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Bike lovers! Wheedle a deal over here!
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 Bells Road, Chepauk … the name at once brings to mind lines of cricket lovers waiting to enter Chepauk on one side while on the other numerous shops and garages stack up second-hand two-wheelers for sale or lease.
Even though the two-wheeler market's profile has changed drastically, Bells Road at least is still true to its image, continuing to be the hub of two-wheeler dealers in
Chennai.
As one enters the road from the M.A.Chidambaram stadium side, what comes to mind instantaneously is the memory of the numerous cricket matches that the stadium has hosted. A glance to the right gives a view of the two-wheeler dealers displaying their bikes all over the pavement.
The second-hand two-wheeler market on Bells Road is more than a decade old. And thrives not just on customers from within the city, but also because of customers and dealers from other districts and even states.
 "The road had just three dealers 11 years ago when I came here to set up shop" says a shopkeeper. "Now it has more than 40 dealers" - all offering expert consultancy in second-hand bikes.
The new exchange schemes offered on new bikes by showrooms has resulted in a slump in the old bikes market. But they are still not left out of the action. The old bikes taken in through exchange programs often land up at these second hand bike dealers. Thus completing a circle of bikes!
Invariably, the Bells Road lot still does roaring trade and the number of dealers is even growing, mainly because the purchasers who come here are unable to offer the long list of documents required by new dealers. Credit rating too is minimal with only proof of residence the main, and often sole, criterion.
On an average, each second-hand dealer buys and sells three to four bikes a day. But there is no consistency of business, just like most other businesses. Finance options are made available to customers either by the dealers themselves or through their contacts. And because the customers are unable to offer salary slips or tax returns, rates start at the 24 per cent level and go past 36 per cent.
 But the problems faced by the dealers include the traffic police, who regularly file cases and collect fines from the dealers for parking the vehicles on the pavement.
Midway down the road one sees the small M.E.S office , probably the only one with a clearly written board giving details of the numbers to contact in case of complaints. Something other government offices can look
upto.
The road also houses the government maternity hospital. And the Madras Cricket Club practice sessions at the stadium start early in the mornings, and cricketing activity of some sort or the other goes an almost all day.
If the road comes to life with the sound of bikes being tuned, the thwack of cricket ball on bat often helps ring the curtain down on this unique street of commerce.
- Gokul Krishnamurthy
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