Pure Community

Motoverse is the easiest way of understanding Royal Enfield's diversity

- Joshua Varghese

ROYAL ENFIELD ARE NO LONGER A motorcycle manufacturer; they are an ecosystem because making world-class motorcycles is only one of the many things they do.

Despite having experienced almost everything from them, I had never attended their biggest annual party. This was my first time there and it changed my perception about motorcycle festivals.

For an introvert who enjoys riding a motorcycle and not much else, such festivals usually offer very little but Motoverse surprised me with its diversity. Spread over most of the Vagator Hill Top in Goa, it felt like three days in another universe.

One side had everything for the thrillseekers. They could compete for prizes by racing across multiple dirt-tracks, slow it down and thread their way through obstacle courses or just fool around with child-like (in a positive way) motorcycle games.

The American flat-track star, Johnny Lewis, and the latest Guerrilla-based race machines only added to the thrill. When the sun set on all the fun, all one had to do was get a beer and settle down in front of a huge stage where popular artistes performed one after another well into the night.

In the middle of all this, there was also a “Well of Death” that flung some of us back into the 1990s on a tidal wave of nostalgia.