mysore the demand and price of antique bikes has skyrocketed in the heritage city with bikers fascination to own bikes like yezdi 250 jawa 250 and yamaha rd350 is increasing these vintage bikes were not only famous in 1980s which were sported by legendary bollywood actor feroz khan and kannada actor rajkumar in many movies but it is popular among todays generation though the prices of petrol also have gone up bike enthusiasts are always in quest for used classic bikes which gives very less mileage many bikers from bangalore and mysore are ready to shell out any amount for classic bikes to hit the streets with the unique roar that todays modern bikes do not have a call centre employee and bike enthusiast n s d karthik 30 who purchased a yamaha rd350 a few months ago says he is a fan of antique bikes and the rd350 is like a beast when a biker hits the streets on it my bike is a 1986 model and i paid rs 110 lakh for it riding on this bike for long distances gives me a different kind of an experience which i dont feel while riding other bikes though its an old bike it reaches a maximum speed of 140km per hour he said with a lot of excitement recently he had been on a road trip to kanyakumari from mysore on his rd350 another bike enthusiast k praveen 28 a businessman is a proud owner of a royal enfield bullet yezdi 250 and a lambretta scooter he said collecting classic bikes is my hobby none of the bikes has the looks of these bikes which have that muscular design and looks huge he stated praveen said he is interested in conserving and restoring these old bikes as they are not manufactured nowadays whenever i travel on these bikes i get a lot of attention thats the specialty of these antique bikes he said antique bikes gives a mileage around 20km to 30km per litre but these bike lovers are not bothered about it nowadays said rajesh murthy owner of wheels deals a used bike and car auto consultancy he says every day at least one youngster comes in search of an old royal enfield bike or yamaha rd350 they are also ready to pay rs 2 lakh to rs 3 lakh for a bike the demand has increased but bikes are not available youths love these old motorcycles because as they are very rare manjunath k a mechanic who is a specialist in yezdi and jawa bikes for the past 37 years in mysore says the prices of yezdi and jawa has reached up to rs 80000 and every day at least three bikers aged between 25 to 40 visit my shop to consult about the availability of these bikes a majority of them are from bangalore but owners of antique bikes are not selling it because prices of these rare beauties have gone up the majority of buyers