With great motorbikes comes great freedom. And when you hop onto one of those heavyweight air-cooled cruiser motorcycles with engine displacements above ,1000CC, the sky is the limit.
Some riding these burly two-wheeler machines are seeking thrill and unmatched fun while others see endless opportunities to explore the world besides covering miles to find ways to help people.



PROUD OWNER: Faisal al-Baloshi of Saudi Arabia.

There are hundreds of individual bikers and biker groups across the world involved in raising funds for charities or awareness about noble causes. A large number of such enthusiasts gathered here in town recently to primarily show off the results of their passion for bikes, and then, to share with each other the possibilities of philanthropic possibilities.  
At the 3rd annual GCC Bikes and Classic Cars show, recently held at Katara, hundreds of motorcycle aficionados from the region revved up for competition with their customised ‘beasts.’ The best were awarded trophies.



STYLE QUOTIENT: Hussain Assiri, right, with his brother and their winning bike.

Margarita Zuniga, a Qatari biker and former head of Ladies of Harley (LoH) group, won first prize for her customised ‘Sportster’, a Harley-Davidson model.
Biking for more than seven years, Margarita has long been associated with charity work besides raising awareness of important health issues such as dangers of cancer in Qatar.
“During my leadership of the LoH, we have been involved in raising funds for Qatar Cancer Society. And apart from my bike riding, I climb mountains and that is how I raise funds for charities,” Margarita tells Community.



RIDING IN THE NEW: Bikers came up with whole new designs this year.

“With the last two mountains that I climbed I contributed to raising funds and awareness for World Cancer Day in Qatar besides raising funds to build a school in Palestine,” she adds. Besides Beirut, she has also been to Bolivia to climb mountains.
Margarita says she was surprised when her name was called for the first prize for Sportster category. She did not expect to win and participated only to show her bike.
She changed almost everything on the Sportster, which was her first bike. In 2011, she decided to buy a Deluxe Classic and thus started neglecting the Sportster “a little bit.” It was then she decided to customise because she always wanted an old-school ‘Bobber.’
Biking has become more of a passion for Margarita, who debuted in 2008. She says it gives her the freedom to explore the world and be close to nature.
She liked riding Harley right from the beginning. “It was all about just connecting with nature. It was not just a speed bike and the speed bikes do not really trigger any interest in me. They are lovely and beautiful of course, but I really did not want anything with speed,” says Margarita, adding, “I just wanted to enjoy riding and being able to see the surroundings and experience nature and have adventures.’
She has taken her bike outside of Qatar to Emirates and Jordan.



ALL ROUND SHOW: Participants competed in different categories.

Margarita thinks her passion for biking has settled down only in a sense that she is not involved in too many events while she was as an officer for the LoH. But, she adds, it has given her the opportunity to travel more and ride bikes to countries like South Africa.
She went to India last year, and to the US and Bolivia before that. Margarita still is a member of Harley owners’ group which has over 1.7 million riders around the world and she belongs to the Qatar chapter.
Bikers from different countries in the region came up with some stunning modifications done to their bikes that simply awed the visitors.
Faisal al-Baloshi from Saudi Arabia brought his head-turner Suzuki Hayabusa. The beautiful beast grabbed two prizes for the best in its category and then the best of the best.
Customised from A-Z, the bike had fully custom-made 3-D diamond-cut accessories and a fully-customised diamond cut chassis. The turbo bike made on a stock engine around 240 hp, the 1,300CC bike had stainless steel plates for tyre rims which with custom-made 360 wide tyre on the back and single side swing arm.
“It is all chrome. It cost us around 300,000 Saudi Riyals and actually we stopped counting after that,” Iqbal al-Zahrani, the Crew Chief of the Bike’s tea, says.  
“This is our bike and we like to give our touch to it. This is the bike for show category and we are a bike group called Discos. We also have three stunt bikes and we are making a drag bike to participate in next year’s show,” he enthuses.
The team transported it from Saudi Arabia on the back of a trailer. “You can ride this to Saudi Arabia but we would rather not. You can cruise on it around the city because we have spent a lot of money on it,” says al-Zahrani.
He says he did not have a definite figure in mind but if he has to sell it, the price should be a little bit above 300,000 riyals.
Hussain Assiri, a bike enthusiast from Bahrain, came with his sleek looking aqua green ‘Bobber’ and won the first prize in its category for modifications.
“When I purchased this bike, it was a mess. It was a good model with good engine history but I was afraid customising it was going to cost me a lot and it did, but I really enjoyed spending on it,” says Assiri.
It was completely designed by Assiri and his brother. “My brother chose the colour for it and I did the design which you can see here. We did almost everything in the customising by ourselves, even the paint. This is our third bike that we have customised,” says Assiri.
He says they also do it for close friends, but do not do it as a business. Assiri won the prize for chopping off all the extra stuff from his Bobber and make it as naked as possible. Such is the personality of Bobber.
Assiri says his love for bikes dates back to when he was a child. He collected a lot of toy bikes and then went on to buy his first bike as soon as he got his licence in 2004. “My first bike was a Harley and then I shifted to street bikes. But once again in 2009, I got a Harley,” says Assiri.
He says he used to participate in professional races but had a major accident. Now he loves customising the bikes and it is part of his life now. Assiri says he would definitely come back to the show in Qatar next year as well.