Jehangir Sohrab Foroogh’s AJS motorcycle is a 99-year-old sportbike!

Don’t be put off by his tall frame and fierce bushy moustache. Mumbai’s Jehangir Sohrab Foroogh is as friendly a soul as they come. Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, he is now retired from business and devotes his time to his family and motorbikes. He is as happy on a Kawasaki Versys 650 as he is on an old Kinetic Luna. If it has two wheels, it’s all good. But the picks of the lot are his two AJS motorcycles, both dating back to the 1920s. And the AJS H7? Well, that’s special because that one is 99 years old and will turn a full century next year. 

“The AJS is my favourite. There’s something different about it. I bought her in 2007 or 2008. When I saw her, she was in a dilapidated condition. The tyres were gone, the seat was torn. But it was still love at first sight,” he narrated. Jehangir bought the bike from its previous owner, Rohinton Bapu, a former commercial pilot. The motorcycle’s papers show that it had been brought into Bombay in the 1930s, and all four previous owners were Parsis.

“He told me that he had received an offer that was one lakh rupees more than what I was prepared to give him. He said he wanted me to have it because I was a Parsi. But if I was interested in selling the bike, then he would want to give it to the other gentleman and make more money on the bike,” he said. Jehangir assured him that this bike would be with him for as long as he lived. That was the start of both the ownership and a sort of relationship between Jehangir and Rohinton. Even today, when the motorcycle is taken to different places for shows like the recent Oberoi Concours d’Elegance, Jehangir sends him photos of the bike.

Interestingly, the motorcycle had been raced in the past, and pictures of it being raced back in the day exist as proof. “Karl showed me an old photograph of three cars racing, and my bike was there at the bottom of the photograph,” he told me. Pune-based Karl Bhote is not only an enthusiast of historic vehicles but is also an archivist who has tonnes of archival material, including photographs. Restored to its original glory, including its competition number 27, Jehangir’s AJS H7 is a prize winner too and won the trophy as the Best in Class in the Indian Heritage Motor Racing (Bikes) category at the event in Udaipur. From winning races to beauty contests, the 1927 AJS H7 is a genuine thoroughbred. 

The other AJS, a 1925 G5 model, is over a hundred years old. This one, too, was a complete resurrection and even needed a new engine. When Jehangir first acquired it, it had only the frame, petrol tank, seat, and handlebars. But it had no engine. Over the course of his life as an enthusiast-collector-restorer, he has owned many motorcycles, including a Kawasaki GPZ 900 – the same motorcycle that Tom Cruise rode in Top Gun in 1986 as fighter pilot Pete Mitchell. 

At the moment, he has nine motorcycles, some of which are kept with care in his 11th-floor apartment in a housing complex in Pune. “I have kept them there because they don’t rust and are safe inside my house,” he said. “The first thing I took to the apartment was my AJS. All my bikes go up to the 11th floor in the lift. I go there, pack them nicely, and I come back to Mumbai. Nobody stays there. Only my bikes.” 

So, where does this mad love for motorcycles come from? “My father used to own two motorcycles. A Triumph Tiger and a BSA Golden Flash. He used to ride from Mumbai to Lonavala with his mechanic riding pillion. One day, he had an accident, and my grandfather sold his bikes and gave him a Raleigh bicycle to use,” Jehangir told me, admitting with some pride that he still has his father’s bicycle. 

His own actual foray into the world of two-wheelers also started on a bicycle. “I was very fond of cycles. My mother taught me how to ride. I had several falls throughout childhood. When I was in my 7th standard, my father said that if I passed my exams and got promoted, I would get a cycle. So I buckled down and studied hard. I did well in my exams, and he gave me an Atlas bicycle. Frame size 24 with normal handlebars. Nothing fancy. I used to really take care of it and park it on the first floor during the monsoons,” Jehangir recalled.

When he was around 15 years old, he felt a growing attraction towards motorcycles. “I learnt to ride on my cousin’s Ind-Suzuki motorcycle. At the time, he was learning how to drive. So we would go to Worli Seaface. He and his friend would drive the car. I learnt to ride, and would follow them on the bike slowly,” he laughed. From that tentative start, Jehangir started riding scooters he would borrow from his friends. His world changed when he experienced the Yamaha RX 100 as a youth in Bombay of the 1980s. He really wanted an Enfield Bullet, but his father eventually gave me money to buy a Bajaj Chetak scooter.

After eight years of owning the scooter, Jehangir finally got his first motorcycle – a used Enfield Bullet that his dad took delivery of because he didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle with the gear lever on the right side and the brake lever on the left. Over the course of 40 years, Jehangir has owned several motorcycles, including a BMW 1150 R, a Honda Monkey, and the Kawasaki GPZ 900 a la Top Gun. 

At one point, he owned as many as 20 motorcycles, but his current collection of about 12 is more curated for quality and includes, apart from his beloved AJSes, a pair of Nortons, two BSAs, and a Yamaha RX 100. Jehangir has a special love for British metal. “If you ask why, I cannot say. I love their looks, the materials they were made from, the quality of the stuff, and even the vibrations. I like looking at all my new motorcycles, but one look at an AJS or a BSA or Triumph or Norton, and it’s something else.”