the biker is more important than the bike. 

And this was the result: At a UGMC meet-up you’ll see everything from track-monster sport bikes to custom home-built retro choppers to a flippin’ moped.

Because diversity is beautiful and interesting.

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#qotd

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