It rained cats and dogs & tankbag :P

Last weekend was complete washout to say the least!
Saturday started out as usual as a lazy day, had to get Zma's Engine oil changed, went to mech and got the liquid drained out, it was very very dirty and jet black! Need to give the bike for engine flushing soon, after 45k kms, it's high team for zma to get her internals cleaned :P In went the new castrol power1 bottle contents and immediately started to feel smooth, Went to castrol distributor and picked up two castrol power1 1 ltr bottles for 200 bucks each (cheaper by 30 bucks than mrp) and came home and caught up with much need sleep.

Woke up evening, had to meet sachin in Koramangala CCD along with other BN guys to discuss ride plans for the coming weekend. At 5 PM, the skies were all dark and it was pretty windy, sachin called up later and informed that he was already in CCD and it was raining heavily. Thanks to his early warning :P i kitted up with cramster's waterproof liner for my city riding jacket and also wore the liner of my Fieldsheer Adventure pant, which looked like waterproof material as over pants and set off. Half way through, it started to drizzle, then it started to pour heavily as i reached near shoolay circle.

The roads were like swimming pool! After 5 mins i was the only crazy biker on road, all two wheeler junta had parked on roadsides and taken shelter in bus stops and shops. It was getting dark and visibility was pathetic, the audugodi stretch was water logged coupled with horrible traffic snarls, finally i made it to CCD dripping with rain water. Few people were taken aback seeing me walk in like a mad guy with complete gear but still dripping with water all over :P The overpants had withstood for half and hour, later they gave way and let the water seep in :( The cramster's rain liner did it's job well, the gloves had given up and they were soaked in water.
All the other BN guys were stuck in rains and started to msg us that they won't be able to make it. Then on we got on to discussions about ride plans and finally came up with final ride details. All the while, it was still raining heavily and there was no sign of rains slowing down or even stopping.

Finally at around 9pm, started to ride back in rains to home, it was a horrible ride back, with rain lashing, cars splashing the stagnant water from road, managed to reach home after 1 hour of literally wading through water, ended up with water soaked woodlands boots and jeans :P After much needed dinner, caught up with idiot box for sometime and hit the sack.

Sunday was off to a promising start. I had to go to marathhalli near Airport to pickup some spares for my mangalore friend Zahin's RD. My friend girish was free, so took him as pillion and off we went. From majestic to Airport through MG road it was flat 20 mins! i couldn't believe it! traffic was nil and the roads were empty, bliss of riding on a sunday afternoon i guess! Met up Mohith, the guy who was handing over the spares to me, chatted with him for a while and found out that he was on BN sometime back in 2003, that was even before i joined BN! later found out that he was active in RD Dreams and Team BHP. After an hour's talk and collecting the spares, we pushed off aimlessly, called up sachin, he informed that he was going to Cramster shop in RT Nagar to buy Cramster's Riding boots, so decided to join him to check out the boots.

Met KJ (owner of Cramster) and sachin in Cramster Shop in RT Nagar. Even Santoosh showed up as he stays nearby. Checked the Boots, they are awesome! KJ was kind enough to let me try boots too, so i tried my first riding boots :P It felt solid and good :) I was tempted to buy them, but my near zero bank balance prevented me from doing so :P Creditcard was too tempting, but thankfully KJ was not accepting cards :) Sachin too tried them on and he felt comfy in the boots, KJ had three sizes of boots 44, 45 and 46. 44 was perfit fit for sachin. He bought them finally.


I was in two minds about going in for Tank Bag, found a new tank bag in Cramster shop and talked to sachin as he already has one, he suggested to go in for one. So finally i bought myself a Tankbag! Checked out Kneeguards, New Touring jackets and also new mesh jacket there, after the purchases, we bid byes to KJ and hit CCD near by. After loads of coffee+smoke sessions, it was time to leave, but it again started to rain! Damn these rain gods, they login at odd times :P

Again kitted up with cramster's waterproof liner (no overpants this time :( ) Rode back carefully, thankfully it stopped raining near malleshwaram and i hit home safely. Today morning i did some trial fittings of Tankbag on zma, at first it felt rather odd to have it as i was always used to seeing the flat tank on rides. Later, positioned it properly and it blended it. Sachin had suggested to use scotch tape on tank to prevent scratches from tank bag, so bought scotch tape from medical store and spend one hour in sticking it to contact points of tankbag on tank. Also stuck the tape to side panels where cramster saddle bags rub against it.

After my scotch tape work :P, i saw my zma and she started looking like a bandaged beauty :P Will post the pics sometime tomorrow. Iam all set for weekend's ride, it's gonna be a 3 day ride. Iam totally geared now interms of hauling capability with my old saddle bags and the new tank bag.Now, Zma is a fully loaded touring machine :P This is gonna be my first ride with out any backpack, during all my earlier rides, i used to carry my wildcraft bag on my back with sparevisor/glasses/camera etc, now with the tank bag, it will be less taxing on my back i hope.