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SOUND OFF

The second time you leave it with the mechanic, you are sure that he will do a good job. But, he calls you bang in the middle of the day, saying that everything has gone wrong with the bike and, of course, the conversation is filled with technical jargon. He warns me if the problems are not immediately attended to, the bike may not see another Monday morning. I panic and pay up. The cycle of breakdown, repair and buying spare parts has begun. With a slightly older bike, you will end up buying spare parts more often than monthly groceries.

On a warm Monday afternoon, I was the centre of attraction on Mount Road. Without a warning, my silencer had split wide (the one my mechanic had supposedly repaired) and my petite scooterette thundered like a bullet. Two boys made way, expecting a monster of a bike to vroom past, and laughed their guts out when they saw my bike. I stoically bore the smirks and jibes. With bad mechanics, you either master Zen or the art of motor cycle maintenance.

I changed my mechanic, but my bike broke down again. This mechanic had forgotten to tighten a nut and it had fallen away.

My friend’s bike mechanic, in his hurry to finish the job, forgot to set the shock absorbers right. After a bumpy ride, my friend had to massage his back with a pain relief balm for two days. An over-enthusiastic mechanic once put extra oil into another bike’s engine, and the owner was stuck in the middle of the ECR at midnight waving to strangers for help.

All this just because the service centres aren’t close by, and you are left to trust the mechanic who lives down the lane.

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