Dubai-based Indian homemaker turns biker at 41

Dubai-based biker Richa, who requested that only her first name be used for this article, says: “Being yourself isn’t always a popular choice. So it’s up to you. Do you want to be good, or you want to do what you want to do?”

The biker is five-foot something with long black hair that’s shaved on one side and dipping down her shoulders on the other. She has streaks of pink in her locks — the same vivid hue that paints her nails. A tattoo shimmers down her left arm, stopping past a knuckle on a finger. A leather cuff is wrapped around her wrist, complete with steel spikes. Her look, at 46, screams biker even as her eyes softly crinkle , hinting at a more homely demeanour. She’s been straddling both worlds, that of a little ol’ homemaker and a daredevil biker for a few years, so it’s no wonder she’s got the look down pat.

Now, she’ll be seen at Arabian Bike Week, which takes place from November 8-10, in Ras Al Khaimah. The largest motorcycle festival in the Middle East will gather enthusiasts from around the world for three days of thrilling rides, stunt shows, live music, and beach parties.

Looking at Richa now, you’d never guess the rider is new to her craft; she only took her helmet on a test run five years ago.

The first ride

Richa grew up in middle-class India with dreams she couldn’t speak about. “This was 30-40 years ago — imagine, if a middle-class girl had said she wanted to ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle, what do you think people would have said? They would have laughed,” she shrugs, adding, “but today look at me, I ride my own Harley.”

The Harley Davidson brand was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee and has been a firm favourite with bikers across the world — unfortunately, as its legacy has grown, so has its price tag. Today, one of its powerful steel rides would cost at least $25,633 (Dh94,150).

As a young girl, Richa quashed her dreams to go down the conventional route — studying, getting married, having kids. But when she hit 40, she began to feel the itch in her fingers and the twitch in her toes, which wanted to put the pedal to the metal, and she started to want the feel of the wind in her hair. “I began to have these thoughts, ‘I'm settled now, got a family. I'm doing everything for them. But what about myself?’”

Dreaming of the Harley, she decided to do some research on it. A year on, she was resolute. “I thought about it. I didn’t discuss with anyone. I didn’t ask anyone, as I crossed 41, I said, ‘I have to do it’.”

She took her husband to the showroom. “He was a bit nervous, because it is a big bike. But he came along with me. We didn't buy the bike. But after a week I knew I needed it. He kept quiet. He thought, ‘It's just a phase’. So he came with me. We went to the showroom again. I said, ‘Yeah, I'm taking it’.”

Her husband was a bit perplexed, because, “I didn’t even have a licence yet”, but Richa was determined. She stashed the bike in the showroom (having paid for it, they agreed to keep it until she had learned the ropes of driving).

At this point, recalls Richa, the family lived in Sharjah, and so she needed to get a special licence — not for a bike but for a motorcycle. “I was the only lady in the class; the others were all guys. I had never ridden a bike before, a scooter, yes, but I didn't know how to work the clutch, the gear, the brake,and riding a motorcycle, it has to be a beautiful dance between these three things. It was a difficult phase, but I did it. Got my licence, then, I got my bike.”

Except a number of speed brakers would follow the delivery — first came a nasty bout of pneumonia, then came the Covid restrictions, and finally a few months of being stuck in India. “By the time I came back, I had lost touch with riding. But I was determined to ride, so I started slow, with little rides around the house. But I realised that when I rode alone, I wouldn’t go very far. That's how I ended up joining a group.”

The initial days meant muscle work. “When you start riding, your hand becomes numb; your fingers because of holding clutch and the gear and the brakes feel stiff. Once you get used to it, then you don't feel it. In fact, you come back after a ride and you feel so good. And the thing with a Harley bike is the seats are comfortable, and you can upgrade to more comfortable seats,” she says.

Today, the mum of two rides twice a week — on Wednesdays and Sundays — for hours with her riding group, the Harley Owners Group Dubai. “My husband is very supportive — he looks after the kids so I can go and have fun,” she says.

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