A Hilarious clip that i saw somewhere on Youtube a few months ago... been hunting the movie since! hope you like it...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
BN to Hampi?!!
You know it’s kinda difficult to try and sleep by 10:30pm and then wakeup by 3:15am!
Well, this was our plight if we wanted to make to the meeting point near Forum at 0400hrs that chilly Friday morning. We were going for the annual meet of Bike Nomads, one of the biker clubs that I’m part of… funny thing here is that this is one of those clubs that is not bike specific! So doesn’t matter if you have a 100cc chotu bike or a 500ccbull; if you have the passion for touring and biking, you can join in!
I was overly excited about this particular ride… main reason being that this would the first ‘long ride’ that we’ll be doing together (read more than 300kms in a day) and secondly, we never had been to Hampi, those of you who know me and ‘my better half’ would know that she is a big fan of history, archeology and the arts in general; so this would’ve been the best place for us to go for the weekend. The wifey and I had started preparations for it since a long time! A lot of physical workout and training for our endurance and stamina was going on. I took the RedEye to the mechanics and got her completely serviced to ensure that I don’t face any major showdowns for the ride.
I met the bikers from the Bangalore BN chapter a couple weeks before the ride and found out that none of them had a bull! They all were plastic riders! This brought the first question in my mind; do I really want to ride with the plastic crowd? I’ll get back to what I think now later… a total of 11 bikes were scheduled to leave Bangalore at around 5am on Friday the 23rd of November… this group also included a few newbie bikers who hadn’t done a single ‘long ride’ and some of the veteran bikers who had done enough to earn good ‘bragging rights’
Cut to morning of 23rd
I turnoff the alarm at 0315 (my special alarm theme for that day was ‘gonna fly now’ out of the movie Rocky) look around the room, the gleam of the night light and a few flickering lights on the laptop and modem made our bedroom look real cozy! I wanted to pull the sheets over my head and go back to my la-la land as soon as I could. But I roused my sleepy brain and asked my body to move, to get out of the bed and turn on the geyser, walked around the house once completely aimless trying to figure out why was I up so early, practically in the middle of the night? And then it dawned… we were supposed to meet in the next one hours’ time with the other BNers! I woke the wife up, she was strangely relatively calmer and focused when she woke up. We hurriedly freshened up, dressed, had some coffee, did a final check on the luggage that was packed the previous evening and stepped out. This was the first time that I was putting the saddle bags on my bike, was slightly confusing… but once I figured the front from the back, it sat on the bike like a charm and we were all set to roll!
This was the first time, both of us were riding through the area at this hour… forum was strangely only 10minutes away on the empty roads! When we reached there, the scene was awesome! There were already 7bikes waiting there and all the riders looked eager to ride, here I met Aditya who was the only other biker from Bangalore riding with his spouse, met Sapna and found out that it was her second longish ride with Adi… we waited for Prassanna till 0440 but he didn’t show up, finally I called him and we decided that he’ll catch-up at the second regroup point at Nelmangla.
I was the point rider from this point till Nelamangla where we were to meet Vaas, Aashish, Kaapi and the others… by the time we reached Nelmangla, it was already 0530, 15minutes late from our originally decided departure time. Vaas and Chamolibhai are the guys who I would call punctual; they were already there and had finished their first rounds of chai. We all ordered our chais, ciggys and other stuff… other riders rolled in by 6ish and we finally rolled out by 0630, already over an hour late…
What can I say for the roads? Amazingly smooth! As they say in Hindi – Makhkhan! Pretty picturesque, almost a straight line and no bumps at all! We all averaged pretty decent speeds and stopped post a town called Sira for our breakfast, the small dhaba there was just right, the only things available were idli and dosa. We all ordered our options, did a small photo-op there and rolled again… the next stop was Chitradurga. And this ended our ‘good, smooth’ roads… the road from here was almost nonexistent; I guess Karnataka has this specialty, after every good stretch of the road they put an equally pathetic stretch so that you can appreciate the good roads. We gazed at hundreds of windmills and rode on, onto the really bad roads. This stretch was just sad.
Finally we made it to Hospet and Hampi was just 15-20 kms away… by now, the bad roads had started taking their toll and most of us started feeling tired. The hotel looked like heaven when we pulled in the parking lot. All I wanted to do was just crash. Sleep for a while and then decide on what next…
The Bangalore crowd was the first to reach Hampi, we were expecting people now from Bombay, Pune and Hyderabad… on and a few unannounced riders from different locations. While the couples rested in the hotel, the bachelors and the enthu-cutlets went out for a short ride around Hampi to just explore the place… I somehow couldn’t sleep so after a while I stepped out in the foyer of the hotel to find Vaas chatting with a gentleman who smoked two cigarettes back-to-back… on getting introduced I realized that this guy was GR, the most witty, punny and soft spoken gent I’ve ever met! I just turned into a big fan of this chap when I realized that he is almost 40 and rode nonstop from Hyderabad to Hampi (not even bio-breaks!)
The second set of riders to turn up was Doc. Arnob and Prasad Themkar; these two also had done an almost nonstop ride from Bombay to Hampi… after they freshened up and came to the dining area, I discovered that Doc also is a very witty and jovial person! And Prasad was a ‘well built’ well mannered guy. I was actually realized that I was smiling more and more and my apprehensions were turning into dust as the people I got to meet were all much better than what I was expecting! Usually bikers are thought of as the typical of loud-mouthed, unruly and arrogant people, but here is a crowd of really nice, well mannered and genuine people!
While sitting and chatting, Doc. Prithvi Raval turned up… I must say that Doc is older that my dad! But his spirit for biking is just amazing! a very nice guy to know… I actually had heard a lot about him whenever I talked to rocky’da about the other bikers he knew and the ones he would recommend for me to know. We ordered dinner and sat in a nice big group in the chilly evening, having our dinner and sharing stories about names, tattoos, bikes, places to visit and almost everything under the sun!
We retired by around 11pm as Saturday was supposed to be a long day… woke up at around 7ish, got dressed and stepped out to have our breakfast. Strangely the wife hadn’t complained about anything and I could see that she also was enjoying our stay here, in the dining room we met Capt. Nandu Chitnis, the ‘ageless biker’ as we know him, he is I guess in his late 50s, a person with an enormous passion for a lot of things in life, who rode to Leh-Ladakh this July with his wife; that too on an avvy!!! I met him and instantly became an avid fan. I would want to be something like him when I grow old.
Slowly the other Pune, Bby people started pouring out in the dining room, another round of introductions, more amazing people introduced to each other and all I could think was WOW! So many people at one place, all here just to make sure that they turn up for the annual meet and all respecting each other so much! Amazing!!!
By the time we actually stepped out of the hotel, it was pretty late… so the whole ‘guided tour’ plan got chucked and we decided to see only the famous places at Hampi… we rode around the ruins, looking at whatever we could and whatever our brains could digest… there is just SO MUCH to see! By around 1330 we decided to break for lunch and meet again at 3ish at the hotel for our photo-ops… we all split into groups for lunch and my group was Capt & wife, Adi & sapna, Vibhu & Anu, Nav and 2 of us (my wife and I) we went into the by lanes of the Hampi bazaar looking for a specific place that Capt had talked about… it was a nice shack sorta place, good music, good ambience and only 2 people running it. When all of us started ordering for stuff the guys panicked… we actually waited almost 2 hours for the lunch (which could’ve been better) but by this time we were already late and had to rush back to the hotel.
Imagine 40 riders and over 25 bikes in one place!!! We clicked a few ‘formation parking’ photos at the hotel and then all of us left for the Vithalla temple; it was THE PLACE you come for at Hampi. It’s a huge, magnificent structure… a whole stone-pillared market place; musical pillars in the temple, a whole stone chariot in the compound… just breathtaking! We clicked some more pictures here.
(Image Courtesy: Harshad Sharma)
After the photo-op we descended to the TungaBhadra river, dipped our feet in the cool, clean water and just sat there till the sun set… from here we decided to go towards the TB canal and click some more pictures… but only 4 bikes made it till there, the others apparently lost their way and headed back to the hotel… the canal in the full moon light looked very eerie and a bit spooky. We didn’t spend too much time here, went back to the hotel and found everyone waiting there.
Now was the most interesting part of the meet. The ‘introduction’ round, I know, I know you’ll be thinking what’s so funny about the intros? The twist here was that one person stands up and the others were supposed to introduce him; now imagine you are standing there and people all around are passing comments for you, both good and bad! :-) was a gun session after which Doc. Raval pulled out the BN stickers from his bag… now we all BNers have a BN sticker on our bikes, helmets and for some even their cigarette packets! (Yes, Mayank from Sangli actually smokes BN brand ciggys now) after all this followed the dinner which was strangely tasting better than the previous evening’s
A desperate attempt for a campfire was next; but after around 20 minutes of pouring kerosene and Petrol out of Mayank’s bullet we realized that the wood was just too wet to light. We all said our good nights; Sunday morning people had to head back to their own destinations…. Bombay, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We all said our goodnights and goodbyes and retired into our rooms, the single junta had a grand drinking binge (which I was kept out of)
Sunday morning came too early! We had decided to meet sharp at 8 in the parking lot so that we can roll out by 8:30… guess what? The people showed up only after 9! Then some of the junta suggested that instead of riding straight to Bangalore we should do a detour to the TB Dam and spend some time there… after too many protests I had to give in and ride to the damn dam… this pushed our departure quite a bit and we could get out on the highway only after 1230! This was scary for me… well; honestly, I am very scared of riding into the nights and always make a point of either reaching my destination by nightfall or stopover wherever I can. But NO RIDING IN THE DARK! Now, all my fears were coming to surface and I pushed my bike and the others to ride as fast as we could…
The lunch stop was at chitradurga, and I told Vaas that we now have to follow discipline in riding and take a break ONLY after at least 1hour of riding… he agreed to this and we pushed off towards Bangalore. But, darkness came too soon and we did ride pretty much in the dark for a long while, by now the order or the formation of the bikers was getting broken and we were into really small groups of 2-3 I was with Chamolibhai and Gaurav… we stopped only at Nelmangla, had a chai and started towards Bangalore again, after almost 2 hours we reached home at around 9pm. Tired, with sore bums and just wanting to crash.
Must say the wifey was pretty strong all through, she had a bit of tonsillitis before we started which got really aggravated and coupled with a bad cold, but she stayed pretty strong all though. Just made me fall in love with her all over again.
And another point that I’d make here is that bikers are not made by metal or plastic but only by the passion and drive that they have… I saw people ride 150cc pulsars, to 220ccZmas to 180cc Avvy cruisers; and all I could understand is that they all share a similar passion fro biking.
I liked it! Gave me a new direction to think and appreciate people the way they are…
Anyways, this post is long enough and I’ll signoff for now…
The pictures of the meet are here:
Capt. Chitnis ka album
Mayank's Pictures
Sameer's Pics
Vibhu (moderator's view)
Harshad Sharma - superb pics!
And my album!
Well, this was our plight if we wanted to make to the meeting point near Forum at 0400hrs that chilly Friday morning. We were going for the annual meet of Bike Nomads, one of the biker clubs that I’m part of… funny thing here is that this is one of those clubs that is not bike specific! So doesn’t matter if you have a 100cc chotu bike or a 500ccbull; if you have the passion for touring and biking, you can join in!
I was overly excited about this particular ride… main reason being that this would the first ‘long ride’ that we’ll be doing together (read more than 300kms in a day) and secondly, we never had been to Hampi, those of you who know me and ‘my better half’ would know that she is a big fan of history, archeology and the arts in general; so this would’ve been the best place for us to go for the weekend. The wifey and I had started preparations for it since a long time! A lot of physical workout and training for our endurance and stamina was going on. I took the RedEye to the mechanics and got her completely serviced to ensure that I don’t face any major showdowns for the ride.
I met the bikers from the Bangalore BN chapter a couple weeks before the ride and found out that none of them had a bull! They all were plastic riders! This brought the first question in my mind; do I really want to ride with the plastic crowd? I’ll get back to what I think now later… a total of 11 bikes were scheduled to leave Bangalore at around 5am on Friday the 23rd of November… this group also included a few newbie bikers who hadn’t done a single ‘long ride’ and some of the veteran bikers who had done enough to earn good ‘bragging rights’
Cut to morning of 23rd
I turnoff the alarm at 0315 (my special alarm theme for that day was ‘gonna fly now’ out of the movie Rocky) look around the room, the gleam of the night light and a few flickering lights on the laptop and modem made our bedroom look real cozy! I wanted to pull the sheets over my head and go back to my la-la land as soon as I could. But I roused my sleepy brain and asked my body to move, to get out of the bed and turn on the geyser, walked around the house once completely aimless trying to figure out why was I up so early, practically in the middle of the night? And then it dawned… we were supposed to meet in the next one hours’ time with the other BNers! I woke the wife up, she was strangely relatively calmer and focused when she woke up. We hurriedly freshened up, dressed, had some coffee, did a final check on the luggage that was packed the previous evening and stepped out. This was the first time that I was putting the saddle bags on my bike, was slightly confusing… but once I figured the front from the back, it sat on the bike like a charm and we were all set to roll!
This was the first time, both of us were riding through the area at this hour… forum was strangely only 10minutes away on the empty roads! When we reached there, the scene was awesome! There were already 7bikes waiting there and all the riders looked eager to ride, here I met Aditya who was the only other biker from Bangalore riding with his spouse, met Sapna and found out that it was her second longish ride with Adi… we waited for Prassanna till 0440 but he didn’t show up, finally I called him and we decided that he’ll catch-up at the second regroup point at Nelmangla.
I was the point rider from this point till Nelamangla where we were to meet Vaas, Aashish, Kaapi and the others… by the time we reached Nelmangla, it was already 0530, 15minutes late from our originally decided departure time. Vaas and Chamolibhai are the guys who I would call punctual; they were already there and had finished their first rounds of chai. We all ordered our chais, ciggys and other stuff… other riders rolled in by 6ish and we finally rolled out by 0630, already over an hour late…
What can I say for the roads? Amazingly smooth! As they say in Hindi – Makhkhan! Pretty picturesque, almost a straight line and no bumps at all! We all averaged pretty decent speeds and stopped post a town called Sira for our breakfast, the small dhaba there was just right, the only things available were idli and dosa. We all ordered our options, did a small photo-op there and rolled again… the next stop was Chitradurga. And this ended our ‘good, smooth’ roads… the road from here was almost nonexistent; I guess Karnataka has this specialty, after every good stretch of the road they put an equally pathetic stretch so that you can appreciate the good roads. We gazed at hundreds of windmills and rode on, onto the really bad roads. This stretch was just sad.
Finally we made it to Hospet and Hampi was just 15-20 kms away… by now, the bad roads had started taking their toll and most of us started feeling tired. The hotel looked like heaven when we pulled in the parking lot. All I wanted to do was just crash. Sleep for a while and then decide on what next…
The Bangalore crowd was the first to reach Hampi, we were expecting people now from Bombay, Pune and Hyderabad… on and a few unannounced riders from different locations. While the couples rested in the hotel, the bachelors and the enthu-cutlets went out for a short ride around Hampi to just explore the place… I somehow couldn’t sleep so after a while I stepped out in the foyer of the hotel to find Vaas chatting with a gentleman who smoked two cigarettes back-to-back… on getting introduced I realized that this guy was GR, the most witty, punny and soft spoken gent I’ve ever met! I just turned into a big fan of this chap when I realized that he is almost 40 and rode nonstop from Hyderabad to Hampi (not even bio-breaks!)
The second set of riders to turn up was Doc. Arnob and Prasad Themkar; these two also had done an almost nonstop ride from Bombay to Hampi… after they freshened up and came to the dining area, I discovered that Doc also is a very witty and jovial person! And Prasad was a ‘well built’ well mannered guy. I was actually realized that I was smiling more and more and my apprehensions were turning into dust as the people I got to meet were all much better than what I was expecting! Usually bikers are thought of as the typical of loud-mouthed, unruly and arrogant people, but here is a crowd of really nice, well mannered and genuine people!
While sitting and chatting, Doc. Prithvi Raval turned up… I must say that Doc is older that my dad! But his spirit for biking is just amazing! a very nice guy to know… I actually had heard a lot about him whenever I talked to rocky’da about the other bikers he knew and the ones he would recommend for me to know. We ordered dinner and sat in a nice big group in the chilly evening, having our dinner and sharing stories about names, tattoos, bikes, places to visit and almost everything under the sun!
We retired by around 11pm as Saturday was supposed to be a long day… woke up at around 7ish, got dressed and stepped out to have our breakfast. Strangely the wife hadn’t complained about anything and I could see that she also was enjoying our stay here, in the dining room we met Capt. Nandu Chitnis, the ‘ageless biker’ as we know him, he is I guess in his late 50s, a person with an enormous passion for a lot of things in life, who rode to Leh-Ladakh this July with his wife; that too on an avvy!!! I met him and instantly became an avid fan. I would want to be something like him when I grow old.
Slowly the other Pune, Bby people started pouring out in the dining room, another round of introductions, more amazing people introduced to each other and all I could think was WOW! So many people at one place, all here just to make sure that they turn up for the annual meet and all respecting each other so much! Amazing!!!
By the time we actually stepped out of the hotel, it was pretty late… so the whole ‘guided tour’ plan got chucked and we decided to see only the famous places at Hampi… we rode around the ruins, looking at whatever we could and whatever our brains could digest… there is just SO MUCH to see! By around 1330 we decided to break for lunch and meet again at 3ish at the hotel for our photo-ops… we all split into groups for lunch and my group was Capt & wife, Adi & sapna, Vibhu & Anu, Nav and 2 of us (my wife and I) we went into the by lanes of the Hampi bazaar looking for a specific place that Capt had talked about… it was a nice shack sorta place, good music, good ambience and only 2 people running it. When all of us started ordering for stuff the guys panicked… we actually waited almost 2 hours for the lunch (which could’ve been better) but by this time we were already late and had to rush back to the hotel.
Imagine 40 riders and over 25 bikes in one place!!! We clicked a few ‘formation parking’ photos at the hotel and then all of us left for the Vithalla temple; it was THE PLACE you come for at Hampi. It’s a huge, magnificent structure… a whole stone-pillared market place; musical pillars in the temple, a whole stone chariot in the compound… just breathtaking! We clicked some more pictures here.
(Image Courtesy: Harshad Sharma)After the photo-op we descended to the TungaBhadra river, dipped our feet in the cool, clean water and just sat there till the sun set… from here we decided to go towards the TB canal and click some more pictures… but only 4 bikes made it till there, the others apparently lost their way and headed back to the hotel… the canal in the full moon light looked very eerie and a bit spooky. We didn’t spend too much time here, went back to the hotel and found everyone waiting there.
Now was the most interesting part of the meet. The ‘introduction’ round, I know, I know you’ll be thinking what’s so funny about the intros? The twist here was that one person stands up and the others were supposed to introduce him; now imagine you are standing there and people all around are passing comments for you, both good and bad! :-) was a gun session after which Doc. Raval pulled out the BN stickers from his bag… now we all BNers have a BN sticker on our bikes, helmets and for some even their cigarette packets! (Yes, Mayank from Sangli actually smokes BN brand ciggys now) after all this followed the dinner which was strangely tasting better than the previous evening’s
A desperate attempt for a campfire was next; but after around 20 minutes of pouring kerosene and Petrol out of Mayank’s bullet we realized that the wood was just too wet to light. We all said our good nights; Sunday morning people had to head back to their own destinations…. Bombay, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. We all said our goodnights and goodbyes and retired into our rooms, the single junta had a grand drinking binge (which I was kept out of)
Sunday morning came too early! We had decided to meet sharp at 8 in the parking lot so that we can roll out by 8:30… guess what? The people showed up only after 9! Then some of the junta suggested that instead of riding straight to Bangalore we should do a detour to the TB Dam and spend some time there… after too many protests I had to give in and ride to the damn dam… this pushed our departure quite a bit and we could get out on the highway only after 1230! This was scary for me… well; honestly, I am very scared of riding into the nights and always make a point of either reaching my destination by nightfall or stopover wherever I can. But NO RIDING IN THE DARK! Now, all my fears were coming to surface and I pushed my bike and the others to ride as fast as we could…
The lunch stop was at chitradurga, and I told Vaas that we now have to follow discipline in riding and take a break ONLY after at least 1hour of riding… he agreed to this and we pushed off towards Bangalore. But, darkness came too soon and we did ride pretty much in the dark for a long while, by now the order or the formation of the bikers was getting broken and we were into really small groups of 2-3 I was with Chamolibhai and Gaurav… we stopped only at Nelmangla, had a chai and started towards Bangalore again, after almost 2 hours we reached home at around 9pm. Tired, with sore bums and just wanting to crash.
Must say the wifey was pretty strong all through, she had a bit of tonsillitis before we started which got really aggravated and coupled with a bad cold, but she stayed pretty strong all though. Just made me fall in love with her all over again.
And another point that I’d make here is that bikers are not made by metal or plastic but only by the passion and drive that they have… I saw people ride 150cc pulsars, to 220ccZmas to 180cc Avvy cruisers; and all I could understand is that they all share a similar passion fro biking.
I liked it! Gave me a new direction to think and appreciate people the way they are…
Anyways, this post is long enough and I’ll signoff for now…
The pictures of the meet are here:
Capt. Chitnis ka album
Mayank's Pictures
Sameer's Pics
Vibhu (moderator's view)
Harshad Sharma - superb pics!
And my album!
Monday, November 19, 2007
IronButt - officially :)
“Dude, are you awake or did you decide to chicken out?”
“Its only 5:40 yaar, we are meeting at 6:30 right? Tell me where”
“At the junction of Outer ring-road and Mysore road”
“thik hai, will be there… C ya”
This is a conversation that happened really early on the last Saturday, and I’m wondering how would it have felt, if I backed out of this ride???
Since the time that the wife had planned a one week ‘work trip’ to Ahmedabad, I’ve been itching to do a ride that was a bit longer than my usual 300kms a day day-rides. And I was clear that I don’t want to do a BIG group ride also, something sort of a cannonball run with a few bulleteers that I like to ride with. Sadly, all of them were either busy or didn’t want to join in and one of my old colleagues who I had lost touch with for over 3 years suddenly popped out of the past and said that he also wants to ride! My first reaction was, “what the hell? I don’t even ‘know’ this guy any more and he suddenly comes out of the blue suggesting that we ride together?” but, then slowly the saner me started taking over and said that boss, you didn’t ‘know’ him then also… just ride with him and see if you like the company and if he is a prospective member for one of your bike-clubs. I agreed.
Honestly, I was slightly impressed with his preparations for the ride and his enthusiasm! He actually went and got his tyre changed, his battery recharged before the D’day!!! The day for the ride was decided; we were to do a ‘iron-butt’ ride on 17th November (a Saturday) all the way to BR Hills and back… a ride of little over 500kms in a day.
We met on the Mysore road (I was late by 7-8 minutes) around 6:40am, his first reaction to see me on the bike was somewhere between a WOW and WTF… as usual, I was all prepped in my riding gear from top to bottom, the only thing missing still is a decent pair of riding boots… hopefully I’ll get them too! And he was in his denim jacket and jeans without even a pair of gloves!!!
Well, we started the ride, since it was still relatively early in the day, the traffic hadn’t picked up and we could do pretty good speeds! This is one of my favorite roads to ride on, smooth 4lane well tarred blacktop with enough visual consolations. Our first pit-stop was Kamat’s for a light breakfast and coffee… strangely, Kamat popped into the view even before I actually started the feel of the ride… we pulled over just to find a full house! The whole place was jam packed! We negotiated ourselves a table for 2 after buttering the head waiter there… breakfast was the usual Kamat junk, idlis made in the banana leaf and vada.
After the breakfast and a brief break we started again, the destination now was mysore-nanjangud… the roads were not too dense with traffic and we could manage pretty good bursts of speed well over 100 (sheer pleasure!) Mysore was in sight pretty soon… we were supposed to take the Mysore ring-road towards Nanjangud but I guess I was too focused on the speeding and forgot to take the turn… after around 2 kms inside the city Raam appeared in my RVM frantically flashing his head-light and honking like crazy, I slowed and he said that we were to take the other road for Nanjangud! Darn, took a U-turn and got onto the ring-road. This road is amazing! I straight smooth piece of road with lush greenery on both the sides… looks like a road leading to the horizon, into the unknown… the ring-road soon turned off into a 2lane highway, this was a decent road, not too bad and nothing too good… traffic had started picking up and we had to brake often to dodge crazy maniacs in their four-wheeled coffins… just before Nanjangud we saw a detour off towards BR Hills and decided to venture this road, this was our first big mistake of the day… the detour turned from a decent 2lane road into a stretch of sand, gravel and rocks… since I was solo and I was too enthused to show off, I stood up on the foot pegs of the bike and kept on ripping on the almost off-road ride, the bike took too much punishment here… after a while the road evened out to a smoother terrain and we decided to take a butt break as soon as we spot a chaiwallah. I guess god was on our side during that part of the day coz as soon as I decided to stop, I noticed a pretty decent dhaba on the road, we pulled into the dhaba and asked for some chai, I also had to update the wifey that I have been safe and in one piece till now… made the quick call and had chai, in fact the chai was soo tasty that we had one more round of it, we noticed some tame ducks and turkeys at the dhaba so played with them for a while. The dhaba owner seemed to be a pretty enthu cutlet! Maybe our dressing and the funny looking bikes aroused his curiosity; so he started talking to Raam in Kannada, I didn’t understand what they talked apart from who are you, where are you from, what are you doing here and why is the other bloke dressed in such funny costume? I tried to pitch in the conversation with my limited knowledge of the language but to no avail, my mate told me that the dhaba guy has suggested a different, much better and scenic route to the place, I was pretty impressed! But alas, this guy told me that we should stick to our predecided route and shouldn’t go any other way. Foiled, this is not the adventure of biking! This is not the motorcycling spirit! How can you keep going on and on over the overly trodden roads? Where is the fun of riding through uncharted territory? Phooey…
And it turns out that the road we took kept turning from okay to bad and from bad to worse… in most of the parts, the road was completely nonexistent, but we kept going on… finally we reached the KGudi forest check post, the first thing the security guard at the gate insisted was that I turnoff my headlamp! I told him that I know it’s on and I’m comfortable riding when its on even at noon, but he insisted! One more phooey here… I turned it off, signed our names in the register, the forest officer appeared out of nowhere while we were writing in the register and picked up a conversation, again the same, where are you from? Where are you off? Why did you ride all the way when you can get a decent state transport bus? Why is this bloke dressed in such funny clothes? This was the limit for me! I started riding into the forest while Raam was still talking to the forest guard, taking this as a cue; Raam also rolled off… this was one scenic piece of land! Almost 4kms of straight road running through the jungle into the hills up ahead!
Well, the road did lead into the mountains also and we rode through some of the worst twisties I’ve ever seen! Really bad road, crater sized potholes on the road and we riding here trying to negotiate the potholes and making sure that we don’t ride off the edge of the road into the forest below! After around 20kms of riding into the jungle brought us to another check-post and this time I switched off the headlamp even before we reach there, the guard again asked the same questions that I was so familiar with, Raam was patient enough to answer all of them… after riding through this second check-post, I noticed the jungle lodges board. This just brought back memories of the time I spent in February, the 3 days I spent with the wifey for our honeymoon! I thought of stopping by and saying hi to Nahar who is a good fried and the manager of the KGudi resort. I rode into the familiar yet almost forgotten trail towards the resort. And what surprise! Nahar was sitting there in the sun along with Anant who was here when we had come for the honeymoon… what a bloody pleasant surprise! We sat there chatted for a long time, Nahar was more than kind to offer us lunch which we readily agreed to (heh heh, who would say not to free food?) after the nice food and some more chatting, we started on our way back around 14:40… Nahar suggested we take the route through the jungle past BR Hills and ride towards a town called Yellandur for our way back, after Yellandur there apparently are 2 different routes for Bangalore.
We bid adieu to Nahar, His wife, to Anant, to Vikrant and to KGudi (with a silent promise in my mind to return back soon!) the start for the way back was overly shaky the forest department had started working on the roads and forgotten about it, so the whole patch of the road was dug-up but we managed to ride through it… a few kilometers later… HEAVEN! Smooth tarmac, single lane road, lush cool forest on both sides! And amazing twisties! We spotted some chital, wild dogs and a few mongooses on the way… this patch of the road got over in a flash and we were at the final check-post to signoff and bid the place goodbye…
After getting out of the forest, we took the ‘immediate right’ turn towards Yellandur, the road was again not too good and not too bad, I guess I had gotten used to the bad patches of the road by this time after over 50kms of ‘almost’ offroading. Through Yellandur we were to reach Malavalli but in the spirit of riding we missed the turn that we were supposed to take… eventually after 20-25kms we realized that we are going ‘wrong way’ turned back again and got on the proper route to reach Malavalli. Malavalli brought us two routes to Bangalore one was via Maddur, on the Mysore highway again and back to Bangalore, the other was via Kanakpura into Bangalore… dunno if both of us had lost our marbles at that moment of time… we decided to go through the Kanakpura road, BIG MISTAKE! The road was nonexistent, complete butt-breaking offroading adventure for over 20kms, stopped for chai and to loosen the taut and aching joints, checked with the chaiwallah how long will the bad road last and he happily smiling said “saar, 18 more kms” darn, I hated my life at that moment! I was so frustrated with the bone jangling ride by now that I was begging for a ‘normal’ road… after a few kilometers the road conditions finally improved a bit, instead of the dirt offroad, we had a patchy road with a generous proportion of potholes… after bouncing off so many bumps and crossing over crater sized potholes my bike’s rear end had started giving issues… the tail light and rear indicators didn’t work, the tyre started wobbling like crazy and the air-pressure was almost nil! But the ride was still on!!!
Darkness came too early! Just to remind us that the battery work that Raam had gotten on his bike didn’t work. Result? His headlamp was dimmer than a candle. So I had to cut my speed, and make sure that he is almost tailgating me and riding off my bull’s headlights… wasn’t I happy for putting those auxiliary headlamps that illuminated the way ahead? The speed that we had maintained throughout the day had drastically reduced to 50-60kmph here also the heavy vehicles wanted to showoff their brighter and much better headlamps to they blinded us almost running us over… anyhow we reached Kanakpura missing a lot of turns on the way and taking the longest route back to Bangalore. The journey was not over yet!
Slowly, painstakingly we finally managed to reach into Bangalore, I stopped at a gas-station to get my tyres inflated and some gas in the tank… Raam missed looking me turning into the gas-station and kept riding on… we got lost again! He was on some road and I was somewhere else! Coordinated where to meet in Bangalore via cell-phone (don’t I love technology?) and I started into the town alone. My brain had gone numb of the excessively long ride and most of my joints were actually screaming for some rest coz of so much offroading adventures. Thinking of going home soon, I took a wrong turn and got lost in Bangalore!!! This was the final straw for me… I couldn’t believe that I actually managed to take a wrong turn and instead of going to south Bangalore I was bouncing around the streets of east Bangalore… thankfully I managed to reach BTM after 1hour in the city! Found Raam there, had some dinner (sorry guys, I was so tired that I don’t remember what I ate) reached home, parked the bike, she looked like a wounded soldier; tired, bloody, messy and broken down.
This was the butt-breaking, ironbutt ride that I had, over 540kms in a day and over 200kms of really bad roads managed. I was tired, sleepy and aching, but I was proud that I could ride ‘alone’ when I had to. I was satisfied that I rode so much and I saw so many good sights on the way. I was glad that I did what I had been thinking since over a month finally happened.
Finally I earned myself some bragging rights of riding so long in a day and over such varied terrain… I have earned my smirk for this one ride :-)
“Its only 5:40 yaar, we are meeting at 6:30 right? Tell me where”
“At the junction of Outer ring-road and Mysore road”
“thik hai, will be there… C ya”
This is a conversation that happened really early on the last Saturday, and I’m wondering how would it have felt, if I backed out of this ride???
Since the time that the wife had planned a one week ‘work trip’ to Ahmedabad, I’ve been itching to do a ride that was a bit longer than my usual 300kms a day day-rides. And I was clear that I don’t want to do a BIG group ride also, something sort of a cannonball run with a few bulleteers that I like to ride with. Sadly, all of them were either busy or didn’t want to join in and one of my old colleagues who I had lost touch with for over 3 years suddenly popped out of the past and said that he also wants to ride! My first reaction was, “what the hell? I don’t even ‘know’ this guy any more and he suddenly comes out of the blue suggesting that we ride together?” but, then slowly the saner me started taking over and said that boss, you didn’t ‘know’ him then also… just ride with him and see if you like the company and if he is a prospective member for one of your bike-clubs. I agreed.
Honestly, I was slightly impressed with his preparations for the ride and his enthusiasm! He actually went and got his tyre changed, his battery recharged before the D’day!!! The day for the ride was decided; we were to do a ‘iron-butt’ ride on 17th November (a Saturday) all the way to BR Hills and back… a ride of little over 500kms in a day.
We met on the Mysore road (I was late by 7-8 minutes) around 6:40am, his first reaction to see me on the bike was somewhere between a WOW and WTF… as usual, I was all prepped in my riding gear from top to bottom, the only thing missing still is a decent pair of riding boots… hopefully I’ll get them too! And he was in his denim jacket and jeans without even a pair of gloves!!!
Well, we started the ride, since it was still relatively early in the day, the traffic hadn’t picked up and we could do pretty good speeds! This is one of my favorite roads to ride on, smooth 4lane well tarred blacktop with enough visual consolations. Our first pit-stop was Kamat’s for a light breakfast and coffee… strangely, Kamat popped into the view even before I actually started the feel of the ride… we pulled over just to find a full house! The whole place was jam packed! We negotiated ourselves a table for 2 after buttering the head waiter there… breakfast was the usual Kamat junk, idlis made in the banana leaf and vada.
After the breakfast and a brief break we started again, the destination now was mysore-nanjangud… the roads were not too dense with traffic and we could manage pretty good bursts of speed well over 100 (sheer pleasure!) Mysore was in sight pretty soon… we were supposed to take the Mysore ring-road towards Nanjangud but I guess I was too focused on the speeding and forgot to take the turn… after around 2 kms inside the city Raam appeared in my RVM frantically flashing his head-light and honking like crazy, I slowed and he said that we were to take the other road for Nanjangud! Darn, took a U-turn and got onto the ring-road. This road is amazing! I straight smooth piece of road with lush greenery on both the sides… looks like a road leading to the horizon, into the unknown… the ring-road soon turned off into a 2lane highway, this was a decent road, not too bad and nothing too good… traffic had started picking up and we had to brake often to dodge crazy maniacs in their four-wheeled coffins… just before Nanjangud we saw a detour off towards BR Hills and decided to venture this road, this was our first big mistake of the day… the detour turned from a decent 2lane road into a stretch of sand, gravel and rocks… since I was solo and I was too enthused to show off, I stood up on the foot pegs of the bike and kept on ripping on the almost off-road ride, the bike took too much punishment here… after a while the road evened out to a smoother terrain and we decided to take a butt break as soon as we spot a chaiwallah. I guess god was on our side during that part of the day coz as soon as I decided to stop, I noticed a pretty decent dhaba on the road, we pulled into the dhaba and asked for some chai, I also had to update the wifey that I have been safe and in one piece till now… made the quick call and had chai, in fact the chai was soo tasty that we had one more round of it, we noticed some tame ducks and turkeys at the dhaba so played with them for a while. The dhaba owner seemed to be a pretty enthu cutlet! Maybe our dressing and the funny looking bikes aroused his curiosity; so he started talking to Raam in Kannada, I didn’t understand what they talked apart from who are you, where are you from, what are you doing here and why is the other bloke dressed in such funny costume? I tried to pitch in the conversation with my limited knowledge of the language but to no avail, my mate told me that the dhaba guy has suggested a different, much better and scenic route to the place, I was pretty impressed! But alas, this guy told me that we should stick to our predecided route and shouldn’t go any other way. Foiled, this is not the adventure of biking! This is not the motorcycling spirit! How can you keep going on and on over the overly trodden roads? Where is the fun of riding through uncharted territory? Phooey…
And it turns out that the road we took kept turning from okay to bad and from bad to worse… in most of the parts, the road was completely nonexistent, but we kept going on… finally we reached the KGudi forest check post, the first thing the security guard at the gate insisted was that I turnoff my headlamp! I told him that I know it’s on and I’m comfortable riding when its on even at noon, but he insisted! One more phooey here… I turned it off, signed our names in the register, the forest officer appeared out of nowhere while we were writing in the register and picked up a conversation, again the same, where are you from? Where are you off? Why did you ride all the way when you can get a decent state transport bus? Why is this bloke dressed in such funny clothes? This was the limit for me! I started riding into the forest while Raam was still talking to the forest guard, taking this as a cue; Raam also rolled off… this was one scenic piece of land! Almost 4kms of straight road running through the jungle into the hills up ahead!
Well, the road did lead into the mountains also and we rode through some of the worst twisties I’ve ever seen! Really bad road, crater sized potholes on the road and we riding here trying to negotiate the potholes and making sure that we don’t ride off the edge of the road into the forest below! After around 20kms of riding into the jungle brought us to another check-post and this time I switched off the headlamp even before we reach there, the guard again asked the same questions that I was so familiar with, Raam was patient enough to answer all of them… after riding through this second check-post, I noticed the jungle lodges board. This just brought back memories of the time I spent in February, the 3 days I spent with the wifey for our honeymoon! I thought of stopping by and saying hi to Nahar who is a good fried and the manager of the KGudi resort. I rode into the familiar yet almost forgotten trail towards the resort. And what surprise! Nahar was sitting there in the sun along with Anant who was here when we had come for the honeymoon… what a bloody pleasant surprise! We sat there chatted for a long time, Nahar was more than kind to offer us lunch which we readily agreed to (heh heh, who would say not to free food?) after the nice food and some more chatting, we started on our way back around 14:40… Nahar suggested we take the route through the jungle past BR Hills and ride towards a town called Yellandur for our way back, after Yellandur there apparently are 2 different routes for Bangalore.
We bid adieu to Nahar, His wife, to Anant, to Vikrant and to KGudi (with a silent promise in my mind to return back soon!) the start for the way back was overly shaky the forest department had started working on the roads and forgotten about it, so the whole patch of the road was dug-up but we managed to ride through it… a few kilometers later… HEAVEN! Smooth tarmac, single lane road, lush cool forest on both sides! And amazing twisties! We spotted some chital, wild dogs and a few mongooses on the way… this patch of the road got over in a flash and we were at the final check-post to signoff and bid the place goodbye…
After getting out of the forest, we took the ‘immediate right’ turn towards Yellandur, the road was again not too good and not too bad, I guess I had gotten used to the bad patches of the road by this time after over 50kms of ‘almost’ offroading. Through Yellandur we were to reach Malavalli but in the spirit of riding we missed the turn that we were supposed to take… eventually after 20-25kms we realized that we are going ‘wrong way’ turned back again and got on the proper route to reach Malavalli. Malavalli brought us two routes to Bangalore one was via Maddur, on the Mysore highway again and back to Bangalore, the other was via Kanakpura into Bangalore… dunno if both of us had lost our marbles at that moment of time… we decided to go through the Kanakpura road, BIG MISTAKE! The road was nonexistent, complete butt-breaking offroading adventure for over 20kms, stopped for chai and to loosen the taut and aching joints, checked with the chaiwallah how long will the bad road last and he happily smiling said “saar, 18 more kms” darn, I hated my life at that moment! I was so frustrated with the bone jangling ride by now that I was begging for a ‘normal’ road… after a few kilometers the road conditions finally improved a bit, instead of the dirt offroad, we had a patchy road with a generous proportion of potholes… after bouncing off so many bumps and crossing over crater sized potholes my bike’s rear end had started giving issues… the tail light and rear indicators didn’t work, the tyre started wobbling like crazy and the air-pressure was almost nil! But the ride was still on!!!
Darkness came too early! Just to remind us that the battery work that Raam had gotten on his bike didn’t work. Result? His headlamp was dimmer than a candle. So I had to cut my speed, and make sure that he is almost tailgating me and riding off my bull’s headlights… wasn’t I happy for putting those auxiliary headlamps that illuminated the way ahead? The speed that we had maintained throughout the day had drastically reduced to 50-60kmph here also the heavy vehicles wanted to showoff their brighter and much better headlamps to they blinded us almost running us over… anyhow we reached Kanakpura missing a lot of turns on the way and taking the longest route back to Bangalore. The journey was not over yet!
Slowly, painstakingly we finally managed to reach into Bangalore, I stopped at a gas-station to get my tyres inflated and some gas in the tank… Raam missed looking me turning into the gas-station and kept riding on… we got lost again! He was on some road and I was somewhere else! Coordinated where to meet in Bangalore via cell-phone (don’t I love technology?) and I started into the town alone. My brain had gone numb of the excessively long ride and most of my joints were actually screaming for some rest coz of so much offroading adventures. Thinking of going home soon, I took a wrong turn and got lost in Bangalore!!! This was the final straw for me… I couldn’t believe that I actually managed to take a wrong turn and instead of going to south Bangalore I was bouncing around the streets of east Bangalore… thankfully I managed to reach BTM after 1hour in the city! Found Raam there, had some dinner (sorry guys, I was so tired that I don’t remember what I ate) reached home, parked the bike, she looked like a wounded soldier; tired, bloody, messy and broken down.
This was the butt-breaking, ironbutt ride that I had, over 540kms in a day and over 200kms of really bad roads managed. I was tired, sleepy and aching, but I was proud that I could ride ‘alone’ when I had to. I was satisfied that I rode so much and I saw so many good sights on the way. I was glad that I did what I had been thinking since over a month finally happened.
Finally I earned myself some bragging rights of riding so long in a day and over such varied terrain… I have earned my smirk for this one ride :-)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
feet
These are the feet that walked into my life... walked all over me and changed who i used to be (for the better!)
ain't i glad that they walked to me???
Without her…
Warning: the below post is written under a spasm of loneliness and has more mush than recommended to ‘normal’ people; read at your own risk! I am not responsible if you lose your mind and start ripping your hair out by the time you reach the end of this post.
You know it’s really boring to wake up all alone in the morning!
I keep telling myself that its just a matter of one week and she will be back even before I realize that she’s gone; but somehow every evening when I unlock the door and step into the apartment, I realize that life itself has completely disappeared from here! The ‘lively’ ‘warm’ and ‘loving’ home suddenly has transformed into a cold, crummy, chilly and lonely place.
Funny part is that I was so used to my loneliness, my solitude, ‘my space’ just a year back... and now suddenly I got so used to being with this stranger who has become the most important piece of my whole existence!
I actually stay in bed in the mornings instead of jumping off to make the honey-lemon concoction and starting my workouts… I haven’t worked out in a week… when I felt too guilty about not taking care of my body, I wrapped that heating belt around my waist and sat like a lump of lard for an hour hoping that it’s gonna eat up all the flab from my body.
Is it possible that a person you didn’t even know existed, becomes so important in less than a year’s time? I mean, I always said that I need to ‘know’ the person before I decide to spend my life with her and here I’m brooding my heart out missing this girl I just met less than a year ago.
Well, all I can say is ‘I miss you’
Living my life off dreams,
Enjoying every moment just with my whims
Taking people for granted was acceptable
Even the loser drunkard next door was respectable…
I met you, and life took a u-turn
I don’t have that cruel glint in my eyes
And I don’t sit and say, burn-baby-burn
Smiles started coming easy
Life found a reason
My creativity had fled
Now I have a better vision
You are the reason
The reason to smile,
The reason to live
Just for a longer while…
I miss you,
I miss you bad…
Never felt so forlorn
Now I’m lonely and sad.
Come back to me,
Bring me back to life
Let’s smile together again
Come back my loving wife…
… I miss you
You know it’s really boring to wake up all alone in the morning!
I keep telling myself that its just a matter of one week and she will be back even before I realize that she’s gone; but somehow every evening when I unlock the door and step into the apartment, I realize that life itself has completely disappeared from here! The ‘lively’ ‘warm’ and ‘loving’ home suddenly has transformed into a cold, crummy, chilly and lonely place.
Funny part is that I was so used to my loneliness, my solitude, ‘my space’ just a year back... and now suddenly I got so used to being with this stranger who has become the most important piece of my whole existence!
I actually stay in bed in the mornings instead of jumping off to make the honey-lemon concoction and starting my workouts… I haven’t worked out in a week… when I felt too guilty about not taking care of my body, I wrapped that heating belt around my waist and sat like a lump of lard for an hour hoping that it’s gonna eat up all the flab from my body.
Is it possible that a person you didn’t even know existed, becomes so important in less than a year’s time? I mean, I always said that I need to ‘know’ the person before I decide to spend my life with her and here I’m brooding my heart out missing this girl I just met less than a year ago.
Well, all I can say is ‘I miss you’
Living my life off dreams,
Enjoying every moment just with my whims
Taking people for granted was acceptable
Even the loser drunkard next door was respectable…
I met you, and life took a u-turn
I don’t have that cruel glint in my eyes
And I don’t sit and say, burn-baby-burn
Smiles started coming easy
Life found a reason
My creativity had fled
Now I have a better vision
You are the reason
The reason to smile,
The reason to live
Just for a longer while…
I miss you,
I miss you bad…
Never felt so forlorn
Now I’m lonely and sad.
Come back to me,
Bring me back to life
Let’s smile together again
Come back my loving wife…
… I miss you
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
She is pretty
Darn, i get high just looking at her... Wonder if every other biker would be this obsessed?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
My Red-Eye
on Sunday i rode with RTMC (a bullet club in Bangalore) well, half-way i had to turn back with Rocky and on the way i clicked a pic of my red-eye with the fone cam...
The beast the bullet
Pretty decent pic! :)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
BIKER SLOGANS - borrowed stuff
- Never confuse the map with the journey.
- Its the attitude, not the altitude
- My Life is a blur...
- Some people measure their adventures in miles or days. I prefer "horizons crossed".
- While some people are choosing between chicken and fish, my choice is between dust and mud (with rocks on the side).
- Getting there isn't easy. And that's the best part.
- When someone says, "let's go" , you shouldn't have to ask, "where?"
- On my way to nowhere ... and proud of it".
- Sometimes the morning commute can get a little bumpy.
- Every lane is a passing lane.
- I do my flying on the ground.
- Addicted ? Possesed is a better word.
- Who needs a stereo when you've got a throttle ? ( Time to turn up the volume.)
- Its out there somewhere. And we're going to find it.
- Where does this road end ? Never.
- We can stop anytime. But who wants to ?
- Hobbies : Riding... Interests : Riding... What I do for fun : Riding... You get the point.
- Been there. Doing this.
- My job? Just something I do between rides.
- So many rides. So little time.
- Most people take the subway. Have fun most people.
- If you need a reason to ride,You are not on the right bike.
- The destination is one thing.Getting there is everything.
- Grasp life by the handlebars.
- Years ago someone told me that life is a journey.Obviously I took it to heart.
- One question we've never heard is, "Are we there yet?"
- I don't know where the bike ends and I begin.
- The faster we go, the more life slows down.
- If speed is a sin, I am guilty of It.
- Cars Suck !
- We ride two wheels..sometimes one wheel..but not like dead body carried in 4 wheels
- The Journey is the destination
- Where there is a wheel, there is a way.
- I would rather be riding my motorcycle thinking about God,than sitting in a temple thinking about my motorcycle.
- I don't suffer insanity, I enjoy every minute of it - I RIDE
- One life live it!!!!
- I'm a cowboy;A steel horse I ride...I'm wanted...Dead or Alive
- If heaven doesnt allow bikes, I will ride mine straight to hell
- Only a Biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window
- Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming ... WOW! What a ride!
- Getting high on life.. down the never ending road.. just me and my ride..
- Roll on the black road on a red machine
- Rover, Wanderer, Nomad, Vagebond... Call me what you will.
- Just Twist The Wrist!!
- Destination Anywhere
- Live life on empty roads
- Beyond Good and EvilSome take drugs,Some do bungee jumps,Some become monks,I do motorcycling......!
- The truth is out there. Get out of ur couch.!!!
- No riding, No fun. Know riding, Know Fun
- Speed is an Illusion
- Never ask me for directions if you're in a hurry to get there
- Lean into the corners and whisper something dirty to the pavement
- Its not about the number of wheels, its about the degree of freedom
- I Ride. Why don't you ?
- We talk in KMPH not KMPL
- Life begins at 40, but it doesnt get any interesting till 150
- We talk in MPH not KMPH
- The Holy Trinity: Traction, Torque and Tarmac.
- What you ride is what you get. How you ride is who you are.
- Work-Life balance is like Air-Fuel mixture.
- I run it lean...in the corners.
- Running-in is all about self-control. How you ride is what you get.
- Safety is a state of mind, neither influenced nor restricted by how you ride or what you wear.
- No matter what bike you ride or how deft you are at handling it, accidents are caused by this notion of certitude.
- Every Day I wake up, if I don’t feel like riding, I go to work.
- If the ride is so smooth, u are in wrong lane.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
MY Tattoos - My PRIDE :)
I am a proud tattoo collector and i always look for reasons to add to my collection... a lot of people have asked me a lot of questions about my tattoos so here is an answer to most of the questions about the designs:
My first tattoo was a tribal/Celtic fusion design with an eye in the center… to remind me that someone is always watching you...
The second tattoo was the sun design… when observed closely; you’ll notice a moon in that! Its two faces in one… something that I am “a perfect Gemini”
The third tattoo was a bit complicated… it’s a dream-catcher, with a yin-yang pattern to signify proper balance and grizzly bear pugmarks to represent the majestic yet gentle nature of the grizzlies. (this combines the Native American and the Oriental patterns together) 
My first tattoo was a tribal/Celtic fusion design with an eye in the center… to remind me that someone is always watching you...
The second tattoo was the sun design… when observed closely; you’ll notice a moon in that! Its two faces in one… something that I am “a perfect Gemini”
The third tattoo was a bit complicated… it’s a dream-catcher, with a yin-yang pattern to signify proper balance and grizzly bear pugmarks to represent the majestic yet gentle nature of the grizzlies. (this combines the Native American and the Oriental patterns together) 
Monday, October 22, 2007
Things you REALLY don't want to hear your mechanic say . . .
- Uh-oh...
- Oh S***!
- What the heck?!?
- That's SOOOOO bizarre.
- Wow!! Look at this...
- Hey!! Bullets don't do this!
- Mechanic's certificate of training? What's that?
- Well, it's doing SOMETHING...
- Wow...that seemed funny...
- I got a better job at Honda...
- State inspection rules say...
- Sorry, the parts you ordered are no longer kept in stock by The Company.
- Damn! It didn't do that a minute ago...
- Damn, and I just bought that Coke...
- I removed a gasket and now there's LOTS of clearance.
- Hey, do you smell something?
- Hmmm! What's that grinding sound?
- I have never seen one do THAT before...
- I don't think it should be doing that...
- I remember the last time I saw it do that...
- My vacation starts tomorrow.
- Oops! (said in a quiet, almost surprised voice)
- Hmm, maybe if I do this...
- Hmmm, curious...
- We're standardizing on metric.
- Wonder where THIS nut goes?
- (Looking at your T-Bird) What's this switch for anyways?
- If I knew it wasn't going to work, I would have tested it sooner.
- The air cleaner isn't supposed to leak brown gunk, is it?
- Boy, it's a lot easier when you know what you're doing!
Biking and Things...
these are a few random thoughts that I've rummaged through the internet and compiled as a list of things that i read and smile...
- Midnight bugs taste best.
- Saddlebags can never hold everything you want, but they CAN hold everything you need
- NEVER argue with a woman holding a torque wrench
- Never try to race an old geezer, he may have one more gear than you
- Home is where your bike sits still long enough to leave a few drops of oil on the ground
- Routine maintenance should never be neglected
- The only good view of a thunderstorm is in your rearview mirror
- Never be afraid to slow down
- Bikes don't leak oil, they mark their territory
- Don't ride so late into the night that you sleep through the sunrise
- Pie and coffee are as important as petrol
- Sometimes it takes a whole tankful of fuel before you can think straight
- Riding faster than everyone else only guarantees you'll ride alone
- Never hesitate to ride past the last street light at the edge of town
- Never mistake horsepower for staying power
- A good rider has balance, judgment, and good timing
- A cold hamburger can be reheated quite nicely by strapping it to an exhaust pipe and riding forty miles
- Never do less than forty miles before breakfast
- If you don't ride in the rain - you don't ride
- A bike on the road is worth two in the shed
- Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived
- Young riders pick a destination and go. . . Old riders pick a direction and go
- A good mechanic will let you watch without charging you for it
- Sometimes the fastest way to get there is to stop for the night
- Always back your bike into the curb - and sit where you can see it
- Work to ride & ride to work
- Whatever it is, it's better in the wind
- Two-lane blacktop isn't a highway - it's an attitude
- When you look down the road, it seems to never end - but you better believe it does
- A rider can smell a party 5,000 miles away
- Winter is Nature's way of telling you to polish
- A motorcycle can't sing on the streets of a city
- Keep your bike in good repair: Motorcycle boots are NOT comfortable for walking
- People are like Motorcycles: each is customized a bit differently
- If the bike isn't braking properly, you don't start by rebuilding the engine
- Remember to pay as much attention to your partner as you do your carburetor
- Well-trained reflexes are quicker than luck
- Good coffee should be indistinguishable from 50 weight motor oil
- The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome
- Learn to do counter-intuitive things that may someday save your butt
- The twisties - not the superslabs - separate the riders from the squids
- When you're riding lead -- don't spit
- If you really want to know what's going on, watch what's happening at least five cars ahead
- Don't make a reputation you'll have to live down or run away from later
- If the person in the next lane at the stoplight rolls up the window and locks the door, support their view of life by snarling at them
- A friend is someone who'll get out of bed at 2 am to drive his pickup to the middle of nowhere to get you when you're broken down
- Catching a June bug or yellow jacket in your goggles or honeybee down your shirt @ 70 mph can double your vocabulary
- If you want to get somewhere before sundown, you can't stop at EVERY tavern
- There's something ugly about a NEW bike on a trailer
- Don't lead the pack if you don't know where you're going
- Practice wrenching on your own bike
- Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't. Some can't
- Beware the rider who says the bike never breaks down
- Owning two bikes is useful because at least one can be raided for parts at any given time
- Don't argue with a 18-wheeler
- Never be ashamed to unlearn an old habit
- Maintenance is as much art as it is science
- A good long ride can clear your mind, restore your faith, and use up a lot of fuel
- If you can't get it going with bungee cords and electrician's tape - it's serious
- If you ride like there's no tomorrow - there won't be
- Bikes parked out front mean good chicken-fried steak inside
- Gray-haired riders don't get that way from pure luck
- There are drunk riders. There are old riders. There are NO old, drunk riders
- Thin leather looks good in the bar, but it won't save your butt from "road rash" if you go down
- The best modifications cannot be seen from the outside
- Always replace the cheapest parts first
- You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze
- No matter what marquee you ride, it's all the same wind
- Patience is the ability to keep your motor idling
- And the Bountyman's favorite. . . "Only a Biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window"
Monday, October 15, 2007
Orgy on the roads…
The Sunday was one of the best in a while! I got an invite from Rocky for a ride with the ‘veteran’ bikers for a ‘running-in ride’ our good friend Orgy (better know as Arijeet Ghosh to others) just got the engine on his bull redone and he had to get it run in… only flipside to the invite was that I got the call at 8 in the morning when they were about to ride out and I was still lazing in the bed!
I told them to start riding and promised that I’ll catch-up with them on the way. I knew that this is a running in ride and their speeds are not gonna go over 60kph so I can catch-up with them mid-way if I maintain a speed of over 80… (Simple math, I guess)
The Wife and I had a hasty shower and slipped in our riding gear… I got some snacks and water in my tank-bag and rolled the beast out! It was all set for the ride, a full tank (20 liters!); newly serviced parts and nicely polished and buffed body! We got on the bull and started ripping on the Hosur road. Ripping at speeds of 100! I didn’t know that the bike will be able to perform so well with the full tank and both of us on it… but it did and it pleasantly surprised me!!!
I started ripping and we passed the Reliance A! Plaza in a jiffy… I was so bent upon finding these guys that I didn’t bother to stop anywhere, just wanted to catch 4 bulls cruising lazily on the roads… I reached pretty far after Hosur and decided to call these guys and check their position… what a shame?!! They were still at the A! Plaza and I just shot past them some 10kms ago… so I turned back, caught up with the guys, Rocky, Prateek, Fiona (?) (Rocky’s pillion) and our Mr. Orgy! We had a quick breakfast of Idli and coffee… and started on the roads again.
The roads were just heaven! Completely empty, straight, well tarred and amazingly picturesque! An all along 4lane highway… we turned towards Pondicherry after Krishnagiri and stopped at the Tamilnadu State Hotel/Restaurant to have some grub and the very famous ‘CHILD BEER’ and no there is not typo here, it’s the CHILD beer and not CHILLED… but the bar was closed and there was nothing else to eat there… we all had a cold drink each and started our ride back.
This time I took Rocky’s bike as Tana wanted to test his much better back-rest… well we rode till the Punjabi dhaba on our way back stopped there and had a sumptuous lunch of rotis, dhal and chana masala. After the nice lunch and a few photo-ops we started back. Rode till after Hosur and then took a diversion to a 2lane road, amazingly this road was also pretty picturesque and offered a lot of twisties… but this was the last lag of the ride and we found ourselves back in Bangalore and to the usual snail-paced traffic.
I just rushed home, wanted to spend the rest of the day just lazing at home… Rocky called up after a while as we had sorta lost each other on the way back in the city traffic I thanked him for the superb and laidback ride. And promised to be part of the next one!
Now I’m sitting here, relishing those slow ride moments and cursing myself for not remembering to keep the camera in my bag… missed on a lot of great foto-ops… hopefully next time not too late from now…
I told them to start riding and promised that I’ll catch-up with them on the way. I knew that this is a running in ride and their speeds are not gonna go over 60kph so I can catch-up with them mid-way if I maintain a speed of over 80… (Simple math, I guess)
The Wife and I had a hasty shower and slipped in our riding gear… I got some snacks and water in my tank-bag and rolled the beast out! It was all set for the ride, a full tank (20 liters!); newly serviced parts and nicely polished and buffed body! We got on the bull and started ripping on the Hosur road. Ripping at speeds of 100! I didn’t know that the bike will be able to perform so well with the full tank and both of us on it… but it did and it pleasantly surprised me!!!
I started ripping and we passed the Reliance A! Plaza in a jiffy… I was so bent upon finding these guys that I didn’t bother to stop anywhere, just wanted to catch 4 bulls cruising lazily on the roads… I reached pretty far after Hosur and decided to call these guys and check their position… what a shame?!! They were still at the A! Plaza and I just shot past them some 10kms ago… so I turned back, caught up with the guys, Rocky, Prateek, Fiona (?) (Rocky’s pillion) and our Mr. Orgy! We had a quick breakfast of Idli and coffee… and started on the roads again.
The roads were just heaven! Completely empty, straight, well tarred and amazingly picturesque! An all along 4lane highway… we turned towards Pondicherry after Krishnagiri and stopped at the Tamilnadu State Hotel/Restaurant to have some grub and the very famous ‘CHILD BEER’ and no there is not typo here, it’s the CHILD beer and not CHILLED… but the bar was closed and there was nothing else to eat there… we all had a cold drink each and started our ride back.
This time I took Rocky’s bike as Tana wanted to test his much better back-rest… well we rode till the Punjabi dhaba on our way back stopped there and had a sumptuous lunch of rotis, dhal and chana masala. After the nice lunch and a few photo-ops we started back. Rode till after Hosur and then took a diversion to a 2lane road, amazingly this road was also pretty picturesque and offered a lot of twisties… but this was the last lag of the ride and we found ourselves back in Bangalore and to the usual snail-paced traffic.
I just rushed home, wanted to spend the rest of the day just lazing at home… Rocky called up after a while as we had sorta lost each other on the way back in the city traffic I thanked him for the superb and laidback ride. And promised to be part of the next one!
Now I’m sitting here, relishing those slow ride moments and cursing myself for not remembering to keep the camera in my bag… missed on a lot of great foto-ops… hopefully next time not too late from now…
Saturday Shopping Spree
Been a while since I had such a hectic Saturday!
I managed to reach home at around 10:30pm on Friday night, had already promised a few friends that I’ll escort them to JC Road to get fixtures done on their bikes… now let’s start Saturday!
Woke up at around 8:30 (lazy Saturday morning!) remembered that I had promised Keeny that I’ll meet him at 11am near forum, I had to drop the wifey at he college and get myself a decent shave before that! But who knew that plans nicely made can be flopped by just one small teeny-weeny glitch? The gas cylinder ran out dry just as Tana started making some coffee, I suggested we chuck the coffee idea and get ready and get out before its too late… had a quick shower and got ready, but still it was already 10:30 and we decided that we’ll just have a muesli bar for breakfast and then decide about the lunch later… we were out of the door by 11am and I was already worried that I’ll be late :-( on the way Keeny calls up and says that he will be a bit late (typical him!) so I asked him to directly drop at JC Road as I had 2 more people to meet on the way and @ JC Road. I dropped Tana at her college and started out towards JC Road, my first meeting point was near the Lalbagh Botanical Garden with Gaurav from my office, he wanted the auxiliary headlamps like mine on his bike and a better seat cushion… he was there on time and was actually waiting for me… (Amazing!) Now most of you know that punctuality is something I always rave about and try real hard to follow!
I took Gaurav to Sandhya Motors (its like THE PLACE to go to for all the bullet spares) I wanted to fix the rear crash-guard on the redeye so picked it up and started on the fixing on it… by the time it was done, Karthik turned up just as I was done…he also wanted the auxiliary lamps done on his bull… in less than 10 minutes, both Ajey and Keeny showed up.
We started off first for the lamps that these guys wanted fixed. But, all of us forgot that it’s the Eid weekend and most of the shops were closed on JC road, the ones that were open wanted to charge a bomb for the smallest of things! Can you imagine paying 50 bucks extra for the smallest thing? Well so it turned out that we spend time till 2pm just haggling over thins that didn’t eventually turned out as a sale and wasted a pretty good morning!
At 2 I rushed home… the wife was really mad and hungry as I had promised her a decent lunch… and we were to meet Rocky (my mentor in biking) over lunch… we met up at Ta’am (a Mediterranean restaurant) for some Humus & Falafel lunch… after the lunch I was to take Chris (my colleague at work) for riding gear shopping… I had promised him this over 3 months ago and never got a chance to take him there… Rocky agreed to ride us all in his Bolero (my latest most favorite SUV) to KJ’s place for the shopping!
We met Chris at round 5 and then started off to KJ’s place (http://cramster.in) and as any other die hard biker Chris just flipped looking the collection at Cramster! He picked up a whole riding kit for around 22K!!! Boy, don’t I envy him to pick it up so way?!! Heh heh
The shopping lasted over 3 hours which included chit-chatting with the others there and finally we were dropped back at around 9pm to our bull… this was almost dinner time and Tana and I went to this place called Umarkot, it’s the latest hype for Indian food in town and they boast a really rich wine collection! But again, what luck? :-( Due to dehydration and excessive heat that day we couldn’t eat a thing there! We got the dinner packed and finally went home… had some antacids and just crashed out…
Darn what a Saturday?
I managed to reach home at around 10:30pm on Friday night, had already promised a few friends that I’ll escort them to JC Road to get fixtures done on their bikes… now let’s start Saturday!
Woke up at around 8:30 (lazy Saturday morning!) remembered that I had promised Keeny that I’ll meet him at 11am near forum, I had to drop the wifey at he college and get myself a decent shave before that! But who knew that plans nicely made can be flopped by just one small teeny-weeny glitch? The gas cylinder ran out dry just as Tana started making some coffee, I suggested we chuck the coffee idea and get ready and get out before its too late… had a quick shower and got ready, but still it was already 10:30 and we decided that we’ll just have a muesli bar for breakfast and then decide about the lunch later… we were out of the door by 11am and I was already worried that I’ll be late :-( on the way Keeny calls up and says that he will be a bit late (typical him!) so I asked him to directly drop at JC Road as I had 2 more people to meet on the way and @ JC Road. I dropped Tana at her college and started out towards JC Road, my first meeting point was near the Lalbagh Botanical Garden with Gaurav from my office, he wanted the auxiliary headlamps like mine on his bike and a better seat cushion… he was there on time and was actually waiting for me… (Amazing!) Now most of you know that punctuality is something I always rave about and try real hard to follow!
I took Gaurav to Sandhya Motors (its like THE PLACE to go to for all the bullet spares) I wanted to fix the rear crash-guard on the redeye so picked it up and started on the fixing on it… by the time it was done, Karthik turned up just as I was done…he also wanted the auxiliary lamps done on his bull… in less than 10 minutes, both Ajey and Keeny showed up.
We started off first for the lamps that these guys wanted fixed. But, all of us forgot that it’s the Eid weekend and most of the shops were closed on JC road, the ones that were open wanted to charge a bomb for the smallest of things! Can you imagine paying 50 bucks extra for the smallest thing? Well so it turned out that we spend time till 2pm just haggling over thins that didn’t eventually turned out as a sale and wasted a pretty good morning!
At 2 I rushed home… the wife was really mad and hungry as I had promised her a decent lunch… and we were to meet Rocky (my mentor in biking) over lunch… we met up at Ta’am (a Mediterranean restaurant) for some Humus & Falafel lunch… after the lunch I was to take Chris (my colleague at work) for riding gear shopping… I had promised him this over 3 months ago and never got a chance to take him there… Rocky agreed to ride us all in his Bolero (my latest most favorite SUV) to KJ’s place for the shopping!
We met Chris at round 5 and then started off to KJ’s place (http://cramster.in) and as any other die hard biker Chris just flipped looking the collection at Cramster! He picked up a whole riding kit for around 22K!!! Boy, don’t I envy him to pick it up so way?!! Heh heh
The shopping lasted over 3 hours which included chit-chatting with the others there and finally we were dropped back at around 9pm to our bull… this was almost dinner time and Tana and I went to this place called Umarkot, it’s the latest hype for Indian food in town and they boast a really rich wine collection! But again, what luck? :-( Due to dehydration and excessive heat that day we couldn’t eat a thing there! We got the dinner packed and finally went home… had some antacids and just crashed out…
Darn what a Saturday?
Monday, October 01, 2007
relaxing weekend!!!
"Is the pressure okay?" he asked…
"Yes buddy, this is just fine!" I replied.
Wait! Don’t you guys to conclusions… this is a conversation between the masseur and me on Sunday, Tana and I had decided that both of us deserved a good massage after so many months of moving houses and working really hard. Sort of a celebration and splurging for a weekend.
We went to the place called Ayush Therapy Clinic, just 10minutes away from where I live; our bones had started creaking while walking, working or even sitting! Major body aches and stress built-up so this was our rejuvenating getaway…
The massage lasted over an hour. Which included a very detailed body massage stressing my aching back and the palms of my hands (too much riding, I guess) also a head massage and finally a grand steam bath and awesome shower!
I guess this was our getaway weekend! On Saturday we had a well deserved lunch after a ride of around 30kms within the city! B’lore was to witness the India-Australia ODI but I guess it was flopped after major rains. The traffic was everywhere and it took us over 2 hours just to reach the place for an amazing lunch at Miller’s 46 (some of the best stakes in town!) spiked with some beer and dinner of mouth watering gol-guppas! We also watched some great movies at home out of my now growing DVD collection! (I guess we saw Da Vinci Code and Superman Returns on Saturday) this was the first weekend after ages when we just decided to laze at home and watch movies.
Sunday started with a great heavy breakfast of sandwiches and juice, again a movie on the home-theater and the massage sessions in the afternoon. We were pretty hungry when we returned back home… I tried my hands at making a smoothie at home (it was amazing!) and then again a movie in the evening (this time was the old classic Half-Ticket) dinner was a full meal of roti, subzi and dal-chawal… darn, we were stuffed by now, but to end the weekend with a bash, I made some amazing ‘masala-milk’…
This weekend helped us a lot in realizing that its okay if don’t ride every week and take a couple days off just for ourselves :-)
Looking forward to some more of these in the future now!!!
"Yes buddy, this is just fine!" I replied.
Wait! Don’t you guys to conclusions… this is a conversation between the masseur and me on Sunday, Tana and I had decided that both of us deserved a good massage after so many months of moving houses and working really hard. Sort of a celebration and splurging for a weekend.
We went to the place called Ayush Therapy Clinic, just 10minutes away from where I live; our bones had started creaking while walking, working or even sitting! Major body aches and stress built-up so this was our rejuvenating getaway…
The massage lasted over an hour. Which included a very detailed body massage stressing my aching back and the palms of my hands (too much riding, I guess) also a head massage and finally a grand steam bath and awesome shower!
I guess this was our getaway weekend! On Saturday we had a well deserved lunch after a ride of around 30kms within the city! B’lore was to witness the India-Australia ODI but I guess it was flopped after major rains. The traffic was everywhere and it took us over 2 hours just to reach the place for an amazing lunch at Miller’s 46 (some of the best stakes in town!) spiked with some beer and dinner of mouth watering gol-guppas! We also watched some great movies at home out of my now growing DVD collection! (I guess we saw Da Vinci Code and Superman Returns on Saturday) this was the first weekend after ages when we just decided to laze at home and watch movies.
Sunday started with a great heavy breakfast of sandwiches and juice, again a movie on the home-theater and the massage sessions in the afternoon. We were pretty hungry when we returned back home… I tried my hands at making a smoothie at home (it was amazing!) and then again a movie in the evening (this time was the old classic Half-Ticket) dinner was a full meal of roti, subzi and dal-chawal… darn, we were stuffed by now, but to end the weekend with a bash, I made some amazing ‘masala-milk’…
This weekend helped us a lot in realizing that its okay if don’t ride every week and take a couple days off just for ourselves :-)
Looking forward to some more of these in the future now!!!
Monday, September 24, 2007
The adventures of Fart Boy & Botad babe
been thinking of this new comic strip to start... the characters are all real but their public identities will not be revealed for fear of public humiliation!!!
FART BOY!!!
he is the latest superhero when it comes to crime fighting...his secret weapon (like his name suggests) is a lound stinkfilled fart bomb that he launches from his rear-end. watchout criminals! start buying your gas masks...
BOTAD BABE!!!
she is FartBoy's faithful sidekick, dont know if she can be helpful in the crimefighting or not, but for now, she just accompnies FB in all his adventures and her strongest point is tuning out completely at crunch time and start behaving like a 'botad' (Botad is basically a camel's baby) who doesn't do a bit but just piles on to all the issues created!!!
comments? suggestions? any more characters that you'll want to see here????
FART BOY!!!
he is the latest superhero when it comes to crime fighting...his secret weapon (like his name suggests) is a lound stinkfilled fart bomb that he launches from his rear-end. watchout criminals! start buying your gas masks...
BOTAD BABE!!!
she is FartBoy's faithful sidekick, dont know if she can be helpful in the crimefighting or not, but for now, she just accompnies FB in all his adventures and her strongest point is tuning out completely at crunch time and start behaving like a 'botad' (Botad is basically a camel's baby) who doesn't do a bit but just piles on to all the issues created!!!
comments? suggestions? any more characters that you'll want to see here????
Monday, September 17, 2007
RIP till R.I.P
the wind whispers
and he fly his metal steed
where eagles dare, he roams
chasing the midnight sun
playing hide and seek with clouds
singing on top of his voice
his growling exhaust note
the smell of burned rubber
sweet fatigue of unbridled passion
the soul of rebel
the metal made of sin and sweat
the molten tarmac, the numb hands
the lashing rain, the scorching sun
the howling crowd, the lone water well
he grips, breaks and rips again
dancing with the devil
touching the cheek of death
saying a prayer and keeping a steady hand
he rips till he is R.I.P
Courtesy Anoop -XH-
plans and rides... don't actually work!
Ah the joys of riding solo! This was my first solo ‘long ride’… I’ve ridden till now with my lovely wife as the faithful pillion and never knew how it feels to push the beast on those open roads at full throttle! So when the wife decided to go to Ahmedabad for a few days, I started planning for a really long ride, something that will satisfy my appetite for the open roads and also to start preparing myself for the really long December ride.
The original plan was to ride till Pondicherry on Saturday morning and come back to B’lore by Sunday evening so that I can unwind through the night and be all fresh and new for the coming hectic work week… then Ajey my buddy from SB suggested trip towards Waynad, the lovely place in Kerala where the roads are smooth like butter and the twisties that can make you puke… I talked about this to Keeny (another buddy from SB) who had decided that he also wanted to do a long ride before he goes to Delhi for the last weekend of this month.
We started preparing for this and I got all the route info (like always) to prepare myself mentally… on around Wednesday Ajey called again and said that the roads to Waynad might’ve been washed off due to the heavy rains that this region has been facing since a few weeks. So Keeny and I made a few calls and decided to get back to the original plan of Pondicherry… we called up Ajey and told him about this… but all the curses to that bugger, he said that the whole coastal region is on a red alert for the Tsunami threat (some earthquake in Indonesia) so Pondy is not advisable (darn!). this is when I started seeing the plans falling apart like a raft made out of twigs… I called Keeny again and asked his opinions and suggestions; his response was amazing "dude, I just want to ride, anywhere or anyhow". So I pulled out the internet database again and started rummaging the possible places in the radius of 500Kms.
Hampi was the next decided destination, but like always a new situation arose… Keeny didn’t have his camera this time and he doesn’t ride to any ‘good’ place without it… must admit; he is a pretty good photographer also! (Checkout is work at http://keeny.smugmug.com/ ) So the next option was Hassan where we can go to Belur/Halebid which is around 250kms. The plan was set and we decided that we’ll leave for Hassan on Saturday morning.
I guess early Friday, I got a call from Keeny that he is planning to get the rear crash guards fixed on his bull before we leave and to be honest, I wanted to get some auxiliary lamps fixed for the December stint. So we decided that Saturday we will invest in getting all these gizmos on the bikes and leave on Sunday early morning. The meeting was planned for 10:45 am Saturday morning (my time) and we finally managed to meet up at J.C.Road at around 12:30 (Keeny time)J . one of my colleagues, Gauravdeep also had decided to join in this shopping spree since he is new to B’lore and a proud owner on a new electra standard (right-shift gears) we landed on J C Road and started looking for the headlamps, alas Saturday being the GaneshaChaturthy, most of the stores were closed. The store that Rocky Da and Lohit had suggested was apparently closed and we landed in a completely different place; we were not sure if we wanted to pickup the lamps that this guy here showed.
We just looked around and came to Sandhya (the one stop shop for all Bullet accessories) picked up the crash guards for Keeny’s and Gaurav’s bulls… I was all impressed and all set with those, but not sure if my wifey will be able to sit on the bull with these things hampering her leg space. Anyways, after the shopping, we went to the headlamps guy and got 4 headlamps, 2 for the ‘redeye’ and the other 2 for ‘irony’ went back to the mechanic who had fitted the crash guards on the bikes earlier and got the lamps fixed. Must say, that the bike looks royal after the extra fitments! Anyways, this took up most of Saturday and we decided to go to Saleems’ garage (he is the mechanic I got introduced to with Rocky da) wanted Saleembhai to check the wiring and also check if our bikes were all set to go out on the open roads for a long run…
He gave us an A-Okay by 8pm. We started celebrations with beer and more discussions on the route… by now the routes had been changed a gazillion times and none of us were clear as to where we wanted to ride the next morning! I guess we had decided for Mandya – some heritage town that Keeny had heard about and on route Mysore.
At 1 in the morning, I got a message from Gauravdeep that he is dropping out of the ride as he had a bit too much to drink and was not feeling well… Sunday morning 5am I called Keeny expecting him to sound groggy and giving some silly reason to not join in, but to my utter surprise he was all fresh and sounded really charged to go!
We met in front of Nimhans, Keeny as always was a bit late, but thankfully this time I waited only 10minutes J he had his colleague as his pillion (sort of role reversal) I was the one who usually showed up with a pillion and the others were solo bikers! His friend was a pretty enthusiastic bikerchic (this term is usually reserved for my wife) I could see that she had the spirit for biking and didn’t complain like most other women I’ve rode with till now…
We started towards Mysore (honestly no destination in our heads) stopped at Kamat’s for our breakfast, spent a good 40 minutes (or more) there and then started back on the way, Keeny suggested that he would like to explore Mandya (not exactly sure what, but the town intrigued him) we started riding and I for a change was the lead rider… the ride was awesome, thankfully not much traffic on the roads and the weather was just awesome! We could see mist covered mountains (well actually hills and hillocks ) and a slight drizzle on the way, after a few kilometers I realized that Mandya was left behind a long way and we were already nearing Mysore! I pulled over and asked Keeny if he wants to turn back or keep on going? He was cool with the idea of going wherever! So we kept on riding… around 20kms later, I saw a signboard that said that ShivanaSamudram was around 70Kms away on the left turn… we took the left and started on the road.
This road was like a dream! Absolutely no traffic, all straight road, and you can see it merging into the horizons… this stretch of road will stay in my memory for a long time now… the loud thumps of my RedEye, the straight stretch, the lush greenery all around and us riding into the nothingness to the nowhere…
After a while we started hitting bad stretches of the good road, it turned so bad that for one point it was only slush and sludge and no proper road! I kept cursing under my breath as I could feel the slush splashing all over my bike and making it look more like a disaster than the sexy beast she was! But we kept on. On the way, I stopped by a gas station and filled her up all the way! With the full tank of gas, she was all set to prove her worth all over again!
We kept on going and finally hit the Simsha water plant; the waterfalls were only a few kilometers from here, the roads actually led us straight to the falls… if it was not for the railings, we probably would’ve taken the bikes all the way to the base of the falls.
Stayed here for a while, I smoked a victory cigarette and we all stayed there for a while, had some tender coconuts and Keeny tried his hands on the ‘masala gooseberries’ was pretty tasty must say!
After a while, we started on our way back… I noticed on the way that there was a different route (via Kanakpura) back to Bangalore. So we decided to go this way… BIG MISTAKE!!!
The road that looked pretty un-trodden, empty and smooth suddenly turned out to be the off-roading highway to hell! The tar was completely nonexistent and we had crater sized potholes all the way! This was some project that the state government has started a few months back and decided to make the place better! (I guess they just forgot about this stretch of land) for almost 25-30 kilometers and a lot of aching backs and butts, we got back to relatively better roads, stopped over at Kanakpura for a chai and a well deserved butt break and started back again.
By now, I could sense Keeny’s frustration as I was doing steady 80-90s and a few stretches of 100kmph while he was used to faster speeds on his beast. So I could see him come all the way to my rear bumper and then slow down again since we had decided that I was the lead. (Sorry dude, you would’ve cursed me enough I know J )
After a while we finally reached Bangalore, took the route to BTM and stopped at the parathaguy near my place (he makes some of the best parathas!) had a pretty heavy lunch and then we split. I came home, thanked the beast for its awesome performance and promised it a longer ride soon…
A few things I must say that I learnt…
if you want to ride, just ride, don’t make plans and don’t wait for people to join in. its eventually the spirit of riding and not gathering people together…
if people decide to drop out, don’t over react; it’s a matter of their choice and taste, they wanna ride, good if not, good for them!
Ride at a speed that you are comfortable with, don’t ride because the guy in front of you is ripping or the one behind you is too close
Remember, it’s a ride and not a race… not with your group, never with others!
Enjoy the ride, love the challenges and changes of terrain… its all a moving picture for you
Well, enough gyan from me and a really long droning story, but had to do it!
Cheers!
The original plan was to ride till Pondicherry on Saturday morning and come back to B’lore by Sunday evening so that I can unwind through the night and be all fresh and new for the coming hectic work week… then Ajey my buddy from SB suggested trip towards Waynad, the lovely place in Kerala where the roads are smooth like butter and the twisties that can make you puke… I talked about this to Keeny (another buddy from SB) who had decided that he also wanted to do a long ride before he goes to Delhi for the last weekend of this month.
We started preparing for this and I got all the route info (like always) to prepare myself mentally… on around Wednesday Ajey called again and said that the roads to Waynad might’ve been washed off due to the heavy rains that this region has been facing since a few weeks. So Keeny and I made a few calls and decided to get back to the original plan of Pondicherry… we called up Ajey and told him about this… but all the curses to that bugger, he said that the whole coastal region is on a red alert for the Tsunami threat (some earthquake in Indonesia) so Pondy is not advisable (darn!). this is when I started seeing the plans falling apart like a raft made out of twigs… I called Keeny again and asked his opinions and suggestions; his response was amazing "dude, I just want to ride, anywhere or anyhow". So I pulled out the internet database again and started rummaging the possible places in the radius of 500Kms.
Hampi was the next decided destination, but like always a new situation arose… Keeny didn’t have his camera this time and he doesn’t ride to any ‘good’ place without it… must admit; he is a pretty good photographer also! (Checkout is work at http://keeny.smugmug.com/ ) So the next option was Hassan where we can go to Belur/Halebid which is around 250kms. The plan was set and we decided that we’ll leave for Hassan on Saturday morning.
I guess early Friday, I got a call from Keeny that he is planning to get the rear crash guards fixed on his bull before we leave and to be honest, I wanted to get some auxiliary lamps fixed for the December stint. So we decided that Saturday we will invest in getting all these gizmos on the bikes and leave on Sunday early morning. The meeting was planned for 10:45 am Saturday morning (my time) and we finally managed to meet up at J.C.Road at around 12:30 (Keeny time)J . one of my colleagues, Gauravdeep also had decided to join in this shopping spree since he is new to B’lore and a proud owner on a new electra standard (right-shift gears) we landed on J C Road and started looking for the headlamps, alas Saturday being the GaneshaChaturthy, most of the stores were closed. The store that Rocky Da and Lohit had suggested was apparently closed and we landed in a completely different place; we were not sure if we wanted to pickup the lamps that this guy here showed.
We just looked around and came to Sandhya (the one stop shop for all Bullet accessories) picked up the crash guards for Keeny’s and Gaurav’s bulls… I was all impressed and all set with those, but not sure if my wifey will be able to sit on the bull with these things hampering her leg space. Anyways, after the shopping, we went to the headlamps guy and got 4 headlamps, 2 for the ‘redeye’ and the other 2 for ‘irony’ went back to the mechanic who had fitted the crash guards on the bikes earlier and got the lamps fixed. Must say, that the bike looks royal after the extra fitments! Anyways, this took up most of Saturday and we decided to go to Saleems’ garage (he is the mechanic I got introduced to with Rocky da) wanted Saleembhai to check the wiring and also check if our bikes were all set to go out on the open roads for a long run…
He gave us an A-Okay by 8pm. We started celebrations with beer and more discussions on the route… by now the routes had been changed a gazillion times and none of us were clear as to where we wanted to ride the next morning! I guess we had decided for Mandya – some heritage town that Keeny had heard about and on route Mysore.
At 1 in the morning, I got a message from Gauravdeep that he is dropping out of the ride as he had a bit too much to drink and was not feeling well… Sunday morning 5am I called Keeny expecting him to sound groggy and giving some silly reason to not join in, but to my utter surprise he was all fresh and sounded really charged to go!
We met in front of Nimhans, Keeny as always was a bit late, but thankfully this time I waited only 10minutes J he had his colleague as his pillion (sort of role reversal) I was the one who usually showed up with a pillion and the others were solo bikers! His friend was a pretty enthusiastic bikerchic (this term is usually reserved for my wife) I could see that she had the spirit for biking and didn’t complain like most other women I’ve rode with till now…
We started towards Mysore (honestly no destination in our heads) stopped at Kamat’s for our breakfast, spent a good 40 minutes (or more) there and then started back on the way, Keeny suggested that he would like to explore Mandya (not exactly sure what, but the town intrigued him) we started riding and I for a change was the lead rider… the ride was awesome, thankfully not much traffic on the roads and the weather was just awesome! We could see mist covered mountains (well actually hills and hillocks ) and a slight drizzle on the way, after a few kilometers I realized that Mandya was left behind a long way and we were already nearing Mysore! I pulled over and asked Keeny if he wants to turn back or keep on going? He was cool with the idea of going wherever! So we kept on riding… around 20kms later, I saw a signboard that said that ShivanaSamudram was around 70Kms away on the left turn… we took the left and started on the road.
This road was like a dream! Absolutely no traffic, all straight road, and you can see it merging into the horizons… this stretch of road will stay in my memory for a long time now… the loud thumps of my RedEye, the straight stretch, the lush greenery all around and us riding into the nothingness to the nowhere…
After a while we started hitting bad stretches of the good road, it turned so bad that for one point it was only slush and sludge and no proper road! I kept cursing under my breath as I could feel the slush splashing all over my bike and making it look more like a disaster than the sexy beast she was! But we kept on. On the way, I stopped by a gas station and filled her up all the way! With the full tank of gas, she was all set to prove her worth all over again!
We kept on going and finally hit the Simsha water plant; the waterfalls were only a few kilometers from here, the roads actually led us straight to the falls… if it was not for the railings, we probably would’ve taken the bikes all the way to the base of the falls.
Stayed here for a while, I smoked a victory cigarette and we all stayed there for a while, had some tender coconuts and Keeny tried his hands on the ‘masala gooseberries’ was pretty tasty must say!
After a while, we started on our way back… I noticed on the way that there was a different route (via Kanakpura) back to Bangalore. So we decided to go this way… BIG MISTAKE!!!
The road that looked pretty un-trodden, empty and smooth suddenly turned out to be the off-roading highway to hell! The tar was completely nonexistent and we had crater sized potholes all the way! This was some project that the state government has started a few months back and decided to make the place better! (I guess they just forgot about this stretch of land) for almost 25-30 kilometers and a lot of aching backs and butts, we got back to relatively better roads, stopped over at Kanakpura for a chai and a well deserved butt break and started back again.
By now, I could sense Keeny’s frustration as I was doing steady 80-90s and a few stretches of 100kmph while he was used to faster speeds on his beast. So I could see him come all the way to my rear bumper and then slow down again since we had decided that I was the lead. (Sorry dude, you would’ve cursed me enough I know J )
After a while we finally reached Bangalore, took the route to BTM and stopped at the parathaguy near my place (he makes some of the best parathas!) had a pretty heavy lunch and then we split. I came home, thanked the beast for its awesome performance and promised it a longer ride soon…
A few things I must say that I learnt…
if you want to ride, just ride, don’t make plans and don’t wait for people to join in. its eventually the spirit of riding and not gathering people together…
if people decide to drop out, don’t over react; it’s a matter of their choice and taste, they wanna ride, good if not, good for them!
Ride at a speed that you are comfortable with, don’t ride because the guy in front of you is ripping or the one behind you is too close
Remember, it’s a ride and not a race… not with your group, never with others!
Enjoy the ride, love the challenges and changes of terrain… its all a moving picture for you
Well, enough gyan from me and a really long droning story, but had to do it!
Cheers!
plans and rides... don't actually work!
Ah the joys of riding solo! This was my first solo ‘long ride’… I’ve ridden till now with my lovely wife as the faithful pillion and never knew how it feels to push the beast on those open roads at full throttle! So when the wife decided to go to Ahmedabad for a few days, I started planning for a really long ride, something that will satisfy my appetite for the open roads and also to start preparing myself for the really long December ride.
The original plan was to ride till Pondicherry on Saturday morning and come back to B’lore by Sunday evening so that I can unwind through the night and be all fresh and new for the coming hectic work week… then Ajey my buddy from SB suggested trip towards Waynad, the lovely place in Kerala where the roads are smooth like butter and the twisties that can make you puke… I talked about this to Keeny (another buddy from SB) who had decided that he also wanted to do a long ride before he goes to Delhi for the last weekend of this month.
We started preparing for this and I got all the route info (like always) to prepare myself mentally… on around Wednesday Ajey called again and said that the roads to Waynad might’ve been washed off due to the heavy rains that this region has been facing since a few weeks. So Keeny and I made a few calls and decided to get back to the original plan of Pondicherry… we called up Ajey and told him about this… but all the curses to that bugger, he said that the whole coastal region is on a red alert for the Tsunami threat (some earthquake in Indonesia) so Pondy is not advisable (darn!). this is when I started seeing the plans falling apart like a raft made out of twigs… I called Keeny again and asked his opinions and suggestions; his response was amazing "dude, I just want to ride, anywhere or anyhow". So I pulled out the internet database again and started rummaging the possible places in the radius of 500Kms.
Hampi was the next decided destination, but like always a new situation arose… Keeny didn’t have his camera this time and he doesn’t ride to any ‘good’ place without it… must admit; he is a pretty good photographer also! (Checkout is work at http://keeny.smugmug.com/ ) So the next option was Hassan where we can go to Belur/Halebid which is around 250kms. The plan was set and we decided that we’ll leave for Hassan on Saturday morning.
I guess early Friday, I got a call from Keeny that he is planning to get the rear crash guards fixed on his bull before we leave and to be honest, I wanted to get some auxiliary lamps fixed for the December stint. So we decided that Saturday we will invest in getting all these gizmos on the bikes and leave on Sunday early morning. The meeting was planned for 10:45 am Saturday morning (my time) and we finally managed to meet up at J.C.Road at around 12:30 (Keeny time)J . one of my colleagues, Gauravdeep also had decided to join in this shopping spree since he is new to B’lore and a proud owner on a new electra standard (right-shift gears) we landed on J C Road and started looking for the headlamps, alas Saturday being the GaneshaChaturthy, most of the stores were closed. The store that Rocky Da and Lohit had suggested was apparently closed and we landed in a completely different place; we were not sure if we wanted to pickup the lamps that this guy here showed.
We just looked around and came to Sandhya (the one stop shop for all Bullet accessories) picked up the crash guards for Keeny’s and Gaurav’s bulls… I was all impressed and all set with those, but not sure if my wifey will be able to sit on the bull with these things hampering her leg space. Anyways, after the shopping, we went to the headlamps guy and got 4 headlamps, 2 for the ‘redeye’ and the other 2 for ‘irony’ went back to the mechanic who had fitted the crash guards on the bikes earlier and got the lamps fixed. Must say, that the bike looks royal after the extra fitments! Anyways, this took up most of Saturday and we decided to go to Saleems’ garage (he is the mechanic I got introduced to with Rocky da) wanted Saleembhai to check the wiring and also check if our bikes were all set to go out on the open roads for a long run…
He gave us an A-Okay by 8pm. We started celebrations with beer and more discussions on the route… by now the routes had been changed a gazillion times and none of us were clear as to where we wanted to ride the next morning! I guess we had decided for Mandya – some heritage town that Keeny had heard about and on route Mysore.
At 1 in the morning, I got a message from Gauravdeep that he is dropping out of the ride as he had a bit too much to drink and was not feeling well… Sunday morning 5am I called Keeny expecting him to sound groggy and giving some silly reason to not join in, but to my utter surprise he was all fresh and sounded really charged to go!
We met in front of Nimhans, Keeny as always was a bit late, but thankfully this time I waited only 10minutes J he had his colleague as his pillion (sort of role reversal) I was the one who usually showed up with a pillion and the others were solo bikers! His friend was a pretty enthusiastic bikerchic (this term is usually reserved for my wife) I could see that she had the spirit for biking and didn’t complain like most other women I’ve rode with till now…
We started towards Mysore (honestly no destination in our heads) stopped at Kamat’s for our breakfast, spent a good 40 minutes (or more) there and then started back on the way, Keeny suggested that he would like to explore Mandya (not exactly sure what, but the town intrigued him) we started riding and I for a change was the lead rider… the ride was awesome, thankfully not much traffic on the roads and the weather was just awesome! We could see mist covered mountains (well actually hills and hillocks ) and a slight drizzle on the way, after a few kilometers I realized that Mandya was left behind a long way and we were already nearing Mysore! I pulled over and asked Keeny if he wants to turn back or keep on going? He was cool with the idea of going wherever! So we kept on riding… around 20kms later, I saw a signboard that said that ShivanaSamudram was around 70Kms away on the left turn… we took the left and started on the road.
This road was like a dream! Absolutely no traffic, all straight road, and you can see it merging into the horizons… this stretch of road will stay in my memory for a long time now… the loud thumps of my RedEye, the straight stretch, the lush greenery all around and us riding into the nothingness to the nowhere…
After a while we started hitting bad stretches of the good road, it turned so bad that for one point it was only slush and sludge and no proper road! I kept cursing under my breath as I could feel the slush splashing all over my bike and making it look more like a disaster than the sexy beast she was! But we kept on. On the way, I stopped by a gas station and filled her up all the way! With the full tank of gas, she was all set to prove her worth all over again!
We kept on going and finally hit the Simsha water plant; the waterfalls were only a few kilometers from here, the roads actually led us straight to the falls… if it was not for the railings, we probably would’ve taken the bikes all the way to the base of the falls.
Stayed here for a while, I smoked a victory cigarette and we all stayed there for a while, had some tender coconuts and Keeny tried his hands on the ‘masala gooseberries’ was pretty tasty must say!
After a while, we started on our way back… I noticed on the way that there was a different route (via Kanakpura) back to Bangalore. So we decided to go this way… BIG MISTAKE!!!
The road that looked pretty un-trodden, empty and smooth suddenly turned out to be the off-roading highway to hell! The tar was completely nonexistent and we had crater sized potholes all the way! This was some project that the state government has started a few months back and decided to make the place better! (I guess they just forgot about this stretch of land) for almost 25-30 kilometers and a lot of aching backs and butts, we got back to relatively better roads, stopped over at Kanakpura for a chai and a well deserved butt break and started back again.
By now, I could sense Keeny’s frustration as I was doing steady 80-90s and a few stretches of 100kmph while he was used to faster speeds on his beast. So I could see him come all the way to my rear bumper and then slow down again since we had decided that I was the lead. (Sorry dude, you would’ve cursed me enough I know J )
After a while we finally reached Bangalore, took the route to BTM and stopped at the parathaguy near my place (he makes some of the best parathas!) had a pretty heavy lunch and then we split. I came home, thanked the beast for its awesome performance and promised it a longer ride soon…
A few things I must say that I learnt…
if you want to ride, just ride, don’t make plans and don’t wait for people to join in. its eventually the spirit of riding and not gathering people together…
if people decide to drop out, don’t over react; it’s a matter of their choice and taste, they wanna ride, good if not, good for them!
Ride at a speed that you are comfortable with, don’t ride because the guy in front of you is ripping or the one behind you is too close
Remember, it’s a ride and not a race… not with your group, never with others!
Enjoy the ride, love the challenges and changes of terrain… its all a moving picture for you
Well, enough gyan from me and a really long droning story, but had to do it!
Cheers!
The original plan was to ride till Pondicherry on Saturday morning and come back to B’lore by Sunday evening so that I can unwind through the night and be all fresh and new for the coming hectic work week… then Ajey my buddy from SB suggested trip towards Waynad, the lovely place in Kerala where the roads are smooth like butter and the twisties that can make you puke… I talked about this to Keeny (another buddy from SB) who had decided that he also wanted to do a long ride before he goes to Delhi for the last weekend of this month.
We started preparing for this and I got all the route info (like always) to prepare myself mentally… on around Wednesday Ajey called again and said that the roads to Waynad might’ve been washed off due to the heavy rains that this region has been facing since a few weeks. So Keeny and I made a few calls and decided to get back to the original plan of Pondicherry… we called up Ajey and told him about this… but all the curses to that bugger, he said that the whole coastal region is on a red alert for the Tsunami threat (some earthquake in Indonesia) so Pondy is not advisable (darn!). this is when I started seeing the plans falling apart like a raft made out of twigs… I called Keeny again and asked his opinions and suggestions; his response was amazing "dude, I just want to ride, anywhere or anyhow". So I pulled out the internet database again and started rummaging the possible places in the radius of 500Kms.
Hampi was the next decided destination, but like always a new situation arose… Keeny didn’t have his camera this time and he doesn’t ride to any ‘good’ place without it… must admit; he is a pretty good photographer also! (Checkout is work at http://keeny.smugmug.com/ ) So the next option was Hassan where we can go to Belur/Halebid which is around 250kms. The plan was set and we decided that we’ll leave for Hassan on Saturday morning.
I guess early Friday, I got a call from Keeny that he is planning to get the rear crash guards fixed on his bull before we leave and to be honest, I wanted to get some auxiliary lamps fixed for the December stint. So we decided that Saturday we will invest in getting all these gizmos on the bikes and leave on Sunday early morning. The meeting was planned for 10:45 am Saturday morning (my time) and we finally managed to meet up at J.C.Road at around 12:30 (Keeny time)J . one of my colleagues, Gauravdeep also had decided to join in this shopping spree since he is new to B’lore and a proud owner on a new electra standard (right-shift gears) we landed on J C Road and started looking for the headlamps, alas Saturday being the GaneshaChaturthy, most of the stores were closed. The store that Rocky Da and Lohit had suggested was apparently closed and we landed in a completely different place; we were not sure if we wanted to pickup the lamps that this guy here showed.
We just looked around and came to Sandhya (the one stop shop for all Bullet accessories) picked up the crash guards for Keeny’s and Gaurav’s bulls… I was all impressed and all set with those, but not sure if my wifey will be able to sit on the bull with these things hampering her leg space. Anyways, after the shopping, we went to the headlamps guy and got 4 headlamps, 2 for the ‘redeye’ and the other 2 for ‘irony’ went back to the mechanic who had fitted the crash guards on the bikes earlier and got the lamps fixed. Must say, that the bike looks royal after the extra fitments! Anyways, this took up most of Saturday and we decided to go to Saleems’ garage (he is the mechanic I got introduced to with Rocky da) wanted Saleembhai to check the wiring and also check if our bikes were all set to go out on the open roads for a long run…
He gave us an A-Okay by 8pm. We started celebrations with beer and more discussions on the route… by now the routes had been changed a gazillion times and none of us were clear as to where we wanted to ride the next morning! I guess we had decided for Mandya – some heritage town that Keeny had heard about and on route Mysore.
At 1 in the morning, I got a message from Gauravdeep that he is dropping out of the ride as he had a bit too much to drink and was not feeling well… Sunday morning 5am I called Keeny expecting him to sound groggy and giving some silly reason to not join in, but to my utter surprise he was all fresh and sounded really charged to go!
We met in front of Nimhans, Keeny as always was a bit late, but thankfully this time I waited only 10minutes J he had his colleague as his pillion (sort of role reversal) I was the one who usually showed up with a pillion and the others were solo bikers! His friend was a pretty enthusiastic bikerchic (this term is usually reserved for my wife) I could see that she had the spirit for biking and didn’t complain like most other women I’ve rode with till now…
We started towards Mysore (honestly no destination in our heads) stopped at Kamat’s for our breakfast, spent a good 40 minutes (or more) there and then started back on the way, Keeny suggested that he would like to explore Mandya (not exactly sure what, but the town intrigued him) we started riding and I for a change was the lead rider… the ride was awesome, thankfully not much traffic on the roads and the weather was just awesome! We could see mist covered mountains (well actually hills and hillocks ) and a slight drizzle on the way, after a few kilometers I realized that Mandya was left behind a long way and we were already nearing Mysore! I pulled over and asked Keeny if he wants to turn back or keep on going? He was cool with the idea of going wherever! So we kept on riding… around 20kms later, I saw a signboard that said that ShivanaSamudram was around 70Kms away on the left turn… we took the left and started on the road.
This road was like a dream! Absolutely no traffic, all straight road, and you can see it merging into the horizons… this stretch of road will stay in my memory for a long time now… the loud thumps of my RedEye, the straight stretch, the lush greenery all around and us riding into the nothingness to the nowhere…
After a while we started hitting bad stretches of the good road, it turned so bad that for one point it was only slush and sludge and no proper road! I kept cursing under my breath as I could feel the slush splashing all over my bike and making it look more like a disaster than the sexy beast she was! But we kept on. On the way, I stopped by a gas station and filled her up all the way! With the full tank of gas, she was all set to prove her worth all over again!
We kept on going and finally hit the Simsha water plant; the waterfalls were only a few kilometers from here, the roads actually led us straight to the falls… if it was not for the railings, we probably would’ve taken the bikes all the way to the base of the falls.
Stayed here for a while, I smoked a victory cigarette and we all stayed there for a while, had some tender coconuts and Keeny tried his hands on the ‘masala gooseberries’ was pretty tasty must say!
After a while, we started on our way back… I noticed on the way that there was a different route (via Kanakpura) back to Bangalore. So we decided to go this way… BIG MISTAKE!!!
The road that looked pretty un-trodden, empty and smooth suddenly turned out to be the off-roading highway to hell! The tar was completely nonexistent and we had crater sized potholes all the way! This was some project that the state government has started a few months back and decided to make the place better! (I guess they just forgot about this stretch of land) for almost 25-30 kilometers and a lot of aching backs and butts, we got back to relatively better roads, stopped over at Kanakpura for a chai and a well deserved butt break and started back again.
By now, I could sense Keeny’s frustration as I was doing steady 80-90s and a few stretches of 100kmph while he was used to faster speeds on his beast. So I could see him come all the way to my rear bumper and then slow down again since we had decided that I was the lead. (Sorry dude, you would’ve cursed me enough I know J )
After a while we finally reached Bangalore, took the route to BTM and stopped at the parathaguy near my place (he makes some of the best parathas!) had a pretty heavy lunch and then we split. I came home, thanked the beast for its awesome performance and promised it a longer ride soon…
A few things I must say that I learnt…
if you want to ride, just ride, don’t make plans and don’t wait for people to join in. its eventually the spirit of riding and not gathering people together…
if people decide to drop out, don’t over react; it’s a matter of their choice and taste, they wanna ride, good if not, good for them!
Ride at a speed that you are comfortable with, don’t ride because the guy in front of you is ripping or the one behind you is too close
Remember, it’s a ride and not a race… not with your group, never with others!
Enjoy the ride, love the challenges and changes of terrain… its all a moving picture for you
Well, enough gyan from me and a really long droning story, but had to do it!
Cheers!
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