K Gudi - Weekend Ride

There are times when you are just bugged of your mundane week and pray for a decent weekend when you can just escape the rigmarole, even if only for a couple days or a few hours… you want to just break free.

This Saturday thankfully was one of those weekends. The wifey had a day off from hercollege and we actually had the complete 2 days to ourselves. Two full days to do whatever we want to!

Planning was pretty prompt, a few calls made on Thursday and confirmations done onFriday; we were all set for a nice day trip to BR Hills – a nice patch of the wildlife sanctuary not too far from Bangalore. Since it was a day trip, there was not much packing to be done, the tank bag was stuffed with spares, some basic food and only one set of clothes (in case of any emergency) we decided that we’d roll out by 5:30 am and had thought that would be back latest by 8pm in the worst case scenario.

Come Saturday morning, we left around 6am, the way to the Mysore highway was all dug up from my locality till the highway and we took around 10 different diversions before actually reaching the highway at 6:30 (thanks BBMP for screwing up my timinghere) once on the highway RedEye growled for speed and I promptly obliged her to pickup some… thanks to the free-flow goldie exhaust and the bigger carb added with a K&N air-filter. We were cruising around over 100kph without even realizing.

Off late (after the Coorg ride) my lovely co-rider has actually improved her endurance levels on the road and doesn’t flitch till around 70kms of nonstop riding. Our first pitstop was the Maddur tiffany’s for their idli and filter coffee.

The handicraft store there was already open at 7:25 and we decided to check it out just for kicks… recently I had noticed a website online that specialized in something called the Bead Rider the idea was very simple put a layer of beads bound together in a mat between your butt and the bike’s seat and see the difference. I saw a very crude version of similar beaded mat for a very cheap rate and decided to pick it up and experience if it actually makes a difference. From there we started towards Mysore; took the ring Road at Mysore towards Chamrajanagar and then managed to take a wrong turn (I know I am blessed with being geographically challenged.) and suddenly noticed that the milestone saying BR Hills 28 Kilometers turn into BR Hills 96kms. (Double whammy!) The sky was cloudy and the morning was pleasant so I was not complaining, strangely the wifey was also not complaining!

The roads led us back to Malavalli from there to Kollegal and then some really bad roads took us to Yellandur (this is the last town before entering the sanctuary) at the check post of the sanctuary I noticed that we had clocked over 250kms for a usually 180km journey! And we hadn’t taken any butt breaks till now…

Upon entering the sanctuary the roads amazingly changed into a buttery smooth well tarred blacktop narrow road. The twisties were just amazingly mouthwatering and the climb up was just exhilarating… imagine riding through a lush green thick forest on an amazing smooth road and the only sound you hear is the thump of your beast and the blood pumping into your brain.

We continued on from the BR Hills temple towards K Gudi – our most favorite joint destination of all till now, along the twisties and I suddenly noticed to my horror that on the tight twisties I couldn’t somehow manage to turn right! Gosh… this is deadly, you lean with your bike completely and instead of turning, the bike keeps going straight into the steep fall and you start to panic… after bravely managing a few of these right banks (without the co rider know about it) I finally gave into once of the corners where the front tire just refused to turn and I almost crashed into the trench below… I somehow managed to brake in time and the got back some balance and composure. The wife noticed this particular turn and asked what was wrong, why wasI riding straight into the trench… I made up some vague story about rider fatigue, fed some crap and carried on… only slower.

Reached K Gudi at 11:25; met our dear friend Nahar there and talked with him for a while… in the next 15 minutes he convinced us that since we don’t have any special plans for Sunday we should stay back at the wilderness camp and arranged for a room for us… so by noon we had stowed our tank-bag and riding jackets into theroom and emerged into the camp as if we have been permanent residents of the place.

Had some sumptuous lunch and retired to rest for an hour. In the early evening we were introduced to the new (well, actually 10 month old) naturalist Narayan at K Gudi. He took us for a jeep safari into the jungle… our jeep was shared with an old Swedish gent and 2 south Indian couples (guess they come for some real junglee time) the old gent was pretty reserved and kept to himself all through the safari and talked only with Narayan couple times in the next 2 hours. The two couples on the other hand were the typical yuppies that I hate to interact with and thankfully kept to them-selves talking in Tamil or Kannada or whatever they talked in behaving like a bunch ofjuvenile retards.

Halfway through the safari, we got a radio message from the other jeep that they had spotted a leopard and informed us on the exact coordinates to the location. Narayan like a pro rally driver drove the jeep through some unbelievable terrain and in less than 7 minutes we were at the rendezvous point with the other jeep oohing and aahing atthe amazing beauty of a leopard just a few hundred meters away from where we were.

The juvenile retard group in spite of several reminders and reprimands for maintainingsilence couldn’t contain their excitement and behaved in such a disgusting manner that for a while I actually felt like beating then up and feeding them to the leopard… Iguess the leopard read my thoughts and scooted the scene in a while probably fearing the idea of eating meat made out of only rasam rice and curd rice… ugh!

After that we continued our safari. Spotted some spotted deer, some Sambar (not the one you eat but the one people hunt) and a few very pretty birds… but I was not interested in this any more… two main reasons, I was already content of looking at a wild cat in the wild for the first time in my life and also because the juvenile retards were now acting as if they were on an African safari and were hanging almost out of the jeep while pushing their bums into our heads and groping each other (maybe while thinking of the orgy they will have later on in the night)

After going back to the camp had some amazing onion pakoras and saw a documentary on a gang of macaques based out of a town in Tamil Nadu. Sitting around the campfire later Nahar and we discussed about his future plans of moving to the land down under and studying for his PHD… made vague plans of doing a vacation together sometime in the future in Gujarat covering all the wildlife sanctuaries and the Rann of Kutch.

Had a nice dinner and slept in the royal bed of the maharaja’s royal bungalow…woke up at 7am just to realize that the morning safari had already left and we missed it only by 20minutes… boohoo

Ate breakfast, and packed our tank bag, started planning on a proper route to go back to B’lore… the previous evening Nahar had already told us about some temple at Somnathapura which falls on the way to Bangy; so were thinking if we want to do it or go straight home.

Narayan came at 8:30 with the news that he spotted a sloth bear and the wife was literally in tears… she’s been raving about spotting one since the first time we landed at K Gudi for our honeymoon. Narayan promised her that he’ll keep a bear ready next time we come again. Said our goodbyes and left. Halfway through the twisties Iconfessed about my inability of banking right on the twisties to the wifey and rode down the ghats at a very slow speed… the wifey was exceptionally helpful and supportive during the ghat section and once we got out of the sanctuary we turned towards Yellandur and then to the onward journey to Bangalore.

Just entering in Yellandur we realized that the state government was not content by digging up all the roads in Bangalore so they had actually come all the way to these small villages and dug up all the roads and highways here as well! Saw a bus trying to take a tight turn in less than 6feet radius, dodged the buss and rolled off towards Malavalli. The roads now turned from good to bad and bad to worse and then just stopped to exist! It was more like doing an off-road stint with a pillion on the Bull and poor RedEye was grumbling and screeching at every pothole and every ditch. But she bravely carried on.

It took us more than two and a half hours for us to cover around 70 kilometers! My nerves by now had completely frayed and I was grumbling and bitching at every SOB driver on the road.

Finally some smooth roads shown and they brought all the maniacs drivers and riders of India along with them… people not understanding the light signals, the hand signals or even the abusive curses that I screamed inside my helmet. The return was generally uneventful and we reached home around 2:30 in the afternoon. Had a quick shower and then both of us sat and brooded about being back in this godforsaken city.

Now we are waiting for 17^th November when we go back to K Gudi along with my parents and my older sister…

Till then, I just sit and wait and hope and pray

Cheers!

WebBikeWorld

I’ve been a motorcycle aficionado since a while now…

Initially was impressed only by the Royal Enfield beasts (well, honestly still am impressed) but now I do see quite a few new machines coming in our local Indian market and of course the ever expanding international motorcycle market. Whew there are so many new bikes out there!

And more bikes mean more and more bike related products; be it cleaners, waxes,apparel, luggage, protection, performance parts, upgrades, u get the idea. It’s awhole unending plethora of products that you might need for your bike or maybe you are a crazed maniac like me who just WANTS things even if I get to use them or not…

Now the confusion starts, there are so many products and almost everything comes with either the similar features or a few nicks and changes. How do you decide what is good enough (if not perfect) as per your requirements?

I very happily stumbled upon this website a few months ago and honestly, just got hooked onto it! The website I’m talking about is webbikeworld.com I think the name says it all. It actually is the bikers paradise on the internet! They have reviews of almost everything that comes out in the international markets which relates to motorcycles or the love of motorcycling.

The reviews are pretty sharp, accurate, informative and in-your-face… the last part is what I personally appreciate, they use a no-nonsense approach for their reviews and are brutally honest when it comes to giving conclusions and verdicts.

Another good part about this site is that they also feature user comments and reviewsof the things featured. Again, these guys are not hesitant if they need to give out‘constructive criticism’ or just say that the product is not value for money.

I’ve personally ordered a few things online after going through the reviews and must admit that the reviews were bang on! I got what I was exactly expecting to get in thepackage.

Our Indian buyers still need to think about a lot of alternative ideas to get the stuff shipped here as the shipping costs are usually pretty high.

Either ship it to your friends/family in the USA who are traveling to India or place multiple order with your fellow bikers and then split the shipping costs amongst yourselves (this still is costly, but saves much more when compared to individual shipping)

So those of you still haven’t gone to this site, click here and I promise you’d happily surprised to see the amount of reviews, comparisons and links to vendors for products that you had thought about but didn’t know where to buy from.

Cheers and happy riding!

Independence day weekend ride

After the Lepakshi ride, we had decided that we need to do a longish weekend ride with the same group together… Pallavi took up the responsibility of looking for a very exotic and remote location that can be easily covered in day’s ride. She came up with this place Cardamom House; somewhere in Tamil Nadu past Dindigul and off a small town called Athoor… and boy did she find us the best place to stay?

The discussion on logistics and all started a week prior to the ride, I as always get a bit hassled about longish riding and started looking up the weather websites checking on the weather forecast for the coming weekend… I generally get more worried when I have to ride with the wifey; otherwise I am generally a very careless biker. Not only did I look up the weather forecast but also shared the same with the entire gang! And the reactions I got on that…. Guess will have to write another blog entry for those :p

Anyway, we were to start at 5am on Friday. Thursday evening onwards it rained and rained and rained and then rained some more (u get the idea) it was pouring till 4am… I was mighty scared that we’ll get stuck in the rains and the ride will turn into a disaster. Anyhow, we finished our coffee and shared a can of Red-Bull, donned our rain pants and finally rolled out at 4:30 made it to the meeting point at 05:10 Doc had decided that he would join us in his car, everyone was there and we started off, the rain had turned into a very slight drizzle but the rain lashing the entire night had washed out the roads and there was a thin mist of mud that got onto the helmet visor too easily, must say the truck traffic was amazing for 5am!

Our first stop was at Hosur at the IBP GHAR, it’s like the Reliance A1 plaza but the service was okayish, and fuel was cheap (58/- for hi octane speed!) just had a chai there and rolled out again, the rains had relatively stopped but we still were too chicken to remove our rain pants. Then came Dharampuri, strangely the cops here were diverting the traffic towards the new NHAI bypass and I happily turned on that route just to realize that all the other bikers had gone ahead through the town :( after around 10kms I turned back and regrouped with the biker guys at a small chai tapri that was also serving hot puri-bhaji and omelets for breakfast. Hogged amazing food here, met some RTMC guys who were riding towards Dhanushkodi near Rameshwaram… after our breakfast and pleasantries we started again, took relative breaks for chai and some butt-breaks and reached Dindigul at around 1:30 from here asked for directions for Cardamom House and reached this amazing destination at around 2pm.
This place is managed by an elderly British gent who meets, greets and befriends all his guests. We were welcomed with an amazing mocktail of mango juice with cardamom here  after the mocktail and a nice beer, I rushed to freshen up; this is when I discovered the amazing rooms! I think the resort has around 10 rooms (not sure though) with an amazing view of the lake below and the hills in the distance. My room was the last on the verandah, with cane chairs in the porch and a complete bookshelf. I had a shower and went for lunch, after lunch we tried to sleep and relax for a while but I woke up in less than an hour and went out to explore the resort. Oh what an amazing place! So much lush greenery! Only problem was that the air was heavy with humidity.

The owner of the place had organized a party in the evening celebrating the Indian independence, met some amazing people from Texas, New Zealand and Europe; chatted with them and then took the party back to Rocky’s cottage, sat there in the moonlight talking, laughing and just having fun.

Morning came at 6am! The area had a very fresh aroma; I sat out in the porch over a cup of coffee. Once the wifey woke up we strolled out to walk around the lake. Clicked a lot of pictures and saw much too many birds! Came back and had an amazing breakfast, one great thing about this place is that everything they cook is made at the resort and grown on their farm, even the bread we ate was baked in their ovens! Post breakfast we retired to our room I tried reading a wild western and the wifey read ‘The Lost Horizon’ (the story of the Shangri-La) I was sitting here and thinking that we are in our Shangri-La… after lunch I sat with Mr. Ramdas who I nicknamed RD over a bottle of beer and talked for hours… snoozed off in the afternoon only to wake to a heavy rain! Yes, an amazing view… rains falling on the lake, the plains and coming over the hills… the rain lasted just long enough to make the entire area more beautiful, I was too tempted to ride out solo on those beaten country roads; road for a good 10kilometers, oh I forgot to tell you, the resort also housed two twelve year old Diesel bullets! Prateek and I tried our hands on those as well just to realize that the bulls need a lot of servicing and maintenance.

The evening was a quiet affair with some nice dinner and again a session at Roky’s cottage under the moonlight.

The next morning we started at 7am after a nice breakfast, wifey had decided that she will come with Doc and RD in the car so I was solo… YIPPIEEE! I had such an amazing time ripping the bike to speeds I couldn’t even think about generally, especially after getting the K&N performance air-filter. We stopped straight at Salem for a small butt break, after that the roads just became too inviting for me… I broke formation and rode like a crazy maniac for kilometers together… just to stop at the Tamil Nadu tourism hotel at Hosur. Had a heavy lunch and came back to Bangalore by 5pm.

Overall this was an amazing ride with amazing friends and a very well deserved weekend away form Bangalore. A few pointers that I would want to suggest if you plan to go there any time soon…

1) carry loads of water along
2) there are enough dhabas to eat on the way but keeping something handsy will help a lot
3) most of the people in TN do understand English and will not give you wrong directions.
4) The resort is slightly expensive but worth every penny you spend here.
5) The last 20kms from Athoor to the resort are a bit bad, if you are in a 4wheeler make sure you have decent ground clearance.

link to my pictures, Rocky's Pictures, Pallavi's pictures,

change

Changes, some needed some requested
Some fall on you unwarranted…

Beg for some, pray for some,
But the change will happen…
…Only, when you are ready for one.

Wished on shooting stars,
Prayed on all the scars
Darned life felt so stagnant
Will this ever change and take me far?

This might sound a little bit strange,
But all we crave for now is a new change.

Inked again...

Another busy Saturday came and went past…

I had so many things to finish!!! Since a while RedEye has been giving me troubles, she just doesn’t go beyond 80kph when I ride with a pillion and I had taken her to the mechanic to figure out why was she behaving like a lazy bull… spend almost half a day at the mech but we couldn’t figure out too many things… eventually it was decided that I change the air-filter on her and get he a high performance free flow filter to satisfy her appetite.



After finishing that, went home to find out that wifey is a bit late and we would have to rush out to meet XH, we were supposed to have a quick lunch and go to Russell’s place XH was going to get inked! Yes, he was going to get a tattoo and I was going to be his moral support and the expert commentator ad critic… we had a nice and economical south Indian lunch and then went to meet Russ.




I was too excited to be there and to see XH go through the pain (yeah, I’m a sadist sometimes) XH had selected a very safe and sober Hindu design of an Aum in the center of a sun… while Russ inked XH I too decided that I wanted to add a bit to my own tattoo… so after XH was done, I sat to get my tattoo done, thanks to the lack of exercise; my arms felt like jelly and the needles hurt a lot :( but I got a very neat design, I added to my Native American collection and a bit of my biker spirit…
The wifey was also interested in getting one tattoo but she was not sure if she wanted it or not… after a lot of deliberation she decided to get a nice small design which was part floral and part tribal. She was very brave, didn’t flinch at all!!! After all the tattoos we said our thanks and rode back home… now the wifey and I are already contemplating another tattoo anytime soon!



ALL HAPPY ALL INKED :)

50 Ways to Save Your Life

i read this article here on motorcyclistonline.com and just had to share this with the Indian audience. i've finetuned this artical to Indian references so that it becomes a bit easier to comprehend.

The best bike in the world is scrap--or soon will be--unless you learn how to use it. The most powerful piece of high-performance hardware is between your ears. To help you program it with the right information, we've assembled 50 potentially lifesaving bits of street savvy. Some you'll know, some you won't. All are worth remembering, because when it comes to riding motorcycles on the street, the people over at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (www.msf-usa.org) have the right idea with their tagline: The more you know, the better it gets.

1. Assume you're invisible Becayse to a lot of drivers, you are. Never make a move based on the assumption that another driver sees you, even if you've just made eye contact. Bikes don't always register in the four-wheel mind.
2. Be considerate, The consequences of strafing the jerk du jour or cutting him off start out bad and get worse. Pretend it was your grandma and think again.
3. Dress for the crash, not the pool or the prom; sure, Pizza Hut is a 5-minute trip, but nobody plans to eat pavement. Modern mesh gear means 100-degree heat is no excuse for a T-shirt and board shorts.
4. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst Assume that car across the intersection will turn across your bow when the light goes green, with or without a turn signal.
5. Leave your ego at home The only people who really care if you were faster on the freeway will be the officer and the judge.
6. Pay attention Yes, there is a half-naked girl on the billboard. That shock does feels squishy. Meanwhile, you could be drifting toward Big Trouble. Focus.
7. Mirrors only show you part of the picture Never change direction without turning your head to make sure the coast really is clear. Mirrors only show you part of the picture.
8. Be patient Always take another second or three before you pull out to pass, ride away from a curb or into freeway traffic from an on-ramp. It's what you don't see that gets you. That extra look could save your butt.
9. Watch your closing speed Passing cars at twice their speed or changing lanes to shoot past a row of stopped cars is just asking for trouble.
10. Beware the verge and the merge. A lot of nasty surprises end up on the sides of the road: empty McDonald's bags, nails, TV antennas, ladders, you name it. Watch for potentially troublesome debris on both sides of the road.
11. Left-turning cars remain a leading killer of motorcyclists Don't assume someone will wait for you to dart through the intersection. They're trying to beat the light, too.
12. Beware of cars running traffic lights The first few seconds after a signal light changes are the most perilous. Look both ways before barging into an intersection.
13. Check your mirrors Do it every time you change lanes, slow down or stop. Be ready to move if another vehicle is about to occupy the space you'd planned to use.
Scan 12 seconds ahead for potential trouble.
14. Mind the gap Remember Driver's Ed? One second's worth of distance per 10 mph is the old rule of thumb. Better still, scan the next 12 seconds ahead for potential trouble.
15. Beware of tuner cars They're quick and their drivers tend to be aggressive. Don't assume you've beaten one away from a light or outpaced it in traffic and change lanes without looking. You could end up as a Nissan hood ornament.
16. Excessive entrance speed hurts It's the leading cause of single-bike accidents on twisty roads and racetracks. In Slow, Out Fast is the old adage, and it still works. Dialing up corner speed is safer than scrubbing it off.
17. look out for stray animals Ungulates and other feral beasts prowl at dawn and dusk, so heed those big yellow signs. If you're riding in a target-rich environment, slow down and watch the shoulders.
18. Learn to use both brakes The front does most of your stopping, but a little rear brake on corner entry can calm a nervous chassis.
19. Keep the front brake covered--always Save a single second of reaction time at 60 mph and you can stop 88 feet shorter. Think about that.
20. Look where you want to go Use the miracle of target fixation to your advantage. The motorcycle goes where you look, so focus on the solution instead of the problem.
Check your mirrors every time you change lanes.
21. Keep your eyes moving Traffic is always shifting, so keep scanning for potential trouble. Don't lock your eyes on any one thing for too long unless you're actually dealing with trouble.
22. Think before you act Careful whipping around that Camry going 7 mph in a 25-mph zone or you could end up with your head in the driver's side door when he turns into the driveway right in front of you.
23. Raise your gaze It's too late to do anything about the 20 feet immediately in front of your fender, so scan the road far enough ahead to see trouble and change trajectory.
24. Get your mind right in the driveway Most accidents happen during the first 15 minutes of a ride, below 40 mph, near an intersection or driveway. Yes, that could be your driveway.
25. Come to a full stop at that next stop sign Put a foot down. Look again. Anything less forces a snap decision with no time to spot potential trouble.
26. Never dive into a gap in stalled traffic Cars may have stopped for a reason, and you may not be able to see why until it's too late to do anything about it.
27. Don't saddle up more than you can handle If you weigh 45 kilos, avoid that 305-kilo cruiser. If you're 5-foot-5, forget those towering adventure-tourers.
28. Watch for car doors opening in traffic And smacking a car that's swerving around some goofball's open door is just as painful.
29. Don't get in an intersection rut Watch for a two-way stop after a string of four-way intersections. If you expect cross-traffic to stop, there could be a painful surprise when it doesn't.
30. Stay in your comfort zone when you're with a group Riding over your head is a good way to end up in the ditch. Any bunch worth riding with will have a rendezvous point where you'll be able to link up again.
31. Give your eyes some time to adjust A minute or two of low light heading from a well-lighted garage onto dark streets is a good thing. Otherwise, you're essentially flying blind for the first mile or so.
32. Master the slow U-turn Practice. Park your butt on the outside edge of the seat and lean the bike into the turn, using your body as a counterweight as you pivot around the rear wheel.
33. Who put a stop sign at the top of this hill? Don't panic. Use the rear brake to keep from rolling back down. Use Mr. Throttle and Mr. Clutch normally--and smoothly--to pull away.
34. If it looks slippery, assume it is A patch of suspicious pavement could be just about anything. Butter Flavor Crisco? Gravel? Mobil 1? Or maybe it's nothing. Better to slow down for nothing than go on your head.
35. Bang! A blowout! Now what? No sudden moves. The motorcycle isn't happy, so be prepared to apply a little calming muscle to maintain course. Ease back the throttle, brake gingerly with the good wheel and pull over very smoothly to the shoulder. Big sigh.
36. Drops on the faceshield? It's raining. Lightly misted pavement can be slipperier than when it's been rinsed by a downpour, and you never know how much grip there is. Apply maximum-level concentration, caution and smoothness.
37. Emotions in check? To paraphrase Mr. Ice Cube, chickity-check yoself before you wreck yoself. Emotions are as powerful as any drug, so take inventory every time you saddle up. If you're mad, sad, exhausted or anxious, stay put.
38. Wear good gear Wear stuff that fits you and the weather. If you're too hot or too cold or fighting with a jacket that binds across the shoulders, you're dangerous. It's that simple.
39. Leave the iPod at home You won't hear that cement truck in time with Spinal Tap cranked to 11, but they might like your headphones in intensive care.
40. Learn to swerve Be able to do two tight turns in quick succession. Flick left around the bag of briquettes, then right back to your original trajectory. The bike will follow your eyes, so look at the way around, not the briquettes. Now practice till it's a reflex.
41. Be smooth at low speeds Take some angst out, especially of slow-speed maneuvers, with a bit of rear brake. It adds a welcome bit of stability by minimizing unwelcome weight transfer and potentially bothersome driveline lash.
42. Flashing is good for you Turn signals get your attention by flashing, right? So a few easy taps on the pedal or lever before stopping makes your brake light more eye-catching to trailing traffic.
43. Intersections are scary, so hedge your bets Put another vehicle between your bike and the possibility of someone running the stop sign/red light on your right and you cut your chances of getting nailed in half.
44. Tune your peripheral vision Pick a point near the center of that wall over there. Now scan as far as you can by moving your attention, not your gaze. The more you can see without turning your head, the sooner you can react to trouble.
45. Every-thing is harder to see after dark Adjust your headlights, Carry a clear faceshield and have your game all the way on after dark, especially during commuter hours.
46. Don't troll next to--or right behind--Mr. Trucker If one of those 18 retreads blows up--which they do with some regularity--it de-treads, and that can be ugly. Unless you like dodging huge chunks of flying rubber, keep your distance.
47. Take the panic out of panic stops Develop an intimate relationship with your front brake. Seek out some safe, open pavement. Starting slowly, find that fine line between maximum braking and a locked wheel, and then do it again, and again.
48. Make your tires right None of this stuff matters unless your skins are right. Don't take 'em for granted. Make sure pressure is spot-on every time you ride. Check for cuts, nails and other junk they might have picked up, as well as general wear.
49. Take a deep breath Count to 10. Visualize whirled peas. Forgetting some clown's 80-mph indiscretion beats running the risk of ruining your life, or ending it.

50. Enjoy the ride, ride because you like doing it and not because you want to prove a point or because everone you know does it... ride ONLY for the joy of it and nothing else :D

Lepakshi Ride June 29th

I had been itching to get a cosmetic makeover for RedEye since a few months, had ordered the decals from a very upscale website in USA and they have been sitting in my house all these months as I was too chicken to try and put them on the bike on my own. Finally last Saturday I did go to JC road and got them fixed along with a personalized name tag of the bike. The guys at the sticker shop were real professional and they did the job in less than 40minutes and in around a 100/- bucks! I was all enthu to click a few pics of her with all the cosmetics and take her out on a ride somewhere, anywhere!

Sometime during the last week Rocky had called me and told that they will be planning a day ride to Lepakshi and will let me know on the updates. Saturday evening he called and said that the ride is on for Sunday morning and we are meeting up at the Hebbal flyover. I was so happy! It was feeling like a really long time since both wifey and I rode together anywhere. Our lives had becoming really monotonous; wakeup, breakfast, go-to-work, come home, sleep… the days had become too boring and stress levels had started kicking in really hard, both of us needed a break and needed to feel some wind through our heads.

Sunday morning came too soon, woke up hurriedly and rolled out the bike to meet the guys there, by the time we reached MG road RedEye decided that she needed a full tank of fuel and we had to stop by at a gas station to fill her up. This was probably the longest, sloppiest and the most lethargic gas station service that I ever encountered till date; the staff there had no clue on who is filling the gas and who collects the gas, the quality of the fuel was the worst, after the fill-up they didn’t have change to give and they actually wanted me to let go of 10bucks since the didn’t have it!!!!! Fackers

Anyway, after this disgusting episode, we shot off towards the designated meeting point, must say that it had been a long time since I rode down that side of the town and those roads… the roads have changed drastically! The government actually had felled around 300-400 trees to widen the roads and to accommodate the traffic (no exaggeration) and to broaden the already broad roads. (Sigh, what is this city coming to? :( )

When we finally reached there we were already around 15-20 minutes late and everyone was waiting for us… the gang was Rocky and his wife Pallavi (who we met for the first time but it seemed that we had known her since ages) Prateek and his pillion Nita (who works with Oracle) and Orgy, I mean Mr. Arijit Ghosh (strangely, he is also Nita’s boss) everyone was there and getting jumpy to ride out as soon as possible to avoid the early morning traffic. After a quick round of introductions and pleasantries we all rolled off, Prateek and Nita were the spot and Orgy was the sweep… the roads to this side of the world looked so different! Everything felt new… after only about 15-20 minutes of ridding we pulled over into one of the south-Indian fast food restaurants for a quick round of Idli-Vadas and Dosas. The management probably found our crowd very funky since everyone around started jumping around trying to accommodate us there with our tankbags, helmets, riding jackets and all the works… we had a nice filling brunch and rolled out again.

The roads were reasonably empty and our riding was pretty eased. We were enjoying the scattered clouds and the cool strong winds… Prateek was the lead and I must say his 500CC bull with the rider and the pillion and its monster panniers was still roaring and keeping a pretty decent steady speed! I was right behind him and was sort of playing tag with Rocky, he’d overtake us then slow down and overtake us again… I was feeling happy to ride with a group of people who I like not only as bikers but are also great friends.

Then came the town of Chikaballapur and came Prateek’s initiation thanks to some drunk local on a cycle who didn’t know if he was coming or going… thankfully nobody was hurt, Pallavi used her amazingly polished Kannada on that drunk soul and gave him a piece of her mind… we didn’t want to stay there long and wait for the crowd to change its mind so we pushed off from there… after a few kilometers we stopped to asses the damages, thankfully there were none! Thanks to the riding gear both the rider and pillion were geared into. This was also a time was an amazing photo session, which also included Pallavi chasing an old woman leading two buffaloes or maybe the other way round and shouting ‘amma smile maadi’ while clicking the pics in the meantime Orgy showed us the long chain he kept on his bike and the ways he can beat off attackers in self defense, honestly I felt that if the attackers were of the homosexual tendency, they’d probably carry orgy along after looking at his self protection dance :D

After that photo shoot we again rode off towards our original destination… I guess after Hindupur we took a left turn and the great, majestic 4lane expressway turned into a small two lane road… we were in biker friendly territory :D almost around 15-20 kilometers of riding into these amazing landscapes brought us face to face with the monolithic Nandi bull’s status which is supposed to be carved out of a single granite stone slab… parked our bikes and all of us were itching for some masala chai, sadly the solitary shop opposite the bull had only ‘cool drinks’ and nothing else… just say the cool drinks were also not all that cool :(

Here we saw quite a few interesting characters, the cripple beggar who also was a mute, the two old women near the Nandi who were very happy to pose with us while clicking pictures and I believe they also fleeced us of quite an amount to click the pixies… there was nothing much to do here so we finally went to the actual attraction of Lepakshi, the Veerabhadra temple; strangely this temple reminded me a lot of my ride to Hampi, similar pillared facades, almost similar stone structures and the same amount of tourists, touts and guides. I was in no mood to checkout the place, so when Orgy announced that he is going to sit around in the shade and not go anywhere; I readily agreed to give him company. The others left us sitting there with all our samaan and Orgy and I had a real heart to heart discussion about work, marriage, kids, and life in general.

After a while, everybody gathered back and persuaded Orgy and me to at least go and look around a bit at how the place looks like… we like slackers walked around a bit, made a few oohs and aahs while looking at the sculpturesand got back in less than 10 minutes… all of were now hungry and were contemplating on what to do next when suddenly Pallavi emerged like devi ‘Annapurna’ with a paper-plate full of Pulliogre and Curd rice (the typical South Indian dishes) we all jumped at this sight and realized that the temple trustees are offering prasadam to all the people there. We like bhukkads charged at the temple, stood in line and got ourselves a good helping of the prasadam, now I’m not a big fan of the southi delicacies but I’m not sure if I was so hungry or was the food cooked really well… I actually had 2 helpings of the food.

Bellies full we decided to roll back… the ride back was pretty similar, but the crosswinds had picked up really bad and the bikes were actually getting pulled away… now the cheap petrol that I had filled in my tank started acting up on the bike, I could feel sudden power loss in the bike at a steady speed of 80. I thought it’d be the cross wind but upon listening to the beats of the engine I could actually notice it missing a few beats every few minutes. Upon stopping at a roadside dhaba I informed the guys about this… first we devoured some egg preparations (must say the food was not all that happening) after this Rocky and I started trouble shooting on the bike and realized that the spark plug was not in a very good state and needed some cleaning, done that and we rolled again… dunno what took over Rocky post lunch on our way back… he and Orgy both disappeared into the horizons speeding line maniacs… I had maintained a steady 80 as I still didn’t want to push the bike too bad on the crappy petrol. Prateek was right on our tail all the while, saw Rocky, Pallavi and Orgy waiting for us when we reached the Hebbal flyover again… stopped there, talked for a while decided to make more plans like this and said our goodbyes… reached home around 6:30-7ish in the evening…

Reached home all thrilled and happy and glad that I’ve made friends with some of the most genuine people on this planet! Guess its too good to have a few food friends… the ride was just a day trip but my respect and admiration for my friends grew a lot!