Beach bike racing draws crowd in Kochi

Huge crowd gathered at Fort Kochi Beach to watch bikers race on sand.

Bikers from Kerala and neighbouring states participated in the race which was part of the ongoing Cochin Carnival 2014.

Professional and amateur bikers chased down each other to win the 30th edition of the race.

"This is the 30th edition. The one who comes first gets Rs. 15,000, the one who comes second gets Rs. 10,000 and the third gets Rs. 7,500. 15 bikers take part in the competition but this time it is less as we didn't get permission on time," said event organiser M.M. Salim.

He added that due to less sponsors, not many bikers participated in the race but it still drew huge crowd being a popular event.

Each participant is required to have a valid license to take part. Special tyres with huge blocks of rubber are installed in a bike for better grip and to avoid skidding during the race.

The crowd enjoyed the race and cheered whenever a biker passed by.

"I have been doing this for the past 15 years because of my personal craze with bikes. We practice when no one is there on the beach so as to avoid the crowd and accidents. There is no special bike used for the race, only some minor changes are done mainly on the tyres by putting extra rubber to get strong grip on sand and some little modification for high power," said a bike racer Beach Babu.

The bikers practice for months on the beach to participate in this event. Trainers are also available but in less numbers.