With a day free in Tehran, Iran we park our Mahindra Adventure SUVs on the INSTC Friendship rally and explore the city. Now without the benefit of Google to verify, or otherwise, these are purely my observations while walking around and looking through the windows of taxis. And in the main the bikes are rubbish. Starting at Bandar Abbas, the bikes are all Honda clones (think early CD-100 but slightly more basic), some sporting Honda badges, quite a few of them locally made clones and a smattering of Chinese nameplates. All are 125cc 4-stroke singles and all sport huge Harley-style windscreens, possibly for the blast of heat or sand.
As you go up to the bigger cities you see better bikes – and all the better bikes are Indian! Bajaj is hugely popular, there’s the 220 with the half-fairing, the NS 200 and a weird mashup with the round headlamp of the Type 1 and the tail end of the Type 2. And to tackle the bulk of the market – the Honda clones – Bajaj also sells the Boxer with a 150cc engine (a bike only for export, not sold in India). The other ‘good’ bike is the TVS Apache RTR 200 of which there are plenty. And all the bikes, including the Pulsars and Apaches have those big windscreens. As for the riding, well, bikers are bikers. Isfahan in particular was filled with hooligans, maybe because we entered there on a holiday and the revelry was peaking.
“As you go up to the bigger cities you see better bikes – and all the better bikes are Indian!”
The other familiar brand is Benelli, the single-cylinder bike. And I saw two superbikes, Fireblades I think but it was on the other side of the divider. No scooters. A few step-thru’s like you see swarming around South East Asia. But no scooters. And, I must mention, they do not wear helmets. No helmets. Anywhere. Not even in the capital of Iran, Tehran. Scary considering majority of the bikes, except the Indian ones, are all running cross-ply tyres.