ENARADA, Mysuru, Sunday, July 10, 2016
The entire Mysuru city woke up to the vroom vroom sound of Yezdi bikes on Sunday.
It was a Yezdi bike rally which coincided with the 50th year of Yezdi launch in India. The two-stroke bikes which had captured the imagination of the bikers are now only an antique piece.
Yezdi bikes rule over the Heritage city streets as part of rally on Sunday. Photo by www.enarada.com
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Till Yezdi bike manufacturing begun in Mysuru, Indians had no option but to depend on imported bikes from British. Two businessmen from Mysuru; Farrokh K Irani and his uncle Rustom Irani began the manufacture of Yezdis in technical collaboration with Jawa Limited, Czechoslovakia.
Initially, the Irani family wanted to set up the plant at Pune-Mumbai region but active encouragement by the then Mysore Governor-Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar helped the Yezdi team to set up its plant in heritage city. With imported materials, around 36,000 bikes per year were manufactured annually. However, the golden era of Yezdi came to an end in 1998 when the two-stroke bikes went out of fashion coupled with issues like lesser fuel efficiency and too much of emission. The company too faced labour unrest and hence Yezdi plant had to be shut down.
However, the proud Yezdi owners continue to use the bike till today and have maintained it as one of their precious products. Though the bikers say that they find it difficult to find spare parts of Yezdi, but are in no mood to part with their favourite bike.
