Seemingly innocent question, a kid in a small rackety car and considering I was on my Machismo 350, I smiled confidently and replied ‘nothing else in the country’! Little did I know I was being set up to be knocked down. The kid just popped his head out of the car and, his casual air of disinterest thinly concealing the glint of admiration in his eyes. My answer was met with a disdainful smirk. ‘I saw a foreigner on a Yamaha last week. That was much bigger. He told me they’re going to make it in India. 1200 cc, and it was sooo (he stretched his arms out and the dingy car permitted) big. When I'm old enough, that’s what I’m going to ride’. He gave my bike one last look out of the corner of his eye, just before the car pulled of. Many kilometers down the road, and alone with my thoughts on the bike, I pondered his question. It was the classic mental pivot. Both ridiculously simplistic and unbelievably deep at the same time.
In the old days, people bought a Bullet not because of...