Women on Bikes: How Bullets are Challenging Gender Stereotypes

“Why has society made men ride bullets and women scooters?” Pury, a 29-year-old policy worker asked. Two-wheelers are a popular mode of transportation in India, as they are relatively cheap and fast. But there is a difference between riding motorbikes — known locally as “bullets” — and scooters.
Scooters are generally less powerful than motorbikes, making them less practical for long distance. But women who wear sarees may find scooters more comfortable as they have a place to put their feet. If you attempt to ride a motorbike without thick pants you might get a nasty burn from the silencer. Scooters also have a storage compartment that allows women keep their handbags and shopping, and are relatively light compared to 180kg bikes.
I met up with Bindu, the founder of HopOnGurls, an organization dedicated to teaching women how to ride motorbikes, to discuss the rise in female bikers in Bangalore. She wore a blue shirt with dark wash jeans and had her hair pulled back. She hadn’t brought her bike as it was late in the night and the traffic was unrelenting. Bindu, now 30 years old, started riding at the age of 24 with the help of her male friends. “This is the first gear, this is the second gear, now go! And that is how I learnt,” said Bindu. It was this experience that allowed her to notice how hard it was for women to learn to ride bikes in Bangalore and to start HopOnGurls. “People would say to me a girl should not ride a bike, that’s why the scooter is there,” she said. After six months, Bindu got a hang of riding and a year later she bought herself a silver Royal Enfield which she has owned since.
Since its inception in 2011, HopOnGurls has taught over 250 women to ride bikes. There are three teachers, including Bindu. All students need to learn is a driver’s license and a fee of five thousand rupees; equipment, including helmet and bikes, is provided. The classes run for eight hours over the course of two days. The hardest part to learn, Bindu said, is how to start. “I find myself having to explain how to leave the clutch and accelerate several times,” she said. “But once they can move the bike all they really have to do is balance.” The biggest challenge female bikers face, she said, is their family’s disapproval and the “a woman can’t/shouldn’t” mindset. She credited the rise of strong female leads with the public’s increasing receptiveness to the idea of women not just riding scooters but also biking. On the flip side, Bindu said, women who drive are perceived to be drinkers and smokers.
“Mobility and technical knowledge have been the domain of men. They’re free to move anywhere, almost as a birthright,” writes Jayawati Shrivastava in Lady Drivers, a book that explores the relationship between women’s independence and their ability drive automobiles. “Women, however, face hundreds of restrictions: ‘don’t go out after dark’, don’t go alone’, ‘make sure you’re properly dressed’. Any breaking of rules is met with criticism and often even punishment. Patriarchy controls women’s power.”
Still, the gender barrier for females riding bikes may be decreasing, as most women learn from the men in their lives. Sushma, a 20-year-old student at St. Joseph’s College, learned how to ride from her father and male friends. “I love riding because it is a passion that tickles me out of boredom, as I can go for a ride when I’m in a bad mood or have nothing to do,” she said. Sushma, like many others, started with a scooter before she took up biking at age 16.
Aside from the stereotypes associated with biking, I was curious as to how women handled the hustle and bustle of Bangalore streets. Bindu laughed and said, “The same way men do.” It is actually easier and safer to ride in a city as opposed to highway; because of the traffic bikes can’t speed as much, which makes it less likely for fatal accidents to occur.
Recently, however, a female driver on a highway in Mumbai was being trailed by a truck and hit a pothole, which led to a fatal accident. “Everyone, even those on Facebook, were blaming her, saying things like she should have taken a right or left, but how do they know what she should have done when they weren’t there?” Bindu said. “A man even said that she shouldn’t have gone out, that she should have stayed home and taken care of her child. No one is saying that the pothole shouldn’t have been there or that the government should build better roads, but they are blaming the victim who isn’t alive to defend herself.”
Nevertheless, organizations like HopOnGurls are breaking patriarchal boundaries and setting the pace for young girls and women to explore life beyond traditional norms and embrace adventure. Bindu hopes to expand HopOnGurls to other cities.
“When you’re travelling on an expedition you feel calm and confident,” she said, and that is how life should be for everyone — including women.

