Ride through jungles and a hill station!

As per our last weekend's plan I went on my first ride of this year! My last ride was way back in November 07 to Hampi. In 2 days, I rode 600 kms plus! this is the longest distance i've covered for a 2 day ride. Manas joined us till bandipur, he was doing solo ride to ooty, so he rode with us oneway. It was total of 7 bikes and 8 guys while going and 6 bikes and 7 guys while coming back.

The stats:

Ride Duration: 2 days, 23rd Feb 2008 Saturday - 24th Feb 2008 Sunday

Riders and Bikes:

Vasanth - Zma
Balaji+ Raj - Thunderbird
Kartik Ayyar - Thunderbird
Gaurav - Avenger
Vishal - Avenger
Sunil Dhummi - Pulsar 150
Manas - Thunderbird (one way till bandipur)

Total Kms covered: 600 plus Kms (my trip meter conked! that story follows)

Route taken:

Day 1: Bangalore>Mysore>Nanjangud>Gundlupet>bandipur>masinagudi>ooty(!!)>masinagudi>Bandipur

Day 2: Bandipur>gopalswamybetta>Bandipur>Gundlupet>nanjangud>Mysore>Bangalore


Pics: Click here


Retrospection of the ride:
What to say! Rode my ass off the first day! We managed to hit ooty, the 36 hairpin bends after masinagudi towards ooty, tested our bike's endurace and our riding skills to limits! We climbed down the same hair pin bends at night! rode through masinagudi and bandipur forest area at night! i missed sighting at tusker at night :( This ride was with 2 dramatic events. One of the riders hit an Ox near gundlupet on the first day, thankfully there were no injuries to the rider due to his riding gear and on second day, my zma's ignition switch went kaput!

Had to do some jugaad to ride back. The ride back was awesome! we did good speeds, especially balaji and me were frustrating cagers :P Balaji led and i followed him and it was rip fest at 110 and 120 till outskirts of bangy! Many cagers would have assumed that something was wrong with their cages coz no matter what they did, they could never over take us :P balaji frustrated a tata indica guy so much, that the cager gave up after many kms of trying to tail us :P (with hand guesture to overtake him!) thanks to mysore road's curves, dumb cagers couldn't keep their acceleration at curves, they used to slow down, while we used to flick our bikes at constact speeds :P Over all it was a good ride, marred with two breakdowns, kinda my first ride, where some one crashed and my bike conked temporarily. Also this was my first ride with my new riding pants, Fieldsheer adventure riding pants. The pants rock! they are comfy enough even in hot weather, the knee armour which is adjustable is really a boon, the knee armour was positioned exactly on my knee when i rode my bike and it didn't move around. Overall a good investment!

The Ride log:
Day 1 - 23rd Feb 2007, Saturday:

Left office early from friday's night shift at 2.30 Am and reached home at 3.15 Am, I had already packed most of the things the previous day, so did final packing and rested for a while. Our meet time was 5 AM in Rajajeshwarinagar Arch on mysore road, which was 10kms for me from my place. By 4.15 AM, i was ready after i mounted the cramsters and wore my gear. Parents did the usual pooja for bike and i was on road by 4.40Am. I reached the meeting point at 5 AM. Manas rolled in at 5.10. Finally rest of the guys rolled in by 5.25 Am. Kartik was the last to join and we started the ride at 5.40 AM, with manas leading (he likes to ride at high speeds) followed by balaji and then me, with the rest of junta behind me and kartik was the tail as he had footpump.

Early morning ride through mysore road was great, we did good speeds and gobbled up kms. It was still dark, so the headlamps were doing their job, but still i felt my 55/60w Bulb wasn't enough, time for HID i think :P our first pit stop for breakfast was tiffany's hotel near maddur, we rolled in there at around 6.30 Am, but it turned out that we were too early and the hotel was not yet open. So we took a tea break there. Spotted a yellow Zma R guy with cramster jacket and all, he pulled over seeing our parked bikes. It turned out to be a xbhp member. After some chitchat and introduction to our group, exchanged numbers. He was riding towards mysore, but he was riding leisurely, so bid goodbyes to him and we started off again towards mysore.

The ride till mysore was again done in good speeds. We were in outskirts of mysore by 8.30 AM. We regrouped there and decided to have breakfast in Nanjangud. The ride to nanjangud was manageable through the 2 laned road as it was early morning and there was not much traffic. We stopped at a hotel there and had tasty breakfast. The owner was very enthu about us landing there on our bikes :P he gave us a discount on the final bill on his own! :P We started off towards bandipur by 10.00 Am and the ride was good, but crowded with village folk and cattles at some places. At this point, i was tailing balaji and just kept an eye on the rider behind me. We crossed gundlupet and the bad roads started towards bandipur.

It was bone rattling ride for 20 kms or so from there to our hotel in bandipur. Road was worse than lunar craters and gravel, bikes were bouncing up and down, cages were doing around 20 or 10 kmph avoiding the craters. I did constant 40 kmph with my bum slightly raised from the seat and zma gobbled up nasty craters easily. Then the nightmare ended! Smooth tarmac with light curves started. Balaji started ripping and he was gone in no time, i was in 80 enjoying the curves. Managed to find a nice spot to pee (:P) just before our hotel and i was taking the much needed break, when i heard my mobile ring. It was sunil dhummi calling. He gave us the shocking news.

One of the riders had hit a cow (we found out that it was an ox later!:P) the problem was neither sunil nor the rider who crashed knew kannada and they were surrounded by kannada speaking localities. Only me and balaji knew kannada. So i rang up balaji, he was already in hotel, he came back with manas to join me. We found out from sunil that the incident had taken place before gundlupet! that was good 25 kms plus from where we were! how could these guys miss from the group? It turned out that the rider behind me was not keeping an eye on the bikes coming behind him and also the rider who crashed had slowed down considerably to keep up with sunil who was riding a bit slow and cautious.

Once we realised that they were far, we adviced manas to carry to ooty as he was solo, it wouldn't make sense for him to ride 25 kms towards the fallen rider, through bad roads and again go back, he would get late. He agreed after lot of reasoning from me and balaji and finally left halfhearted towards ooty. I sent off Gaurav and Vaibhav to hotel, so that they can take up the rooms. Me and balaji rode back to the place of crash, through the bad roads and we were relieved to see the fallen rider standing, with out any injuries. His riding gear saved his ass big time. Me and balaji starting talking to locals in kannada and they even let us inspect the "cow" It turned out to be an ox! The rider was around 80kmph, when this ox, led by it's owner was on the side of the road, as he neared it, it had come towards the road, he had tried his best to avoid it, but the left part of the handle bar and crashguard hit the ox and the rider fell the bike took the impact. The ox skated on the road due to impact and had lots of scrapped skin and a broken teeth (!!!)

After getting the picture and making few calls to my cop friend in bangalore, we knew that the way out was to pay nominal cash for injuries of the cow. After negotiating with the localities, we managed to pay them off and took the bike to a near by mech for fixing it as it was not starting. The mech there did all he could and gave up! Thankfully the front forks and wheels were not misaligned, the bike was ridable, the front headlight, speedo consoles had taken the impact, the handlebar was crooked. crashguard bent. Balaji finally figured out the problem to few cut wires, the wires that pass underneath the tank had got cut at a point due to the crash, once we joined those wires, the bike roared back to life. It was 1.30 Pm by this time, more than 2 hours from the time of crash. I had told gaurav and vibhav earlier over phone to start exploring the place as we were getting late. So by the time we reached our hotel, it was 2 PM. Freshened up, had lunch at the hotel and we were doing postmartem of the crash and reliving the incident.

We had to go to Kalahatti falls. Since the crashed bike was not in good condition for ghat roads, the crashed rider rode pillion with balaji and balaji's pillion Raj rode with me. Sunil dhummi was on this Pulsar 150, we started off towards masinagudi, we spotted few domesticated elephants few kms from our hotel and stopped to take pics. The jumbos were crossing the road, two small baby elephants were playing in clay, they were so cute:P We met gaurav and vaibhav, they were riding back from masinagudi and were going for jungle safari, we told them that we would meet them at hotel by evening and we carried on. The roads were too good, we were doing good speeds. Surprisingly, the Tamilnadu checkpost cops didn't stop us for inspecting our documents, we were let through. As we rode through Tamilnadu, we hit place called "theppakaadu" from here, two routes were there to kalahatti falls and ooty, one with 36 hair pin bends and one with 30 kms round about. We chose the shorter one with 36 hair pin bends. This was the point till which gaurav and vaibhav had ridden earlier, they had turned back from that point towards bandipur for safari.



The nilgiris mountain was visible from far, the winding roads with trees covered on both sides were beautiful, we stopped in between for a photo break, took few pics and carried on. Then the hairpin bends started! This ghat section is only for four wheelers and 2 wheelers, buses are not allowed (they take the 30 kms round about route) i could understand why! These roads were so damn narrow, hardly enough for a cage and a bike to pass each other! also the inclines were 60 degree in most of the places, that too right at the hairpin bend! These were the most difficult curves i have ever ridden on! Loaded with pillion and with the steep climb, the bikes were pushed to their limits! at few slopes i was in full throttle in second gear and zma was doing 20kmph! Cages were even worse, i found a honda civic struggling to go past 10kmph! We were the only "Fastest" vehicles to be climbing up the steep roads :P

Finally found the deviation to kalahatti falls and it was big disappointment! there was hardly any water flowing, just a thin stream of water, if we had to go near the falls, it would mean a trek of another 1/2 km. We just took zoomed pics of the water falls (god bless optical zoom! :P) and decided to head back, when we saw a board which read - "OOTY - 13 KMS" We looked at each other and the watch, it was around 4.30 PM. ooty was too near to be missed (last time i missed it when me and sachin were in gundlupet, as he was reluctant) this time thankfully everyone got tempted and we decided to hit ooty! we climbed the remaining hairpin bends and we encountered really bad stretches, some stretches were being tarred, so there was just gravel and stones! after all that, we hit ooty by 5.00 Pm.

Stopped at a shop which had the special ooty chocolates in different flavours. We all bought loads of chocolates and sunil called up gaurav (who was in hotel at bandipur with vaibhav) to inform him that we were in ooty, gaurav didn't believe him! :P then sunil asked gaurav if he wanted any chocolates from ooty as proof, so gaurav asked him to read out the flavours available, sunil promptly read out all the flavours (20 plus) then gaurav believed us with his words "You guys are really in ooty!" we all had a hearty laugh, but later felt bad that they were left behind. Newayz, we had to head back before darkness! we had resigned to the fate that we had to ride through the jungle during night as it would get dark as we rode. So we fueled up a bit in ooty's bunks (Cheaper compared to karnataka) and started the ride back to bandipur at 5.30 PM

The steep hairpin bends were a nightmare when riding down, that too with pillion! engine braking alone wasn't slowing down our bikes, we had to use liberal brakes too! zma was hitting 50/60 kmph in those downward slopes in 2nd gear with out clutch! so much for engine braking! I used lot of brakes, but was cautious as the curves were filled with gravel too! half way through those 36 hairpin bends, darkness descended! we rode very carefully and managed to ride out of the hairpin bends successfully! Was that some ride or what! then the fun started, jungle on both sides and riding through the well tarred road. We were excited as well as scared about encountering elephants in these stretches, so we rode in formation close to each other. We encountered lot of dumb fucks in cages, who didn't know the meaning of dippers! these fuckers used to come straight at us on the opposite lane with highbeams! we would get temporarily blinded due to their highbeam headlamps, frantic use of pass switch by us didn't get the message through to these dumb fucks in cages. Am really looking forward to install HID kit lights in my Zma, so i can show these morons how it feels to be in the recieving end!

We passed Tamilnadu checkpost and till then we hadn't encountered any Tuskers or wildlife, the cops again didn't stop us, they generously opened the checkpost to let us through, but one tata indica guy passed us in the opposite direction, he informed us that there was a group of elephants ahead and told us to watch out. We were really excited, at the same time scared, but we rode on cautiously, but to my bad luck, we didn't see any elephants (i was told that i was wrong later!) we hit the hotel by 9.30 Pm. Gaurav and vaibhav were visibly pissed off that we had ridden so far :P but i apologised to them for the goofup and told them that it was last minute plan. Later we had dinner and booze session, that's when sunil told me that we had sighted an elephant while coming back! i was surprised and asked him when did we ever see it? it turned out that the moment they had spotted it, some dumb fuck cage driver was coming towards us with highbeam, so i was temporarily blinded and missed seeing the elephant, which was standing by the roadside, right in my lane! How dumb was that? They also told me that i passed the tusker with in 1 foot distance from it! that really made me shudder! The cagers are gonna get it big time from me! HID, here i come! After the booze session we hit the bed with plans to wake up early and move by 5.30 Am towards gopalswamy betta to catch sunrise.


Day 2 - 24th Feb 2007, Sunday:

I was up by 4.30 Am, thanks to balaji's phone alarm, he had hid it in his cramster saddlebags, so had to get up to find it! surpisingly, i wasn't feeling tired or sleepy after the previous day's back breaking ride, which i had done with out any sleep on friday, as i had started this ride after finishing work in office. The booze really helped i guess! :P Woke up the lazy bums and all were ready by 5.30 Am. We set out to gopalswamy betta, which was hardly 16 kms from our hotel. It was still dark, so we rode cautiously and we hit the checkpost to find out that they let vehicles in only from 7 AM! last time i had been there with my friends in a cage, we had entered at 6 AM, i totally forgot that we got that entry becoz of my cop friend :P So we decided head back a bit and there was a lake on the way, stopped there and waited for sunrise.



The view was breathtaking, right in front of our eyes, we could see the transition from night to day. The dark black sky started to fade in to orangish colour, later blue as the sun started to rise, the entire scene was breathtaking. Needless to say, we all went click happy, Balaji got spectacular pics taken by his pillion in his DSC H9 sony cam, which captured shots very realistically. Few of the guys went towards the lake to capture the scenery. I started to get click happy too, found good angles with zma and scenery blending in, also with sun rising, i explored various modes in cam and got good pics. Then, the sun rose, with in seconds, it just kinda popped up! we were all surprised seeing how fast the sun rose, it was hardly 30 seconds in total! Then as it was 6.50 Am, we rode towards the checkpost. It opened by 7Am and after paying the entry fee, we all rode up gopalswamy betta.



The Road was straight, with incline, we found a stretch which gave breathtaking view of the entire scenery around, so stopped there, took group pics and pics of the landscape below, then rode on. The roads started to get a bit curvy, but there was too much loose gravel and bad road, we reached the top part of the betta soon. We went to the gopalswamy temple which is on top of the hill and it was closed, so balaji led us through trekking path to spots where he had sighted elephants during his earlier visits. We trekked, huffed and puffed through the way, i was dog tired by the trek (ITC effect i guess!) Managed to reach the top most part of a beautiful hill, far from the tourist crowd. I rested there, while the rest of the guys went further ahead to try their luck and see if they could spot any tuskers. I guarded our stuff which we had carried (helmets, jackets) and took lots of scenic pics from there. Then just lazed around, the silence, the sound of birds chirping, the sound of wind blowing, you don't get that in city no matter how much you are willing to pay! Nature has it's own acquostics, i liked being there, just lazing around and letting the place sink in to me.



After some time, the junta who had gone on a trek to see tuskers came back with disappointment, they couldn't see any elephants :( So we just started taking group pics and few funny pics :P it was time to move, so we hit the hotel and started packing for our ride back. Took a group pic with bikes and riders outside the hotel room and we started from bandipur towards bangalore by 12.00 Pm. We covered good distances with minimal stops, rode in formation, We soon passed nanjangud and mysore. We had crossed mysore by 1.15 PM. We decided to have lunch and proceed to bangalore, so pulled over in to a dhaba on mysore road, just after mysore. Kartik split from here as he wanted to reach bangalore early, so we bid byes to him and the rest of us (6 guys) had relaxed lunch there. We were allset to ride out of the dhaba at 2 pm. That's when we had our second breakdown of this ride!

My zma's ignition was not coming on, I put the key in ignition and turned it to "on" position, but still things were not lighting up in the speedo console. Everyone came back again inside dhaba and we started to inspect things. My first doubt was that the ignition wire which had got cut earlier must have come loose. But to my surprise, i found that one of the wires which was soldered to the ignition switch, had got ripped from the switch itself! now that was trouble! i panicked, i didn't know what to do. Then i called Mr kiran from Sai Motors, whom i had known from the safe riding workshop conducted last month. Thankfully, he answered my call and he adviced me to cut the other wire, which was still soldered to the ignition switch and join it with the wire which had come out of the soldered end. I did that and viola! the electricals came up! I informed kiran that it was working and thanked him for his help. The wires were at odd spot, hard to reach, so i was not able to secure the joint properly, since i had to reach bangalore, i had to ensure that the joint was secure, so i pulled out the wire, by mistake, one of the ends touched the metal body of the bike and i blew the main fuse!

Meanwhile, the entire junta were still witnessing the antics and standing by me and helping me, i told them to carry on was it was getting late for everyone, but they didn't agree and stood by me to give moral support. (thanks guys!) Then gaurav lent electrical tape and i routed the wire to a spot in the front faring, where it won't touch any metal part and neatly secured the joint and taped it. Since i had blown the main fuse, i had to unmount the cramster saddle bags, remove the side panels and replace the fuse ( i was carrying spare fuses) once the fuse was replaced, the bike was ready, everyone heaved a sigh of relief! We had chai and just as we were about to start, balaji had stuck his key in his bull's side box! I had borrowed toolkit from him as my own tool kit was in cramsters, he had lent me the toolkit from his Bull's side utility box, after we fixed my bike, he had put the toolkit back in the side utility box and while locking it, his bike's key got stuck in the side box's lock! He didn't have a spare key either! After some heart in mouth moments, we managed free the key with noseplier. To be on safer side, i borrowed electrical tape from sunil, if the joint loosened again. My electrical tape was used liberally the previous day on the crashed bike.

So after all the fixing, we started at 3 Pm, one hour was lost in fixing the problem. On our way back, balaji was leading, i was behind him, followed by gaurav, vaibhav and sunil. We did good speeds, especially balaji and me, we were finding gaps between cages and quickly overtaking them as we didn't want to get stuck with cages riding parallel to us. Some cagers were extermely frustrated so see two bikes leaving them behind, one of them took it to his ego and tried to tail us, but we didn't bother, we did our usual speeds and stuck to our focussed riding, the cager finally gave up :P We were near Ramanagaram, i signalled for a break, we pulled over and waited for the rest of the guys to catch up. Once everyone showed up, we bid goodbyes as we were taking different routes to home from mysore road. We thanked each other for the wonderful ride and support and rode on. Again balaji led and i tailed. Finally balaji turned towards padmanabhnagar ringroad and i rode on.

Reached home at 6.30 Pm. Thanked god that the jugaad i did din't fail me. Cursed myself for not replacing the ignition set before the ride, miserliness could have cost me big time! But inspite of the fuckups, at the end of the day, every one was safe and reached home in one piece. This ride showed how unpredictable biking can be. But if you treat your bike well and never push yourself to limits, you can come out unscathed. My respect for my bike went up again, she didn't let me down at any odd place, she had warned me earlier about the problem, but i had ignored the warning signs. This ride taught me how to handle the worst of scenarios with out loosing focus or cool in a ride.

Update:

Went to SaiMotors on monday and replaced the entire ignition set. Now i have new fuel cap, new ignition lock and helmet lock. Also a new set of keys :P Costed Rs 850/- had i replaced it earlier, it would have saved me the hassles i faced in the ride. Well, a lesson learnt, replace any spare when you get the warning signs, never do jugaad and wait till it's worn out completely, else as tourer, you can get stranded when you least expect it or worse, in the middle of nowhere!

Nostalgia Returns!

Iam a sucker for old Tv shows. The Tv shows which gave us the first taste of the land of mcdonald, during the early days of cable Tv revolution in india. Iam talking about post 1994 onwards, When StarTV gave us Star plus Channel, which was a true blue English channel unlike the crap it is today. I remember, as a kid, i used to eagerly look forward to few shows which were my favorites at that time. Shows, that had substance, which you could enjoy watching and you would actually be eager to watch the next episode, shows which will always hold a special place in the hearts of people of my generation. The trash these days that are being aired in star world are no match for these classics! Starplus has gone to dogs for sure when took the worst decision to become a half baked hindi channel and now are nothing but Ekta Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan's butt kissers for Trp Ratings. I always used to wonder, if at all the classic Tv Shows that i grew up with, will make a return? wasn't there a sensible soul in Star TV, who the brains to bring back these classics for a rerun?

Well, Some one in Zeetv had brains! Now, thankfully, we have reruns of the classics, classic serials that i grew up with and everytime i watch them, it's like travelling through time machine and going back to the era, when life was simple, the era when mobile phones were nonexistant or were in it's infancy. Ahh, i miss those days! :( But Watching ZeeCafe after i reach home early morning from work, brings me smile and few memories back from my childhood. They have this OldSkool series running everyday, where they air most of my favourite Tv shows of the 90s. Early mornings by the time i reach home, iam lucky enough to watch reruns of three of my favourite serials from 90s.

My Favourite Classic TV Shows:

Papapa Papapa papa paapapa .... Mind Your Language begins with this song :) I get my smile back whenever i get hear this show's jingle. Set in the Early 80s, this show is about an adult class full of migrants in London, who have come to learn english. The teacher is Brit and he is Mr Brown. What i like about the show is the comedy which is derived out of the english language itself! The way these migrants who are of various nationalities, speak english and phrase sentences, has me in splits. But this show is clean of any form of racial remarks or abuse. It pokes fun through multi culturalism and the way these people interact with each other. I always loved the 70s to early 90s period when life was simple and people were more humane, this show is so simple and drives home the point with out any unnecessary drama. It's more of spontaneous humour. Even though there are 2 indians and a pakistani as students, there are no swear words even when there are humourous verbal duels between these two, especially between indian sardarji Ranjeetsingh and the Pakistani Ali Nadim. I like our ranjeetsingh's trademark phrase "a thousand apologies" !:P Life was simple and liveable those days!


Doogie Howser, M.D Set in the early 90s, this show is seen through the eyes of Doogie, who's a normal teenager, but is also a doctor! The whole show revolves around doogie, being a normal teenager and a child prodigy, who becomes a doctor and works as surgeon in a hospital. It shows the lessons of life learnt through his interaction with his patients, his friends and classmates. He struggles as he copes up to be a normal teenager and doctor. His best friend is Vinnie, who always drops by doogie's room through the window :P never through the door! Also vinnie is light headed and a flirt, the way he blurts out things, gives doogie a perspective of a normal teenager's point of view. At the end of each episode, doogie writes his thoughts in his dairy, which by the way is on the computer of those days, in MSDOS (!!) the camera follows the blue screen background and white text he enters, he sums up the entire episode in two lines max, what he learnt from that day's experience, which has it's relevance to us too and holds true even today.

Full House
Set in early 80s in Sanfancisco, is a story of a windowed father who has to raise 3 girls with the help of his friends. This show really has the 80s theme written all over it! be it the locations or costumes, they really take me back to 80s. This show promotes family values. The show if full of cute kids, Michelle is the cutie, who out of her innocense, lands some adults in embarassing situations :P Also the twin boys, Alex and Nicky, they are oh soo cute :P The entire show is full of goody goody feeling and is set in an ideal world where all people are good and good things happen always, Family comes first, no matter what and each member of the family always backs up others. Show, that makes your drool and makes you wish that your childhood should have been on that lines.

Lastly, my Favourite Show of all time, The Wonder Years Well, what is there to tell about this show? it's a masterpiece and one of it's kind, no other show can ever replace it's place. Set in late 60s and early 70s, it is about the life of Kevin Arnold, Who is born in a typical american middle class family of those years and how he copes with his life, deals with his problems related to growing up! I used to watch this show every single day when it was being aired on TV in early 90s. I could relate to Kevin in so many ways, so could others, it was realistic, the lessons he learns through his Dad, Jack Arnold was fabulous. Kevin's best friend paul is a nerd and geeky. Kevin's brother wayne, is a bully and dumb when it comes to studies, Kevin's sister Karen, is a hippie and a confused teenager almost ruining her life, Kevin's mom Norma, is the most loveable mom in the world to him and who can forget Kevin's love interest, Winnie cooper! The way he describes or the way he tells us his thoughts running in his head is simply superb. Iam fortunate enough of get my hands on All seasons DVD set of this show through one of my contacts! I no longer have to endure commerical breaks in zee cafe to watch Kevin's life. Whenever i feel down and out, i pop in a DVD of this show and watch to my heart's content. This show always leaves me with a heavy heart and also with feel good factor. This show is a must watch for all!

Phew! that was one heck of a nostalgic ride! :P But i never get tired of it, these shows will always hold a special place in my heart, especially The Wonder Years because, they give a option to go back in time and seek comfort and solace in a world, which was simple, whenever i want to get off my mind from the rat race that iam in to and from my monotonous life, i watch one of these shows and always, i end up feeling better.

God bless the soul in Zee Cafe, who had the heart to bring back these classics. Am sure that person would have grown up watching these shows, only people who grew up watching these classics will understand their timeless importance.

Disaster Averted!

Phew! I almost got stranded in office today. As usual, i was in parking lot, all set to leave after my shift and i wore my gear and put the key in ignition lock and turn, nothing! i thought, lemme try once more and i turn the key again and again there was no display in the digital meter on dashboard of zma. I thought one of fuses would have blown, so set to work on it, removed the helmet and gear and removed the seat and checked the fuses, they were intact, loose contact of fuses i thought and just pressed them again, but still there was no response from the bike! I wanted to check the battery connectors, but i didn't have my toolkit! (I realised that i should have my toolkit back in my bike from my cramster bags!) What else could have gone wrong? I thought my CDI unit could have conked off! But that would mean the bike won't start, but atleast the electricals should work, so i realised it's must be loose contact of some wire somewhere.

Then just happened to check beneath the ignition lock, to my surprise, i found out of the two wires that go from the ignition lock towards the electricals, one wire had got cut! wtf! how could it get cut? I noticed that it had got cut earlier and someone had neatly taped it! I suspect my earlier Herohonda service center chaps to have done that! The contact point of the joint had got loose, so i just twisted both the ends and checked ignition and viola! the electricals work! But the problem was, how to secure the two ends with out any tools, if i turned the handle towards the left side, the electricals failed as the contact points of the wires got loose, that was scary! what would have happened if it had come loose when i was riding the bike! The bike would have stalled and rear wheel locked due to electrical failure and i would have met with a nasty crash! I thanked god that my bike showed me the problem only in the parking lot! Major disaster was averted!

So, I did some desi jugad, messed up my hands and some how from underneath the front faring, managed to secure the two ends of the joint of the wire and used the old tape for insulation, now my task was to ride some 10 kms to SAI Motors with out turning the handlebar towards the left side, else the joint would come loose and i would get stranded! I started my journey, hoping and praying that the bike shouldn't let me down. It was already 8AM by the time i started, so traffic was building up and i managed to crawl initially and later ripped towards the destination. All the while i ensured that my handlebars were straight with minimum turns! I had to turn few times, i prayed each time i had to take a turn!

Finally i managed to reach Sai Motors by 8.45 AM. Showed the bike there to Mr kiran, Thanks to the Saferiding Workshop, which i had attended last month, i got this contact and i thanked my stars that i got a reliable mech to work on my bike and address these issues! Kiran was surprised about how i managed to diagnise the problem! (thanks to the gyaan from biking communities!) Later, he told me that they could either replace the whole Unit (ignition lock/fueltank lid/helmetlock with new set of keys) or tape the same thing after doing some jugaad. I asked them to take a look at wiring once, so they removed the faring, tank and routed the wires properly, joined the two ends of the cut wire securely and taped it after that checked and ensured that the joints don't get stressed due to handlebar movement. Also found that my Fuel guage was behaving erratically, so replaced the float and it was all done!

I thanked him for his patience and working on this issue and reached home at 12.30 PM! Was that some adventure or what! I think i will get the wire checked again with a local mech and use an extra piece of wire to secure the joint properly after coming weekend's ride. Am thanking my stars that i could avert a possible disaster on road!

Needless to say, the toolkit is back in my bike :P

MTV Roadies Stupidity!

All the planning on saturday regarding the ride for coming weekend ended up in me sleeping only on saturday night, i had extended my day from Friday morning till saturday night! that meant, i spent most part of sunday sleepingzzz. Blogged a bit @ noon and had to spend the evening at home as most of my friends were busy, watched Tv on sunday for a change :P Happened to catch MTV Roadies 5.0 Episode No 2. I had watched few auditions last month while channel surfing and found it hilarious in terms of the antics the "Judges" ask the hopefuls to perform and i also happened to see to what extent people can go to get a chance at becoming famous! I had also caught on Episode 1 of this series and found it funny.

But my take on the whole fiasco is, it's based on reality shows like FearFactor, but what i hate is the name they have chosen for themselves "roadies" Wtf has it do with the word Road? ah, i forgot, they happen to ride brandnew, always clean karizmas wearing those horrible open faced "wrangler" helmets! So they are roadies, coz they ride these "big" bikes on Highways for cameras and sit the rest of the time in a cab!
The way those chooths talk about the "roadie spirit" which really pisses off a tourer like me, what hardships that have to endure? does it have any thing at all to do with touring on bikes? heck not! they do all fear factor type stunts when they are not riding the bikes, infact riding the bike is the last thing they do! and they hardly show that too! ok, if at all they really ride their bikes in that show, how much distance are they covering per day? Point is, the bike is secondary, while the show's fearfactor image is primary, then why name the goddamn show as "roadies"? The entire gullible junta should get false image of these kids as somekinda demigods on bikes wearing the "wrangler" helmet!

This show basically can survive if they take out the bike element out of it. After all it's more to do with dares and bitching and politics and plotting, why ruin a bike's image for all that? What were munjals thinking when they sponsored this horseshit? Dear munjals, as an owner of your premium bike from almost 3 years, iam goddamn pissed about the way you increase the prices of spare parts! For eg, the front disc pads of a zma till the other day was costing Rs 850, coincidentally after the Roadies started airing, the prices have increased to Rs 1500! It's the same goddamn brake pad, same make, why the price hike? Are you guys taxing your premium bike owners like me to sponsor these morons on MTV? If you feel this is the only way, then please please stop sponsoring half of the indian cricket team and hoping to increase the sales of your restickered crap with 1950s tech in them! You want to generate more sales? then give us the tech and good bikes, not the same restickered crap and proclaiming world no1 blah blah..

Now back to the show, i was watching in utter disbelief when they showcased next week's episode, looks like on 1 of the riders manages to crash his zma and that too with a pillion on board! Guess what riding gear he was wearing? Just a half arm tee with jeans and "wrangler" helmet! The pillion is dressed like she's going to a disco! The pillion is injured badly and both the kids are shown bleeding with the rider denying and shouting that it wasn't his fault! Well, in any accident, no one ever accepts their fault! The least munjals could have done is to provide these kids with riding gear, since it's their bike which is being showcased as poser toy, but no! their responsibility ends after they provide 6 or 5 sparkling clean karizmas for each episode, apart from shit loads of money to MTV.

I do enjoy watching the show, but as a reality series and fear factor oriented show. But my blood boils when they show these posers as riders and that they ride all through their destinations with out proper riding gear! This year, they seem to be taking this show abroad, so am wondering if Herohonda will fly their sparkling clean karizmas and use them only during their "vote outs" part of episode or will they go through the legal hassles of getting permits and what nots to let these kids ride the zmas in thailand and malaysia. What ever they do, I seriously pray that Herohonda stops sponsoring such horseshit wanna be biker shows and instead concentrates more on their safe riding workshops. They can even sponsor such workshops in association with biking clubs, like they did earlier with bikenomads.

Now back to the show, Iam watching the show for the entertainment factor in it and NOT becoz it has to do something with bikes! Biking forums and clubs are taking humouristic approach towards this show, In BCMtouring for example, they have an hilarious thread for this show. I just hope that the biking fraternity's displeasure is made visible to Herohonda and MTV and some good sense dawns in to Herohonda's MBA chaps, who decided to sponsor such crap and instead they do some events with biker clubs, which won't cost even a fraction of what they pay to sponsor such horse shit wannabe biker shows.

Weekend Ride planned finally!

The above pics are from my last ride to Gopalswamybetta with Sachin

Finally met few Bikenomads friends and other regular Tourers yesterday and decided ride plan for coming weekend. Belum caves was voted out enmasse as it was ride through boring plain straight roads and nothing much to see there either. Yercaud didn't find many takers. So finally it was decided that we are gonna hit Bandipur, masinagudi and Gopalaswamybetta in 2 days leisurely ride.

Am looking forward to this ride, I will get to test me new Fieldsheer riding pants in this ride. Since we would be starting early on saturday morning would mean, i would have to leave early from office on Friday's night shift and continue riding till noon or evening atleast with out sleep or rest in between, it's gonna be an endurance ride for sure! I have already been to Gopalaswamy betta twice, once with Sachin and some time in October last year in a cage with friends. During the cage ride, we managed to hit the foothill at 5.30 AM after night ride and it was breathtaking to see the views and sunrise there. So the plan is to start very early on 2nd day morning and catch the sunrise there.

The plan is:

Day1: 23rd Feb Sat: We will be leaving by 5.15 AM.

Route:
Bangalore>Mysore>Nanjangud>Gundlupet>Bandipur>masinagudi>bandipur.

Day2: 24th Feb Sun:
Route: Bandipur>gopalswamybetta>bandipur>Gundlupet>mysore>bangalore (cover the waterfalls or Kanva dam seeing the time available)

As of now 4 Riders are confirmed, Two zmas, 1 Bull Thunderbird and 1 Pulsar 150.

Lets see how this one turns out. Catching the sunrise on a bike ride in gopalswamybetta will be a good photo opp for sure!

The itch for a Ride

The itch for a ride has begun. The last ride i did was in Way back in November 2007. Plans are cooking up for a 2 day ride in Feb end weekend. As of now places that are hovering in mind are Belum caves and Chikmagalur area. Iam trying to figure a destination which doesn't have too much riding involved as it is going to be a 2 day ride. Belum caves looks ideal, but the landscape turns of many riders. Boring straights and barren flat lands are bore.
Am meeting Bikenomads guys this weekend to chalk out a final plan. If all goes well, by next weekend, i should be riding :P Let's see what place gets finalised, Am raring to go! Destination any where! just ride!

My Riding Gears - Mini Review

Riding gears are a biker's second skin, it is the most important investment any serious bike enthusiast should make after the bike itself! Helmet saves your head, what about the rest of your body? Good investment in riding gear is never a waste of money, it is a long term investment, which will save you some major damages in case of an accident. Ever since i started touring on my bike two years back, i started to invest in riding gears, right from the basics to the other accessories required by a long distance tourer. Thanks to Biking communities, i came across right persons who guided me in to buying the right stuff and also from the right places. Here are my gears and a mini review about them:


Fieldsheer Adventure Pant:

Finally! after months of wait and nail biting moments, i got my new riding pants! The hunt for this pant took me close to 4 months. This is a major addition to my Riding gear. I was using my friend shashi's riding pants for my earlier rides that was a First gear riding pant, with leather and foam padding, I used it with my Kneeguards worn inside the pant. I was amazed at the practicality of riding pants, I could sit anywhere i want during the butt breaks in rides, i didn't have to worry about pants getting dirty or such. It helped during rains, my torso and limbs were dry even in downpours and i was not feeling the cold chilly winds while riding during night times.

So i decided to buy a riding pant. But i had to figure out which model would suit me. I had seen Lovejoshi's Cramster Riding pants during the hampi ride and i had almost decided on buying the cramster pants, but then i felt at around Rs 5500/- they were bit pricy and decided to explore the options. I asked Dada (Jsr, biking veteran) who had earlier got me my gears from abroad, dada gave me good options in Fieldsheer. Finally I choose the adventure pant as i didn't need a over pant type riding pants. Thankfully, my colleague was in usa this time and i managed to order them online. But when i went to order at my usual site the rates were up from earlier $130 to $162.
I was disappointed that i would have to pay more, but thanks to google baba, i came across another site which was still selling this pant at old rate of $130 and they weren't charging for shipping with in usa and no other hidden tax as well. So i bought this pant for $130 0r Rs 5135/- all inclusive! from this site (now they have increased the price to $145!)

It's been hardly 24hrs since i got this pant and haven't even seen them properly, so the review will have to wait :P But the build quality, materials used and feel of the pant is top notch! way better than cramster pants and am happy that i could get it at a cheaper price than the cramster wala pant. Few features:

1. They have a inner liner pant too, which can be worn as seperate pant
2. The liner pant is also waterproof, can be used it over formals during rains in city
3.The pant's insides is kinda rubberish, so not comfy for hot weather, but iam not bothered as i love sweating like a pig :P
4.Even with out liners, the pant is water proof
5.The knee armour is adjustable, Three velcros are there in bottom and top of knee armour, you can remove the velcros and adjust the armour to suit your knee's position.
6.Only the inner liner pant has open space near the fly area, while the pant doesn't have open space near the fly area, but there is a zip! even if you open the zip, there's a wall of cloth inside, so technically to pee, you have remove the pant or you have to cut that piece of cloth :P

Coming to my other riding gears:

Fieldsheer Congo Mesh Jacket:

This was/is my First riding jacket, that too a videshi brand :P All thanks to Dada. Dada was in usa, when he was upgrading his riding gears. He bought Feildsheer Kilimanjaro riding jacket, so his Congo sport riding jacket was idle. So i jokingly asked him if he would sell it to me, guess what? he agreed! This was bought from dada in early 2007 and it has been part of my rides ever since, Dada gave me a very good price for it, i was hardly 8 months at that point of time. Now it is retailing for $90 here. All in all, a very good jacket, it has a seperate inner liner, i haven't used it in any of my rides, decent waterproofing, but needs inner liner to stay dry during heavy downpours. Again the fit and finish is superb! The icing on the cake was the price i got it for! (no, iam not revealing that here! :P)


FirstGear Mesh-Tex Gloves:
Got these touring gloves in early 2007 and it's been part of my riding gear while touring ever since. Dada got it for me from usa when he was there in early 2007. These are excellent gloves for indian weather, extremely comfortable during summer and humid seasons. Even though they are not waterproof, they dry very quickly when drenched in rains. I had paid Rs 1400/- for these babies then, Now they are retailing for $30 here. These gloves have with stood the abuse of my rides so far, there are no signs of wear and tear yet. But they don't have solid protection on fingers, just leather patches, they have plastic protection on knuckles and the lower palm area has very good quality leather, which gives excellent grip and obsorb sweat from hands easily.




The above gears are the ones i use while i go on long rides/tours. I managed to build city riding gears too. Call me nut case, but i don't feel that spending money on riding gears is waste of money or such, i feel they are long term investments which will save my ass one day if my luck runs out! :P

Cramster Breezer Mesh Jacket:

Got this cramster mesh jacket in mid 2007 from Cramster I was looking out for a decent city riding jacket as i had got my first taste of comfort from the fieldsheer jacket. City riding is risky compared to my long rides, because you tend loose your focus and get lost in thoughts as you know the roads and each and every pothole on your daily commute route. So i happened to be at cramster shop one fine weekend to assist balaji, who wanted to pick up a Cramster touring jacket. I saw this mesh jacket there and tried it on, The "M" size was perfect fit for me, the arms were bit short, but more importantly, the armours were fitting where they were supposed to be there. I paid Rs 4400/- for this jacket and have been using it daily from so many months. It's a real confidence booster and a must have for horrid city commute. Since it is mesh, the air flow is good and not that uncomfortable during hot days. Mine is an all black jacket, but retains the same pattern as the one in the pic. Decent armour protection and worth for daily rough use.

Angel's Racing BZero Glove:
This was my first addition in terms of proper riding gear. I bought these in 2006. Used these gloves for daily commute and they really took a lot of abuse, have ridden in rain and these have got wet more than once! They dry pretty quickly too. These gloves have excellent Armour protection on knuckles and rubberised protection on fingers. Another advantage is these gloves cover the entire wrist unlike most of city riding gloves. The only disadvantage is, the palm area has very thin leather and the left glove tore near the thumb/palm area once and i managed to repair it with a desi jugaad. Now the finger tips have started to show holes, the mesh has worn off due to constant use. These lasted me more than 1.5 yrs with daily use. I had paid Rs 1600/- then including shipping. Am trying to repair these gloves again, so i can use this in emergencies. This holds a special place as it was the first proper riding gear i bought. Angels racing has come out with 2008 edition, the Bzero has got a face lift now, but i don't like this new avatar, i liked the old one that i have. These can be bought from here.

Progrip Knee Guards from Krp:

For me, knee guards were essential as My Zma doesn't have crashguard unlike other bikes. I had earlier tried unsuccessfully to do some jugaad to fix a crash guard on my zma, but the various examples i came across didn't exactly convince me. So i decided to stop wasting my time in trying to find a crashguard for my bike and bought these knee guards. I paid Rs 1800/- then for these including postage. I saw these knee guards in Xbhp's Krp Site. i bought these in mid 2007 and have been using these for my long rides as well as city commutes. I wear them under the pants for a reason! When i had newly bought these, i went on a small ride wearing these like normal kneeguards above my jeans, during our first butt break, i discovered to my horror, that these kneeguards have scrapped off paint from my zma's tank sides! That happened because in zma, iam used to hug the tank as i ride and these kneeguards have a metal piece at the joint, the exposed metal nut had rubbed to the tank and the paint had scrapped off! :( So ever since then, i started to wear them under the pants. I use them for daily commute too, much to the amazement of my colleagues :P After periodical daily use, the elastic bands have expanded, apart from that, there is no other issue with this. My only grouse is the joint of the knee pads should have had a rubber mould or such to cover the exposed nut, which would have prevented the tank paint scrapping off problem.

Shift Chaos Gloves:

I bought these sometime in May 2007 through my friend who was in usa. This was one of those instinctive purchases! :P I even managed to convince sachin to get one! I was just browsing for city riding gloves and i chanced upon these. I paid Rs 1800/- then. Now they are retailing for $40 here. The feel and comfort is class apart. This glove has lot of leather on the palm area (goat skin) and hardened leather near the impact areas of palm. Also knuckle protection. These fit like second skin and are extremely snug, unlike other gloves. Sore point is thumb lacks any protection, just the mesh material compensates. Also it doesn't cover your wrist. I use these very rarely, keep them safe in sealable covers :P coz i want to avoid dust and dirt on these. These haven't been exposed to rains, the leather will go for a toss if they are exposed to water. Ideal for dry weather and city cruising. Kinda pricey, but the quality is top notch. This is the best city riding glove i have as of now.


Cramster Twist Touring Gloves:

I never had a faint idea that i would buy these, till Sunil Dhummi of bikenomads posted about it in one of our ride planning threads. He had bought these gloves from cramster but these turned out to be a tad big for him. So he had posted if anyone wanted to buy those, there was even a try and use and then pay offer! :P So i thought lemme have a look and see and tried these on. It was a perfit for me, but i felt the gloves were too thick and throttle control seemed to be difficult. But i liked the warmth of the glove when you wear it and also the comfort factor so i decided to buy it. Sunil on his part, gave me a nice discount on them and I happily bought them. (no, i won't tell how much i paid :P) These retail in cramster for Around Rs 1300/- Even though it is listed as touring glove, i find it comfortable for city rides. What i like in this glove is the Cuff area, it neatly swallows the end of the jacket cuff and when you ride, it doesn't allow cold winds to go through the jacket from the cuff area. It was a blessing during the winter season and i love them during early morning rides and late night rides to office during night shifts. Have been using these from close to 3 months every day, they have taken the abuse well. They are surprisingly water proof too, have got drenched twice in rain wearing these, but not a drop of water went it! Over a period of time, the thickness has gone down considerably and now throttle operation or clutch usage is easy with these gloves on. It lacks any real leather look, looks 99% fake leather and doesn't have hard armour on knuckles either. But for the price i paid, these are a steal, Recommended for rainy season and winters. Can be used for touring too.

Well, there you have it, sort of mini review of my riding gears. No, i don't mint money or earn hordes of it either! So before you think iam some cash rich candidate, lemme clarify that all these gears were bought over a period of 2 years, one by one and i have invested a major chunk of my earnings in them. Have gone totally dry financially few times due to one major buy too!

I haven't posted about my Helmets coz i don't have pictures of my helmets as of now, will edit this post and add details about my helmets after i get the pics. Briefly though, i use GPR helmet for touring and recently bought another GPR helmet for daily use. I was earlier using GPone. I would recommend GPR over any brand in the sub Rs 3000 budget as of date because of GPR's top notch finish and quality. The visor is a treat and almost on part with AGV's Rs 600 visor. GPR's visors cost Rs 330/- . I will save the Helmet review for another day :P

Valentine's day Rip off!

Here comes another so called valentine's day! This day is eagerly awaited by all businesses to make the golden kill. Right from greeting card companies to Hotels and eatout joints, they all seem to have some or the other offer on this particular to squeeze out that money from your wallet. The mass hysteria on this day has to be seen to be believed! Yet another intelligent plot by the corporate suits to con the common man and make him truly believe that all the love in the world comes out in open on this day and all it takes to show your love is few mega bucks from your pocket! How gullible are the masses? You don't need anyone preaching you how/when to show your love and appreciation to your loved ones.

Scanning through newspaper today had me in splits, seriously, almost every tom dick and harry establishment seemed to have some "offer" going on for the love couples. Right from the cheesy "take you valentine to the best dining experience" to "gift your valentine an everlasting symbol of love" (diamonds!) and not to forget the funny ones like the one from one of the health spas which claimed to have slashed their rates for couples herbal theraphy to few fitness gyms asking wives to enrol their fatsy hubbies in to some valentine special scheme of turning them back in to shape regime. Malls ofcourse have variety of activities, they claim that you can win a diamond necklace by playing "know your valentine" game, then there is another ridiculous offer of winning a limo ride with your loved one if you answer some shitty questions.

The whole consumerist approach towards this lovey dovey thing makes me sad. The whole concept of love is being weighed in terms of how much money you can blow on your sweet heart today. Aren't we missing the point here? love doesn't cost money, it just needs nuturing, small guestures, appreciating your partner's efforts, making her feel special by saying "thank you" for the Routine things she's doing for you etc, doesn't all that count? should i take her to a mall, spend megabucks in shopping and blow money on candle light dinner eating dishes which are "specially" priced (meant jacked up prices) for this day? Well, peer pressure comes in, your partner won't appreciate if you don't do anything "special" for her today and she won't have the bragging rights with her pals about "you know, he took me to such and such place, we had so much fun, he surprised me by presenting me xyz , blah blah "

Or you risk being called a miser, to whom money is more important than the relationship. I fail to comprehend why people can't see through this consumerist noise generated today and realise that it's all nothing but corporate generated lovey dowey syndrome. As i said earlier, i don't think i need to be told when and how i should show my love to my loved ones. No, iam not buying anything today or taking her out for shopping or such crap, call me what ever, iam a practical person and don't subscribe to this bullshit.

These fuckers haven't spared stags either, so what if you don't have a special one of opposite sex with you? why don't you appreciate your parents! give me a break! for god's sake, spare your parents! You want to make them feel special? Be good to them and appreciate them once in a while, don't be rude to them! Gift them on their birthdays and anniversaries, send them off on vacation if affordable, but spare them today please! Next what? they will drag your pets and brothers and sisters in to this crap. Any one practical enough in life, will realise that all the hype surrounding this day is bullshit!

This is a western concept borrowed by mncs and pushed down our throats so they can make money. So what's the big deal in it? see through this crap and rise and shine!
St valentine must be turning in his grave!

Why i ride my bike?

Have been asked this question many times, Why do it prefer to go places on my motorcycle rather than a cage or in other modes of "comfortable" transportation. All my reasoning were met with disbelief and "you are nutcase" kinda stares.

Came across a beautiful post in Xbhp which tries to explain the biker's point of view as to why we prefer to go places on our bikes:

The Pleasures of Motorcycling

The pleasure is in doing three-digit speeds for hours on end when most consider 60 as dangerous and 80 as fatal!!

The pleasure is in tying the luggage so well on the back seat that the Bike seems to have come fitted with it from the showroom!

The pleasure is starting your bike's engine for a long-distance ride on a cold morning and listening to its steady comforting idle while you prepare for the ride.

The pleasure is in listening to the crackling clicks from the hot engine and exhaust as they cool after a fast blast on the road.

The pleasure is in racing a train speeding along parallel to the road and beating it, at beyond a 100 kmph!!

The pleasure is in watching a row of several single headlights trailing in your mirrors, the group on the move.

The pleasure is in watching a bunch of gleaming bikes knifing together through fast highway traffic.

The pleasure is in knowing a split second before the car in front panic-brakes. You were more focussed than the driver of that car. You survive and smile!!

The pleasure is when your upshifts and downshifts are so smooth that the Bike feels auto-geared.

The pleasure is in tooting a salute to truckers who safely wave you past on a blind mountain curve.

The pleasure is in glancing up at the cloud-darkened sky for a moment and guessing correctly how far ahead the rain will catch up with you.

The pleasure is in riding with a bug splattered visor for long, trying to look from between the squashed mosquitoes.

The pleasure is in cleaning the visor at a tea stop and seeing the world clearer through it as it had never been before.

The pleasure is in greeting a dhaba-owner you meet after 2 years on a remote highway, like you greet an old lost friend.

The pleasure is in washing your muck-covered Bike beside a cool mountain stream.

The pleasure is in being treated as special because you are on a bike, something that would never happen if you arrive in a car.

The pleasure is in knowing that your wife loves riding as much as you do, even as a pillion!!!

The pleasure is in the easy companionship of a riding group.

The pleasure is when the group gets together weeks after a long ride and talks about it like it happened just yesterday.

The pleasure is in seeing photos of a re-grouping stop when everyone in the group with helmets on look like astronauts with overgrown heads!!

The pleasure is in hearing seven identical bikes start and rumble together while warming up for a long day on the road.

The pleasure is in smelling spilled diesel on the road before your tyre hits it.

The pleasure is in watching other road users gawking wide-eyed as the group does three-digit speeds together in formation.

The pleasure is in entering a road-tunnel on a bright day with your sunglasses on and remembering the fear of riding blind for even a few moments.

The pleasure is when you fix a puncture by the roadside in the dark and nothing goes wrong with it for months afterwards.

The pleasure is in having just the right tool and spares at hand when something goes wrong with the Bike in the middle of nowhere.

The pleasure is when you finish your day’s ride, and reach in one piece. You’re the smallest vehicle on the road, and you’ve survived.

The pleasure is when you take off your wristwatch, and see a band of untanned skin.

The pleasure is when your motorcycle and you move as one single united form. Whatever shape the road takes, whichever end of the compass it leads to.

The pleasure is when you use your hands, arms, thighs, knees and feet to steer.

The pleasure is when you take off your riding jacket for a break, and feel the breeze dry your sweat.

The pleasure is when you sing to yourself on an empty road. You’re the world’s best rock star.

The pleasure is when your rear wheel slides, and you bring it back, when the front wheel lifts, and you take your time bringing it back.

The pleasure is when you cut through air, at 50 kph or 100.

The pleasure is when you reach a place you’ve never been before, and someone you’ve never seen before asks you for a ride. And comes back grinning.

The pleasure is when you wave to village kids, and they wave back.

The pleasure is when you almost, almost fall. But don’t.

The pleasure is when you fight the wind, and win.

The pleasure is when you get up that narrow path for the view you’ll never forget.

The pleasure is when you view the world at an angle.

The pleasure is when you eat bugs at 90 kph.

The pleasure is when you look at a dust-streaked face in the mirror after a 12-hour ride, and don’t want to wash up.

The pleasure is when your pillion moves with you.

The pleasure is when you can see the petrol after a top-up.

The pleasure is when your throttle hand has calluses.

The pleasure is when you jump a speedbreaker.

The pleasure is when you stop to help push a stranded car to the side of the road when you had the choice of riding past but didn’t.

The pleasure is when you stop at the smallest of towns, and somebody asks you deep technical questions about your bike.

The pleasure is when your roadmaps gets dog-eared, rain-splashed and tea-stained.

The pleasure is when you give a stranger a lift and he loves it.

The pleasure is when you have battle-scars, each one a lesson in survival on two wheels.

The pleasure is when you can feel the cool morning and the hot afternoon, the light rain and the damp fog.

The pleasure is when you leave four-wheeler traffic standing in a jam.

The pleasure is when you aren’t lulled by an air-conditioner.

The pleasure is when you are free. Open. Independent. Liberated.

The pleasures, ladies and gentle, are all yours for the taking. Just ride.

Ride long and safe...

Amen!