Bahrain Riders and their good ol' mean machines.... the respectable HD's

This is my first post on my blog; I've always wanted to write a blog but could never explain why I never did so earlier. But like they say, it's better late than never.

I'm a bike enthusiast, period! So the topic of my first blog is about bikes. To those who don't fancy bikes or anything with 2 wheels hear me out first rather than click on the "next blog" Icon. My views & discussions remain very simple & to the point. I don't believe in complicating anything. So do sit back & here’s to happy reading.

Yesterday (11.27.2009) was bright & pleasantly windy day. Here in Bahrain we consider a cool windy day as a great day for outings. Considering that on 365 days, 300 remain warm/hot it's not new to see families & youth make a bee line for Beaches, Parks, Desert-Safaris, barbeque-outings etc.

Being equally enthusiastic like the warm people of Bahrain we too decided to take out the car & roam around Bahrain. As 2 well knit families, we decided to meet at Bahrain's Grand Mosque. To those who love travelling & knowing about other countries stay tuned to my next post. On our way to the Grand Mosque we passed by Diplomatic Area:- the commercial area for Banking in Bahrain, It also houses couple of Embassies.

Whilst we were passing through the area we noticed about 35 bikes parked across the street close to Costa Coffee. While this is not new in Bahrain, what caught my eyes was that nearly all the bikes were Harley-Davidsons! I've loved these American legends ever since the first day I saw pictures of a Harley. My excitement got the better of me & I decided to go have a closer look & maybe even speak to a couple of bikers who were having their morning coffee at the Costa Coffee outlet.

The first bike that I saw was a shiny blue Road-Glider as pictured on the left. For those who have never seen a bike this big up-close I'd recommend that they must see it whenever they pass by a Harley-Davidson showroom or if lucky, on the street. There is not one aspect of the Harley-Davidson that doesn't separate it from the other bikes.

The first thing I noticed was it's raw muscular looks & it's superbly Engineered body. The 6 cylinder engine is so powerful that it can actually pull a 2000 pound car! In my opinion, the Harley-Davidson is an engineering marvel. My heartfelt respect to the creators of this iconic brand “Harley Davidson’. It has a sacred place in the hearts of all bike lovers even after 100 years since its creation.

With so many Harleys it was hard to look at any other bikes present there. I've put up some pictures of the Harleys I saw. While we were closely examining a Harley, we thought of speaking to a biker who was busy polishing his bike. His name was Riyadh & he is a Bahraini. He owns a Bluish-Grey Street-Glider.

I've never been so jealous of a person before, to see this man owning this beast & me just having to only look at it made me want to steal his bike the moment he got his eyes off it. Its keyless entry seemed to make the robbery easy.

Unfortunately for me I've ridden on just a 225 cc bike whereas this monster was a 1580 cc bike, that's almost seven times as powerful. You'd need to drive a 250 cc bike for weeks just to qualify for a license for such a powerful motorcycle.

Riyadh, the biker whom we met was very friendly & didn't mind us clicking as many pictures as we wanted, he even told us to talk to all the other bikers present to get a more detailed understanding of the numerous bikes present. Had we not planned the aforementioned family meeting at the Grand Mosque, we could have easily spent an entire day with the Bikers, who are aptly named ‘Bahrain Riders’.

Humble as he was, Riyadh feels the local people consider the 'Bahrain Riders' as nuisance on Bahrain roads (I fail to understand why, all the roads here are very broad four-lane expressways and I've seen bikers following cent percent rules). Probably this could be due some of the bikes being a bit loud.

So to rid people of that opinion, they make a concerted effort to visit local orphanages, homes for disabled, homes for the elderly etc to show the people of Bahrain that they too can be gentle & caring, like the rest of the people of Bahrain.

The Bahrain Riders meet every Friday, they begin with some morning coffee at any of the numerous coffee outlets here and then head for numerous pre decided locations in Bahrain. Since its Eid festivity time here, they had a special Eid Marathon, which would nearly map the entire forty kms of road-length in Bahrain.

As we set off on our own, we had a chance encounter to meet a part of the Club members. They seemed to be on air while riding those Cruiser bikes. We could not spot our humble friend Riyadh, maybe he was ahead in the group and with their headgears and too many together it was difficult to spot him.

All that you needed to be in this elite club was to own a Harley & be openminded and humble like these guys.

Thanks to Riyadh, I had a chance encounter with so many HD’s and also my respect for the riders who are a wonderful sight to watch as they glide effortlessly on their visible mean machines.

May the kinds of these grow world wide and spread love and passion to them as well as their HD’s.

I could go on & on about bikes, but this seems enough for now.

Until my next post, it's ciao from me. Take care and look out for my next blog.