Salman Khan reveals building the entire bike: 'It took me about a month and a half….'

In a recent interview, Salman Khan reminisced about his early days, sharing a lesser-known story about his passion for bikes and performing his own stunts. He revealed that he once built a bike entirely from scratch. After dedicating considerable time and effort to its construction, he rode it only once before it was taken back.

Speaking with India Today, Salman recalled his first encounter with bikes. He recalled, "One of my friends, Salim - who was in films earlier, including 'Baaghi', 'Jagruti', and 'Hero' - used to deal with bikes. I saw a bike engine lying around and decided to assemble the whole bike myself. There was this stuntman, Dilawar Khan - both he and Salim have passed away now."

He continued, "So, I picked up the engine from Salim, went to Maharashtra Garage, and got the tyres from there. I built the entire bike. My dad’s car was being painted at the time, so I took the mudguard and tank from there and used them for the bike. It took me about a month and a half to put it all together. The day I finally rode it, Salim saw me and said, ‘That’s the one you built from my engine.’ The very next day, he came and drowned it in the Film City lake. That was the end of that bike. I got to ride it just once, after one and a half months of hard work," he laughed.

When asked if he ever performed bike stunts in his films, Salman said, “Yes, I have. But mostly, I trained at Juhu Beach. Bobby Deol, Dharmendra's son, was training back then too. Bobby was not so interested in training; he wasn’t too keen on jumping off ramps, so I’d step in because I liked doing it. When Bobby would leave, Tinu Verma would make me do the stunts and also practice. We practiced horse riding and biking. Even today, we have ramps at the farm, and I ride down dams and dirt tracks.”

Salman Khan, a known motorbike enthusiast, also pointed out the need for better motorsports infrastructure in India. "I think there’s a huge scope for sports in our country. India is so heavily populated and has the highest sales of motorcycles and scooters. But there’s no place for young kids or guys who love bikes, riding, motocross, or supercross. There’s no infrastructure, no league for them to be part of."

He added, "If they want to train, they have to go abroad. Why? We can have the facilities here. We can have leagues, train the riders, provide them with motorcycles, and the proper setup. At least then we can aim to win world championships from India.”