Angels of the dark : A ride in the night with the Roadshakers.

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Date : 21/04/2007
Time : 11.00pm
Place : Opp BU Bhandari Showroom, Pashan
Plan : All Night Ride
Route : Pashan -> Chandani Chowk -> Mulshi -> Ambey Valley -> Lonavala -> Pune
Attendees : 10 Bullets + 10 Riders + 1 Pillion + 1 VUP
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Now for the average Joe caught in the office-home-office-weekend movie-office routine, what Roadshakers did on 21st April'07 night into 22nd April'07 morning is blasphemous! Ridiculous waste of time, money and complete nuisance to the society! But for Roadshakers, it was a night of rejuvenation of tired sinking eyes mostly used for staring at the new-idiot-box-called-PC and good solid massage to legs mostly used to do nothing more than balancing a stationary bike at traffic lights during the week. The plan was to go have some fun on the hills all night. Do what a bullet isn't supposed to do i.e. race up and down slopes littered with everything from rocks, mud, loose gravel. Everything but good smooth layer of tar! Now do I have your attention?
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Now some may ask "Why night?". I say why not?? First its loads of fun to watch the road unfold in front of you in the (not so) tiny headlight beam and even more fun to make the bike go where the road is going. Second, riding during the day these days is pretty much akin to sitting in a tandoor. I've done both these and trust me, the first one is helluva fun and the second, absolute agony from hell. So here was a line up of 10bikes. Okay 8 in the pic but 2 joined us later so stop being sucha pest! The route was Pashan-Chandani Chowk-Mulshi-Aambey Valley-Lonavala-Pune. Just about 200 odd kms round trip. We started I think at around 11.15pm with Navin, the VUP....ok now, VUP is Very Unhappy Pillion, riding pillion with Rajat and a-girl-Manish-never-introduced riding pillion with him. Mostly a very normal ride till Mulshi except for occasional irritation caused by the 4 wheeled cages driving with high beams on. There was a bike that was dead slow by the Roadshakers standard. Slow as in slower than what mine was during the Hedvi ride. Now that should give you an idea that slow=crawls in this case. So grouping, regrouping all along, we reached at the foot of Mulshi (my guess since i had never been on this route). The time, around 12.30pm.
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I was till then, "hmmmm...this is just another road". I was going to be proved wrong soon. So bloody wrong! :) So junta stopped, ate dunno how many omlettes and gulped countless teas for what seemed like an hour at the dhaba. KD joined the group almost the same time it stopped at the dhaba and was amongst the key people sucking the life out of what seemed to be eggs laid by a very lame chicken. Gandhi wouldn't stop for one bit complaining & wondering about how thin the omelettes were and what must have gone wrong with the chicken that laid them! I clicked a few pictures here and there. 5 infact. Guess this just wasn't to be a ride for pictures and that was what was good about it.
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At around 1.15am or so, we turned back and took a tiny right turn just before we hit the dhaba. The 'road' went through a village and then hit some smallish hills. We kept climbing and climbing some more doing pretty quick time. I'm sure it was quick cause Gandhi today mentioned that he was surprised to constantly see my headlight in his RVM's and he is one quick rider himself. With KD leading the way and the other rider struggling at the rear end of the group, the group got separated into 6 bikes at the front, me stuck in the middle and the slow bike flanked by Manish & Rajat at the end. Since it was decided that one shouldn't leave the sight of the headlight at the back, I kept slowing down to look for lights from the 3 bikes behind me. It meant, slowly but surely, i was getting cut away from the pack in front. With the pack behind in no sight, I had no choice but to catch up the front pack and leave the bikes at the end to make their own pace. Riding alone in that dark was something that I wasn't going to dig at all! So here was a pack of 7 bikes ripping like nuts on what was now not more than some tar thrown around. I was by now thinking "okay..so this is not all tar but some difficult roads but what the heck, its not difficult". Wrong wrong wrong!
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We stopped a bit for Manish, Rajat to catch up. 15minutes and no sign. So Adil and I went down the slopes to find out. The only time on the ride when someone was cut off from the group for so long! Soon we found 2 bikes gunning up the slopes. When we regrouped with the gang uphill, much to the relief of Manish & Rajat, it was learnt that the slow rider had realized that it was not worth the trouble for him and turned back home. Now that was a nice gesture from him cause it freed up the group a lot later and let Manish have some fun! And starting now is when i kept getting proved wrong about all that I had imagined the ride would be. :) With everyone free to rip, soon the bikes were climbing at speeds that might seem like insanity to the average-joe (remember i introduced him right at the begining?). And not far onto the hills, the "road" (hardly qualified as that) just vanished! Just like that....no tar. Just gravel, rocks, stones, mud & bumps. Add to that tight curves and both steep uphill and down hill slopes. One helluva perfect recipe for some serious kicka$$ fun you will agree (provided you are not joe)!! All the apprehension I had about my hand before the ride had to be kept aside. Not cause I wasn't worried but cause I had to keep staring at where I was going!!! There was no time to think. Just see and turn. See some more and brake. Brake, turn and rip!!! Watch the tail light of Gandhi's bike and keep playing the guess game of where the road was going. Of course there was no way one could know what lay ahead on the road by looking at a tailight but atleast it pretty much prepared for the tightness of the turn....So thank you Gandhi! And in the hindsight, I can understand why Navin was a VUP! :) Poor thing, he must've missed his bike so much knowing what fun everyone was having!
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And as we hit some kinda security outpost just before Aambey Valley, the bikes were stopped by the security there. Some crackle coming out of the walkie talkie said something like "let the bikes go" and off we went again. But soon the 'road' appeared just like it had vanished. But this time it was butter smooth tarmac with beautiful curves and clear signs. Not sure about the houses inside but the Sahara Parivar sure has provided some cracking roads worth emulating in our very own Pune city! Junta didn't need any more invitation and soon the lights ahead of me were gone. With me riding at my speed and further slowing down to keep Eklavya, the lone rider at the back, I finally got a chance to get my bearings right and breath back. The roads of Aambey Valley suddenly seemed so much less exciting!
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We regrouped near the bridge at the foot of the hills towards Lonavala. Some gyan imparted to new riders who were bunching up too close on the turns and getting too close with the bike in front once in a while. Guess there is always some throwing-the-caution-to-winds when people are having too much fun. But we sure need no broken bones so what had to be told had to be told in no uncertain words! Some cops spiced up the life by stopping by and saying "Aila ghara-daara nahit kya tumhala?" . Seems like there was some trouble some time and so we just left in a while towards Lonavala. From here on its as regular as any ride can get. Some more omlettes, tea, chatting and watching 18yr old kids playing loud music and dancing on the road later, the group moved towards Pune at 4am. NH4 as always was a breeze with the 50kms done in less than 50mins. The group split apart soon heading their own ways. No falls, just loads of fun! Thats what the ride was all about. Raza almost grew nipples from the cold air hitting him all the way. So boyz, men grow nipples when they come for a ride straight from work and don't wear a jacket! Remember that as a lesson! :)
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I remember Eklavya asking me about what the write up for this would be. I had replied --- "Just Vroooooooom over some roads" and that's it. Guess its turned out a hell lot more than that. I came home at around 6am with aching muscles but rested soul! Howz that for a poetic end to the writeup? Don't believe me? Check my pic below! Thats how a happy face looks on returning to the parking lot after a nice, happening ride! :)