You may have come across Indians vouching for their friendship with their buddies by humming one of the all-time hit songs from the 1975 Ramesh Sippy blockbuster Sholay — Ye dosti hum nahi todenge… The iconic song has served well to strengthen the bond between friends, whether in high spirits, literally, or at times when the chips are down.
Besides the catchy tune and the picturisation of the song starring Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, what catches your attention is the ‘side car’ attached to their bike.
Thirty years down the line, far away here in South Africa, memories and images of the ‘Jai-Veeru Ride’ and the song flash across your mind as you see a bunch of “young” sexagenarians and septuagenarians in leather jackets, gloves, helmets and black shades revving up the engines of their vintage World War II cj750s with side cars.
These bikers are the members of the Cape Side Car Adventures that has added a new dimension to South Africa’s adventure tourism. Just over a decade into its operations and promoted earnestly by South African Tourism, Cape Side Cars have turned out be the real head-turners on the streets of Cape Town.
As the heavy-duty 750 cc bikes whizz past the neat pile of huge mansions, residential apartments, commercial high-rises along the road or negotiate with deftness the sharp curves and bends across the hilly terrain of the Mother City, the mesmerising cloud formations in the clear blue skies make for the picture-perfect settings where natural and man-made marvels can be enjoyed at the same time, riding pillion or cosily tucked in the side car feeling the strong, cold breeze from the Atlantic Ocean across your face.
Side cars are a rarity in India now. There were times when a side car or two could be spotted on Indian roads, especially, fitted to Kinetic Honda — the scooter that was churned out through a collaboration between India’s Kinetic Engineering limited and Japan’s Honda Motor Company and that was way too different in shape and design from the most popular and preferred Bajaj Supers and Chetaks. While it served well to accommodate more members of an Indian family, which had its ‘joint’ concept very much intact then, it also came in handy for the differently-abled.
But who would have imagined a side car’s tourism potentialIJ Well, it needs the far-sightedness of someone like Tim. Still, he too could foresee the side car’s tourism prospects in this picturesque city only after no one gave him a job following his return to Cape Town having spent 25 long years in faraway Shanghai, China.
So an unemployable Tim started his own business in 2004. “The People’s liberation Army of China was decommissioning its military bikes used between the early 1950s and 1970s. They are the cj750s and are based on the old German BMW R71 that were used extensively during WW II,” Tim’s teammate Paddy Greenacre explains.
The 25-odd side cars that the company bought have been fully refurbished and modified to suit South African road traffic requirements.
“I am just 76,” Paddy says, when asked about his age. He is a grandfather with his son staying in “very beautiful” New Zealand. And driving around the city, keeps him “happy and going”. In fact, he was even actively playing Rugby “till about 8 years ago”.
So there’s no retirement age, you inquire inquisitively. “Well, 90 years is the cut-off age I suppose. No older than that we will take,” Tim, also a grandfather, chips in jokingly. There’s a certain youthfulness among the oldies gang, and that is, perhaps, keeping them going, year after year.
Of late, the gang has a new member, Brody. The canine with a Union Jack scarf around his neck rides upfront with Tim, who leads the pack. Brody is the navigator, Paddy says.
There are the two-hour, half-day (four hours) and full-day (eight hours) tours. Introduction to Cape Town city and the Atlantic Seaboard, a ride through the inner city (Castle, City Hall, Gardens, BoKaap), visit to Signal Hill, Camps Bay, Hout Bay up to the lookout on Chapman’s Peak Drive, Constantia Nek-Southern suburbs and Rhodes Memorial, Simons Town via Noordhoek, Oceanview and Scarborough, the False Bay Coastline, KaapseWeg and into the Constantia Winelands, Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Penguin Colony — it’s all on the itinerary depending on the tour you opt for.
While the side car that Dharmendra was in gave the audiences as well as his partner Amitabh some anxious moments when it got detached, only to dramatically converge again on the road ahead, thankfully, the Cape Side Cars have never had such an experience!