Bikes on the menu

Anand Adkoli is a man of many interests but biking rules all.

Anand Adkoli is a regular 40-year-old. Married to a filmmaker, and a software engineer by profession (he is CEO of Liqwid Krystals, an IT solutions company), Adkoli has just one passion "" biking. And it was this passion that led to the kind of successful entrepreneurship many of us would envy.

Adkoli started a biker's theme restaurant in Bangalore called Road Trip in 2003 and since then his passion for biking has helped him cash in on his interest.

Adkoli says it was his love for biking that prompted him to open the restaurant. "In India, there is no biking fraternity, unlike in the US, and a place was needed where enthusiasts could come under one roof and discuss biking."

Adkoli is right about the biking fraternity in India. There are a few Royal Enfield clubs in the country but not much else. Adkoli says three biking clubs have already been formed at Road Trip, and they go on biking trips around Bangalore on Sundays.

With not much of an investment, Road Trip is actually a bikers' delight. Spread over 2,500 sq ft, the decor of the restaurant is made up of spare bike parts.

For instance, the lamps in the restaurant are headlights of Royal Enfield bikes. The door handles are the handles of various bikes. And eating at the restaurant is not that expensive either.

Road Trip offers a Continental menu where a meal for two costs around Rs 300. Adkoli says the restaurant earns a revenue of Rs 5 lakh per month.

Biking can be a dangerous sport and Adkoli feels special emphasis must be laid on its safety aspect. "We have safety instruction posters in our restaurant ,which help people on their biking expeditions," he says.

Adkoli's fascination with bikes began when he went to the US in 1986 and met a bike riding instructor for the first time. "I was amazed to find a person whose job was to teach people how to ride bikes."

Adkoli was so inspired by him that he went ahead and undertook training at the biker's school in California. He is now a certified bike instructor himself.

He rides a Kawasaki Ninja,a 1000-cc super bike, but admits that since his marriage he has reduced his biking trips. As part of the promotional activities at Road Trip, people can actually win a few superbikes.

"We have contests wherein the guy who is the most frequent customer in a month gets a superbike." The super bikes in India are not that easily available but one can find them at knockdown prices as they are mostly second-hand bikes. In Bangalore alone there are about 100 superbikes.

"I used to feel pretty alienated when I got my Ninja as there weren't many superbikes on the road at that time," says Adkoli.

Plus, the condition of the roads in Bangalore did not help his cause. But gradually he found people who shared his passion for biking and along with them he began making trips out of Bangalore.

Apart from being a biking enthusiast, Adkoli is a wildlife and adventure freak. "My association with wildlife goes back to my childhood days as my father was in the forest department and I used to accompany him on his visits to reserves and national parks."

He says that he almost quit the IT industry in order to travel around the world. But in 1999 a venture capitalist came in and offered investment to start off Liqwid Krystals.

Since then, the company has been nominated by NASSCOM for the IT innovation award in 2005. Still, Adkoli has been to around 30 countries, from where he has picked up souvenirs and other things for his restaurant.

While most of the visitors to Road Trip are bikers, there are quite a few non-bikers who frequent the place too. Sunday is the busiest day. Adkoli says he has not advertised the restaurant much, and doesn't plan to do so. "Word-of-mouth publicity is enough for my place."

As for the future, Adkoli wants to do something for his other passion, wildlife. He wants to solve the man-animal conflict which have arisen in the past few years with human encroachment in certain wildlife areas near Bangalore.

"I have submitted an initial project proposal to the government and am looking forward to the support of corporates as well as other people to help in solving this problem."

If his past record is anything to go by, Adkoli will probably succeed in converting this passion into another successful project.