Rahul S Dhojanna, owner of Pacer Motors, had kept seven Rx 135 after manufacturing stopped in the year 2005 because of stricter emission norms, reports Bangalore Mirror.

“Manufacturing of the Yamaha Rx 135 was stopped in 2005, when the Central government enforced stricter emission norms. Two-stroke two-wheelers failed to abide by the newly-formulated rules forcing companies to stop their production,” said Dhojanna to the newspaper.

Being one of the most reliable and peppiest smaller displacement bike of the late 90s and early 2000s, Rx 135 was loved mostly by college goers. But a surge in the number of drag racing clubs in metro cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru promoting bike racing soon turned into a menace, and that’s when police began crackdown on racers, the report adds.

The two-stroke bike was a rage among racers for its superior pick-up and speed, which was launched in 1997 replacing its older model, Rx100. 

Dhojanna was always passionate about racing that made him to retain seven new bikes. But as there were complaints started getting registered against bikers in the city he was left with no option but to keep the bikes in his warehouse. 

In 2013, he couldn’t sell off the bikes as the road transport office had stopped registering new two-stroke bikes. To get them registered he had to approach the court.

He finally got permission by the end of 2015 to register the vehicles, but was sceptical of them finding buyers. Subsequently, one of his friends posted an ad through a Facebook post on the availability of seven Rx 135s and within hours the post went viral. 

 He had to pull down the post from his Facebook page as the number of hits went too high.

“Potential customers were then informed of the auction through word of mouth. I was pleasantly surprised when each bike sold for around `1.5 lakh with the highest bid going to around Rs 1.65. That proved beyond any doubt that bike enthusiasts still love the Rx 135,” added Rahul.