What killed Pakistan’s Motorcycle Industry

Picture this, you are 13 years old and you are developing your adaptation towards motorcycles, your elder brother or your Father happen to own an old 2stroke motorcycle. Little rough but still a gem of a bike inside. And you enjoy sneaking out for a quick spin when your brother or father is asleep. You loved that little moment with that old motorcycle. Oh GOD! Its bringing back memories. This is exactly my story. That’s how I have developed my sense of motorcycling.

My first motorcycle was my Father’s old 1989 model Yamaha YB100 2stroke. Later on in 2010 Yamaha wrapped up their business and went back. My father bought me a Honda CD70 when I started college in 2010 but don’t know why I never felt attached towards that bike. I loved riding my old Yammie along with my other friends who had same bikes like mine. That was the time when my bike was getting older, parts were getting less available, mechanics weren’t found of working on it. That was the time when everyone was selling off their old school motorcycles and going towards the newer 4stroke machines. Chinese motorcycle firms had invaded Pakistan with their character less 70, 100 & 150 cc motorcycles. The dark days of Pakistan’s motorcycling had just begun.

It was time when I became found of Bike section @ PakWheels.com. That was a great time, almost 70 % of my friends whom I spend time with are because of PakWheels.com. Some guys whom I still hang out with and have many memories of them. At that bike section forums I observed many kinds of Pakistani motorcyclists. Some were fans of Honda, some were fans of Yamaha, Kawasaki & Suzuki etc.

Ravi Piaggio was recently launched & boy o boy it was talk of the town at those forums. Many people said it’s a Chinese knock off and hated it but some were different they were accepting it whole heartedly. The Pakistani biker who was ignored by Japanese manufacturers back in the day ignored Japanese bikes because of old technology, no new features and less facilities to offer. The time when Ravi Piaggio matured over the period of 2 years, it developed a cult following of modifiers. People built their businesses around motorcycles & started modifying them for their customers. Some people started swapping bigger engines into the small chassis which ultimately made it a pocket rocket.

By that time you would be thinking that why? And how is all this related with Issues of Pakistani Motorcycle industry but the truth is the ignorance killed it. Ignorant manufacturers, ignorant sellers and buyers were equally responsible. By far Pakistan’s motorcycling is governed by an illiterate mechanic who loves to work on old technology and hates every new thing with new technology. He has his one liner verdict about every new machine i.e. “This won’t work” and an educated person follows it.

Gentlemen I hate to write an article about an issue which has a one liner answer. The question was What killed Pakistan’s Motorcycle Industry? And the answer to this is “This won’t work”!