Random Musings of a Bikenomad: November 2007

Pics of the meet: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/BikeNomadsHampiMeet

Finally Am starting to pour in to words about the hampi meet which happened exactly 1 week back.
It was an awesome ride to Hampi which saw 40 plus people and 30 plus bikes all riding down from various parts of india and meeting up in hampi.
This was the largest turn out compared to previous Bikenomads annual meets!

It was great to meet legends and members from other cities, email ids which were seen on group were given a face finally!

It all started some 2 weeks prior to the meet and with Vibhu asking for volunteers and coordinators for organising the meet. Since this was hampi and i had previously been there in March 2006 Meet i pitched in for organising things, along with fellow nomad Sachin whose native is Hospet (just 13 kms from hampi)
Then the planning started, city coordinators were appointed for pune, hyderabad, mumbai and bangalore. I was also the coordinator for bangalore. Cut off date was announced for confirming the hotel room booking. That in itself is a long story....

The google sheet started to become very active, with riders confirming, few dropping out, i made an offline excel sheet and started updating the status of riders.
We realised that this time we need to fit in all people in a single hotel, as only then people will have time to interact with each other. The only big hotel near hampi was KSTDC Mayurabhuvaneshwari Hotel in Kamalapur (3 kms from hampi)
Cutoff date for confirming for ride for assured accomodation was announced and till the nth moment, there were changes! Finally the list came up and I booked 11 rooms by calling up hotel, but i was skeptical as the hotel chaps needed advance amount for confirmed booking. Then sachin pitched in, he was in hospet for diwali, he drove down to hotel and rebooked the rooms also paid the advance.

Then the task of grouping Bangalore guys came, i again formed an email chain with ids of guys from bangalore who had confirmed. We were around 10, at the last moment Prabul dropped out as he was to go to USA. Then there were quite some additions/deletions. I was worried as the D day neared, This time neither sachin nor prabul were there to lead the pack and i had to lead. I have always been the sweep guy in all rides or somewhere in middle order, always comfortable following someone, but this time, i had to lead this totally new group of 10 bikes! So viola, there was a CCD meet arranged for collecting the hotel amount from bangy guys and i could finally put faces of the email ids of bangy people. After the interaction, i was confident that most of guys are sensible riders.
But i had never ridden with them, so i had to see how things would go.
Just 1 day prior to ride i came to know that the number of bikes will be 12
Number of people will be 16. That is 4 bikes with pillion out of which 2 would be couple. This was gonna be one heck of ride, i told myself this time i don't have any one to fall back on in case of any problems on the road as i was to lead the group, so i had to be prepared to handle any incidents or fuckups, as my usual ride partners were not riding with me in this ride. But with people like Adityabhelke, Lovejoshi, Gaurav, Chamolibhai and last but not least Renu, i reassured myself that this group doesn't have any juvenile riders and this is gonna be a safe ride.

I left my office early (for the first time before any ride!) as i had pulled in a double shift. Reached home comfortably by 6Pm. Packing things is a huge task for me, i first go through the list of things i need to carry, then categorise it, then pick and choose from the lot, then finally cram things in my cramster saddle bags. This was gonna be my first ride with my own proper camera! Thanks to sachin, i got his KodakZ650 Camera for a good buy from him. By the time i was done with the ordeal of packing, it was 10 Pm! I knew that i shouldn't be wasting time in morning and i should be on road in max half and hour after i wake up, so did my morning rituals at night itself :P and bathed and got ready and slept! sleep i did! like a log!

Day 1 : November 23rd 2007, Friday:

I woke up at 3.45 Am, i was to be in nelamangala crossing (our consolidated meeting point) by 5 Am. So i took my stuff and started mounting the saddle bikes on zma and i was ready to roll by 4.25 Am. My parents did their routine stuff, did a neat pooja for the bike, broke coconut and ran over lemons by 4.35 Am and i was on road.

The excitement was too much, i could feel the butterflies in my stomach, but all that drowned when i saw the truck traffic in yeshwantpur! i was dodging and making way through the trucks for atleast 10 kms and well past jalahalli circle. I had estimated that it would take me 30 mins to reach the meeting point and i was right. I rolled in exactly at 5 am on zma's clock at nelamangala crossing. The weather was too cold, even though i had worn gloves, i could feel the coldness in my fingers. Stopped at the chai shop in junction and waited for other guys to roll in. It was 5.10 Am and still no sign of other guys, i was the only one waiting there, much to the amusement of few truckies who were amused at my riding gear and loaded bike!
Well, another ciggy smoked and finally by 5.20 Am, Chamoli bhai rolled in with his avenger, along with him was gautam sharma and Gaurav All three avenger brothers were there :P After the hi's and hellos, we settled down for another cuppa tea, then at 5.30Am, The Koramangala folks rolled in, Aditya on his P220 with his wife Sapna, Lovejoshi on his Bull "red eye" with his wife Tanya and other stags like nfsnfs aka santosh, Sunil dhummi and otehrs, the crowd was growing!

But still no sign of our great sweep, my good old friend Mr renukumar and his pulsar 180! I got a call from prasanna, he's shot past crossing and is waiting ahead near the toll gate, i tell him to wait there for us, so he can join the brigade when we start. Question was when to start! it was 5.45 Am, all the junta were accounted for except the sweep, i tried calling renu, but he didn't answer, so i decided to wait till 6Am and see if he catches up. Meanwhile the entire junta got talking, i was just standing and observing the entire junta. Wow! i had never imagined that one day, i would get to ride with some many guys, We were a total of 12 bikes and 16 people! and i was the one who knew the route, so i was technically the lead. It was a great honour indeed, but also thoughts of whether i can lead successfully and maintain the composure of the group cropped up, i told myself, what ever happens, happens for good, so let me go with the flow and see.

It was 6.00 Am, still no sign of Mr renu kumar, I call him on his cell and no answer, meanwhile junta start getting impatient, Lovejoshi is frustrated that we all have been made to wait for one guy and looks like he's gonna rain punches on me if i try to talk to him! :P so i keep my distance from the tatoo man!:P Then finally by 6.10 Am, i see our spot come in and stop next to me. I gave him a kick on his butt with my steel toe CAT shoes to show my frustration and collective frustration of the group! Then renu explains his story and turns out cops were checking and blah blah... So after final round of Tea, i brief the guys, Iam gonna lead, you guys stick to your positions as per the sheet (yeah, i had got printout of the details of junta :P) All agree, i see veteran nfsnfs mumbling, i know things aren't going down well with him, he's not used to slow riding :P

Finally! at 6.25 Am We all start the bikes and roll! caravan of 11 bikes to start off with. It was a sight to see! then prasanna joins the brigade from the toll gate ahead and now we are 12 bikes riding in formation in a straight line with me leading the pack, i was just letting this thought in mind when i see someone over take me from left, whoosh! who was that breaking the rules? Well, it was our own nfsnfs! true to his name, he had enough of slow riding and rips ahead! ok, let everyone ride as per their comfort i feel. Then see the numbers in the formation are interchanged in the rear view mirror, i see the avengers are last with few pulsars and me followed by Aditya's P220 and LJ's Redeye. Then after some distance, prasanna goes ahead whoosh! okay so he wants to give nfsnfs some company in fast riding, so I leave the speedsters ahead and lead the remaining 9 bikes.

It's heavenly to ride on wide 4 laned road, early morning with minimal traffic. We gobble up kms and after an hour or so, i give a small pit stop, Then carry on again. We had planned to have breakfast in Kamat near sira, i missed it. I realised that after nfsnfs who had gone ahead of me, tells in sign language while riding parallel to me. So i find the next hotel on the service lane and pull over.

Entire junta decend on the hotel, taking the chaps there by surprise! They have only idly and dosa, fine! anything will do as everyone was damn hungry! We gooble up breakfast and after sutta and teas, we roll on. I decide to stop at Reliance A1 in chitradurga next. So we roll on, we are covering good speeds and tarmac is never ending 4 laned bliss! But all good things come to an end, so did the 4 laned runway! we hit the two laned road just outside chitradurga, i spot the A1 plaza and pullover and wait for junta to regroup. After 10 mins, the entire gang is together and we roll in to A1 plaza at 10.15 Am. We take a relaxed tea sutta break and i brief junta here again.

We decide that prasanna and nfsnfs are comfy riding faster, so they both will go ahead of us, while the remaining lot will follow me. I also warn the junta that NH13, which we are gonna take hence forth towards hampi (150 plus kms) is total opposite of what we had see till then, i tell them that based on sachin's report 2 weeks earlier, the road was a mess, 2 laned potholed road to hell with lots of trucks thrown in. So i tell the junta to be very very cautious and show them the handsignals which i will use to warn the riders while i ride and ask them to follow the same so the riders behind me could get the message. All set, we roll out of A1 plaza by 10.30 AM.

It was getting hot now! the weather was getting too damn hot, iam used to sun, so i enjoyed, i could make out that the rest of junta were really hating to ride in this road at this time of the day! NH13 starts off as a clean road with good tarmac and lots of trucks, hardly after 20 kms, we get samples of potholes, i give the handsignals and never stop till we reach hampi later! The road gets progressively worse as we proceed some 40 kms, the potholes become lunar craters and we have to search for patches of tar to ride on, coupled with the trucks! it was dangerous to overtake a truck too coz you never knew when the truckie would swerve right to avoid a pothole, when you are overtaking him! so i had to watch out the truck's path ahead too and then over take. After an hour or so, the butt aches, the cramps start, all the abuse of riding on potholed road shows up, so i pull over near a tree with lots of shade for a butt break and the junta too pull up. It was a much needed butt break for everyone!

To be Cont'd....