FAMILY AFFAIR

We ride a bike that’s a descendant of one of the most important motorcycles of all time

- Janak Sorap

Let me begin with a confession — I don’t have much experience with classic motorcycles. That doesn’t mean I am not fascinated by them. In fact, in comparison to today’s electronic-heavy machines, all mechanical classic motorcycles give me a proper kick. My garage does have a small set of motorcycles that belong to the early 1980 era, but what I am riding here is probably from the time my parents began going to school. The two-stroker here is a Polish-origin motorcycle that’s based on the German-made DKW RT 125.

But first, some background information on why the DKW is so significant, and how important its role was in putting our nation on two wheels. After the end of WWII, pretty much the entire world was ticked off by Germany. As a sort of payback for all the damage the Nazis caused, the Soviet Union took the blueprints, tooling and machinery for the RT 125, along with many actual machines, and then produced copies of the motorcycle, which were called M1A Moskva and K-125 respectively. It wasn’t just the Soviets that made copies of the RT 125, but also the United Kingdom (with the BSA Bantam), the USA (with the Harley-Davidson Hummer), Yamaha (with the YA-1) and Poland — with the SHL M11 you see here. These were just the first examples of the many other derivatives that later came into existence from that one German motorcycle.