HP Ride - Day 1 or so i thought

29/09/09
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Chaos theory or Murphy's laws, I definitely must become an example to quote. The bike doesn't get delivered to Shashi's door step as promised. But thats cause he isnt there.
Everyone was in Delhi by late last night.
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Astad, Manish and I rush (if that makes sense given Delhi's traffic) to Okhla Industrial Area to get the bike. So there is after all the Okhla Phase 1 after 3,2!! The packing was great and nothigs broken. 11am and the bike is finally ready to run.
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And no, we didnt go back home, slide our bags over the bikes and ride away. We spent another 90 minutes to find a way into Karolbagh in the sweltering heat to get Astad's & Manish' bike fixed. Damn the clutch plates, they didnt ever climb a hill on the way. So we are standing at the famous "Bawa Garage" with the Bawa, a frail old man now, bestowing all his unwanted attention on me. His side kick working on a bike that belonged to some foreigner. Bawa was boasting away of all the embassy staff that has been scurrying all over delhi in the bullets he "supplied". There actually are a few news paper clippings and thank you plaques given by the Canadian Embassy staff with a picture of the staff posing with their bullets. All done up by Bawa.
It was fun to hear Bawa (some 80 years old now) crib and say "sab sale behen**** hai yaha".
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And we didnt have the good fortune of the Sardar Bawa fixing the our Parsi Bawa. The bikes tho were fixed by a lesser mortal across the street and it was finally 4pm that i came back to Green Park! Unanimous that we weren't starting today. All we wanted was to go tuck ourselves into a comfy bed. Wasn't meant to be.
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Delhi heat leaves you sweaty, slimy and irritated. So no hope of any sleep. Shashi came home early so we were wandering near the Jama Masjid for a while.
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Day 1 - 9pm, I'm still at home. Re-arranging the luggage in the bags, making calls to Bawa and Sanket to firm up plans. Tomorrow 4am at ISBT they said. Sanket came over and went off to sleep. I couldn't. Never could before a ride. Any ride and this wasnt just any. So whats better than actually watching a nice, masala & hence super duper hit telugu movie to while away the night. Almost time....

HP Ride - Day 0

I was off to Delhi by a Kingfisher Red at 6.40pm on 28th. A night before, the packing lasted far too long than i expected. And the saddle bags refused to accomodate the clothes, spares, sandals & riding gear. Can't wear the gear in the flight can i? So guess what? The saddle bags, riding gear and the knick knacks (i never actually brought them along on the ride now!) were all dumped into the biggest suitcase i had.
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8.30pm and i'm standing in a painfully long queue for a pre-paid cab at the airport, aware that this was going to be another long day. 10.30pm and after some 25 odd kilometers of looking for Shashi's house in Green Park Extn, i was finally settled in. BTW, Kingfisher Red now serves hot snacks for free!!
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HP Ride -- All set.

The bike is already in Delhi, tho at the godown and not sure why not at Shashi's place. Murphy's law at work. Reaches Delhi in 3 days and then rusting in the godown for 3 after.
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The stuff is all over the bed in the study lying besides the saddlebags. Spares, clothes, gear, camera and works. Damn can't find the tank bags when i desparately need them. The entire house is a mess for everything inside the cupboards is strewn on the floors now!
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Not time to pose before the Video Cam. Guess will have to learn run time.
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The team is now 5!
1. Astad
2. Sanket
3. Manish
4. Manish + 1 (No name yet)
5. Myself
4 bullets and a pillion.
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Astad & Sanket left at 6pm on 25th Sept for Delhi. The halt for the night was at Baroda after about 457kms and 1 set of clutch plates later. Astad's already burnt his first set of clutch plates and we haven't even seen a pass yet! I'm carrying a new set tomorrow. The last word today was that they were in Udaipur at around lunch on the way to Pushkar after a hearty breakfast of Khaman Dhokla & Tomato Soas at Baroda! :)
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Manish was off from Hyderabad on friday night and was at Nizamabad for the night. No news today yet.

HP Ride -- Almost time now.

The bike is finally off on a truck for Delhi. The camera has a new KATA backpack. I'm now dusting my jacket, filling my saddle bags, worrying about the weather and getting swayed by suggestions on whether i should go Chamba first or Kaza first. Basically the clocks ticking. Just not ticking fast enough!

Moto-Cam?

A product from http://www.pointofviewcameras.com/
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Gaurav Jani has inspired me to risk a 30k handy cam on my trip to HP this year. I want to try and make a video travellogue on this trip. First things first though. Which means i'm going to try and spend some time in front of the camera to get comfortable.
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Fabricating the mount is going to be a nice little challenge. There won't be roads for at least the first half of the ride from Chamba till Keylong via Killar/Chery. The weather, given the kind of news thats pouring in, is going to be wet and wild.
Guess the requirements for the mount would be:
1. Sturdy and fixes firmly to the bike. Most likely on the handle bar.
2. Removable so that it can be dismounted it once back in the city.
3. If possible, adjustable in width & length to accomodate different sizes.
4. Mounting similar to the a tripod so that the camera can be screwed on top and removed. Remember, its the nut that needs to rotate cause the camera can't in the mount. :p
5. Rubber sides to absorb the vibrations and keep the picture from shaking too much.
6. Should allow me to open the screen and view the recording without having to take it out.

Hmmmm...let me think some more.

HP Ride - The bike is now prepped.

Its hard to focus on work when all you want to do is get away so bad. The last update i posted was on 11th but the prep was always on in the background. I had made sure that the bike was given in good hands to be readied for the ride while i chipped away at "mountains" of work in the office. And guess what? The bike is done and runs like new! Not sure it ran this well the day i picked it up, brand new from the showroom.
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Kunal, the mech, has done a thorough job on only 1 instruction - the bike is going places where even army trucks are rarely spotted. The wallet was drained empty 1 nut at a time. But on rides like this, other than the safety gear, its the bikes condition that decides the degree of pain you may save yourself. Especially in freak weather at 15000ft.
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Here is how much it costs to "new up" an old bike.

HP Ride - The route.

Ok! So here is how long the primary route should be from Delhi. So we are atleast traveling 1890kms+/- 200kms. Needs to be fine tuned since there need to be a number of detours around these places to go visit monastries, gompas, valleys, lakes and what not. Nice!

HP Ride - Weather this week

HP Ride - A (snowy?) ride around himachal.

So i think its going to work out after all. 2 wheeling on/around the red-dotted line.
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It takes months to convince junta at home to let me get away for a week or so in the mountains. It takes a lot of time to find buddies interested in riding along. Then it takes a while for them to work out how long can they be away from the worldly responsibilities. It really is a test of patience cause all you want to do is get your butt on the bike and ride away. Finally the fun begins - Poring over maps and plotting the route, running checklists, getting the bike prepped, chatting on forums with folks up north about road conditions-weather and dreaming of being up in the clouds!!!
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Here it is for 2009. A ride through 2 of the most scenic valleys (Lahaul & Spiti) & 1 scenic, remote & inaccessible valley (Pangi) in Himachal. Plan A for this year was to trek to Pangi but Plan B was better. Just ride to it. Not that i'm going to set any records of being the first one to do so but what the heck, Ladakh seriously isn't about growing up anymore. Too much tar on the way.
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More in the coming weeks......

This year from the "things-to-do-before-i-die" list.

This is one of the things i want to experience from my "things-to-do-before-i-die" list. This list is in my head since its just too long to be written down on paper!. This year is as good as any then.
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So here is what I plan to do this year. Either Trek or Ride to Pangi Valley in Himachal. Here is whats there to be said about Pangi Valley, courtesy a trekking company called "Connect With Himalayas".

Tarkarli 2009 -- A ride in "brief"!

Nothing ever works out as planned when it comes to riding in groups. Never does everyone turn up as planned, people drop off at the last moment, people start the ride in smaller groups at different time of the day instead of riding together. Less said the better. But none the less, every ride has something worth remembering it for.
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This one was a cracker cause we covered 968kms within 36hrs which is a hell lot of riding. The route was tried & tested and extremely fast roads to ride.
We took the Route-1 on the way to Tarkarli and almost took the Route-2 on the way back except that we joined NH4 from Chiplun via the Koyna ghat.
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Best part of any ride, for me personally, is all the riding in the night. On this one, i did almost 500 of the 1000kms in the night. Both ghats during the night! God, I never wanted to come back home! And this was the longest ride ever on the Comet which basically meant i not only kept up, but in fact was ahead of the most. The beauty of the engine is that it can keep running at 120's for miles and miles with no hints of stress. Something a Bullet will never do without its fair share of nakhras. Quite crotch-rocket the V-Twin is!
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And word of advice to junta out there. Proper gear is extremely important on such long rides. And gear starts from the first clothes on your skin! Damned you are if you ride such distances with your stupid briefs digging into your skin and riding up your.....And its no joke. Can you imagine doing a tight corner at 80 while trying to fix your briefs?? Jeez! I almost ran off the road a couple of times. And by the 500th kilometer, I was wearing a jeans made of needles!
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Say no to Briefs and welcome Boxers!
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No words can actually capture the fun so just look at a picture of mine taken (without my knowledge). The grin says it all!! :)

Tarkarli - 2009 ;-)

Time to do what I love the best. First ride of the season to Tarkarli. Here are two possible route maps. The maps are off Google so the Eicher Road Atlas just might come handy!

Route 1 - 390kms
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Quicker route with maximum time spent on NH4.

















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Route 2 - 447kms
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Longer route but more time spent on NH17. Riskier in the rains but more rewarding.

Rajgadh - The mother of all treks so far!

Trek up the Iron Fort - Lohagad

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Note : Again scribbled by Dharam in record time (who now has a lot of free time at work!). So all the "I"'s refer to "him" and i'm just Nilesh. ;-)
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I was intending to make the most of this year’s monsoons and visit as many place around Pune as possible. Last Saturday was one weekend which I got free and decided that I should go out. Asked Nilesh if he was interested. He seemed to have some genuine work in paying his “already late” LIC premium that day itself ! Don’t know how a internet savvy guy like him didn’t know about paying premiums online. Advised him to do that and he agreed. (eventually he found out it to be actually damn easy and convenient ;-) )

P.S. --> Who the heck expects a govt org to have a website. Even if you do expect, would you expect it to be any less a pain that standing in a queue in front of a window???? What has being or not being internet savvy got to do with it? I completely refute such irresponsible comments aimed at tarnishing my fix-it-all guy image!

P.S.2 --> Its cool to be the owner of the blog. You refute/chop/hit back right then and there! ;-)
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We took a sudden decision to do the Lohagad Fort trek but didn’t have time to prepare for the trip as such. It was already 10 and we could only start at 11. We had some sense to take some food and rain wear (including umbrellas) with us but we were wearing floaters !

Getting out of the city was a pain as usual. We took the old Pune-Bombay route and 8 kms before Lonavla, took a left turn towards Karla. It has started raining and we were delighted that we would be trekking in the rain. After having tea at a tapri in the rain, we reached Malawli station. 3 kms from there is the Bhaja village and this is where the trek starts.
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Before starting the trek we both had a couple of teplas (Dharam and his spellings for Gujrati cuisine, sigh! Thats Theplas!!) and that essentially was our lunch for the day ! I had missed b’fast that morning and eventually found out that I could actually stave and still complete a trek

We only took bare minimum stuff (some biscuits, water bottle, mixture packet, jackets and umbrella) on us for the trek. The road (if I may call so) for this trek for most part is basically made up of “not so loose” stones on which you walk. For the remaining part it is a mud road and made much slippery due to the rain.
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Soon we were greeted with the first of the numerous waterfalls. People who probably had not taken a bath that morning were under the falls and there were many such souls. Nilesh took the photographs of the falls and pledged to eliminate the people from the photos. Anyways from here on, he was hell bent on clicking all the water falls, even if some of them were as thin as tap water.

It was around 1pm and while we were going up, there were many who were coming down. Most of those coming down were school kids and boy, were they were a noisy bunch !
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Our trek was littered mostly with intermittent showers and winds. The trek was not so steep but neither was it easy for people like us, who don’t do this that often. The farms down below on the plains looked flood hit villages from a helicopter aerial view.

We were almost at the base of the fort in an hour’s time. (An hours time??? Thought it was more like an 1.5hrs! Maybe i'm wrong cause at times it felt like forever!) This place is called Lohagadwadi and from here you can see both Lohagad and Visapur forts. You can easily make out the “hole” in the Lohagad fort (Pluheeez! The hole was in the cliff that the fort was built on!) Ek to fort sahi salamat hai yaar.) This village has many homes, which provide food. We thought we have a quick grub and went into one of them. Though it was damn crowded, we didn’t expect that we had to wait forever. We decided to leave and proceeded towards climbing the Lohagad fort. We did have advise for them to start taking food orders on the phone !
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We had to climb the fort using the stairs and with water gushing over them. The fort is in decent (Great condition compared to others. Thats what you said!! Why hold back on tareef now? And yeh, it is truly one of the cleanest tourist spots in the country!) condition and at the gates, you can still see the carvings. From here, the pawna dam looks neat along with the farms next to it. In fact one farm was shaped like a shoe with women working in the farms. ( I=Me=Nilesh spotted it!!! Wokay???? Shame, not even a mention of such evolved imagination!) And all of this view covered in dense fog. This is an experience to relish firsthand !

Finally when we reached the top of the fort, it was already 3 pm. We spent a lot of time exploring the fort and taking photos from all possible angles. At the top, the weather had turned nastier with more rains, dense fog and heavy winds but we loved it and were enjoying it to the hilt. There’s a dargah at the top as well as many ponds. Visibility was hardly there for 20 meters.
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My brand new umbrella was tested to it’s limit and it has survived. Wonder of wonders, at the top there is mobile signal too. Nilesh received a very important phone call - from his pest control guy asking for an appointment!

We were exploring the top and were walking on & on with hardly anything visible. Only intermittently when the strong winds came, the fog reduced and we were able to see better. Finally after much walking we hit Vinchukata (shaped like scorpion’s tail), which is almost the end of the fort. We saw a few people coming back from there. We went further after taking to them and were thinking what is something goes wrong. We two were probably the last people on top of the fort for that day.
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Anyways this was exciting as well as it walking on a narrow path and you could feel 3400 ft below almost vertically. All of this in rain, fog and wind. Made the experience much richer. Took the mandatory photos including a timer based one for posterity !

Came back to the top of the fort and explored further. We probably spent altogether 1-2 hours up there and were definitely the last people to go down. Saw more ponds and there’s also a 18 sided tank. The phrase ‘loose cannons’ had an altogether different meaning here with some real cannons lying around !
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Given a chance, we would probably would have wanted to linger longer there. But unwillingly, we started our return. Came to know later that there are caves further at the top on which you could do camping. We saw a few people going up with camping gear in hand. That is for next time for us !

We back at the base of the fort in no time. Were hungry for food and at the first place, went in. Luckly there was no body else and there was zunka-bhakri and kanda-phone for us. We ate as if we had nothing to eat from days altogether. After this food, we started down the mud and gravel path to the Bhaja village. There was no rain now but the muddy road had taken it’s toll on Nilesh’s floaters and it was reaching the end of it’s life.
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Reached Bhaja village, took the car out, had pathetic tea at Karla junction and reached Pune non-stop around 8.45 pm. We had a fantastic experience. Much more than what we had expected.
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P.S.3 --> Carry your own food cause the shacks run out of supplies in case there are more visitors. We didn't get tea at a shack cause they had run out of sugar. Also, water is suspect so carry your own bottles. Enough of them, mind you. And food. If you don't dig jhunka bhakar or poha and you are a veggie, you don't have any choice! And pluheez wear good shoes else bear all the pain in your feet later.

P.S.4 --> Batteries don't last that long in rains/cold up there. Carry spare ones cause you will want to click away!!!!

P.S.5 --> Please do this trek once in monsoons! Its worth every tired step you take. A day spent well. There is also a road from Lonavala Market that directly gets you to the base of the fort in Lohagaon but thats for sissies. ;-)

P.S.6 --> If you don't have a set of wheels, no worries. Take the Pune-Lonavala local train and get off at Malavali station. It's a couple of kms of extra walk till the Bhaja village from where you start your treak up.

The elusive "Road by the Sea" -- Murud Drive

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Writeup courtesy Dharam. For all your bouquets/bricks & publishing deals, please email dharam@whatever.com ;-)

P.S. - I've added a few "words" in green to mention the names of a few places/people I know.
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Me (Dharam) and my friends (Me) had only heard about the Road by the Sea on the Konkan coast and were very excited to make that discovery ourselves…
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Our first attempt was in Jan’07 when we went on bikes from Pune on a 3 day long weekend trip. Our target was to go to Goa through the Road by the Sea coastal route but we only had vague information on this route. Because of this and also because of some bike problems, we ended up in Malwan, which is the southern most tip of Konkan in Maharashtra. Malwan has a beautiful beach, which is not yet commercialized and the Malwani seafood is fantastic…
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This time around it was also to experience the early monsoons in the Konkan before it became worse. We had maps of detailed Raigad and Ratnagiri districts which gave a good idea of the road by the sea and not to mention the exact place having been divulged by Ashvin, a fellow biker who's pics inspired us to go and find this road.

Onward
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Pune- Paud (25) – Mulshi – Junction near Vile (87) – Goa Highway,NH17 (108) – Left turn at Kolad (109) – Roha (122) – Vikram Ispat, Salav (156) – Revadanda Bridge Post (157)

Stopovers
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Korlem (lighthouse)
---------------> The road lies here <------------------
Kashid (beach)
Murud (fort & ugly beach)

Return
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Murud – RajPuri – Bhalgaon – Roha – Kolad – Mahad – Bhor (via the awsome Varanda ghat)– NH4 to Pune
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We started from Pune around 10 am and it almost took an hour to get out the city onto the Paud Road. From there on it is one straight long drive through Mulshi to Kolad through the Tahmini Ghats. You will see the Mulshi lake for a long time as you drive along. It was almost empty this time around in early June but will be full after the monsoons... Some stretches of this leg the trip have bad and uneven roads and there are a few sharp curves on the Tahmini Ghats… There are no gas stations or even eating places… Other than that nothing to worry about…There’s a T-junction that you get after the ghats towards Kolad and other towards Mangaon. We took the Kolad route. The last few kilometers to Kolad have very good roads.
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From Kolad you have to go to Roha, which is only 20 kms away and then on to Revadanda, which is 20 kms away from Alibaugh. Though we were told that the road by the sea starts from Revadanda, that is not exactly true. It is immediately after Revadanda and after crossing the bridge…. (We took the bridge to get into Revdanda remember. We need to skip the bridge and continue towards murud)

Luckily for us, our other desire of firsthand experiencing the first monsoon showers in the Konkan also came true as it started raining in Revadanda.
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Our first stop on this road by the sea was in Korlem. Nothing great about this village as such but it has a lighthouse and again nothing great about this lighthouse but there is a narrow mud road to drive up to the lighthouse. It is an adventurous drive for 2-3 kms as it is so damn close to the sea and it is so narrow. We were wondering whether we will be able to turn back the car and also what if there was another car on this road… but alas it was not to be !
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Back from Korlem village, we hit back the road by the sea. Our next stop was at Kashid. The sea is just a few meters away from the road.. Kashid is turning out to be a popular spot as seen from the number of people who were there… Good timepass with lots of hammocks and hot snacks to gobble up… and of course the beach…

From Kashid, we continued on the road by the sea and were on our way to Murud. On the way we stopped to look at a old palace/fort. Murud is a tourist place and has many options for accommodation, but booking in advance is good.
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We found an accommodation which was on top of a small hill and the view from here of the sea below was magnificent.

We started in the morning and it was raining heavily. We had freshly made tea at a tapri in the rain. We wanted to visit the Murud Fort, but due to the rain, the jetties were not operational. We only had to do with viewing it from the road in the rain and it was all cloudy…
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From Murud, we continued on the road by the sea through the towns of Rajpuri and Bhalgaon to hit Roha. That was the end of the “Road by the Sea” for this trip atleast.

From Roha, we came back to Kolad. Since we wanted to take a different route for the return, we headed towards Mahad. From there we took the Shaniwadi ??? and Bhor route.

Driving in the Bhor (Varanda) ghat was exciting as it had many hair pin curves and it was such a longggg drive. The ghats never seemed to end… nevertheless our hearts were pounding faster when whenever we saw a truck or bus (which looked like speck from such a distance) very high in the ghats above and we realizing that even we have to climb to such heights…
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The ghats take you to Bhor town at the NH4 junction and from there on to Pune.

So this was just the start of our discovery of the “Road by the Sea” on the Konkan coast. As a bonus we also did this in the rains, which made the trip more exciting and memorable. We have only covered north Konkan. But there’s more “Road by the Sea” in central Konkan and south Konkan through Shivardhan, Harihareshwar, Guhagar, Hedevi, Ganapatipule and all the way down to Malwan. That’s for another adventure…
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Bullet Burn(s)outs..

Image Courtesy : http://www.motorcyclesdetails.info

Image Courtesy : http://www.premjis.com

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I write this while experiencing exruciating pain. But duty calls and bringing this grave fault to the fore, immediately, for the betterment of the biking brotherhood is of paramount importance. For the fate of the future of safe riding experiences in India and the improvement of safety features provided by the Indian Two Wheeler industry rests on my ankles. Errr.....shoulders.

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Cutting the drama short, just take a look at the two bikes catering to completely different sections of riders. One is a Bajaj Pulsar 150 costing around Rs.64,000/- and the other a Royal Enfield Electra costing around 80,000/- on road. One sells the commuter a promise of stretching that last drop of fuel to light years while the other promises a riding experience unmatched by any other piece of metal on two wheels.

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Again, lets cut the drama short. I have ridden the Pulsar for quite a few thousand kilometers to understand that the promise is a little far fetched but it sure is a nice city bike. I've been down quite a few times from its saddle but never seriously hurt. I own the Bullet and have ridden it for over 9,500kms over last 6 months and it too fulfills the promise to quite an extent. Again, i've been down from the saddle 2-3 times (you don't ride a Bullet like you would ride a Pulsar!). Nothing major, injuries or rather lack of it, exactly similar on both bikes. Crash guards, placement of RVM's, handlebars, footpegs etc, pretty safe to avoid any major injury from the components of the bike itself. Well what else can you expect in terms of safety features on an Indian bike except discs? Airbags?

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All looked fine with my Bullet, until last Friday i.e. 25/05/07 when I had my next freak fall from, rather along with, the Bullet. While taking a left turn when the light turned green, thanks to the generous rubble thrown on the road by the PMC, the rear gave away and i fell to my left with the bike on top. The crash guard in front & the left footpegs ensured i didn't get crushed under the weight and break anything. But guess what? Take a look at the way the Bullet exhaust/bend pipe has been designed? Jutting out from the engine block, it turns to the right coming out like some design element on an Italian beauty and runs right next to the riders leg. The break pedal is in fact resting on it.

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As i fell to my left, my right leg left its normal resting position on the right footpeg and was airborne for a while. Only to land on the exhaust!!!! Need i say more? I for once, felt the pain the cattle feel when they get branded with hot, flaming signatures on their backs!! An instant was all that was needed for the metal heated to hundreds of degrees to shrivel & peel my skin off the leg. Now i sit here writing this, nursing a bad burn on my right leg right on the ankle thats also got infected. Forget pasting pictures of the damage to my leg cause the weak hearted are sure to black out!

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So coming to the point? I walked away with no broken bones, twisted joints or what ever since it was a small freak accident at around 25kmph or so. Could even these burns have been prevented on a Bullet? Which is where the picture the Pulsar comes into play. The bend pipe on the Pulsar is designed to emerge from the engine, run straight in front of the engine & then turn towards the back. Always as far away as possible from the rider's and pillion's. The exhaust also features a heat shield, which saves the pillion from accidentally getting burnt from the hot metal. All this on a Commuter Bike that costs 2/3rds of the Lifestyle Bike.

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I love the feel of a Bullet on the long rides and spend atleast a grand every month to keep it up and running. Its the only bike that can do what it can do (ZMA comes close or almost matches it and is space age technology compared to RE!). But it feels stupid at times like these to like a bike with WWII technology & costing close to a Lakh (100,000/- for firangs). For that price, even the Disc brakes are optional!!! RE sells only around 25,000 to 30,000 bikes a year and probably have to make money out of only these sales. But that doesn't mean a compromise on safety and good design. Look at the new Pulsar 220 from Bajaj that costs a good Rs.10,000/- more. I don't even want to draw a comparison of features cause the only plus point on the Bullet's side of the chart would be "Its a Bullet!". Thats good in the matters of heart but rarely in cases when life and limb are at stake! What would have been the extent of burns had I fallen on the right side and my leg trapped under the hot bend pipe/exhaust? I sure would'nt have walked away with superficial burns and ridden the bike myself to a doctor. Wonder if RE is listening!! People luv the Bullets for what they are but that doesn't mean we can't take newer, improved Bullets! Give me a safer, superior and faster Bullet and thats my reason to love it more than i already do!

My first literary acknowledgement!

I know the title sounds a bit of an exaggeration but what the heck! I still can't help taking this ego trip. Why? Read this email below
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support@royalenfield.com wrote:
From: support@royalenfield.com
To: nileshxxxxx@xxxxx.com
Subject: Your Trip Story
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:09:12 +0530
Dear Nilesh,
This is to inform you that your Royal Enfield Trip experience has been published online at www.royalenfield.com/IN/. Do visit the site and check it out. Don't forget to tell your family and friends to take a look at it. The story is quite good so you should flaunt it. You will soon have an exciting gift from us for this wonderful story.
Cheers and ride safe,
The Royal Enfield Team
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Pretty cool right? And I get a Royal Enfield T-Shirt (size : 42 for those who want to gift me t's) soon!!! I did the write up for my blog and sent it by email to the friends at Roadshakers. Wasn't expecting junta to like it so much and Rohan/Doc/KD, all suggested that I should upload this on RE Trips section. So I did and here is the link for the trip log on the RE Site : "Angels o' d dark - Roadshakers"

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.
***

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.
***
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!
***
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!
***
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!
***
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! :)
***


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! :)

The psyche of Indian traffic.

I had been commuting to work on 4 wheels for 2years and few months every single day. Then again I've clocked close to 20,000miles travelling/touring on 4 wheels. That first on a 2000 make VW Jetta GLS 1.8 churning close to 115hp@5200 rpm. Then on a 2000 make Nissan Altima 2.4, that was surprisingly quicker but more frugal inspite of it churning out 155hp@5600 rpm. Mostly averaging speeds making my friends bucket me in category of freaks. The Nissan got totalled in a crash unfortunately.
***
Now its been 2years since I've been commuting to work on 2 wheels cause 4 wheels choke me here. Then again I've been touring on 2 wheels for 2 years clocking (a shameful) 10,000kms. The 2 wheels, albiet not as powerful as 4, but surely more powerful than what a lot of others have been riding. A 27hp@10250rpm Hyosung Comet GT250 & 18hp@5000rpm Bullet Electra 5S adorn my parking lot.
***
So whats the point of all this? The point is that I was never scared to do those 140mph (225kmph!!) but I'm today when I'm doing mostly 100kmph. Why? Cause the seemingly insane speeds were on US Freeways and the crawls I do these days are on the roads/highways of our so called 'Shining India'. So if India had those US like freeways, would i feel less scared and more confident? The answer is still a strict no-no. Even if I graduated from 2 wheels to 4 here in India, I wouldn't still be dreaming of doing those speeds. In fact its far more likely that I would get far more slower, at least in the cities.
***
So whats the problem? Our own fellow Deshwasi's! And its not just the large majority that is uneducated. It includes even the ones like me who have degrees to flaunt. Its like the traffice-sense switch is on a default state of 'switched off' for any newborn in India!! And since all the education is imparted by adults who fail to switch it on, any trace of this sense and its switch disappears akin to losing a vestigial organ like tail! We are all just born and a majority are raised insensitive to traffic rules. Even the primary human instinct of fear disappears. Rather we look more like birds of prey out on a hunt when we get astride our wheels.
***
A few interesting observations on the behaviour of Indian traffic that I've made during these years of riding/commuting/touring/travelling :
1. The pressure on the gas pedal increases in direct proportion to the speed with which light turns from green to yellow to red. ==>
We just don't know how to stop! I'm sure each one of us has stepped on the gas to make it through the quickly changing light rather than slowing down and stopping. We always believe we can beat the light and our fate.
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2. The longer you are riding/driving the same vehicle, the smaller it seems to you. ==>
We try to squeeze our vehicles through absolutely hair thin gaps in the traffic and manage to get stuck resulting in miles and miles of jam behind us. Why are we so confident of getting through the gaps no pedestrain dares to take? Is it cause we have been riding that same vehicle long enough for it to feel like its a part of our bodies! And 2 wheels or 4, it doesn't matter, the feeling is still there.
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3. We always race on the street with a vehicle faster than ours. ==>
Have you felt the urge to beat a faster car/bike than yours till the next light? Liar! You sure have and I'm sure you have done it umpteen times. Getting to that next light faster than the fella with quicker wheels seems to take us for a high however short lived it is. Cause soon enough, some wheels slower than ours zoom by leaving us biting dust (and breathing in lotsa smoke!).
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4. Larger the oncoming vehicle, more it fills us with bravado and further in his tracks we venture. ==>
Ever feel like taking one fast swoop around a car to overtake it right in the path of the oncoming bus/truck in the opposite lane? You bet! We risk ourselves that ego-trip on razer thin safety margins! A few learn from the first scary experience but for most dare devils, its like getting high on weed! They just keep at it getting more and more foolish (brave in their own language) with each escape.
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5. We encourage/force others to violate traffic rules. ==>
I'm sure you have been honked at by a car, truck, rick from behind egging you on to break the red light cause there is no one crossing the junction from the lanes where the light is green.
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6. Pedestrains always cross at the speediest part of the road and their urgency to cross the road is inversely proportional to the size and speed of the oncoming vehicle. ==>
Have you seen pedestrians crossing the road at a zebra crossing? I'm yet to see one. They always take the shortest path across the road which is always that portion of the road where vehicles are travelling fastest. Okay, you choose the wrong place to cross the road but then can you atleast hurry???? Naaaaah! Everytime I see a pedestrian crossing the road, he seems to be at his nimble best when the oncoming vehicle is a biped cycling! And watch how he does a lazy-stroll-in-the-park crossing when the oncoming vehicle is a car or a bus. Its almost as if scaring the day lights outta the car driver gives him some sadistic pleasure.
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I'm sure there are many more that I can't really remember.In fact the situation is so bad that if someone new driving takes to the road, he might get hurt bad for following the traffic rules. Try being the first one to stop at the red light and I assure you that someone who confirms to Observation#1 above will bang right into you from behind. I don't know what has resulted in such a sorry state of affairs but sorry it is for sure. Cops not wanting to discipline errant traffic, traffic not wanting to follow the rules and just more and more vehicles pouring on our roads. Its going to require a mammoth effort of will for us to change cause right now, violating rules seems to be as much a part of Indian Culture as the 3 wheeled Rickshaws that are so infamous for it!

RoadShakers -- "One" for the road!

Date : 14/03/07
Day : Wednesday
Time : 8pm
Place : BU Bhandari Showroom, Pashan Road.
Occasion : The "Exhaust Symphony Orchestra" concert... :D
***
Sometimes reality proves you wrong and how! That's what my first meeting with the RoadShakers did to my idea of a riding club. I'm not or rather wasn't not so long ago, a believer in the concept of riding clubs. They always are "mostly" a bunch of guys with loud &/or expensive bikes riding in the city for a mile without lids but with expensive eyewear and then posing where exposure to the fair sex is maximum. Keeping the bikes parked in full view for a coupla hours, sipping coke, giving those 'cool/hot' looks and looking down upon commuters is their idea of "biking heaven"! So i wasn't really expecting much out of the tryst with RoadShakers. Satya almost convinced me that it was a soreass (his words) idea. Then their regular joint was the other end of the city and they meet on Wednesdays of all the days....Seemed like my first meeting was mostly going to be the last one. But I was going to give it at least one go no matter what!
***
So at 7pm, I left from this-far-end-of-the-city i.e. Hadapsar towards that-far-end-of-the-city i.e. University Circle, in peak traffic hour! My processor up there was already trying to figure out the shortest/fastest route while my arms-n-legs were busy steering the bike. And then I hit something that almost made me change my mind again....Arghh...the stupid but deadly traffic. Slowly winding my way through it I hit a really really really bad traffic jam at SB Road in front of ICC Towers. I was so so ready to park my bike, take a rick home to Aundh, have my dinner at mom's place...but I soldiered on! Yeah, soldiered is the right word...Finally I made it to BU Bhandari showroom at 7.45pm only to find myself alone. Checked my phone to make sure it was a Wednesday, it was. Hmmmm...asked the local pan wallah if this is where 10's of Bullets of various shapes, sizes, colours and sounds, yes sounds, are parked at 8pm. Affirmative...so to kill time i went to the nearby ATM and by the time i got back, there were 10 odd bikes parked. So???? Was this it? I had dreamed of rows and rows of Bulls standing with burly, long haired, foul smelling guys standing behind a cloud of cigarette smoke talking things i didn't understand using language i didn't want to hear! Too much of OCC & Biker Build Off on t.v. for me i guess. Seemed like it was going to be a lame gathering after all....But since i was here, i was going to sit thru it all at least until the traffic cleared and i could head back home!
***
I started chatting with the guys around, getting "that look" reserved for the newbie in the cowboy town full of quick-draw-mcgraw's! But what luck, i met someone who was pretty new to it as well and we kinda got started. Nothing much, same stupid talk about how many miles have you done etc....but by now the count of bikes in the lot had grown to a respectable 22-25. Not bad at all! But still, sitting on mine without anyone to talk for what seemed like a lifetime was wearing my patience thin. Dunno what was i expecting? A welcome hug? Boys eager to show off their toys on wheels & share their lunch box? Or some star like welcome? Yeh right! But honestly, it never feels nice to be alone in a group where everyone else knows everyone else but no one introduces themselves to you. The only person i knew was Dr.Prasad Bhangale aka Doc whom i had met on orkut and he failed to turn up. Guess i had to do that horrible ritual of shaking-hands-over-hi-myself-nilesh-from-pune to get to know people! I hate, absolutely hate going out to perfect strangers and introducing myself...BTW, i picked that line up from Satya! :)
***
While i was making those stupid conversations and planning my exit never to return again, someone just started counting the bikes and the count had gone up to 33! And then everyone just started their bikes to move and fall into line in one of the two that were being formed. That was what basically woke me up from my stupor....all that noise. Bikes making all kinda exhaust notes ranging from the most common - loud to shrill to what seemed like bullet shots. Now this was turning good!!! I just fell into one of the lines and the 2 rows of terribly loud Bulls started moving towards University Circle. Cutting through the traffic, turning heads, the bikes cut through and made it to FC Road, Law College Road and then on SB Road finally coming to the regular joint, Firangpani, near Symbiosis. I was just too excited to be a part of this entire cavalcade to notice how long did the ride last or how fast did we go kinda stuff. Felt good man!
***
And as we parked the bikes, that feeling of being lonely in the crowd started rising again. Was it just about a 15min ride? Then someone (found out later that Rajat Gandhi it was) started collecting money for coffee..dunno when i paid that 10 bucks but i was damn hungry cause it was 9.45pm and still no sign of food or the excitement. Then someone (Manish it was) just stood up and started asking everyone to calm down to start the proceedings. Okay, so there was more than just chatting randomly. Good good! All new members raise their hands said the-voice-of-god from up above (he was standing on the chair) and 2 hands went up. One was mine and the other of a tall lanky short haired (on the head) guy who seemed just as bored/confused as me. We were asked to stand up on a bench and introduce ourselves. Damn...stage fright! Every single pair of eyes burning holes through me as i uttered - 'I'm Nilesh. I ride an Electra 5S. I work for EDS in Hadapasar. And i came to know of RoadShakers on xBhp'. That's it...only 4 sentences but at least i had people listening to me! :) What was I seeing? Girls? What were they doing here?
***
The other chap introduced himself but i didn't hear a word since i was busy gathering my wits back. And then coffee...felt much better. Then a ride to Hedvi over the weekend was announced and 14 hands went up. Okay..so a ride out of the city. Me & Satya do that too! More more...something better than that pluheez! And then Sidhu, a lanky smiling surd, got up and started explaining the rules to become a member. Hmmmm...promising cause there were rules to become a member??? And as the rules unfolded, it dawned on me that this was something more serious than just a bunch of Bulleteers riding across the city making a lot of noise.
The rules for induction were:
1. Attend at least 4 RS meets (10points)
2. Ride along for at least 3 day trips (20points)
3. Ride along for at least 1 trip with an overnight halt. (30points)
Idea seemed to wean away wannabes who weren't serious about riding and were rather interested in posing. Forms were distributed to be filled out by the new members, a new yahoo group was announced. A girl from Symbi, Deboshree, who was trying to complete an assignment on "socio-cultural impact of biker communities on the society" kinda topic, tried to explain what it was to a lot of nodding heads, wide open eyes and grinning faces. She wanted to make a documentary as well and of course she was whole heartedly welcomed! Guys remain guys no matter what!
***
By now I was already riding along towards Hedvi in my mind. The idea was at least to become a member if nothing else. So the Hedvi ride would get condition#3 out of the way. As people dispersed after what was a 30min meeting, i saw Doc, who later was assigned to me as a 'Mentor'. See, I told you it was serious business! Meetings later, the junta who was to continue on for dinner was the only one left. What the heck, I didn't have dinner at home and since the dinner venue was in Camp, I decided to stay along. Seems like the best decision I've made in a long time cause that's where i actually got to meet most of the old timers. Serious people who probably started the group and had stories of rides, incidents and meets to talk of. People who moved away to different city for a while but back again. People who could dismantle a bike on a lazy Sunday afternoon and put it back together just cause there is nothing better to do! Came to know that the founder was working for RE cause he prolly knew a lot more about the Bull's than the morons at RE. Nice cause we now have at least one sane head inside! Rajat, Adil, Kamal, Manish seemed like nice quiet guys. Tinu & Baljeet had a zillion hilarious stories to share and seemed like the ones who keep the cheer flowing in the club. Stories of old members how never came back, the mech Alex, rides with seized up Bulls....all in all, these seemed to be the wise old learned men. And their wives! Grown ups with their wives who know the group just as much as their men is always good sign. No stupid messy business. Guys comfortable enough with each other to bring along their better-halves speaks a lot right? I was at ease, chatting and finally feeling like i had a fair chance of belonging here. More importantly, it felt like i 'should' be one amongst them cause here were a bunch of guys dead serious about having fun with their bikes! Guys from different walks of like, HR, IT Programmers, Businessmen, Custom Painters, Dhaba owners, all together & bonding cause of ONE single reason - their love for the Bull and biking!
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WAY TO GO RS! If a people move along but still want to come back given a chance, if people stick along beyond the regular biking as friends, then RS has more than enough material for the Symbi girl-Deboshree to capture! I'm looking forward to the ride to Hedvi tomorrow....