When biker Sachin Desai got hitched to his girlfriend Kiran Singh five years ago, little did he realise that he found a biking buddy. After the couple took a few long rides across North India, the biking bug bit the wife; she was tired of riding pillion and demanded a bike for herself. And now, the duo have clocked tens of thousands of kilometres, covering all the States of India on their respective motorcycles — a pair of identical Honda CBR 250. “The first time he gave me the bike keys, I was so excited. Coming from a conservative Punjabi family, I was clueless how my parents or in-laws would react to the idea of me riding a bike,” says 29-year-old Singh. “Somehow, they agreed to it amidst apprehensions and I learnt riding albeit slowly. I used to apply gears with the toe and people laughed at me. Then, I started riding to work daily in the Mumbai traffic and got the hang of it.” “I encouraged her and taught the nuances of riding with patience. We took our first long one-day ride from Mumbai to Indore and completed it in the scorching heat. In just a month’s time, we both took off to Ladakh, the graduation ride in biking,” beams 32-year-old Desai. Today, they are among the popular biking couples in the country with a huge fan-following for their vlog on social media. Their YouTube channel ‘Wroom with Kiran Sachin’ has over 15,000 subscribers and the video posts garner more than a million views. “It was on our Ladakh trip that I rode without front brakes and there were moments of difficulties through out. I got emotional at some point during the ride, when I felt like talking to the world. That’s when I asked Sachin to shoot me and the two-minute clip went viral on our Facebook page,” says Singh, who’s good at writing. Since Desai’s pictures are great, they both started a Youtube channel and uploaded videos and blog posts that became a hit among social media users. “Now, we also plan our shoots and have reduced the size of video posts to less than five minutes. We pack the maximum within a short span, so that viewers don’t get bored but get all the necessary information about a place,” says Desai, who uses a Nikon D50 camera with 18-140 lens and a mike, mounted on to a portable tripod. “Initially, our friends and family didn’t like seeing me ride. But now they wait for our stories and experiences. People who are tied up with responsibilities look up to us and vicariously live the pleasure of travel through our vlog posts,” says Singh. “The biggest challenge is to balance family commitments and the passion for biking and break the stereotypes for marriage goals. We still invite criticism from friends and relatives, but we have managed to brush them aside. We just want to ride till we get too old for it.”“There are quite a few couples who are inspired by us. Men bikers come enquiring if their wives or girlfriends can ride. But, I always ask them not to force it. Some may just enjoy riding pillion,” adds Desai. The techie couple have struck a fine balance of work and travel, with planning ahead. They go on three or four rides a month and one week-long ride every four months. “Our idea of biking is to encourage travelling as a family unit and to promote travel as a lifestyle among middle-class couples. Travelling doesn’t necessarily mean that you leave behind your job and routine and become a wanderer. One can still be within the family framework, pursue their passion and also take along family members if they are interested.” More about Kiran and Sachin can be found on their FB page ‘WROOM – Wanderers Riding on One MotherEarth’ (The next article in this series will appear on July 7)

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