Mangalore: 30 Vintage Bikes Adorn this Mechanic's Collection

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (NM)

Mangalore, May 10: Craze for new bike on the block may be common, especially among the rich folk, but here's a man who has a passion for the older varieties of two-wheelers. He is no rich kid but from an ordinary middle class family, but his passion makes him quite extraordinary.

Meet Dilip of Someshwar, who owns as many as 30 vintage bikes, only to preserve them for the next generation.

He is the resident of Nehru Nagar in Someshwar, the eldest son among the three children of Srinivas and Vedhavathi. By profession he is a two-wheeler mechanic.

He completed his SSLC at St Sebestian Higher Primary School of Thokkottu.

After working as a motorcycle mechanic for 10 years, he started his own garage ‘Pit Stop’ here in Kadri, near City Hospital.

His hobby of restoring bikes sparked when he saw old vehicles being taken to scrap dealers. He at once decided to purchase and renovate them to working condition. The rest is history.

Over the past three years, he has collected as many as 30 two-wheelers like scooters, bikes and mopeds of the years 1941 to 1991.

Apart from getting them from scraps dealers, he has travelled across the state, and sometimes even outisde the state, searching for very vintage two-wheelers. Even his friends would call him whenever they happened to find such old vehicles.

Interestingly, in his entire collection, there is not a single two-wheeler in production now or running on road.

Some of his collections are:

Suvega of 1976, the first moped in India
Matchless G3L of 1942 from England
Lambretta-48 of 1942 from Italy
Rajdhooth GTS (babi) of India
Java Jet of 1960 from Yugoslavia
Roadstar of Rally company (1951) gear cycle by England
Falcon scooter of 1978 in India
Lambi bike of India (1977)
Enfield Mofa of 1963
BSA Bond and Mini Bullet of 1981
Vespa 150 of Italy (1970)
Honda CG- 125 of Japan (1979)
Ambassador Supreme of England (1954)
Zundapp k-100 of Germony (1963)

Whoever said 'old is gold' was right, after all!