My Miniature Garage

After weeks of playing GTA San Andreas, after killing N number of people in it and blowing up cars and bashing up cops :P Iam doing a write up, Got lots of to post about, will start off with a smaller one this time.

Added few more miniatures to my small collection of 1:12 scale models. This time caught them at Shoppers stop in Garuda mall. What I didn’t notice while buying them was that these maals are old stock (almost a year old!) and they are selling at Mrp of Rs 375/- while the earlier ones I bought from Coupons store near my old office in Hosur road were of new stock and I had bought them for Rs 345/- each :( Well, i guess I will have to hunt coupons store next time onwards. This time I added two bikes and a jeep. The Two bikes are Suzuki GSX R1000 and my first tourer bike Yamaha FJR1300



The Jeep is a 1:27 scale model, it costed Rs 495/- I bought it for the colour and the finishing. I liked the detailing that went in to the bonnet (literally!) and the tyres! The jeep looks very real indeed! The red and black combo was irresistible, next iam looking for a decent looking Hummer or a SUV like pajero.



Now these additions bring up the population of miniatures to six 1:12 bikes and one 1:27 cage. While there is one more 1:18 Honda CBR 600RR which i consider irrelevant due to it’s poor finishing. The bikes in my miniature garage so far are:
Honda CBR 1000RR
Aprilia RSV R1000
Suzuki GSX 1300 R (Hayabusa)
Suzuki GSX R1000
Yamaha YZF R1000
Yamaha FJR1300

My elusive hunt for BMW GS1200 continues, I guess these stores don’t stock it coz it is “ugly” bike compared to the other “dhoom” bikes :P Need to find more touring bikes in future. Did a small photo shoot one night with all the miniatures using my N73, was too lazy to reach out for my camera :P but the pics turned out to be good. Few pics from the photo shoot:




For the entire album, click here
For older photo shoot, click here

R1Fived!

No, not me, but one person whom I least expected to! Santoosh got R1fived few days back and it was a shocker to me.

Why? Because he already had one of a kind beast bike, which I had ridden earlier. On asking why, I realized that he hardly had any options.
Broadly, he had considered these bikes:
Karizma, Bullet (unit construction TB) and R15 (as it is the latest in market)
Yes, no Pulsar 220 :P coz it’s just not reliable enough for him or for that matter, me.

Karizma:
This would give him just smoothness and refinement over his torque machine Pulsar. No power difference. Plus the headache of costly spares and Rs 80K plus for a 5 plus year old model in market didn’t make sense.

Bullet:
Well, he did try out a thunderbird in earlier ride, but he was not impressed with vibes. He also test rode the new Thunderbird with unit construction engine, but he felt that it was bike with identity crisis, as it didn’t sound a like a bull any more, the thump was missing, the “feel” was missing. Also the over all package didn’t appeal to him. Also paying 1 lakh plus for a vintage looking bike didn’t make sense. I don’t blame him either, he’s still a young chap and needs to have a fancy looking bike for obvious reasons :P

R15:
This one impressed him not because of it’s power or blah blah. Purely because it is a ground breaking product. He took the test ride with a pinch of salt and the usual sarcasm that it is technologically overloaded poser bike, but one ride made him change his mind. Now that is one aspect that I didn’t get, for a guy who’s bored out his Pulsar 180 to 200 cc and earlier ran with an Esteem’s piston (!!) how can a 150cc poser looking bike impress such a sound bike techie guy?

So we decided to find out. Me and sachin had gone to Cramster to buy some gear for our mangalore friend sujay, Santoosh stays near by so we dropped by to his place to take a look at his new set of wheels. It was the first time I saw a R15 in flesh, must say, it left quite an impression!

Pics: Click here

SBK owners should be cursing themselves! Coz R15 is no less than a SBK when seen from side and front. The entire front and side is Ala the bigger brother R1.It’s easy to get fooled that it’s a SBK when seen from front :P



The fit and finish on this bike is something unmatched by ANY Indian bike that I have seen till date. Plus it’s loaded with technology like FI, Daisil cylinder, Delta frame, mono shock (different from unicorn mechanism) Liquid cooled engine! It’s got it’s own radiator! Not to forgot the full faring unlike the bikini and thong farings on Karizma and Pulsar 220 :P



The rear of the bike is not that exciting, looks like Yamaha limited to copying only to front and sides of the bike, the rear looks like a normal Indian bike. The fit and finish impressed me, the joints are not awkward, plastic panels don’t have shitty gaps, The paint quality and plastic quality is mind blowing.



While I was still taking pics and admiring it, sachin literally jumped on to it :P He wanted a ride badly to see what is that Yamaha chaps are yapping about and how santoosh got coverted to a Yamaha owner. One ride and back, sachin didn’t want to get down from the bike :P I was like, what is there in this bike that made him not to get down from the saddle. While, I wanted to try out the bike, I was also thinking of santoosh, it was just a 2 day old bike and any one who’s bought a new bike, that too costing 1 lakh plus, wouldn’t like to give any one a ride so soon. But santoosh generously asked me to take it for a ride, I was bit hesistant initially, and just wanted to sit on it and feel the riding posture and stuff.



Hmm, the riding posture is unlike any other Indian bike, the footrests are way way beyond than Karizma, The split on handle bars appeared very narrow for me. Sachin clarified that the posture is similar to Yamaha YZF R6, which he had ridden earlier. But then, I have never ridden or even sat on a sbk, so I guess all sbks have such narrow handle bars. Then I took it on a short spin. It was initially difficult to judge the turn due to shorter handlebar and it’s small movement would make the wheel turn a lot, later I got used to it. The engine is very very silent, the gears are like Honda, butter smooth, throttle is crisp and very precise. Gear shifting is something very very precise and enjoyable. The rear view mirrors are functional unlike pulsar 220’s show piece mirrors. No vibes nothing! I forgot to mention, as soon as ignition is turned on, the rpm needle rises to the max and drops :P Just like self test or something.



Bike is full DC. Has 35 watts dual headlamp. One comes on in lowbeam and both are on in high beam. The clock was missing from console : ( that’s something I’ve gotten addicted to in karizma. The horn was typical wimpy single horn like herohonda : ( But apart from these minor glitches, the bike is indeed a marvel in Indian market. Yamaha claims atleast 130 or 135 kmph on this 150cc pocket rocket, I don’t doubt that either, with it’s 6 speed gearbox and all the gizmos, it will rape all Indian bikes in straight line and corners. The rear tyre looks deceptive but gives excellent Pirelli/Michelin kinda grip. But they are surprisingly zappers and are tubeless. The rear disc break is very much like drum brake, no nasty rear wheel locks. The front brake is very Karizmaish, I got the same progressive feel in R15 front brake.



Ground clearance looked acceptable, but I was apprehensive about the front shocks. The gap between the front faring and front mudguard looked inadequate to swallow Indian road humps and craters, but I guess we will have to find out in one of the rides. Yes, rides! Santoosh intends to use this track machine for touring! Now that is something we will have to see. The riding posture and limited space to carry lugguage is something iam not sure about, but then again, he will figure out a way soon I guess.



Well, finally I can sum up by saying that R15 excited me as a bike enthusiast with all it’s ground breaking technology, fit and finish, performance etc, but as a tourer, Karizma still makes sense to me. I guess Karizma will continue to be my touring machine till some worthwhile upgrade in terms of a tourer comes in to market. But R15 makes sense for that perfect weekend ride out of town and to ride around town. If I was in Santoosh’s position, I guess my choices would have been limited to new Thunderbird or R15. Not a Karizma as it’s 5 year old model and over priced. I guess the tourer side of me would have made me bite the bullet and take my chances :P

That being said, I congratulate Santoosh on his new procession. Let the kms flow brother!

50000 kms in 3.3 years!

It had to happen :P I was on my way to office today on my Zma, nearing whitefield, my moment of joy flashed on the speedo console, the reading was 50000 kms in odo meter. It was time for Kodak moment :P so pulled over to the side and clicked the momento picture on my phone camera.



It’s been 3 years and 3 months since I became a tourer, Zma transformed me from a city commuter on a splendor to a tourer. I still remember the day when me and good friend of mine had gone to Prakash motors during lunch break on a week day straight from office to book and choose my zma from the lot :P there were 3 Silver Zmas, I didn’t start or even touch any of those, just saw the three of them and chose mine, I had this gut feeling that this bike is the one among the lot :P Haven’t regretted till date, won’t regret in future either.

Googling for Zma’s feed back introduced me to biking groups like Xbhp and touring group BikeNomads. I made many friends over all these years through these two groups and met interesting people. I opened a new chapter of touring after I bought zma, she has taken me through various places, places I had earlier seen on map or seen only through Tv :P She gave me freedom to fly on two wheels to any destination that earlier were “so far” :P I honed my riding skills on zma over a period of time and she was very forgiving whenever I erred, never ever let me down even in the worst of the scenarios.

Even when I crashed for the first time in Kemmangundi’s horrible roads, she took all the brunt and spared me the injuries. At the same time, she didn’t get crippled, after minor repairs at a local service center there for 1 hour, she was ready to be ridden back with a pillion and cramster saddle bags to boot! Sachin was belting her at 90 – 100 kmph on the way back from crash, still she didn’t make a fuss out of it. Gave her a complete make over after reaching Bangalore and now she’s as good as a new bike. Didn’t mind that getting her back to old self after the crash drained me financially, It was my way of saying thanks to the trusty old battle scarred war horse.



Each Km of the 50k kms have been bliss so far, she’s been an excellent commuter in city for my office – home commutes so far in my earlier office and a reliable tourer machine in all my rides out of town. I will be getting a Cab now on for my daily office commutes in new office, so she’s going to be spared of horrible city commutes, which she had to bear the brunt of all these years. Now on she’s gonna much kms only on highways majorly. Over a period I did pamper her with usual spares that get worn out, after the crash, I got a entire new set of “clothes” :P new set of tyres, 55/60w headlamp bulb and recently added a custom made crashguard to save her costly “clothes” :P from damage. Am planning to gift her twin horns soon and a HID later.

I can sum up by saying that Zma’s an excellent machine which is an excellent commuter and tourer if ridden and maintained properly. It does have it’s own share of flaws like flimsy plastic panels, astronomically priced spares, shortage of spares etc, but I guess all logic fails when I see the pics from all my rides and imagine the fun I had in each of those rides! Those moments are priceless!

An Encounter with a Cheetah!

Nah, not of the four legged variety, but a two wheeled one :P Iam talking about the Patrol bikes of Police in Bangalore, they are called Cheetah and are also painted like cheetah. Well, I didn’t get on the wrong side of the law or any such thing, I just happened to get a closer look on one of the police Cheetahs today.

Me and my friend Girish (he’s a cop) were on our way to Whitefield, I wanted to do trial runs from home to Whitefield as my new office is situated there :P Wanted to get familiarized with the Potholes, road humps, danger zones etc from a biker’s point of view, which will facilitate me in getting in to “auto pilot” mode during my future home – office commutes (for few days till iam provided a cab) I wouldn’t want to be happily cruising in my comfort speed and spot an unexpected pothole or road hump at the last moment, I wanted the same kind of comfort level that I had for 5.5 years while commuting through Hosur Road to my earlier office. (Yeah, iam psychotic :P )

This was my second venture towards that route, I was getting familiarized with the N number of Road humps in Whitefield, made a mental note of those and was returning back home, when girish spotted one of his colleague on the Cheetah Patrol bike of Whitefield Police station. I stopped the bike and both the cop friends started talking. My attention turned towards this “mama” bike :P I had an excellent opportunity to get a deeper look at the various gizmos attached to it, so I started clicking few pics with my Phone Camera.



Then Girish’s Cop friend told me that I could take close up pics of the gizmos if I wanted to! So, I started clicking. The bike was of newer batch, it was a Pulsar 150 V3 (digital meter one) The standard fittings were the noticeable side box (to carry papers and the dreaded Fine book! :P) The two prominent Siren lights, a loud speaker, an amplifier for the sirens (with various modes in it) and a walkie talkie holder. The lathi is kept between the gap of sidebox, seat and footpeg.
I got curious as to how all these devices were mounted and started to take a closer look.



The Siren lights (2) are mounted on to a Bull bar type Crash guard on each side. The loudspeaker is connected is held by a small nut on the Starter motor! The Amplifier and Walkie talkie stand are made of metal and are fixed crudely between two rear view mirror mounting nuts! But they do their job though. The Amp is pretty heavy, but it sits steadily in this jugaad. The Amplifier is for the Siren Lights, the Amplifier has Volume control for the siren sound, different type of siren modes eg, Ambulance, fire, police! There’s even a microphone input for cops to plugin a microphone for announcements!



I was thinking that all these devices would have some additional battery as power source, I was surprised when the Cop told me that they all run on Pulsar’s stock 9 amps battery! I asked him then how does it handle the load, he told me that if they use the sirens a lot, then the battery goes kaput in a month or two and then they need to replace it! The cop also told that’s why they don’t use those sirens or speaker that much as it ends up killing the battery! I guess that’s why these devices are always a show piece in traffic as well as crime police vehicles.

I guess it’s the same story with older police bikes like the bullets. The cop also told me that now they are issuing Pulsar 180s and Apache 150s to crime as well as traffic departments. The day is not far when we are doing 80 -100 kmph in Ring road and we get pulled over by a traffic cop on a white Pulsar 200/220 for overspeeding!

It was time to move on, so i thanked the cop for letting me take the pics and patiently answering my queries and we both moved on towards home. Thanks to my friend Girish, I got a closer look at the cheetah from a biker’s point of view. Will try to get a closer view of police four wheeler Hoysala next time if I get a chance, but with out getting into it! :P

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.

Hectic Weekend - Two more additions to my Riding Gears

Back to the daily grind of office-Home routine after my previous ride. I had decided to give my bike for repairs on weekend. I had also mentally prepared for the repair bill :P it would surely cost a bomb for plastics :( Was riding around wounded Zma for 1 whole week and she didn't complain, only felt light wobble in front end at slow speeds, she seemed happier at higher speeds though.

Saturday, I went straight to Sachin's house from office, from there sachin took his bike and accompanied me to SaiMotors Thankfully, we happened to meet Mr Vandhan, who is the service head there and known to us from our earlier Safe Riding workshop. After inspection, found out that the alloy wheel had a bend :( since it costs a bomb of 4K, decided to claim for insurance and filled up necessary forms and left the bike with Mr kiran there. Krishna dropped in to service his bike, all 3 of us went to a CCD near by for a chat session :P

With in half an hour near CCD, we witnessed two accidents, in both cases bikers were hit by cages! Both the riders had nasty injuries on their knees! Witnessing these two accidents in such a short span of time, sachin decided to buy kneeguards. So we wound up the CCD session and bid byes to krishna, I hitched a ride on sachin's bike as pillion and we landed up in Cramster shop by noon. Met KJ there, Sachin bought Cramster External Kneeguards for himself. I tried on the Spine Protector, i had used sachin's spine protector in the ride, it had helped my back a lot. Tried on different sizes and found that the L size of spine protector was perfect for me. Bought the spine protector for myself. Another important gear got added to my existing Riding gears list. This is an important addition, like my riding pants as it helps my back a lot. This will lead to increase on saddle time for me during rides.


We moved on to have lunch at Chung's Restaurant in Malleshwaram, it was the first time i had gone there, the quantity was too much, couldn't finish the entire dish :P We had to go to Motomania store to check out DSG Nero Jacket for my mangalore friend Zahin, so off we went to towards indiranagar. We got stuck in horrible traffic jam near MG Road, thanks to so called Vvip visit. I wonder why these idiots drive through heart of the city and make our lives miserable, they can as well fly in a chopper and spare us mortals! Finally wrestled our way through airport road, 100 feet road and reached motomania store in Indiranagar. The ambience of the shop was good (with AC and all :P) the displayed stuff were mostly of Alpinestar brand. The Alpinestar riding boots range they had there was too good, some day, i will own one of those :P

Unfortunately, they didn't have stock of DSG Nero Jackets, they only had one Yellow/black display piece. I tried them on and liked them, was tempted to buy, they assured us that fresh stocks would be arriving the next day and we could visit them on sunday morning. They are open full time on sundays too! kewl!
They had few KBC and AGV Rossi lids, sachin tried them on, the look and feel were many times better than my current GPR Lid, but they were pricey at 8k! We checked out gloves for my mangalore friend Sujay and found DSG Leather Mesh Short Gloves they were reasonably priced at Rs 1200 and they were much better than my old Angels racing B Zero City glove, so we picked it up for my friend. That was the last piece there :P

I was looking for Full length Leather Touring glove with Kevlar stuff in it. I was specifically looking for gloves that had secure straps on the wrist and forearms. From my crash, i learnt that when the riding jacket cuff is even a bit loose, they slide up in case of a fall and that's how i ended up scraping my forearm. The gloves they had were again mostly of Alpinestar stuff, which was again too costly for my budget, but finally we found DSG Primal Leather Gloves which fit my requirement and budget, it had three level secure straps on wrists and forearm, Kevlar in places prone to impact, most importantly, it was made of genuine leather and it didn't have the dreaded thick foaming inside the gloves, i tried L Sized Gloves and found them very comfortable and secure. My cramster mesh jacket's cuff was tucked in and the velcro straps of the gloves sealed tight, the jacket's cuff didn't come out even when i tried to pull it out :P I bought them for Rs 2300/- No discounts in motomania unfortunately :( But no regrets, post my crash, i don't think twice before investing in riding gear.

Oh yeah, forgot the important info, the motomania chaps didn't accept any type of cards, they accept only hard cash! It meant that sachin and me had to do rounds to Atm and we came back to the store and bought the 2 gloves. It almost 6 pm, time indeed flies! We had to go to koramangala for CCD meet with fellow riders for exchanging our pics taken during our last week's ride. We fought our way back through traffic from indiranagar to koramangala and reached CCD at 7. Met up with Prasanna/LJ and Tana/Krishna/Praveen. Praveen donated his laptop for photo tranfers :P and we all exchanged our pics and saw each others set of pics. All pics had come out very well. Loads of coffee, cigs, talk, jokes went on and on before everyone realised that it was well past 9.30 pm! Since i didn't have my bike, i had to take a rick, that would mean bloody fleecing at night, so sachin decided to lend his bike to me. We all bid byes to each other and i hitched a ride with sachin as pillion till his home. From there, borrowed his bike and his lid, Wore the new DSG Primal Leather Gloves that i had bought and reached home well past 11 much to ire of my parents :P The gloves were very comfy to say the least, i decided that i would use them for few days in city to "run in" them for future rides :P


Woke up early on sunday morning, i had to take back sachin's bike to his place and from there we had to go to Motomania again as the chaps there had told us to come by morning for DSG jackets. Reached sachin's home by 11, from there again sachin rode through same fucked up traffic and ensured that we reached Motomania store well past 12. Thankfully, the chaps there had got new lot and stocks of DSG Nero jackets. They had four colour combos. Red/Black (best looking ones) Blue/Black, Yellow/Black (too flashy) and Grey/Black. They had 3 sizes of M/L/XL. I tried all three sizes, but even M size shoulder armour was dropping for me :( Also, they didn't have all Black jacket, so ditched the idea of buying one for myself. Called up My Mangalore friend Zahin and informed him of colours and sizes, he asked us to buy Red/Black combo of size XL. We bought it for Rs 4500/- The jackets looked better than Cramster Meteor, but sachin was not convinced that they were of better quality than cramster jackets. They looked like they were of same quality as cramster jackets to me though.

Left Motomania by 2 and reached sachin's home by 3. Met up sachin's friend's Venky and chala, venky was flying to UK, so he was making last minute purchases in Jaynagar. It started to rain heavily, we were stuck in jayanagar for more than an hour and half, while waiting for rains to stop. Venky was through with winter wear shopping and wanted shoes, so we went to Katriguppe Bigbazaar area and hunted for shoes unsuccessfully, Sachin and Venky decided to head to Forum for shoes, while me and Chala shared a rick back home. My old splendor was going to be my ride for next week till i get back my zma from repairs. I had to go to Sai Motors on monday to submit more insurance docs on monday morning, was thinking whether to take splendor or not, decided against it and thought of travelling by bus!

Woke up pretty early on monday morning and boarded a bus to majestic, it's been ages since i have travelled in BMTC bus inside city :P relieved my college days :P Boarded another bus from teeming majestic bus stand and reached Sai motors by 11 Am. Mr kiran told me that they would be working on engine today, decarbonising and checking valves as my zma has run 47 K. Since i knew that i had to use my splendor for next 1 week for commute, that too at night, i decided to upgrade it's headlamp with that of new splendor's clear lens reflector. I enquired with Mr kiran if it was gonna be a straight fit and he confirmed the same. The new Reflector unit with H4 socket costed close to 400 bux. Bought one and decided to fix it in splendor after i reached home. Handed over the insurance documents in sai motors and again boarded a bus back home :P Total kharcha for commute in bus was Rs 30/- wonlee :P

Santoosh called up when i landed at home, he wanted to know if i had my old GP ONE lid as spare. I had stopped using GPONE lid after i bought a new all black GPR lid for city commutes, the GPONE had pathetic visor, all i could see was only stars at night! Santoosh needed a spare lid for his girl, I told him that he could pick it up.
He dropped in and checked the lid for fit, it was was fitting him fine, but he had to change the inner paddings as the paddings had lost their fluffyness after 2 years of use. As he was leaving, he noticed the new reflector unit, i told him that i was gonna fix it to my old splendor as the old headlamp in it was pathetic. He then surprised me by telling me that he can lend his Pulsar 180 for office commutes if i was interested and he will manage his college commutes in my splendor. I was really surprised and humbled by his helping nature even after my crash.

I confirmed and reconfirmed if he was really serious about his offer and he told me dead faced that he has no issues riding a splendor to his college! He told that i could pick up his bike by evening after dropping in my splendor at his place. I was really overjoyed and relieved, as riding a Splendor after these many years of riding Zma, in hosur road would have been nightmare for me, with his pulsar 180, it would be same as riding my zma. I thanked him and gave him the GPONE the lid. After he left, i changed the reflector unit of my old splendor with the new reflector unit and used my stock zma 35w H4 halogen bulb in it, fitted everything back. Light was marginally better than the stock old splendor crappy headlight. Slept pretty late post 1pm.

Started blogging after i wokeup :P Should get ready now and take the splendor to santoosh's home and pickup his pulsar 180. Next few days should be interesting riding his souped up Pulsar 180. Will get to see how this beast differs from my Zma.

Bandaged Beauty all set for the Ride!

No, it ain't a pic of a babe in hospital :P but pic of my zma's tank after my "hard work" yesterday with scotch tape to start using Cramster tank bank for this weekend's ride. This jugaad is to prevent more scratches getting added to the tank from tankbag. Even though the tankbag has soft material on the contact patches, dust enters the gap between the tank and tankbag while riding and it results in scratches as i have seen in sachin's bike. Zma's tank has lot of battle scars already, prominent ones thanks to my kneeguards, which i wore over the pants once and they neatly scraped off paint from the sides of tank :(

I don't want any more nasty contributions. So had to do this ugly jugaad. While i was taping up the tank, i decided to tape up the side panels too as the cramster saddle bags rub against the side panels and leave lot of scratches.

As a followup of my last post i took these pics in office parking lot. The "bandages" will go after this ride, May be after this weekend's ride, where, i will be using the tank bag for the first time, i will get an idea as to where exactly i have put the "bandages" for future rides :P This first time effort is surely a work which is overdone to say the least :P