Are Indian drivers closet Formula 1 drivers or just plain suicidal

Generally true. But there is another usae of "ride" in the context of a 4 wheel vehicle.

"I ride to work with my friend/husband". When you are a passenger in a car, you are riding in it.

Oh that's a pity Nick i was trying to leave myself wide open so you would really go to town on me, i guess Prasannasankar did it for you "Gross" that's the nicest thing said to me for ages-- thanks man you are a beautiful person.


I was mainly having a go at your line--When they get in the car, they mostly drive in the most fuel in-efficient way possible-- now you don't have to be a rocket surgeon to know that is simply not true, and that's when i did a "Nick" and went off on a mindless rant------ Yaatri, sums it up perfectly-- " They are obsessed with it". I often think of the futility of lamenting the inevitable, as tomorrow morning we all have to go back out into that nightmare traffic and do it all again, but then we would miss out on your classic anti- motoring rants, which i must admit i have come to like, no matter how much you bend the truth to enhance your story. To stay alive on two wheels you must have a higher level of awareness than a car driver, so when the bike rider gets behind the wheel of a car in most cases they will be a better driver than a car only driver. If this rain keeps up your sailing skills may well be in demand

With these things, it is always the worst that gets talked about, never the best. The completely uneventful drives go unmentioned to all. Nobody starts a thread here to mention that they bought a good quality item at a reasonable price from the shop today!

When were you last here? (Again: do lets meet if you come) Honestly; things have got worse, just in the past few years. Add to that the current state of the roads, and there's not a lot of pleasure left in driving.

I'm about to go out "sailing". I've stayed in over the last few days of severe monsoon weather. It hasn't rained since morning, but there will still be plenty of water, and mre and bigger holes!
The more aggression, the more fuel usage. Heavy acceleration, heavy breaking. You see a red signal 500m down the road, so you take your time getting there. The guy behind is two feet from your rear with his hand on the horn...

Every day scenes from a Chennai driver's life. I really would hate to have to commute, or worse, to drive as a job all day .

I absolutely agree with your penultimate sentence., with some exceptions of course. Some idiots who jepardise themselves and others, and yet manage to stay alive oblivious to the penalty they extract from many innocent drivers/riders.

When you drive/ride a bike/motorbike, you are in intimate touch with the elements, the mother earth, water, air sun and physics of riding. You have to learn to communicate accurately with them if you want to survive. I often tell myself that if every one had to drive a two wheeler fora a few years before they are licensed to drive a your wheeled vehicle, we will have better drivers collectively. But when I looked at my 16 year old smiling son waving his brand new d riving license, I didn't have a heart to put him through the risk.

Agression and stupidity. Just over a week ago, I was returning from Badrinath in a bus. The drive was generally downhill, but in the mountains, you must go up to go down. I swear it was gravity driving the bus while the driver steered and squealed his brakes at every turn. "Don't be scared, he is an experienced driver" I was told. Experience is not merely the number of kilometers one has driven. It's learning to communicate with the road and the elements, and it's respecting the road and other drivers. It's more than weaving in and out of traffic without a scratch or coming within an inch or two of an edge of a precipice.

When I was waiting for the taxi to fill up for the last leg of my trip up, Joshimath to Badrinath, the driver scared me to my wits. "Sir, vehicles down into the year every year. Often, we can't even trace them. They just disappear into the depths. " Yet some of these experienced drivers take chances with their life and that of others. They survive more due to luck, not necessarily due to experience and skill.

The perfect vehicle for Indian driving conditions. Meet the Marauder.
Top Gear tested and Richard Hammond approved.
You could run over quite a few pesky motorcyclists and not feel a thing.
An out of control lorry crashing against the Marauder would make fine firewood (most Indian lorries have their chassis made out of wood...or matchsticks) post crash.
If I were to drive in India, the Marauder would be my only choice vehicle.
(well ok, I'd consider a cold war era Soviet tank as well as an alternative)

I guess you generalised the statement " where as in India the question is always What is the fuel consumption of your bike ? " . Or you might have seen the wrong set of bikers on your way. An avid biker who loves his beast would never stall on performance for some odd litres of fuel. So , there are people who loves speed and are bikers at heart and again , there are people who would just need a transportation to carry them places and preferably at a very low fuel consumption . I would not call the second group of people Bikers !!!

Happy Riding

Yes very true i generalised for the majority--in that most Indian motorcyclists are very aware of the costs of running a bike and ride accordingly. The second group are in fact bikers, simply because they ride motorbikes--but i agree with you that there are riders who take the whole thing a lot more seriously, maybe we could call them passionate bikers, or sports bikers--in that case fuel consumption is not important. Sadly the passionate performance based bikers have a bit of an uphill battle in India, simply because the infer structure is not there or is only beginning to appear. Maybe with the new GP track, and the continuation and extention of existing programs like CSS at the Madras race track, a new generation of riders will help inspire more people to experience that wonderful feeling of sports motorcycle riding.-- stay safe stay rubber side up---Red

It's abit OT. I have been unable to find seat height specifications. My Suzuki Blvd has a seat height of 27.5". I am unable to find, among specs, seat of any of the bikes on the market. Can anyone help?

while not commonly quoted, its common for a reviewer to comment and sometimes provide the actual measurement if the bikes seat height is less or more than the usual/most of the competition.

alternatively go to a showroom and test ride.

Thanks. Your suggestion is hard to follow when you are not in India.
A few years ago, I had looked at Honda splendor, and felt the seat was a bit too high for me (5'5"). Searching for a motorbike seat height was not fruitful. If there are reviews that mention seat height, could you please point me to such a review?

i used to subscribe to auto india and overdrive what now seems like eons ago. I doubt the content from long back has found it online. Do check out the BSmotoring website, bikeadvice.in perhaps, zigwheels publishes online though i find its quality iffy at best.

a little puzzled. are you asking this for Indian bikes or just generically?

Edit: http://www.bikez.com/brands/index.php this has seat height.... checked 2 scooters both mentioned the seat height.

driving in goa is the best only RULES i found was PRAY FIRST
and sound your horn. uk driver

A bit off topic. I just saw a bumper sticker the other day - the guy was too fast so I couldn't click a picture: "HONK IF YOU'RE HORNY". Result? I DID NOT honk! Best way to stop people from honking. But then again...

Wonderfully accurate. The narrow roads and thousands of drunk/stoned/peaking people driving unsafe two-wheelers on the roads - excellent idea!