PROJECTILE MOTION

Two drag bikes. Two different strokes. The sole purpose of speed

- Janak Sorap

It was evening time and there were several motorcycles parked besides each other just outside the IMW Racing workshop. While most them were parked for display, some were being worked upon. A few steps inside the workshop, a mechanic was carefully installing different parts onto a freshly painted red frame. It had a Pulsar 220 engine and that was about all that I could recognise looking at the machine. All the other components like the wheels, swingarm, and suspension were unlike what you’d expect on a Bajaj. It was the assembly of a dragspec motorcycle in progress. The reason to be there was that in just two days I’d be riding two custom-built drag-spec bikes for the very first time. What better reason can one think of to head to a workshop like this?

As I was observing the other bikes in the workshop, Iqbal Shaikh, the man behind building all the drag bikes under the IMW Racing name comes out of his office. Behind him, stacked on shelves, are several trophies from his wins in drag racing championships. While I was already impressed by the workmanship on the upcoming red drag bike, he invited me into his office to see a bike standing in a corner, sporting a blue trellis frame with silver body panels and red highlights. It was only after I got close enough that I realised it was a KTM Duke 200 engine mounted onto a drag chassis. The attention to detail was fantastic as even the thin brackets holding the delicate fairing were buffed to a sparkling shine. After being engrossed for some time observing the details of the motorcycle, Iqbal informed me about the other drag-spec bike, a Yamaha RX-135 weighing only 54 kg and with even skinnier tyres. It was ready, but was kept at his house since it is his prized possession.