BHPian #drivingFreak recently shared this with other enthusiasts: I recently had the opportunity to attend the Royal Enfield GRRR Nights X Underground, a motorsport/car meet event filled with professional drivers/riders drifting cars, performing motorcycle stunts, loud music, food and of course a lot of tastefully modded vehicles. The event was conducted in partnership with Tapaswi Racing and took place at Pune’s Amanora mall on August 23. It is a bit ironic that the Underground event took place on an open rooftop at the fifth floor parking of a mall, but it was a fun experience nonetheless! The event started around 4PM, and in no time, the air was filled with the smell of burning rubber, loud music and the chitter-chatter among the 1000s of attendees. Having said that, the real vibes only picked up once the sun had set. Royal Enfield used this opportunity to launch a new colourway of the Guerrilla 450, called the Shadow Ash. It is priced at Rs 2.49 lakh (ex-showroom, Chennai): The dual-tone shade is a mix of Olive Green and blacked-out elements. The colour has a sort of matte finish to it and looks quite nice: Closer look at the fuel tank of the Guerrilla 450 Shadow Ash: There are no mechanical updates to the motorcycle. Since the colourway is available with the mid-spec Dash variant, you get circular TFT as standard: Moving on, Royal Enfield had a dedicated space for the attendees to experience the basics of drifting a motorcycle: The experience was conducted by a team of professional stunt riders. We were divided into a batch of five. First up, a quick briefing about importance of riding gear and performing/practicing stunt riding in a controlled environment: To perform a perfect stunt, drift or burnout you need maintain a balance between the following parameters: Like any other skill, stunt riding requires months or even years of practice to perfect. Here we had just 15 minutes, so professionals advised us to just concentrate on learning the basics: By basics, they meant performing a burnout and eventually a donut. Here’s our batch listening carefully to our instructor, Padma Prashanth: Next up, it was our chance to apply the knowledge practically. The process to perform a donut is pretty straightforward, or at least that’s what I thought at first . Here’s how you go about it: NOTE: Stunt riding is dangerous but can be a fun experience if done properly. I strongly suggest you wear riding gears and do not try it without the supervision of a professional. The following stunts were performed by professionals in a controlled environment. Do not attempt this in public areas. Once on the motorcycle, you start by pressing the front brake firmly to make sure your front tyre has a strong grip so that it doesn’t slide forward. Then you start give enough throttle to spin the rear wheel and maintain a constant RPM. After that, gradually release the clutch. If done right, your rear wheel will start spinning and you will be performing a burnout. Your body position should look something like this, but with your bottom a little closer to the seat: To perform a donut, you need push the motorcycle using your left thigh, apply counter steer and voila there’s your donut. Sounds easy, right? Well it should be, if you are familiar with the motorcycle you are performing the action on. Otherwise, it takes sometime to get the co-ordination right between how much front brake and throttle you need to apply, body position and how gradually to let go of the clutch. Here’s a failed attempt. Notice how the motorcycle jumps ahead because of me not applying the front brake firmly enough:https://youtu.be/NmeiswK4MXw After a few more failed attempts and a little helping hand from the instructor, I managed to perform one full donut. Not the smoothest, but still a decent one:https://youtu.be/NbFl1hNLV7w Ok, enough of my amateur stunt riding. Time to see how the professionals do it: Here are some videos:Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Check outBHPian commentsfor more insights and information.
