Also Read: 2016 India Bike Week: Hits and Misses
Held at Arpora, Goa, the 2016 India Bike Week saw Dougie Lampkin keep the adrenaline levels high bouncing off everything from cars, pipes, the stage and even a person on his bike. But, the part that amazed him was the number of fans he saw in India. "I didn't anticipate so many fans here. It was for the first time that a trials biker has come to India, but people were enthusiastic from the first moment."
Born to 1975 FIA Trials Championship winner Martin Lampkin, Dougie started riding motorcycles since the age of three and moved on to small competitions at the age of nine. With motorcycle trials part of the genes, it was only natural for the 39-year-old to follow his father's footsteps.
Talking about India Bike Week, Dougie Lampkin was here for the first time having heard about its tremendous growth over the last four years and was clearly ecstatic about the growing biking culture in the country. The festival which had over 12,000 riders from all over the country in attendance saw motorcycles from Harley-Davidson, Indian Motorcycle, Triumph, Ducati, Benelli as well from Honda, KTM and even Bajaj. The road trip stories extended from as close as Kolhapur, Pune and Mumbai going up to Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Chennai and Kerala. Participants also rode down from as far as Uttarakhand covering over 2500 km for the festival.
When asked about the future of Trials in India, Lampkin realizes that the sport won't grow immediately in the country. While India may not provide the same scope of growth as seen in Europe, US and Japan, the nine-time Scottish Six Day Trials (SSDT) champion is optimistic of the changing winds of opportunity. More so, since India's first ever official Hard Enduro event was held at IBW this year, with over 60 amateur Moto Cross riders participating from across India. This definitely comes as good news for his Indian fans as Lampkin promises this won't be his last trip to the country.
Also Watch: A Trip To India Bike Week 2016
For the remainder of the year, Dougie Lampkin's calendar is packed with tours planned in Sri Lanka and Maldives among other locations. The champion has a six-day trials event planned in Scotland, while he also doubles up as the manager for Vertigo Sports Championship team with the first race scheduled in Spain later this year. Giving some important piece of advice to the young aspirants out there, Lampkin signs off saying "You need to be happy, you need to be enjoying yourself, just ride the bike as often as you can and one day you will be traveling the world.
