City to host fifth edition of bike fest in December

PUNE: The fifth edition of the Indian Superbike Festival (ISF) is all set to be held at the Amanora Park Town on December 5 and 6.
Besides manufacturers showcasing their bikes in the expo, there will be added segments of premium bike re-sellers, premium cars and accessories to hold attention of guest bikers from the UK, Dubai and Singapore.
"For this year's edition, the ISF will spread its wings beyond motorcycles and expand into a full-fledged lifestyle automotive show with an added segment on lifestyle auto-products, accessories, supercars and superbikes.The idea is to make the ISF a one-stop shop for enthusiasts with a taste in life," said Amol Talpade, founder of the ISF, while addressing a news conference here on Tuesday. As many as 20 bike clubs and several individual bikers will take part in the event.
Talpade said he started going for group bike rides in 2006, which eventually led to the formation of the country's second biking group which propped the Sunday ride culture. "We usually took rides along highways often leading to single day trips to Mahabaleshwar, Lonavla, Kolhapur and Mumbai. In 2012, I thought of bringing bikers, enthusiasts and manufacturers together on one platform to celebrate biking," he said.
As many as one lakh bikers along with 150-200 bikes were part of the first edition of the festival.
In 2014, the festival was held in Pune and Bangalore where around 900 super-bikes (600cc and above) and 3 lakh people had participated.
A new feature of this year's festival is the used bike arena due to an increase in the resale of used premium bikes. "Premium bikes are such a rage that even banks have started giving used premium bike loans. Then there are a few biker competitions in the festival," Talpade said. These competitions include the Loudest Motorcycle, the Best Accessorized Motorcycle and the King of Burnouts.
The festival shall also showcase safety gears from Italian brand Alpinestars. "With the biking culture picking up in India, the problem of plenty arises and this is where this festival comes to rescue of motor-bikers by helping them choose what bike suits their demands. "We are currently fighting the counterfeit items from China," said Harjeet Singh Makkar, distributor of Alpinestars in India.
With over 100 vintage bikes also participating this year in the fest, the ultimate aim of the organizers is to get 1 lakh bikes to participate in the festival.
"This year ISF is an auto expo-cum-superbiking festival wherein the biggest and the best superbike manufacturers like Suzuki, Triumph, Indian Motorcycles, Harley Davidson, Benelli, Hyosung, Aprillia, Motoguzzi, Vespa, TVS and Mahindra will be showcasing their latest range of superbikes. In addition, the lifestyle biking supermarketers like Café Racer, Adventure Moto, Biking Superstore, Atmosphere India, 100 KMPH and many others will also display their collection of bike accessories," said Talpade.