When you think of bikes, you think of speed and when you think of riders, you think of reckless riding! But wait till you meet the Tornado Riders — funlovers and changemakers rolled into one.
The flag-off
Starting off in 2008 with just five members, the Tornado Riders back then was all about having fun, performing stunts in safe spaces and going on long rides in groups. Today, the same group has turned into a massive community of over 250 members and 72 decision-makers. “The aim was to have fun and be ourselves on our bikes while also trying to effect change,” said Biswadeep Biswas.
Tornado Riders on the highway on one of their many rides together Courtesy: Tornado Riders
“We’ve lost a few brothers along the way and over time the need and our attention to safety has only improved — a fact proven by the outstanding adherence to safety during the stunt show on display during RevOlution. We want to have fun but safety is something we don’t compromise on,” said the 37-year-old community member, lovingly called Bubul da by his peers.
As the community grew bigger, a thought crept in where the Riders decided to start contributing towards those who don’t have food or shelter.
“It started off with us contributing money from our pockets but we quickly realised that it wasn’t sustainable and we wouldn’t be able to impact change with so little. That’s where the idea of RevOlution came up, we needed a way to raise funds to help us provide for the ones we wanted to help,” Biswas said.
How it revved up
When tornado took the highway by storm on their 10th year anniversary ride on NH2 Courtesy: Tornado Riders
In the first year, 680 passes were sold for Rs 100 each, including lunch. “More than the event, people were intrigued to know that how will these guys host an event and provide each pass holder with biryani all for just Rs 100,” said Biswas. “From 680 to this year when we have sold a record number of passes. We even had to close off the pass registration four days before the event because it was getting to massive numbers that would be difficult to handle.”
The event was held at Hotel Highway Inn International beside the Dhulagarh toll plaza this year with nearly 2,000 people in attendance and a whopping 1,275 bikes, of which over 200 were super bikes, taking part.
Switching to humane gear
Tornado Riders celebrated 10 years with 225 bikers riding together Courtesy: Tornado Riders
All proceeds from the event will go towards a charitable cause, providing blankets, slippers and food to those who do not possess these basic things required in the winter months. “Ninety-nine per cent of the funds will go towards helping those without blankets and slippers this winter, the rest goes towards organising food and water for those who help us make the event successful, our volunteers, who are all younger members of our Tornado community,” said Biswas, in between running to ensure smooth flow of the event.
The Tornado Riders also conducts blood donation drives every year. “In the monsoon months, we start surveys around Kolkata.”
During the lockdown, the Tornado Riders organised food for over 500 people for 40 days where the meal they served on the last day of lockdown was fried rice and chilli chicken to celebrate the end of a torrid period.
Clinching RevOlution-ary success
The Growth of RevOlution has been significant with the 5th edition seeing over 1,250 bikes and 2,000 attendees Soumyajit Dey
Speaking about RevOlution, Biswas said: “We have over 70 smaller biking clubs participating now and without their help we wouldn’t have been able to grow fast. We luckily are now in a position where we turn down sponsors because we cannot accommodate so many people and sponsors and deliver justice to everyone.”
The Tornado Riders’ aim is now simple: get the event inside the city and have more people attend so that more funds are raised to help those in need.
“We want to host the event at Eco Park next year so we can get in over 2,000 bikes and around 4,000 people but the financing is a bit too much. We are hoping that a major sponsor comes along as we look forward to expanding the event and reaching out to people,” said Biswas.