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A pleasure to ride!

Bikes for women are not just about comfort and convenience. They are about vibrant colours as well.

`Pep', `Pleasure' and `Wave'. They are "bikes for women". These are just a few of the names on this list, thanks to the increasing efforts of motor companies to target the fair sex. These two-wheelers have a few things in common — features that are supposed to appeal to a woman's sense of colour, her idea of what is stylish, and her special needs.

S. Srinivas, product manager with TVS Motor Company, says more than anything else, lipstick and nail-polish shades inspired the choice of colours (Orange Trap, Electric Red, Purple Mischief, Copper Mystery, Night Black and Perky Pink) for Scooty Pep Plus. The names given to these colours seem to be in line with the feminine view of what is nice and cute. Isn't there a bit of Mills & Boon in Moon Yellow and Candy Blazing Red — two of the colours that Hero Honda's Pleasure comes in? Colour seems to be a way to a woman's heart; both Pep and Pleasure have incorporated mirrors that are the same colour as the body of the vehicle.

MAKE A SPLASH Colourful bikes are the in-thing

According to Girija Prasad, in-charge of products, south zone, Bajaj Auto, Wave was designed with women's spatial needs in mind. "There is more leg space and at 16 litres, storage space is extra large."

Srinivas says girls are not into biking in the same way boys are. They are not as interested in the bike's power as in features that increase comfort. Women's bikes are a lot lighter than unisex bikes without gears in the same category. Scooty Pep Plus provides a light in the storage area (the Pep promo says, "No more fumbling in the dark. Find things easily in the lit storage area"), a mobile charging socket that lets you "charge your cell on the move", eases parking concerns ("No huffing. No puffing. Park effortlessly with the Eazy Center Stand") and switches on a bright "Glow Ring" around the ignition keyhole enabling the rider to see in the dark. `Pleasure' and `Wave' probably consider women more punctilious, because they have allocated a special place to keep gloves.

In a sense, all these bikes signify the strides women have taken in traditionally male-dominated areas. Hero Honda promises what it calls the "the Pleasure of exclusivity" through two programmes — "Just4Her" (the promo: "Experience a new kind of shopping pleasure at JUST4HER, our chain of exclusive Pleasure showrooms) and Lady Rider ("an exclusive club for women Pleasure owners, which offers discounts on spare parts").

Some advertisements for these bikes are bold, even provocative? The line for Pleasure: "Why should men have all the fun?" In the early 1990s, TVS launched Scooty as a unisex bike, but when the motor company realised that one section of the population was more interested in the product, the bike was re-launched — as meant for women. And all the new advertisements "showed the men riding pillion — the list included actors Madhavan and Aftab Shivdasani," says Srinivas.

But, are women's bikes really women's bikes? Observation shows that men don't see women's bikes as women's bikes. Girija Prasad says men use these bikes for the same reasons that women buy them — comfort and convenience. "On these bikes, you can transport a gas cylinder without any difficulty. Men know that changing gears can be pesky when you are stuck in a traffic."

Although pink was once seen as feminine, it has now taken on a unisex "colour". Says Srinivas, "Hutch and Motorola have gone pink with their mobiles".

And men probably ride women's bikes, because "cross-biking" is all right. If you ride a woman's bike, women are more likely to like you for it.

PRINCE FREDERICK

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