Weekend Exclusive | Conversation beyond bikes with Rajputana Customs' Vijay Singh

Vijay Singh who runs the Rajputana Customs; a motorcycle outfit based in Jaipur, is one of the new customized bike builders in India. Building custom motorcycles on an order basis is what they do and also modify existing bikes as well as build them from scratch. I am sure all the bike lovers must have heard about him.

 

As like a young, good looking guy with all kind of royalty factors in him, Vijay, let me say this, is 'soooooo' passionate about bikes and thus gives what he loves in the bikes made or customized by him. We at Adgully caught up with Vijay Singh during, Projector Friday; an initiative by Flying Cursor where they hold meet-ups with inspiring folks, who are doing amazing work in the field of arts/music/popular culture/films/media etc. For the records Flying Cursor is the digital arm of Richshaw Design and Communications.

 

Let’s take a ride through Vijay Singh’s journey, wroom wroom and wroooommmmm!!!!

 

As told by him, Vijay got inspired from his dad who used to race Jaipur Motorcycle Club long ago. He says, “I am really not inspired from one design but we take inspiration from different surroundings and cultures, craftsmen, artisans etc when we build a bike.”

 

Also as told by him, it is very spontaneous bike-building process wherein the customers tells them what and how they want in their bikes and Rajputana Customs would customize it. He says, “We do not have a library of design or kind of set pattern, we make what our customers want and at times we even go with flow while making a bike.”  

 

Since it is not so mainline business, so when asked about his plans of getting into mainline, Vijay said, “Our business cannot be main-stream at all as we don’t have a particular amount of demand and supply. We are happy building 12 quality bikes a year and would rather stick to it instead giving 60 a year with no quality, any passion and average bikes.”

 

He believes that more than demand, supply and money, "It’s about me and my teams passion for building bikes". Facebook, he believes has added a lot to it, say 50% is generated by it. The bikes range from Rs 80,000 to lakhs. Out of all that he created, the most expensive is ‘Raj Mata’.  

 

Sharing about how the money is utilized, Vijay said, “We break-even, as in whatever money we get we utilize it our next project. I don’t have money that I get from RCM (Rajputana Customs Motorcycles), to spend.” Just for record, Vijay works with his mother as well, who has clothing brand, Cottons and does a lot of administrative work and gets a salary from there.  

 

His favorite of all is ~Laado~ Mahri Laadli, (BSA M20), which is an old customized bike, around 70 years old. The riders appreciate and love what he does. Also, the interesting part is that Vijay himself is not a long run rider but creates everything for a long run rider. He says, “I understand motorcycles aesthetically. It’s my passion and love it. I do not think too much when I am building the bike; I just go with flow when I start remaining true to the commitment to the customer’s wants and wishes.”  

 

The procedure seems really simple they have been really interactive with the customers and very approachable online dealers and yes of course, when Facebook is here why to fear! After hearing and conversing with him, Vijay’s passion for bikes is commendable. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]