Home MOTOGRAPHY Customs Few Dreams Are Born In Garage And So Is Dochaki Custom

Few Dreams Are Born In Garage And So Is Dochaki Custom

October 24, 2016

Inception of Dochaki Custom,

dreaming about giving new life to motorcycles and becoming one enormous motorcycle builder of Dochaki Custom.

I will tell you today in my story, how I got to the point where I turned from a mechanical engineering student to a motorcycle builder and the dramatic journey of Dochaki Custom.

How did I do this from almost nowhere?

Who would imagine that a guy brought up in Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh) in a middle class Rajput family pursuing mechanical engineering would land up being a craftsman who give new life to motorcycles.

I am Anupam Singh Parihar.

I remember being 12 when my dad gave me the keys of his Hero Puch and offered me to take the motorcycle for a ride but the fear and age didn’t let me cross 7kms. Yes I kept the track of the distance. Back then I didn’t really know much about bikes. It was all dreamy, I used to watch television shows which had bikes in it and read anything and everything about motorcycles.

Now came the time when I had two options whether to sail in a boat of engineering or to work hard for Army entrance. In school, I was a black belt 2^nd Dan in Taekwondo and got some medals in National Level tournaments so I thought I am capable and can get in Army. Tried thrice and failed. No worries.

I chose the conventional course, mechanical engineering. Entered college and was handed the keys of SUZUKI Fiero, 1^st generation, 150cc, 12bhp. That was the time when I fell really hard in love for motorcycle. I just loved the feeling of freedom as if you are all on your own.

I use to just stare pretty motorcycles, talk about them and think about them.

In the due course of time, I understood one thing that I want to design automobiles be it cars, motorbikes, trucks or even space ships(always had high hopes ;)). All these thoughts ran across my mind with lot of confusion about so unpredictable me and my future. With this passion and hunger for design I moved to Delhi to prepare for Design schools entrance with all the odd jobs to just survive in that city.

Got admission in MIT’s Institute of Design, Pune for Master’s in Industrial Design(Transportation Design) discipline. I know what I was getting into, lot of challenges as I had to get hold and understanding of Design. Those years of college just grilled me and gave me apt knowledge of creating an ingenious product. My hard work gave me a project from John Deer which was followed by placement in Force Motors, worked on mixed project: Force One, Traveller 26, Gurkha and many more.

In 2013, I got an offer from a German based company. They wanted me to move to Germany and with this I planned to move there and quit job here. Everything seemed to flow in the right direction. But I think my passion took over all the forces of universe. My work permit got denied and so did my visa application.

I was left with nothing, no job and no idea about my next action. Had some saving which sufficed my accommodation and food but soon I knew I will need money to pay my rents and a job to pay all these expenses.

On one fine day I got a call from Wahid Bhai, the mechanic who use to service my Royal Enfield from college days. I discussed back then that I want to design beautiful machine which will leave everyone awestruck. So considering that he called and told me that one of his customer wants to change the entire look and feel of his Royal Enfield and he himself has no idea what he exactly wants. The iron was hot and the timing was just right. That was the time when I had to quit the thought of getting into some conventional job and an ordinary profession. I had to break free that and I did it.

I got onto my job and started working on the blueprint, met the client and surprisingly in first meeting itself he liked my ideas. I made few random calculations of everything as I had no knowledge about the market rates. I agreed on a very low cost budget as I didn’t want to be so pricey about the first project in hand. I used to sit with the fabricators as none of them were professionals, used to work with painters and many of them ditched me in the middle. All this crossed my budget and I had to invest money from my shallow pocket and with this I crossed the budget in my first project. I happily accepted it. The last stop was Wahid Bhai, he helped me in assembling the whole motorcycle. I named the project ‘Pehalwan’.

Dochaki Custom _ Motorcycle Diaries — Pehalwan

After this project I went to my hometown with fear and confusion that how will I tell everyone that I don’t have a job and is not even willing to go for one. And the new thing, I opted is something people don’t understand. For majority I will be a mechanic or a denting/welding guy. I told them and shared the pictures and journey of ‘Pehalwan’ with my friends and family. But got no reaction so I assumed that either they are not okay with it or are absorbing the fact.

With this I came back to Pune and here everyone was appreciating ‘Pehalwan’ and I felt like I am sitting on a happy cloud made of thousands of feather. So light and delighted.

I started getting calls from my friends, asking me to pick more projects and then I decided that I will start my own custom motorcycle shop. Named it ‘Dochaki Custom’ which simply means Do(two)- chaki(wheels) in hindi, or Sanskrit. The idea was fine but I had no workshop, no employees and no bikes to show people. All day and night I used to brainstorm how to take it forward.

And now something happened that I didn’t imagine in my wildest dream. On my birthday December 14^th , I got a call from my father. In the conversation, he asked me to showcase a motorcycle in Bhopal, Auto Expo. I told him that I don’t have anything to showcase to which he replied that why don’t you convert your old Suzuki Fiero(motorcycle which was passed on to me from my father). This was huge; this coming from an Indian parent is so encouraging and empowering.

Neither I saw left nor right and started working on the sketch. I dreamt about it all night and started imagining myself there as one introducing Dochaki Customs. Next day I went to my mechanic but he said this is next level to impossible because we just have 13 days in hand. With all the high hopes, I went to fabricator and confirmed whether he will be able to craft all the parts in 4 days. He said we can but you will have to sit with us throughout as we have the understanding but need directions. 4 days passed and the parts were ready, not too great but good. Refining and painting is one hell of a job and definitely complicated one. Meanwhile I took my stripped down motorcycle to Wahid Bhai, so that we can assemble it till the time everything else is getting done.

The bike got ready, could not afford the time and money for luggage transport so booked a space in bus. Asked my friend to come along to help me out. Two days before the parts were not ready, paint was not completely dry but still somehow assembled the whole motorcycle and we started our journey. The paint got smudged and we had no time, we gave the final finish whatever was possible in such short duration and took it to the Expo. This was our first motorcycle with Dochaki branding on it. First official project of Dochaki Custom, named it ‘Daksh’, a mix of a café racer and a street fighter. But the motorcycle was successful in generating curiosity and queries among the visitors. And everything went far ahead from our expectation. First success of Dochaki Custom.

And this was the beginning of my and Dochaki Custom journey and I could see my dream coming true where there is a garage full of motorcycles, tools, part and designs. The smell of the garage was just something I love.

I came back to Pune, took a garage space next to Wahid Bhai‘s shop and started taking up projects. Social network platform helped me a lot, people starting putting up their queries and I got three full time employees and Wahid bhai who work on all our motorcycles and begun a beautiful relationship with these guys. I kept all my men involved and take their input in every project.

This year we were among the 5 bike builders who got a chance to compete for Biker Build of Contest at India Bike Week 2016. We Build “Lokhand” for the Event and the response was tremendous. It’s always an honor to showcase Dochaki Custom projects.

These three years came with lot of mistakes, achievements and abundance of happiness. A lot of things inspire me in designing my motorcycles. I meet my clients and get into interesting conversation to understand their psyche and build a motorcycle which has a reflection of their personality and I assume that’s the reason why all my projects have so much of soul in it. Here are few of my projects.

This journey of a dreamer to be motorcycle builder is all I wanted in life. I will never disappoint myself and will always create the best, one of its kind. Dochaki Custom