Balu with one os his bikes
© AFP/File Manan VatsyayanaNEW DELHI (AFP) - "I've watched people lose their fricking mind," says the unflappable, blue-eyed Balu, 41, who uses only one name like many locals even though he hails from New Mexico in the United States.
"When you take off on your bike, beep, beep your ass off, instead of getting angry," Balu, meaning Bear, tells two English tourists who visit his Bulletwalas (Bullet People) shop in the tourist area Paharganj to plan a trip.
The shop's name is a reference to the Royal Enfield motorcycle, popularly known as the Bullet, which is favored by Balu and by many motorcycle aficionados in India.
The shaggy-haired burly American started his shop, which doubles as a travel and life advice agency, in March 2004 after years of being approached by strangers who wanted to ride with him as he biked around India.
"Someone was always coming to our hotel door to get information, being told 'go and see Balu and Laura' about traveling here and there," he says, referring to his travel partner and girlfriend, who is Italian.
Two years later, Balu has tied up with some 24 hotels and garages in tourist hot spots, allowing them to use the Bulletwalas name and sending bikers their way.
Balu and one of his bikes
© AFP/File Manan VatsyayanaA houseboat in Kashmir, a ranch in western Rajasthan state and a beach house in the eastern state of Orissa are all part of the franchise.
"Now when foreigners are trying to start a business, people say 'Go see Balu'," he says.
As friends hang out in his shop and shared a beer, Balu, who worked as a ranch hand in the American west before arriving in India to travel in 1999, talks to the two Englishmen about their plans.
"I don't want to ride a bike for more than a week," Richard Blackburn, 31, tells Balu.
"Uh ... right," says Balu, staring at a map of India stuck with pink flags to highlight places worth visiting.
A few hours later, Blackburn and his pal leave Bulletwalas with plans to ride down to beach resort Goa, approximately 1,510 kilometers (936 miles) away.
Shortly after a curly-haired Irish lad comes in to ask Balu about riding from India back to Ireland, through the Middle East.
"Getting a permit for Iran will be impossible," Balu tells the boy, Robert O'Reilly, but then tries to figure out how to do the trip overland.
Balu can only give rough figures for the number of Bulletwalas members -- he estimates close to 1,000 people have been affilitated with the club in the last two years -- and says some 100 are riding in the Himalayan foothills now.
Balu
© AFP/File Manan VatsyayanaAs much as a travel club, Bulletwalas is also a fanclub for the Bullet itself, which was born when a sewing needle maker in 19th century in England decided to experiment with making other machinery.
The motorcycle first began to be known as the Bullet in 1932, a year after the company introduced a four-valve, single-cylinder model.
The India government ordered Bullets in bulk after 1955 for its army and police units, so many in fact that the English company was unable to fill orders fast enough and sold the design to a subsidiary in southern India.
Bullets are now only manufactured in India, pretty much as they were five decades ago, though they are exported to England.
"You can hear a Bullet before you see it, that's what it's about, a sound," says Simon Hemingway, 41, a part-time actor who has been traveling in India by bike for a year.
Hemingway is staying in the tourist town Pushkar in Rajasthan, with an Indian family that runs a Bulletwalas garage.
"They're compelling, every one is completely individual."
And with sales of motorcycles soaring by close to 20 percent a year, according the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, more people are interested in recreational riding than ever before.
Along with Bulletwalas, 60Kph, a motorcycle club founded in 2002, encourages adventurous Indian bikers to travel to remote places. Smaller towns increasingly boast motorcycle clubs as well.
According to Balu, traveling India by bike affords an immense feeling of freedom, provided Western travelers adjust their attitudes.
"It's what I'd like to call mental floss, it's like dental floss but no strings attached," he says.
"You might be the only white person in a small town, there are a million people looking at you, but it doesn't matter. Enjoy and be grateful you are here. If it's too stressful, come and see me."
©AFP