Dharmambudhi Kere - Revisted! :P

No, this was not another ride to an undiscovered lake like my earlier ride but it was a rather nostalgic visit to Majestic/KempeGowda Bus Stand! :P (The existing bus stand was built on Dharmambudhi lake in 80s) The Majestic Bus stand is hardly 1 km from my house, but ever since i have become mobile on 2 wheels, i had stopped bothering about our great BMTC public mass transport system or formerly known as BTS Bus service. I had visited the bus stand just last month, when i had given my Karizma for repairs last month, i had gone to Bus stand to catch a bus to Katriguppe, to go to Sai Motors. But it has almost been more than a decade since i had walked on the elevated walkway in Majestic Bus stand.

I happened to be there today as i had to go to KG Road for picking up some clothes from Raymonds showroom with my friend Girish, who's getting hitched this week. It was gonna be too much of a hassle to take my Karizma to crowded Majestic area, find a parking space and to park and not to worry about the bike! So we decided to go by bus instead! The Raymonds showroom is just below Santosh theatre on KG Road, so after getting down from bus in the Majestic bus stand in some platform, we took the elevated walkway to cross over to the other side. I distinctly remember that last time i had walked "over" the bus stand was when i was a kid, with my parents, i don't remember exactly when, but i just know that it's been more than a decade since i had seen the famed "semi circle" shape of the bus stand from top.

Took few pics from the "view" point" :P reclaimed part of my childhood, somethings never change in Bangalore, no matter how much the city progresses. The walkway had the trade mark paan masala spit marks, Cig stubs, dirt and dust and not to forget, hoards of hawkers selling all kinda wares! Even the Subway, which connects to KG road is full of hawkers and stinks like public toilet! the whole place has the infamous defamation of walls by Small posters, which range from "Astrologers" to "Sex doctors" :O to "Wanted urgently" type ads. After we were through with picking up Girish's Reception clothes, we took a loong stroll in Majestic area, specifically KG Road. Changes are that the famed "Burma Bazaar" is no more, the whole rickety building is being demolished to make way for one more Junk-mall building with glass and AC. The Infamous "Sangam" theatre, which used to screen only Adult movies :P in those pre Cable tv-internet days, has made way to a swanky "Sangam Mall"

Only occupant of Sangam seems to be KFC chicken eatery outlet, most of the mall is empty and yet to be occupied, commercialism of bangalore is trying hard to catch up with Majestic area, but the old city is refusing to loose it's charm that easily, get in to the bylanes of chikpet and surrounding areas, you can see and smell old Bangalore of 1980s and earlier, even today! After recharging my nostalgic batteries, boarded a rickety battered BMTC bus and came back home. Want to get back to real bangalore? make a quick dash to the crowded Majestic Bus stand and spend a day in the surrounding areas, amidst the organised chaos all around you, you won't believe that you are in the famed and hyped Silicon valley, the land of Forum mall-garuda mall-Eva mall and what nots! :P

Page3 Express!

Not a review about a new newspaper :P Rather, a reflection on pathetic state of degradation of one of most reputed newspapers in india, The New Indian Express!
I have been an Express loyalist due to hardhitting, no nonsense stories, minus ads and titillating pics of almost naked babes plastered allover in colour :P I had briefly subscribed to TOI-let ;) paper when they launched their bangalore edition six years ago. Times lowered their price to unbelievable 1 buck! and later to 1.50 bucks, plus they had 6 or 4 page City specific seperate add on supplement with the main newspaper. Most of their paper was in colour.

The subscription to TOI-let paper didn't last coz they lived up to their nick name of TOI-let paper! What i found was shit loads of ads plastered all over the main paper, Editiorials were a joke and heavily Pro congress, Pseudosecular and Anti BJP/Majority/Hindu in nature. The city specific supplement "Bangalore Times" was plastered with pictures of semi nude females and PAGE 3 culture was cultivated with Page 3 of Bangalore Times showing the "happening" parties and Page 3 celebs and gossips. I got sick and tired of TOI-let paper's glorification of non entities and their motto of publicising morons who were nobody or irrelevant to bangalore. Who the fuck cares which party took place where, which bitch wore what, with whom she flirted with, with whom she arrived with or who slept with whom! TOI-let paper turned out to be a glorified soft porn paper, rather an extention of filmi magazines and lifestyle magazines.

I switched back to Indian Express happily and found solace in their "to the point" stories and non existant ads. The city specific supplement "City Express" was informative and carried truely relevant stories. Thankfully Page 3 culture was not encouraged and whole paper was full of what a newspaper should have, only news and facts, Editorials were neutral and very much mature and not biased. Their scoop news and investigating news were a treat, Express broke so many new stories, carried out sting operations and sometimes ran 1 week series of articles of various burning issues of the nation.

Slowly, they transformed in to "The New Indian Express" I found no change in their content, more welcome additions like better fonts, new layout for columns and bonus supplements on fridays and wednesdays were included. I was happy and life was peaceful for all these years, until i saw Ads in hoardings and also in Express by fag end of march and beginning of April, stating that From April 11th 2008, Express will reinvent itself. I thought, like the earlier facelift, this might be loaded with add ons, but finally when the D day came, i was saddened beyond belief! April 11th 2008, must be marked as the day, when Express lost it's dignity.
Their "new" version of Indian Express shocked me. The Masthead was altered beyond belief, they screwed the capital "I" in Indian word and "E" in Express word. "I" looked like "1" and "E" was looking like "e" (Microsoft's Internet Explorer "e")

More horror awaited me, the fonts were so fucking small, it was too hard to read the articles, the entire layout of express had gone for a toss, it looked more like a webpage than a newspaper! the grand finale was "Expresso"! No, not the coffee types :P Their "City Express" had got renamed to "Expresso". Worst thing was that the City edition was no longer in conventional paper format, it was more like a mag format, shorter in size and many pages. Pages full of CRAP!
Am sure Ramnath Goenka will be turning in his grave, coz express finally managed to match up to TOI-let paper, They have Expresso PAGE 3 now! Page 3 parties, celebs, dumb fucks and bitches are all over the city edition and more specifically in Page 3 of expresso! Not to mention, all pages in Expresso are in colour and 70% of it is full of pics of semi nude chicks (Page 3 bitches, Bollywood bitches and hollywood bitches!) I was deeply disappointed by this so called "reincarnation"

Now, Express is nothing but a clone of TOI-let paper, heck, if i wanted such crappy softporn suppliements and Page3 world info, i would have bought TOI-let paper itself, why would i buy Indian Express? The very soul of Indian Express has been buried, Am sure old timers who have stuck with Express from decades will be disillusioned and feel let down, how can such a sensible and responsible National daily, which has gone through much shit earlier and with stood all kind of bullshit from so many decades, suddenly sink to the low levels of TOI-let paper? Am sure it must due to change of guard at the higher ups. Google baba gave me this link.

From that link, it is very clear that due to internal politics and back stabbing, a reputed national daily has been given an improper, untimely burial. I just hope that they stop degrading this paper and either revert back to old form with a public apology to their loyal oldtimer subscribers or stop publishing under Indian Express name! The whole "re incarnation" feels like an April fool joke gone too far.

The Various Incarnations before the demise:

Ride to Maddur Lake with BikeNomads

Did a small weekend ride on Sunday, 20th April 2008 with Bengalooru BN . Sachin and me planned this meetup-ride with oldtimers of BN. It was ages since Bangalore chapter of Bikenomads had gone on a breakfast ride, the last i remember was in 2006! that was to Hosur A1 Plaza. Since then lot of new members had joined Bangalore BN chapter, so we wanted this ride to be a platform to meet new members and oldtimers.

Old timers of BN like Dr Prithvi, Rocky aka Rakesh Barua, VenkatShyam and JSR aka dada joined in. The final turn out was 18 plus bikes and 20 plus people! this was one of the biggest groups i have ridden with so far! Over all it was an enjoyable small ride. I was back home by 3.30 pm!

Riders and bikes:

1. Dr Prithvi Raval - Avenger200
2. RakeshBarua - R/E Thunder Bird
3. Sachin Koppikar - Pulsar 150
4. Santoosh - Pulsar180&200 :P
5. Kartik Ayyar + Pillion - R/E ThunderBird
6. LoveJoshi+Pillion - R/E Thunderbird Aka Redeye :P
7. Lohith - Bullet 500
8. Praveen T - Honda Unicorn
9. Vasanth + Pillion - Karizma with crashguard :P
10. Muneesh - Pulsar 180 (kartik's Friend)
11. KrishnaDevanur - Karizma R
12. Murugesh aka rossi :P - Apache 150 (santoosh's friend and BNer)
13. Gururaj - Avenger

(following people met us on the way in maddur tiffany's for breakfast
and joined in)

14. Vijay - Pulsar 220 (new BN member)
15. Jayan SR aka JSR - Bullet 500
16. GK - Bullet (From Silverbullets)
17. Ajey aka Shidke - Bullet (From Silverbullets)

(met these people on the way back and in Maddur CCD)

18. Venkatshyam - Pulsar 220
19. Prasanna aka flyin - Pulsar 180

Pics:

My pics: Click Here
Doc's pics: Click here
Rocky's Pics: Click here
Kartik's Pics: Click here
Love Joshi's Pics: Click here

The Ride log:

I had a pillion this time, My friend Girish. This was truly gonna be his last ride as bachelor as he's getting hitched this month end. I started touring in 2006, when we both went for my first loong ride on my zma. Met up Santoosh and his friend Rossi aka murugesh :P and started off towards meeting point Rajarajeshwarinagar Arch. We reached there exactly at 7 AM, it was our starting time. Took a group pic, 9 bikes had already reached there. With santoosh as lead and Rocky as tail, we started off by 7.10 AM.



I was tailing murugesh, who in turn was tailing Santoosh. Santoosh lead well at constant speed and we reached maddur tiffany's by 8.20 Am. Here, JSR and two of his friends on bulls joined us, they had started late from bangalore and caught up with us. Found the hotel crowded, so went to tiffany's hotel on the other side of the road. I was sweating like a pig :P, i was wearing my full gear, minus the CAT shoes, which were damaged in my earlier ride. I was also wearing my cramster backprotector, which helped me very much, i didn't have slightest sign of back ache. I was also wearing my riding jacket with inner liner, as i wanted the armour to be secure and in place. Found out that the hotel didn't have enough space to fit in entire crowd, so we decided to have breakfast outside hotel, standing!



Savouring tasty idly vada and famed Maddur vadas, sachin set the ball rolling and asked everyone to give a mini intro about themselves. Soon, everyone was through with their intros and knew each other by their names. After much required tasty breakfast, we decided to hit our destination, maddur lake, which was just 5kms from there. Just as we were wearing our gears, we witnessed a nasty pile up accident right in front of us! There was a U turn in front of the hotel, one tata indica guy took the right turn after over taking an Eicher canter from left. The canter guy tried to avoid the car, but failed and slammed the rear of indica and tried to come to extreme right to avoid a pile up, but it was a waste effort, right behind him, a KSRTC bus rammed in to the canter's rear and the whole bus went back by 1 feet after impact! In the process, a Toyota Qualis which was right behind the bus, got it's entire front bonnet stuck under the bus's rear! Behind him was a Radio City Tavera, he avoided rear ending the qualis, but scrapped his entire right side with qualis and managed to pull over.

The indica had a fucked rear, the canter was undamaged! only a broken indicator. The ksrtc bus's windscreen had cracked. Qualis had it's entire front screwed! The Tavera had fugly scrape marks and dents on the right side. Thankfully no one was injuried, few people in bus had busted lips though. Soon it got crowded and the indica chaps bore the brunt of the crowd. Cops arrived to control the situation. We witnessed the whole thing and started to move out. Soon, 18 bikes snaked through maddur interiors, much to the surprise of localites. The road was winding at someplaces, my pillion Girish took lots of videos on my N73 phone of the whole bike train :P Soon, we reached the lake. Initially we parked beneath the elevated portion of the lake, later we found a trail that would take us on to the road running parallel to the lake.

So, we all took our bikes through the narrow trail and took our bikes on the road parallel to the lake, to our left was the huge lake and to our right was the road through which we had ridden, it was a good view. We parked our bikes underneath a huge tree with lots of shade and unwinded. Rocky gave good tips to people about safe riding and techniques on highway, rocky also corrected few people's mistakes, which they had committed while riding as a group. After that, it was gala time :P we just hung around savouring the lake's view and the peaceful surroundings. Later, JSR and two of his friends bid byes to us and left for bangalore as they had some work. After some time, we parked our bikes in order with lake as backdrop to the lineup pic. The line up pic turned out to be amazing.



Sachin was made the object of photography by everyone! He was still wearing his gear, with cramster riding boots, kneeguards and cramster jacket, he was looking like a character from the videogame, Mortal Kombat! :P Everyone gave ideas for funny poses and he willingly obliged :P Everyone went click happy. Rocky and LJ gave some "Special effects" too by literally lending their hands to sachin:P



After the photosession, it was time to move, we decided against kanva dam, which was planned earlier as the weather was too sunny and too hot. We decided to hit Maddur Cafe Coffee Day from there, as it was on the way back to bangalore. Meanwhile, Venkat sir called up sachin and informed him that he was near by mandya, sachin asked him to wait near maddur and we would catch up. Even Prasanna called up and informed us that he was waiting near kanva dam (he had started late from bangalore) we informed him to come to maddur CCD as we had junked plans of going to kanva.

There was a small bridge near the lake, which was in really bad condition, we riders lined up on the bridge for group pic, as 10 plus guys climbed on, the bridge was vibrating even if someone laughed or hit the bridge with their legs :P Sachin was apprehensive of getting on the bridge for obvious reasons :P He got on to the bridge after much cajoling but was holding on to one of the cement blocks and wanted to get off the bridge asap! he was shouting at guys taking pics to windup soon, so he could get off the rickety bridge :P



Later, We all packed up and rode back in formation till maddur junction. Met venkat sir there, he had gone on a relaxing ride till chitradurga and was back to meet us! Started moving towards Maddur CCD, it was getting too hot and i was sweating like a pig! Thanks to the inner liner of the riding jacket. We reached CCD in no time and everyone unwinded. Prasanna called up sachin and he was telling that he couldn't see our bikes in CCD. It turned out that he had reached the wrong CCD, which was some 20kms from the ccd we were in! he was pissed off predictably as he had ride back again to meet us. Finally he joined in, after sometime he cooled down :P The smokers were outside while the nonsmokers were sitting inside :P The nonsmokers started to make a move, me and others in group wanted to relax for some more time. So, we bid goodbyes. Finally Me, sachin, santoosh, praveent, prasanna, murugesh and krishna left CCD at 2.00 pm. We were the last ones to leave from there.



This time i led and was doing constant 100 or 90 kmph. I was being tailed by praveen and krishna, while the remaining guys were cruising slowly. We 3 stopped just short of NICE road junction and had refreshments and fag break. The remaining guys rolled in later, we all bid byes there and headed back home. I reached home at 3.30 Pm after dodging the horrible traffic in mysore road.

This was one of the shortest rides i have ever been to! It was more of a ride to meet and catch up with people. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride as well as interacting with oldtimers, regulars and newbees. Am looking forward to more such Bangalore BN ride-meets in future.

Crashguard - Pics

Finally took pics of the crashguard, which i had installed earlier this week. Took these pics in my N73 phone after upgrading it's firmware using Nokia software update tool, now it's blazing fast! :P
Enuff of Offtopic talk :P here are the pics of my Zma with the crashguard:

Closeup pics:







Front/Back View:


Click here for more pics.

Been close to 3 days since i fixed the crashguard and it hasn't touched the front mudguard, even tried hard braking :P Since it's not heavy, the front end of the bike is same as earlier, doesn't feel heavy or such. I haven't stopped wearing my Kneeguards :P am kinda used to wearing them from all these days, will continue to wear them in city, i consider crashguard as protection only for the bike :P yet to clean up my gears, gotto do it soon.

Guarded after 3 Years!

Finally! After 3 years since i bought my Zma, I managed to fit a CrashGuard today! All thanks to my friend in Mangalore, Sujay, now a fellow BNer. I first saw his Zma in mangalore fitted with this crashguard, he had fabricated a CBZ Extreme's crashguard to fit to his Zma, it was his mech's idea. I had seen it almost a year back, but i was procastinating on it. My crash last month and post crash repairs of Zma, especially the big FAT bill, got me working on this long pending addon. Sujay fabricated this crashguard in mangalore and i got it fixed here.

Went to local mech today morning and got it fitted to Zma, it was a perfect fit! No touchings anywhere :P brilliant design by Sujay's mech indeed! Since the Crashguard is black in colour, it gels well with the Zma as all lower parts of Zma are black. The Crashguard is sturdy and wide enough to prevent damage to plastics and also to some extent the rider's legs. The local mech too was appreciative of the design and said that it was one of the best 'designed to fit' crashguards for zma that he has seen so far. No pics as of now, my N73 Cam phone is screwed up due to lot of software and old buggy firmware, it took ages to open Camera app and then to click a pic :( Will upgrade the firmware by this week and click the pics of crashguard and post. Too lazy to use my Kodak cam :P

Came home after fitting the crashguard and got another surprise. My insurance claim cheque had come! Heaved a sigh of relief, out of 15k odd crashdamage repair bill, ICICILOMBARD guys have paid me 9k change. Even though it looks less, it's due to plastic parts which i had replaced, 50% is all they pay for plastics :( plus the depreciation for 3 years. Even though i got claims for everything, majority of the parts replaced were plastics (front faring, cowls etc) i lost out money on those.
Got 80% reimbursement on metal parts like alloywheel, footpeg unit etc. It was much needed breather for me. I had settled the repair bill through creditcard :P

Next up will be Horn upgrade, will have to get the same Bosch twin horns that are on Santoosh's Bike Will have to go to Metro with santoosh sometime next week and get those horns. Santoosh has Metro card in his name :P so, the horns are gonna cost much lesser than the MRP. Will prolly hunt for a good Spot lamp next to be fixed on the crash guard. The pending work for this week is to clean up my riding gears, haven't touched them since my earlier ride, the crash left the gears with lot of mud on them, will have clean them up for coming sunday's BikeNomads Bangalore meet. Am eagerly looking forward for the chota ride this sunday, to meet up with old timers in BN.

Am a Hooligan!

Not me :p, I was referring to Santoosh's souped up Pulsar180! Due to my Crash few weeks back, my zma was stuck in service center for repairs and i was stuck with my old splendor for commuting to office. After i had bought my zma, my dad was using the splendor and i had almost stopped riding it from past 3 years, the sudden prospect of me having to putter around on it for few days that too at night to office in dreaded hosur road scared the daylights out of me. But thanks to Santoosh's generosity i got the opportunity to taste the competition :P The souped up Pulsar 180 V1!

I have been doing my daily rounds between office and home on his Pulsar from almost 10 days and this is the first time i've ridden any other bike for this long after i had got my Zma. Now, santoosh isn't referred to as "engineer santoosh" :P in Xbhp for nothing, he has done so much R&D on his bike and souped it up right from engine/lights/wheels and tyres!It's just a name sake Pulsar180, actually it's a 200cc :P Coz currently this bike is running with a Pulsar 200's block and piston! At one point of time, it was running one of Maruti esteem's piston! Now, on to other features of the bike, It's got Santro car's twin horns :P Powerful 100/90 Headlamp! no, it ain't just plug and play, santoosh has tweaked the electricals such that the 100/90 bulb gives out 100% output with stock coil and rectifier! :P

It's running on 18inch alloys! This bike is actually the first version of Dtsi Pulsars with faring, commonly referred to as P180 V1 with spoke wheels. The alloys are same as Zma's alloys! (same company) but cost half of zma's alloys! The rubber is Ceat, front is stock size while rear is 120/80! The rear tyre is so fucking wide, that it sticks to the road in all terrains. The tyre is of medium compound, so it neither wears out like michelins, nor is puncture prone, but gives michelin, pirelli like grip even on wet surfaces! Even though it's of 120/80 size, the tyre weights same as stock 100/90! The tyres costs almost as Zma's stock MRF Zappers!

Riding this bike is fun, it's a torque monster! thanks to the engine mods done by santoosh, the bike just pulls crazy in any gear! Iam so used to downshifting in zma for slow speeds, but this bike just manages it in 4th gear! so, if i need to slowdown, just decrease the throttle and if i want to accelerate, twist the right wrist!:P no changing gears or nothing! The front end is amazingly light compared to the newer generations of 17inch wheeled pulsars, it almost feels like my zma's front, it's very agile in traffic and cuts through traffic just like zma. The conventional front faring is a boon as i can squeeze through tight spots in traffic, which is not possible with my zma. The Engine growls like a rottweiler!:P After riding around Zma, which purrs like a cat, riding this bike brings a wide grin to my face as the engine and silencer make the raw grunting noise.

Now, on to the best part, night riding! As i mentioned earlier, this monster has 100/90 headlight, it's akin to a one eyed sumo at night! coupled with santro car's twin horns, i have fooled many auto chaps, tataindica callcenter cabs and cagers at night :P With a mere flashing of the lights at night, the autowallahs make way and pull to left lane, with the combo of honking twin horns and flashing of lights, many cagers and indica walas give way immediately, they get fooled that an one eyed sumo is behind them! :P Am loving the role reversal from past few days! :P Also, santoosh has very thoughtfully plastered this bike with reflective 3m stickers at vantage points. At night, this bike's visibility is not to be missed to oncoming vehicles.

Am truly blown away by this bike's performance and adaptability, am riding it from past 10 days, not once did i encounter any heart in mouth moments, i had heard a lot of bad things about pulsar's front brakes, but in this bike, they feel the same as zma, the stopping power is also the same. After i got back my Zma from repairs earlier this week, i offered my Zma to santoosh for few days, he was surprised that i was giving him my bike, on which i had just spent quite a large sum and it was hardly 2 hours since i had got it back :P but i know that it is in safe hands, my way of saying thanks to this amazing large hearted person who helped me out during and post my crash.

So, that means, i have his pulsar till this weekend for my commutes:P Am loving every minute of the rides on this beast, Truly, this beast is a hooligan on road!

3 Years of bliss!

First off, I finally got my Karizma back today from repairs! yay!
Been riding around in Santoosh's souped up Pulsar 180 since i had given my Zma for repairs, thanks to his generosity and helpfulness post my crash. Am loving the daily commutes on his Pulsar 180, it's so very different from Zma, but it gives different kind of pleasure compared to riding a Zma. Will post on his pulsar's riding report later.

Picked up my zma after repairs today by noon from SaiMotors, was happy to see her like a brand new bike, with almost all plastics replaced. I had to get the engine checked and done up too as she has clocked almost 47000 kms. So the engine work was done with, now she's got new set of clutch plates, new valves and new O ring seals. Engine is decarbonised too. Mr Kiran of SaiMotors has done a really fantastic job, engine noise is almost negligible now, gears are too smooth, she's purring like a cat now :P

The Bill was a shocker indeed! The body work after the crash with new plastics and new alloys came up to Rs 15784/- The Engine work came up to Rs 2850/- Total bill was whopping Rs 18634/- !
I had anticipated a max bill of 15k including everything, but it overshot my estimates, Have claimed insurance on the bodywork bill of 15k change, should see how much i will be getting back. Santoosh dropped in to see the bike after i got her by evening and it was he who reminded that today was my zma's 3rd birthday after going through the RC Book. I guess i gifted my bike with 18k worth goodies and a makeover for her birthday :P

Here's a pic of Zma that i took immediately after getting her back, the arrows point to the parts which were replaced:

These are the external parts which were replaced:
1. Cone set
2. Fork oil and oilseals
3. Front Alloy Wheel
4. Rear Brake Pedal
5. Headlight Reflector unit
6. Right and left front farings (includes inner plastics)
7. Right and left Rear Cowls
8. Battery Cover cowl
9. Silencer heat shield
10. Front Mudguard
11. Handlebar barend weights
12. Winker Relay
13. Right Footpeg unit
14. Right Rear View Mirror.

The Engine related internal parts:
1. Clutch plates (full set)
2. Inlet Valve
3. Outer and Inner Valves
4. Clutch friction disk
5. O Ring seals

Point to note is that the Plastics are horrendly overpriced! Looks like HeroHonda is fleecing their premium bike customers to generate revenue. Front mudguard costs Rs 850! Each cowl (front or rear) costs almost 1000 bucks! Maruti's Alto car's bumper would be cheaper compared to 4 cowls (2 front and 2 rear) of zma! The front alloy wheel alone costs whopping 4000 bucks! I can get 3 alloys of pulsars for that price! The engine components are reasonably priced though.
Silver lining is i got back all the old parts :) now i have a spare slightly bent front alloy, lots of plastics (cowls) spare headlamp unit and much more! :P Most of the stuff can be used in emergencies or for R&D :P

3 years went by like a breeze, Zma took me to many places that i had only seen in maps :P She gave me freedom on 2 wheels. She never let me down in any of my rides and always stood by me even in worst of terrains and situations. She took my riding skills to a new level and transformed me in to a mature rider from the novice that i was initially. She's one of a kind bike, who switches between a commuter to a tourer with just an oil change :P She's almost 47000 kms old now, am looking forward for many more thousands of kms of pure bliss and joy with her.

She's gonna be with me for many many years to come for sure, even if i upgrade to any other new bike in future. But no matter what bikes i buy in future, none of those bikes will ever take her special place in my life.