Thrilling Motorcycle Travelogue. Review on Two Wheels Through Terror - Glen Heggstad

Less than a decade ago one could see only rickety scooters and antiquated pre-World War II styled motorcycles such as Rajdoot, Vespa, Bajaj, Lambretta etc on Indian roads. But in the post-liberalisation era fast, fancy and custom designed bikes from the stables of Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda jostle for space on jam-packed roads. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) annual motorcycle sales in India has risen from 430,000 in 1991 to 6 million in 2004. Fortunately never were so many automotive two-wheeler options available to Indian citizens, perennially short-changed by their pathetic public transport systems. Not surprisingly the availability of vrooming nexgen motorcycles has incubated the phenomenon of biking holidays. In contemporary India it’s not uncommon for bike enthusiasts to strap up their saddlebags and hit the highways to exotic, off-the-beaten-track destinations ranging from the freezing heights of the Himalayas to the golden beaches of the Indian Ocean. Cashing on this new fashion are smart two-wheeler manufacturers who have promoted motorcycle clubs in major cities across the country. These clubs with evocative names such as Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Bangalore; Inde Thumpers, Pune; 60Kph, Mumbai; Indian Bikers, Kolkata, among others are regularly thronged by leather-clad, greasy-handed motorcycle buffs. But the new-age Indian biker is hardly aware of the hazards of a cross-country run on a two-wheel machine. He has to negotiate unruly truck drivers, bandits, vehicle snatchers, naxalites and terrorists among other perils on the nation’s unpoliced highways. In terms of books and journals there are no recallable works by Indian authors on the subject and most automobile magazines devote their columns to techno mumbo jumbo. Against this backdrop Two Wheels Through Terror by US-based adventure motorcyclist and traveller Glen Heggstad, is a boon even to sub-continental bike enthusiasts. The book is a first-hand account of an ambitious motorcycle journey through South America that gets horribly, and violently, detoured. It’s as much a travel diary of a motorcycle odyssey as a story about bravery in the face of terror and perseverance in adversity. Heggstad aka ‘Striking Viking’ has driven custom-built Suzukis across the most rugged terrains worldwide and is a former member of Hell’s Angels – the largest motorcycle riders group in the US – apart form being a martial arts expert. His biking adventures have been featured on NPR and CBS's 48 Hours.

Currently in Asia on yet another round-the-world motorcycle tour, Heggstad has his permanent residence in Palm Springs, California, USA where he owns and operates a martial arts school. Divided into four sections featuring maps and top-quality pictures of South American landscapes, the book starts off with the profile of a confident man preparing to zoom away from the safe confines of his home to realise a dream and ends with a dazzling display of determination and courage. “Warriors claim that battles are won in the preparation. This is a personal battle for which I am preparing – a battle to survive the adventure through Mexico, Central America and the West Coast of South America to the tip, across the Straights of Magellan to the island of Tierra del Fuego, and back up the East Coast – on a 650 cc dual-sport motorcycle. A 25,000 mile ride through blazing deserts, freezing mountain passes, sub-Antarctic wilderness, and steaming tropical rainforests,” writes Heggstad in his introduction.

Two Wheels Through Terror is perhaps the most thrilling and absorbing motorcycle adventure travelogue ever written. Both diary of a motorcycle pilgrim and survival guide, this book should be standard reading for any daredevil motorcyclist who plans to hit country roads, and especially for Indian bikers planning cross-country travel in India which boasts the militant-infested Jammu and Kashmir, the naxalite-insurrectionary states of central India or the lawless BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) jurisdictions.

While biking through the rebels-dominated northern district of Columbia, Heggstad was kidnapped and held for ransom for five weeks by the rebel army Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). “After clearing the last hairpin curve, I come upon a two-ton truck with a canvas-covered bed being waved on after apparently being stopped and searched by armed men in dark clothing. What happens next, on a late, warm, sunny afternoon, in the spooky silence of a towering encroaching jungle, will forever alter the course of my life. I am 5,000 miles from the safety of my home, on a desolate stretch of the Colombian Autopista, two hours from the security of Medellín, when I’m stopped at the military-style roadblock by about thirty heavily-armed young men. They’re clean-shaven, short-haired, dressed in black sweat pants and black long sleeved T-shirts with nylon ammunition vests. They bear AK-47 assault rifles.

They wave me over with their rifles in firing position, aimed directly at me,” writes Heggstad about his kidnapping by ELN. A compilation of the events recorded by Heggstad during his journey, his capture, escape and eventual realisation of a dream, Two Wheels Through Terror is a gripping story of a bike adventurer robbed of all and frog-marched through fly-infested tropical jungles with assault rifles pointed into his back. But given his preparation in terms of proficiency in martial arts, unarmed hand-to-hand combat and shrewd thinking, he overcomes. Once free, Heggstad does not return home. Not a bit bogged down by the violent torture he had to suffer, Heggstad arranges for another motorcycle to be despatched to him in Columbia to continue on the high road to adventure through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

The rest is smooth riding, by his standards of adventures from which automotive two wheeler enthusiasts worldwide can learn a lot.