As resident of Pune, I am subjected to Pune traffic everyday, even if I chose to travel by office bus to commute from home to office. But still by the end of the day I feel exhausted due to the traffic snarls of the city. After getting bored whole year without any significant outing, we decided to ride out to Amboli at least on the last weekend of the year. OK, I’ll post that ride story later, but let me complete this first… ;-)
While returning to Pune on last day of trip, we started early from Ajra, yepp that’s where we had stayed during this ride. We reached the Shippur turn pretty fast and nice by 8:40am and had our customary breakfast. When we started for Pune from there, we reached the main NH-4 and one big burly Innova coming from B’lore side cut into my lane while taking over a truck. I was shocked and braked the bike hard as it was down-hill, but I was angry when the number-plate of that rash vehicle read MH12-FP####. Immediately I got the point, this is some jack-ass from the town I live.
We continued at our pace and the bikes munched the miles rigourously without much ado. There was not much traffic on the road and everything was pretty smooth. The climate was fantastic and pleasant. By the time we touched Kolhapur, traffic started to increase. Many people were crowding the NH for their daily commute and poor trucks were finding it hard to navigate through all that local rubble. The simplest solution they have found out was keeping in the right lane and keeping left free for all the small and sundry. We all were crawling at slow speeds below 50kmph and suddenly one white Ford Fiesta came honking from right and got into the traffic on left lane with utmost brazenness. I was fast enough to spot its number plate, which read MH12-EX####.
After Kolhapur, till Satara, things were peaceful once again, but the temperature has started to rise slowly and we were taking ample breaks. We had expected the traffic to grow and continue to be dense throughout till Pune. Again, there will be pouring traffic from Mahabaleshwar turn. So we decided to keep the breaks to minimum and keep riding for longer distances. We encountered 2 more rash drivers, blue Getz (MH12-DY####) and again blue Baleno (MH12-CR####).
During overall 370kms of ride on that day, out of which 300kms was on the NH, we encountered 4 rash drivers all belonging to Pune. This made me think about whats wrong with this place? Why the people who travel here are so harsh on others and don’t bother to think about others on the road?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Apologies for the gap...
hi guys,
I understand that I have been away from this blog for quiet some time now. But now I am back. What happened last year is a great GQ (Golden Quadrilateral) ride.
This mammoth ride was of 6663kms, through 13 states, touching all 4 metros. It took 17 days for us to complete, we started on 13th Dec 2009 from Pune and reached back on 28th Dec 2009.
The route was simple:
Pune - Mumbai - Vadodara - Udaipur - Jaipur - Gurgaon - Delhi - Kanpur - Varanasi - Dhanbaad - Kolkata - Bhubaneshwar - Visakhapatnam - Vijaywada - Chennai - Vellore - Bangalore - Kolhapur - Pune
I understand that I have been away from this blog for quiet some time now. But now I am back. What happened last year is a great GQ (Golden Quadrilateral) ride.
This mammoth ride was of 6663kms, through 13 states, touching all 4 metros. It took 17 days for us to complete, we started on 13th Dec 2009 from Pune and reached back on 28th Dec 2009.
The route was simple:
Pune - Mumbai - Vadodara - Udaipur - Jaipur - Gurgaon - Delhi - Kanpur - Varanasi - Dhanbaad - Kolkata - Bhubaneshwar - Visakhapatnam - Vijaywada - Chennai - Vellore - Bangalore - Kolhapur - Pune
The pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/prasadbhangale/GQRide#
Ride story, I promise, it will be here slowly and in bits and pieces, but surely... :-)
RideSafe
Doc
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/prasadbhangale/GQRide#
Ride story, I promise, it will be here slowly and in bits and pieces, but surely... :-)
RideSafe
Doc
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Grin on my face…
As it was the Independence day, I have to be in Amboli… its been 3 years, I am visiting this amazing place on the 15th August weekend. So as usual after all the planning, hype and hoopla all the people who said yes for the ride have got something or the other cropped up. Finally, it was only me and Deba, in some weird way I was happy that the ride is going to be lovely duet by two 500s, though generations apart… and that’s the exact reason of the grin on my face…
I had tried to make bookings at our usual hotel, but someone on the other side of the phone told me that he wont be able to get me one on the first night, and if I want one for second night, then I have to immediately deposit money in their account. I decided against all this and throwing caution to the wind, I decided to find residence on reaching Amboli.
Deba stayed late in the office previous night, so starting early from Pune is out of question. In the morning, I came to know that my speedo cable has came out of its socket and while fixing it, I have screwed some electrical connection below the head. While turning the handle, the bike electricity was dancing like the Diwali illumination. Somehow got that fixed and we set out of my place. Moreover, we needed to get PUC done before we set out. So finally we got out of the city at 1100hrs. We did quick check on the bikes before getting onto the Satara road flyover and soon we were cruising on the highway at our usual speed of 85-90kmph. After crossing the flyover, I saw Deba stopping at one place, and then realized that his bike has gone off. But thankfully, as suddenly she has gone off, she started also again, and we were back on the road again…
The Pune – B’lore highway (NH-4) is awesome, when one wants to rip on. But as we reckon, it was longish weekend, so lot of people are going to Mahabaleshwar or some other place. So the highway was pretty much crowded and we hardly got any good patch to rip till we got out of the new tunnel of NH-4. After getting on the open highway, we decided to keep the constant speeds of 85-95kmph till Surur and Satara. Surur is the place from where most of the traffic vanishes to Mahabaleshwar and remaining part ways at Satara. In Satara, we took small break to get the engine oil, in case its required, and carried on.
We have decided to rip between Satara and Kolhapur, because of that is simply boring straight patch. If you don’t try something new there, then you may fall asleep. As soon as we reached the concrete road after Satara, I opened the throttle, and my babe obliged. She was taking it slow for last 100 odd Kilometers and was itching to rip the road. She roared and immediately set herself in comfortable 110kmph. The ride was going on great because I was leading and Deba was sure trying to catch up. Sometimes I let him lead also… but somehow he was stuck in early 100s and couldn’t rip beyond 110 kmph even on that open highway. We had taken just couple of butt breaks so far and could reach Shippur after Nippani by 1600hrs. We were needed to take the right turn towards Uttur from the main highway. I knew that the road here onwards is going to be real pain in the a$$, so we decided to take a lunch break at hotel Kavery on the junction. I have noticed some wrong growl from my babe, but I had played it down as something minor, like dirt in carburetor. After lunch, we set out, but as usual, Deba’s hungry LB500 needed a tank-up. So we enquired about the nearby pump. I knew that there is one on the way, but was not sure about the distance and as he is already on reserve, I was not in a mood to take chances. We topped up the engine oil and went to the pump which is around 1km further on the highway.
After tanking up, I paid some more attention to changed growling sound and decided to do something about it. We called Alex, the Bullet Guru from Pune, and told him that my babe is not settling well while idling and she needs to be hold at little higher than idle. He asked me to drain the carburetor so that if any water present in there will get outta system. That didn’t change anything. So he told me to check compression of the bike, and I got the shock of the day. There was no compression, my mind had taken a whirlwind trip to nightmarish fancy-land and I thought all the evil that could have happened to my bike. Then Alex, the Genius, told me to open the tappet cover and check if anyone of the tappets is jammed. And Viola!!! He was right, the exhaust side tappet was jammed. So Alex explained me on the phone, how to loosen it up and I got my hands dirty, very dirty in the whole business. But the result, problem solved. I was able to ride my bike in better way.
We were again back on the road, which was too bad to be called road, heading to Uttur. The sun was setting, being cloudy it started getting dark already. We reached Uttur around 1900hrs and took left turn towards Ajra. The rain made its presence felt intermittently we were almost drenched. The bad roads, pot holes and loose gravel was adding insult to the injury. Due to raindrops, the lights of the incoming vehicles were wrecking havoc on my AGV’s visor, and if I keep the visor open, I was getting mouthfuls of the insects which has just started their day. The whole situation was quiet bad, when I realized that the Bolero which overtaken us is a boon in disguise. I decided to follow it, as it was giving good light and clearing the road for me, but Deba was not able to keep up with me. He was on low confidence in the night riding and potholed graveled road. After looking at him in the rear-view, I missed one turn completely and got down the road. Somehow, I got the control back on my bike and stopped to catch my breath while letting that Bolero slip away from my hands. With the manageable slow speeds, we could made it to Ajra by 2030hrs. Ajra is small town, with lot more population than Amboli.
After reaching Ajra, we decided to take call it a day. We decided to stay at Ajra, and that turned out to be good decision as anyways we didn’t had any reservations in Amboli, which is good 33kms ahead. We decided to make it to Amboli next day, as it was not a good idea to continue in the dark on the bad roads. We booked the place in Hotel Vinod on the Amboli road itself. It had a restaurant attached below so it was ideal place to stay.
Early morning, I got up as I wanted to make the final touches to my tappets settings. After the basic things done, we decided against shifting the luggage to Amboli. Amboli, being more popular tourist destination is a costly place and availability of hotels is also low. So we decided to visit the place while staying put in Ajra. As we started for Amboli, we were back on the bad roads and was enjoying as the weather was good and it was not raining. While riding ahead, I found one good patch and ripped ahead only to realize that Deba have not followed me. I returned to check on him and found him on the roadside, standing besides his bike. The chain of his bike has left the rear-sprocket and decided to go her own way. We got the tools out, opened the chain cover and set her right in the arms, sorry teeth, of rear sprocket. He was not interested to carry forward without fixing it, and we were not having the spanner of 30 to tighten the chain. So we decided to come back to Ajra and get it fixed. After investigation, we could find a guy, who said yes to touch the bullet. He fixed the chain in no time and we were on our way as usual. On the way we realized that my speedo cable and Deba’s headlamp has gone capute again, but we pushed forward as these are minor things.
Amboli was as usual fun with lot of rain, water and waterfall, except there were too many people around every waterfall. We thanked ourselves that we made right decision about not coming to Amboli with luggage as it would have been tough to find any accommodation. Even if we have managed to get one, that would surely have cost us some fortune. After going around and nice lunch, we returned back to Ajra.
After leisurely spent evening, we decided to push off for Pune as soon as possible next morning. After all the efforts and packing, we managed to set our sails at 0900hrs from Ajra. The best part of the return trip was, before even starting, we have already covered 33kms of bad patch and there were approximately 40 more to go. We started and pretty fast covered that distance even on the bad road. Before 1000hrs, we were back to the junction and having our breakfast in hotel Kauvery. Deba had decided not to cross into triple digit speeds and will let me lead through the remaining ride, the riding back was eventless. We managed good and steady speeds to reach Satara by 1330hrs. After hearty lunch in the favorite Manas hotel, we pushed for Pune and reached home by 1530hrs.
Vital Stats:
Riders:
1. Deba Bullet Machismo (LB500)
2. Doc Std500 (ESDB)
Distance covered: 725kms
Route taken:
Pune – Satara – Kolhapur – Nippani – Shippur – right turn – Uttur – Left turn – Ajra – Right turn – Amboli
I had tried to make bookings at our usual hotel, but someone on the other side of the phone told me that he wont be able to get me one on the first night, and if I want one for second night, then I have to immediately deposit money in their account. I decided against all this and throwing caution to the wind, I decided to find residence on reaching Amboli.
Deba stayed late in the office previous night, so starting early from Pune is out of question. In the morning, I came to know that my speedo cable has came out of its socket and while fixing it, I have screwed some electrical connection below the head. While turning the handle, the bike electricity was dancing like the Diwali illumination. Somehow got that fixed and we set out of my place. Moreover, we needed to get PUC done before we set out. So finally we got out of the city at 1100hrs. We did quick check on the bikes before getting onto the Satara road flyover and soon we were cruising on the highway at our usual speed of 85-90kmph. After crossing the flyover, I saw Deba stopping at one place, and then realized that his bike has gone off. But thankfully, as suddenly she has gone off, she started also again, and we were back on the road again…
The Pune – B’lore highway (NH-4) is awesome, when one wants to rip on. But as we reckon, it was longish weekend, so lot of people are going to Mahabaleshwar or some other place. So the highway was pretty much crowded and we hardly got any good patch to rip till we got out of the new tunnel of NH-4. After getting on the open highway, we decided to keep the constant speeds of 85-95kmph till Surur and Satara. Surur is the place from where most of the traffic vanishes to Mahabaleshwar and remaining part ways at Satara. In Satara, we took small break to get the engine oil, in case its required, and carried on.
We have decided to rip between Satara and Kolhapur, because of that is simply boring straight patch. If you don’t try something new there, then you may fall asleep. As soon as we reached the concrete road after Satara, I opened the throttle, and my babe obliged. She was taking it slow for last 100 odd Kilometers and was itching to rip the road. She roared and immediately set herself in comfortable 110kmph. The ride was going on great because I was leading and Deba was sure trying to catch up. Sometimes I let him lead also… but somehow he was stuck in early 100s and couldn’t rip beyond 110 kmph even on that open highway. We had taken just couple of butt breaks so far and could reach Shippur after Nippani by 1600hrs. We were needed to take the right turn towards Uttur from the main highway. I knew that the road here onwards is going to be real pain in the a$$, so we decided to take a lunch break at hotel Kavery on the junction. I have noticed some wrong growl from my babe, but I had played it down as something minor, like dirt in carburetor. After lunch, we set out, but as usual, Deba’s hungry LB500 needed a tank-up. So we enquired about the nearby pump. I knew that there is one on the way, but was not sure about the distance and as he is already on reserve, I was not in a mood to take chances. We topped up the engine oil and went to the pump which is around 1km further on the highway.
After tanking up, I paid some more attention to changed growling sound and decided to do something about it. We called Alex, the Bullet Guru from Pune, and told him that my babe is not settling well while idling and she needs to be hold at little higher than idle. He asked me to drain the carburetor so that if any water present in there will get outta system. That didn’t change anything. So he told me to check compression of the bike, and I got the shock of the day. There was no compression, my mind had taken a whirlwind trip to nightmarish fancy-land and I thought all the evil that could have happened to my bike. Then Alex, the Genius, told me to open the tappet cover and check if anyone of the tappets is jammed. And Viola!!! He was right, the exhaust side tappet was jammed. So Alex explained me on the phone, how to loosen it up and I got my hands dirty, very dirty in the whole business. But the result, problem solved. I was able to ride my bike in better way.
We were again back on the road, which was too bad to be called road, heading to Uttur. The sun was setting, being cloudy it started getting dark already. We reached Uttur around 1900hrs and took left turn towards Ajra. The rain made its presence felt intermittently we were almost drenched. The bad roads, pot holes and loose gravel was adding insult to the injury. Due to raindrops, the lights of the incoming vehicles were wrecking havoc on my AGV’s visor, and if I keep the visor open, I was getting mouthfuls of the insects which has just started their day. The whole situation was quiet bad, when I realized that the Bolero which overtaken us is a boon in disguise. I decided to follow it, as it was giving good light and clearing the road for me, but Deba was not able to keep up with me. He was on low confidence in the night riding and potholed graveled road. After looking at him in the rear-view, I missed one turn completely and got down the road. Somehow, I got the control back on my bike and stopped to catch my breath while letting that Bolero slip away from my hands. With the manageable slow speeds, we could made it to Ajra by 2030hrs. Ajra is small town, with lot more population than Amboli.
After reaching Ajra, we decided to take call it a day. We decided to stay at Ajra, and that turned out to be good decision as anyways we didn’t had any reservations in Amboli, which is good 33kms ahead. We decided to make it to Amboli next day, as it was not a good idea to continue in the dark on the bad roads. We booked the place in Hotel Vinod on the Amboli road itself. It had a restaurant attached below so it was ideal place to stay.
Early morning, I got up as I wanted to make the final touches to my tappets settings. After the basic things done, we decided against shifting the luggage to Amboli. Amboli, being more popular tourist destination is a costly place and availability of hotels is also low. So we decided to visit the place while staying put in Ajra. As we started for Amboli, we were back on the bad roads and was enjoying as the weather was good and it was not raining. While riding ahead, I found one good patch and ripped ahead only to realize that Deba have not followed me. I returned to check on him and found him on the roadside, standing besides his bike. The chain of his bike has left the rear-sprocket and decided to go her own way. We got the tools out, opened the chain cover and set her right in the arms, sorry teeth, of rear sprocket. He was not interested to carry forward without fixing it, and we were not having the spanner of 30 to tighten the chain. So we decided to come back to Ajra and get it fixed. After investigation, we could find a guy, who said yes to touch the bullet. He fixed the chain in no time and we were on our way as usual. On the way we realized that my speedo cable and Deba’s headlamp has gone capute again, but we pushed forward as these are minor things.
Amboli was as usual fun with lot of rain, water and waterfall, except there were too many people around every waterfall. We thanked ourselves that we made right decision about not coming to Amboli with luggage as it would have been tough to find any accommodation. Even if we have managed to get one, that would surely have cost us some fortune. After going around and nice lunch, we returned back to Ajra.
After leisurely spent evening, we decided to push off for Pune as soon as possible next morning. After all the efforts and packing, we managed to set our sails at 0900hrs from Ajra. The best part of the return trip was, before even starting, we have already covered 33kms of bad patch and there were approximately 40 more to go. We started and pretty fast covered that distance even on the bad road. Before 1000hrs, we were back to the junction and having our breakfast in hotel Kauvery. Deba had decided not to cross into triple digit speeds and will let me lead through the remaining ride, the riding back was eventless. We managed good and steady speeds to reach Satara by 1330hrs. After hearty lunch in the favorite Manas hotel, we pushed for Pune and reached home by 1530hrs.
Vital Stats:
Riders:
1. Deba Bullet Machismo (LB500)
2. Doc Std500 (ESDB)
Distance covered: 725kms
Route taken:
Pune – Satara – Kolhapur – Nippani – Shippur – right turn – Uttur – Left turn – Ajra – Right turn – Amboli
Monday, October 8, 2007
RoadShakers Ride to Amboli and Back at 1750kmph*.....
[This used to be posted on my favorite site, RoyalEnfield.com, they removed it, so I am posting it here... it's old, but pretty interesteing...]
Vivek, who just came back from US, after long stint there, was itching for ride and so was I. I had plans for Goa on this 4 days weekend, including leave on Monday and 15th Aug as Independence Day on Tuesday, so the leave was already taken well in advance. But when Amboli ride was floated I changed my mind from Goa to Amboli to invite wrath of many colleagues, who were depending on me to take(?) them to Goa. But let me tell you, I think I took very right decision.
Vivek and Darshana, Rohan and Aditi, Ram and his wife, Eklavya, Param, Sanket, Ra’JAAT’ Gandhi, Navin and me were the people who shown interest. List was long and it’s a really good head count.
But by Saturday many of the riders could not confirm the plan, Ram was unsure as his bike’s health is little dicey, though he already had planned to get the sick leave, for him not for his bike. There is no employeer in India right now, which gives sick leaves for bikes…hehehehe. Param’s boss love him so much that he just don’t want to miss him even for a day. L
1. Home 15317kms 0745hrs 12/08/2006
[Place, Oddo reading, Time and Date format]
Citypride Satara Road 15324kms 0805hrs 12/08/2006
Thus finally only 4 of us, Vivek and Darshana, Sanket and me, rolled out from CityPride Satara road at 0830hrs on 12th Aug 2006. Starting early was only to get past crowded Katraj ghat before it gets traffic jammed. Eklavya was able to get leave for Monday and will be catching us up in Satara.
Riders and their royal steeds:
a. Vivek and Darshana – Bullet Electra 4s
b. Sanket – Bullet Electra 5s
c. Eklavya - Bullet 350 Campus Ed.
d. doc (me) – Bullet500 (ESDB)
2. Shindewadi-Shirval 15368kms 1025hrs 12/08/2006
As decided while starting from Pune itself, we rode slowly and leisurely, so that we can enjoy the scenic beauty more and give some time to Eklavya to catch up with us. Vivek was leading and me sweeping. Sanket is newbie, recently joined RoadShakers and have earned reputation of making all the RS rides so far J, lucky him. While we stopped for first butt break, he noticed that the fuel tube is little loose and there is leakage of petrol, so we stopped at Shindewadi and he got that tube replaced. We had been riding for about 2 hours to cover only 40odd kms, you can imagine, how slow we were.
3. Sai Sahara Khambatki 15384 1045 12/08/2006
Then as a mandatory stop for all RS guys, we stopped at this hotel, just before Khambaki ghat toll booth, had some chai-biskuts and at the time of starting we checked for any loose screws or nuts, hopefully none was there, only my bike was out of engine oil, so $hit scared, and got it tanked-up at the next possible stop. Only problem is, on the highway, it’s very tough to find 20w-50 oil, what’s available everywhere is 20w-40, which is used for general bikes. Yes! I don’t consider my Bullet as general bike, she is really special and I know you will agree with me. So advice is always keep some oil handy, and better check it before starting for ride itself. Khambatki ghat is the one where one really want to rip and we did J. We had a small photo session also. While searching for engine oil, we stopped at one petrol bunk and then Eklavya came ripping from behind and overtook us. He took us by surprise and only thing we could do was to SMS him that we are behind him, which he mistook very well…hehehehe. He reached Satara an hour before us and kept searching his behind for us (pun intended).
4. Satara 15435kms 1330hrs 12/08/2006
Thoseghar 15462kms, Windmill 15465kms
It was not raining and we were fairly dry till Satara. After reaching Satara, we booked rooms in Rajatadri hotel, in the main square itself. It belongs to friend of Param. We had light lunch in the restaurant attached. After relaxing for some time we decided to ride to visit well-known Thoseghar waterfall. But it started raining incessantly while we were riding to Thoseghar and we were drenched till the bone. The waterfall is very beautiful and all the falls in Mulshi, Bhushi, etc are really puny in front of this one. It was raining continuously and we were soaked wet, we had nice cuppa of tea at the shack nearby and then came the funda of earth’s rotations and the surface speed of the earth.
*- We found out that earth rotates about itself and being on earth we also with it, so what’s the speed of that rotation? After some brief calculations it turned out to be 1675kmph. That’s too much, for us to imagine, but considering we generally ride at 75 to 95kmph, our actual speed becomes 1750 to 1770kmph….interesting hmmm….and hence the name of the ride story J. Well, you can contest the claim, but that’s the best we could come up then…
While returning from the falls, we decided to take a look little ahead to catch the windmills installed on the mountain tops…So we headed there, the windmill was really huge and we were not able to see it completely as it was very foggy there. Then, at that moment, the “most reliable”, as proclaimed by her owner, bike started giving starting problem. Little moisture went into the spark-plug cap was doing nasty things and WD-40 from Vivek’s toolbox came handy. It saved the ‘remaining’ day for us and we rode back to hotel. While coming back, we got the news that Param is also coming to Satara to meet us. Thanks to his above mentioned ‘loving’ boss, he could not make for the ride, but he tried to wash away his sins by being there with us for dinner along with his lovely niece, who to my great surprise do not like chocolates muchJ. After full-tummy dinner, we decided to retire for the day, only to plan early next day for Amboli, our final destination.
5. Satara 15494kms, 1000hrs, 13/08/2006
As decided, we got up early in the morning at 7, yes that’s early for most of us, particularly for a guy like Eklavya, who had worked whole night and then rode to Satara without sleep, kudos dude! Then he realized that he needs to replace the foot-peg nut and again Param came to rescue, this guy sure is very resourceful. As it is seen as delay to all, Eklavya decided to ride afterwards and will try to catch us, we rode on towards Kolhapur. We took first break only after 90 odd kms, and eventually Eklavya joined us in no time.
6. Reliance petrol bunk 15589kms 1200-1220hrs 13/08/2006
We spent some time at the Reliance petrol bunk and had tea. Our next stop will be little after Nipani, from where we were supposed to take right turn to Ajra road.
7. Nipani-Shippur 15666kms 1340-1430hrs 13/08/2006
Amboli via Ajra 15742kms 1620hrs 13/08/2006
At the junction where we were supposed to take turn, the place is called Shippur, we had our lunch. Now onwards the road is not National Highway, it had pretty bad patch at couple of places. Otherwise the road was like Tamhini road. In the meantime, at one petrol bunk we tanked up the bikes and as usual, my bike asked for the least quantity to stun all the 350 guys. We reached Amboli in the afternoon.
Point to be noted, 28 people, mostly school-children and young guys, told us that our headlights are ON, which we kept ON intentionally, while going from Satara to Amboli.
8. Amboli waterfalls, Mahadevgad, Chaukul gaon, Shirgaonkar point, Kavlesaad point, Hiranyakeshi river origin
In Amboli after booking the hotel rooms and putting down the entire luggage, we decided to ride down to the Amboli waterfalls, which are the main attraction of the place. The waterfall is magnificent and one can actually get into is unlike the Thoseghar. We had really good time there and after some buttas and tea, we came back to hotel, only to plan, what to do tomorrow and what to see. I got up early in the morning and went for the walk for almost couple of kms, then came back, woke up other guys, had breakfast and decided to go for site seeing. We went to Amboli waterfall again to catch some pics. Then we went to Mahadevgad point which is a ridge which overlooks a beautiful valley, but everything was under wraps of fog and mist. It used to open for only couple of minutes and then again used to go under wraps. Then we rode to Chaukul village and took nice detour to some unknown place also, where the scenic beauty was breathtaking. Then we decided to come back for lunch and then proceed for other points. After lunch, next stop was Kavlesaad point, where the water falling into the valley gets uplifted due to high speed wind flow and fall upwards. The place was so fantastic that we were almost in no mood to leave the place. But then there were couple of more places to be visited. We went to a place where Hiranyakeshi river originates. The place has small Shiva temple and the pond of freshly emerging water. We sat there for some time and came back to hotel, pretty tired of riding bad roads and no roads whole day. Next day, Eklavya have to catch office by the evening so he decided to leave early that others.
9. Amboli 15817kms 0800hrs 15/08/2006
Next day, after breakfast of ghavan and chutney (local delicacy), again we started off from Amboli. The route was scenic and we could meet and greet lot of school children coming back from school after celebrating 60th Independence day of our beloved country. They waved at us, at all the places and we waved back. This kept on repeating at all the villages and stopped only after we took to National Highway at Shippur near Nipani.
10. Kale (7kms from Karad) 16001kms 1135-1230hrs 15/08/2006
Our first stop after leaving Amboli was Kale village just 7kms from Karad. We rode for 180 odd kms before this lunch brake. The ride was fast and hard. We enjoied it thoroughly. After sumptious lunch and receiving whereabouts of Eklavya, we started off again from the place. Our main aim is to cross Katraj ghat before 1600hrs, so that we can avoid the evening traffic jam there.
11. Nagewadi 16074kms 1400hrs 15/08/2006
As we started off directly after lunch, we were bound to feel little dizzy after some time, so we did and took a hot tea break at Nagewadi. Here we decided to ride directly to Pune without even single stoppage.
12. Home 16172kms 1600hrs 15/08/2006
We crossed Katraj ghat well before our self-set deadline of 1600hrs, and rode through all the slush, dirt and bad road conditions of Katraj. We decided to disperse from where we started off together, so we rode together till CityPride Satara road and then after usual, hugs and good byes, we dispersed. I reached home safely around 1600hrs and so did Sanket, Vivek and Darshana. It was one fantastic ride and we all enjoied it thoroughly. Eklavya on his way back met Capt. Krish, who was riding to Tapola sanctuary and reached Pune around 1330 or so. It was sort of record time he had clocked, yet to be confirmed.
There is no point in counting hundreds of kids, who waved at us while coming back from school after Independence day celebrations and told us that our headlights were ON.
The ride pics can be found at:
http://vivekrides1.fotopic.net/c1055183.html
http://photos.rediff.com/bn/emph/prasad_bhangale?path=%2F%2FAmboli%20ride&key=c2b2c3688e878006696307ca8b35d568&exp=HYGDEBCDAB%3FC%3D%3A%3B7957%3B57%5Eo%5D&funcname=showthumbs
Place to stay at Amboli:
Hotel Shiv-Malhar
Vengurla-Belgaum Road, Behind Datta Mandir
Tel/Fax: 02363-240301(Amboli)
Apart from this, there are many hotels.
http://www.nivalink.com/greenvalley/contact.html
Green Valley Resort [MTDC]
Sawantwadi-Bemgaum Road,
Police Out-Post, Amboli, Maharashtra
For Reservations, Travel Assistance Contact:
NivalinkG-32, Lokmanya Paan Bazaar,
Next to Godrej Coliseum,
Somaiya Hospital Road,
Off Eastern Express Highway,
Chunabhatti, Sion, Mumbai - 400022.
Phone : +91-22-24042501 (5 lines)
Fax : +91-22-24042792
Email: greenvalley@nivalink.com
Lessons learnt:
- Always check engine oil before starting on ride, and always carry handful of it.
- Keep WD-40 spray in toolbox as necessary equipment.
- You tend to feel sleepy on National Highways, as they are straight and sometimes down-right boring to ride.
- My bike always need less fuel to tank up than even 350s… hehehehe
- Eklavya Mahapatra’s middle name is Enthusiasm
- I need to get new muffler.
Vivek, who just came back from US, after long stint there, was itching for ride and so was I. I had plans for Goa on this 4 days weekend, including leave on Monday and 15th Aug as Independence Day on Tuesday, so the leave was already taken well in advance. But when Amboli ride was floated I changed my mind from Goa to Amboli to invite wrath of many colleagues, who were depending on me to take(?) them to Goa. But let me tell you, I think I took very right decision.
Vivek and Darshana, Rohan and Aditi, Ram and his wife, Eklavya, Param, Sanket, Ra’JAAT’ Gandhi, Navin and me were the people who shown interest. List was long and it’s a really good head count.
But by Saturday many of the riders could not confirm the plan, Ram was unsure as his bike’s health is little dicey, though he already had planned to get the sick leave, for him not for his bike. There is no employeer in India right now, which gives sick leaves for bikes…hehehehe. Param’s boss love him so much that he just don’t want to miss him even for a day. L
1. Home 15317kms 0745hrs 12/08/2006
[Place, Oddo reading, Time and Date format]
Citypride Satara Road 15324kms 0805hrs 12/08/2006
Thus finally only 4 of us, Vivek and Darshana, Sanket and me, rolled out from CityPride Satara road at 0830hrs on 12th Aug 2006. Starting early was only to get past crowded Katraj ghat before it gets traffic jammed. Eklavya was able to get leave for Monday and will be catching us up in Satara.
Riders and their royal steeds:
a. Vivek and Darshana – Bullet Electra 4s
b. Sanket – Bullet Electra 5s
c. Eklavya - Bullet 350 Campus Ed.
d. doc (me) – Bullet500 (ESDB)
2. Shindewadi-Shirval 15368kms 1025hrs 12/08/2006
As decided while starting from Pune itself, we rode slowly and leisurely, so that we can enjoy the scenic beauty more and give some time to Eklavya to catch up with us. Vivek was leading and me sweeping. Sanket is newbie, recently joined RoadShakers and have earned reputation of making all the RS rides so far J, lucky him. While we stopped for first butt break, he noticed that the fuel tube is little loose and there is leakage of petrol, so we stopped at Shindewadi and he got that tube replaced. We had been riding for about 2 hours to cover only 40odd kms, you can imagine, how slow we were.
3. Sai Sahara Khambatki 15384 1045 12/08/2006
Then as a mandatory stop for all RS guys, we stopped at this hotel, just before Khambaki ghat toll booth, had some chai-biskuts and at the time of starting we checked for any loose screws or nuts, hopefully none was there, only my bike was out of engine oil, so $hit scared, and got it tanked-up at the next possible stop. Only problem is, on the highway, it’s very tough to find 20w-50 oil, what’s available everywhere is 20w-40, which is used for general bikes. Yes! I don’t consider my Bullet as general bike, she is really special and I know you will agree with me. So advice is always keep some oil handy, and better check it before starting for ride itself. Khambatki ghat is the one where one really want to rip and we did J. We had a small photo session also. While searching for engine oil, we stopped at one petrol bunk and then Eklavya came ripping from behind and overtook us. He took us by surprise and only thing we could do was to SMS him that we are behind him, which he mistook very well…hehehehe. He reached Satara an hour before us and kept searching his behind for us (pun intended).
4. Satara 15435kms 1330hrs 12/08/2006
Thoseghar 15462kms, Windmill 15465kms
It was not raining and we were fairly dry till Satara. After reaching Satara, we booked rooms in Rajatadri hotel, in the main square itself. It belongs to friend of Param. We had light lunch in the restaurant attached. After relaxing for some time we decided to ride to visit well-known Thoseghar waterfall. But it started raining incessantly while we were riding to Thoseghar and we were drenched till the bone. The waterfall is very beautiful and all the falls in Mulshi, Bhushi, etc are really puny in front of this one. It was raining continuously and we were soaked wet, we had nice cuppa of tea at the shack nearby and then came the funda of earth’s rotations and the surface speed of the earth.
*- We found out that earth rotates about itself and being on earth we also with it, so what’s the speed of that rotation? After some brief calculations it turned out to be 1675kmph. That’s too much, for us to imagine, but considering we generally ride at 75 to 95kmph, our actual speed becomes 1750 to 1770kmph….interesting hmmm….and hence the name of the ride story J. Well, you can contest the claim, but that’s the best we could come up then…
While returning from the falls, we decided to take a look little ahead to catch the windmills installed on the mountain tops…So we headed there, the windmill was really huge and we were not able to see it completely as it was very foggy there. Then, at that moment, the “most reliable”, as proclaimed by her owner, bike started giving starting problem. Little moisture went into the spark-plug cap was doing nasty things and WD-40 from Vivek’s toolbox came handy. It saved the ‘remaining’ day for us and we rode back to hotel. While coming back, we got the news that Param is also coming to Satara to meet us. Thanks to his above mentioned ‘loving’ boss, he could not make for the ride, but he tried to wash away his sins by being there with us for dinner along with his lovely niece, who to my great surprise do not like chocolates muchJ. After full-tummy dinner, we decided to retire for the day, only to plan early next day for Amboli, our final destination.
5. Satara 15494kms, 1000hrs, 13/08/2006
As decided, we got up early in the morning at 7, yes that’s early for most of us, particularly for a guy like Eklavya, who had worked whole night and then rode to Satara without sleep, kudos dude! Then he realized that he needs to replace the foot-peg nut and again Param came to rescue, this guy sure is very resourceful. As it is seen as delay to all, Eklavya decided to ride afterwards and will try to catch us, we rode on towards Kolhapur. We took first break only after 90 odd kms, and eventually Eklavya joined us in no time.
6. Reliance petrol bunk 15589kms 1200-1220hrs 13/08/2006
We spent some time at the Reliance petrol bunk and had tea. Our next stop will be little after Nipani, from where we were supposed to take right turn to Ajra road.
7. Nipani-Shippur 15666kms 1340-1430hrs 13/08/2006
Amboli via Ajra 15742kms 1620hrs 13/08/2006
At the junction where we were supposed to take turn, the place is called Shippur, we had our lunch. Now onwards the road is not National Highway, it had pretty bad patch at couple of places. Otherwise the road was like Tamhini road. In the meantime, at one petrol bunk we tanked up the bikes and as usual, my bike asked for the least quantity to stun all the 350 guys. We reached Amboli in the afternoon.
Point to be noted, 28 people, mostly school-children and young guys, told us that our headlights are ON, which we kept ON intentionally, while going from Satara to Amboli.
8. Amboli waterfalls, Mahadevgad, Chaukul gaon, Shirgaonkar point, Kavlesaad point, Hiranyakeshi river origin
In Amboli after booking the hotel rooms and putting down the entire luggage, we decided to ride down to the Amboli waterfalls, which are the main attraction of the place. The waterfall is magnificent and one can actually get into is unlike the Thoseghar. We had really good time there and after some buttas and tea, we came back to hotel, only to plan, what to do tomorrow and what to see. I got up early in the morning and went for the walk for almost couple of kms, then came back, woke up other guys, had breakfast and decided to go for site seeing. We went to Amboli waterfall again to catch some pics. Then we went to Mahadevgad point which is a ridge which overlooks a beautiful valley, but everything was under wraps of fog and mist. It used to open for only couple of minutes and then again used to go under wraps. Then we rode to Chaukul village and took nice detour to some unknown place also, where the scenic beauty was breathtaking. Then we decided to come back for lunch and then proceed for other points. After lunch, next stop was Kavlesaad point, where the water falling into the valley gets uplifted due to high speed wind flow and fall upwards. The place was so fantastic that we were almost in no mood to leave the place. But then there were couple of more places to be visited. We went to a place where Hiranyakeshi river originates. The place has small Shiva temple and the pond of freshly emerging water. We sat there for some time and came back to hotel, pretty tired of riding bad roads and no roads whole day. Next day, Eklavya have to catch office by the evening so he decided to leave early that others.
9. Amboli 15817kms 0800hrs 15/08/2006
Next day, after breakfast of ghavan and chutney (local delicacy), again we started off from Amboli. The route was scenic and we could meet and greet lot of school children coming back from school after celebrating 60th Independence day of our beloved country. They waved at us, at all the places and we waved back. This kept on repeating at all the villages and stopped only after we took to National Highway at Shippur near Nipani.
10. Kale (7kms from Karad) 16001kms 1135-1230hrs 15/08/2006
Our first stop after leaving Amboli was Kale village just 7kms from Karad. We rode for 180 odd kms before this lunch brake. The ride was fast and hard. We enjoied it thoroughly. After sumptious lunch and receiving whereabouts of Eklavya, we started off again from the place. Our main aim is to cross Katraj ghat before 1600hrs, so that we can avoid the evening traffic jam there.
11. Nagewadi 16074kms 1400hrs 15/08/2006
As we started off directly after lunch, we were bound to feel little dizzy after some time, so we did and took a hot tea break at Nagewadi. Here we decided to ride directly to Pune without even single stoppage.
12. Home 16172kms 1600hrs 15/08/2006
We crossed Katraj ghat well before our self-set deadline of 1600hrs, and rode through all the slush, dirt and bad road conditions of Katraj. We decided to disperse from where we started off together, so we rode together till CityPride Satara road and then after usual, hugs and good byes, we dispersed. I reached home safely around 1600hrs and so did Sanket, Vivek and Darshana. It was one fantastic ride and we all enjoied it thoroughly. Eklavya on his way back met Capt. Krish, who was riding to Tapola sanctuary and reached Pune around 1330 or so. It was sort of record time he had clocked, yet to be confirmed.
There is no point in counting hundreds of kids, who waved at us while coming back from school after Independence day celebrations and told us that our headlights were ON.
The ride pics can be found at:
http://vivekrides1.fotopic.net/c1055183.html
http://photos.rediff.com/bn/emph/prasad_bhangale?path=%2F%2FAmboli%20ride&key=c2b2c3688e878006696307ca8b35d568&exp=HYGDEBCDAB%3FC%3D%3A%3B7957%3B57%5Eo%5D&funcname=showthumbs
Place to stay at Amboli:
Hotel Shiv-Malhar
Vengurla-Belgaum Road, Behind Datta Mandir
Tel/Fax: 02363-240301(Amboli)
Apart from this, there are many hotels.
http://www.nivalink.com/greenvalley/contact.html
Green Valley Resort [MTDC]
Sawantwadi-Bemgaum Road,
Police Out-Post, Amboli, Maharashtra
For Reservations, Travel Assistance Contact:
NivalinkG-32, Lokmanya Paan Bazaar,
Next to Godrej Coliseum,
Somaiya Hospital Road,
Off Eastern Express Highway,
Chunabhatti, Sion, Mumbai - 400022.
Phone : +91-22-24042501 (5 lines)
Fax : +91-22-24042792
Email: greenvalley@nivalink.com
Lessons learnt:
- Always check engine oil before starting on ride, and always carry handful of it.
- Keep WD-40 spray in toolbox as necessary equipment.
- You tend to feel sleepy on National Highways, as they are straight and sometimes down-right boring to ride.
- My bike always need less fuel to tank up than even 350s… hehehehe
- Eklavya Mahapatra’s middle name is Enthusiasm
- I need to get new muffler.
Friday, July 27, 2007
RoadShaker’s rock Malshej...
It all started couple of weeks back, when Manish announced that we are going to ride to Malshej Ghats from Pune and going to meet Mumbai IndieThumpers there. To start with we had the headcount of 18 from both sides and Saturday 7th July was the day to ride there and we start back on the next day.
The day started on the hectic note as my horn was not working and Alex was not in town. So Baljeet agreed to help me with it and I got the new relay fitted which didn't solved the problem, only to be found that not the relay, but the switch has the problem. The problem was nothing but just dirt which was settled there while previous weekend Tamhini ride.
We were planning to start the ride at 2:30pm, but due to certain delays we could push-off only around 3:00pm towards Malshej. The route was simple as Shivaji Nagar, Pune to Nashik diversion, Bhosari, then to Alephata, left turn to Sushant resort, Malshej. Finally 9 bikes turned up, and to our great surprise, 7 out of them were 500cc, only 2 were 350s, moreover 4 were in the process of running-in. Overall classification of bikes and riders is given in the end anyways.
The ride till Bhosari was pathetic as Mumbai-Pune highway had a traffic jam as usual, but once we took turn towards Nashik, the highway was like dream and as we had decided to keep the speeds under limits, we were enjoying the constant thump and every where people were looking at our bikes in awe. Nine big Bulls riding in tandem, in zigzag manner generating good amount of thump and pomp was a sight to watch. Kids waved their hands and we waved back. We had very less minimal breaks while riding on the highway and reached Alephata, from where we were supposed to take left turn. Sushant resort was around 40kms from this place, and we had come almost 80kms from Pune, so it was short ride as per RoadShaker’s standards.
Till now all our efforts to wear the raingear had gone waste as we had not met any rains so far, but the further road was looking very promising. I remembered this road as I had been to this place few months back for the trek to Harishchandra Gad. And I knew that the mountains and hills on this side of the Sahyadri are very capable of changing the weather and get us drenched in no time we could sense the clouds all around and road is superbly covered by flora on both sides with ample number of mountains on both sides. We kept the steady speeds around 70-75kmph and were enjoying the ride. Baljeet was leading the pack and he opened the throttle on that empty road and all followed him.
As Manish and Eklavya were running in their new steeds, I preferred to stay back with them and what happened next was magical experience. All of us, 3 Bullets with constant thumping music rode through that jungle which had got darker due to thick clouds in the sky and approaching evening. The wind was very strong and chilled but still no rains. We stopped at one bridge where the wind intensity was so high that we feared that bikes put on the stands may be pushed to fall off by the wind. After few photos and some fags of smokers we decided to push off. By the time we reached, it was quarter to 7 and the resort was already waiting for us, thanks to Manish who had taken extra pain to be there previous weekend to make all the arrangements. We decided to occupy two out of 6 cottages and be at home while waiting for Bombay IndieThumpers to arrive. We were chit-chatting and ordered for cold-drinks, which were not cold, IndieThumpers arrived, and my God, how many of them, almost over 30 we could see all the long trail of headlights and thump resonating the atmosphere.
The Resort manager and few of us helped them to park their vehicles and then the series of introductions and long-time-no-see kind of hugs and kisses. Manish and Baljeet knew many IndieThumpers guys. I was seeing all of them first time, but it was great time to meet Rajiv, Kaka, Shyamal and none other than Keve. I knew him for long, but only through online ways, chats / emails / sms / orkut scraps.
As we could manage to book 6 cottages, we decided to leave one more for our Mumbai counterparts. It was great atmosphere filled with fun and frolic.
The electricity at the resort kept on playing hide-n-seek, but the place where the resort is situated is great. We could see the clouds actually falling over the ridge in front of us. It was not raining, but the whole stage was set to heavy downpour. We were having good time and saw many new guys being introduced and inducted in IndieThumpers group. Unlike RoadShakers, their induction program was noisy and little less well-planned. I was surprised to see that even after 2 hours the main big group arrived, every now and then couple of Thumpers keep on arriving till pretty late in the evening.
They even found out that 2 of them had gone missing, which were caught and brought back. Then in usual hype and hoopla, Manish and Baljeet addressed the whole gathering, while JP Shetty, former RoadShaker and current IndieThumper kept on clicking as many pictures as possible. Rajiv and Kaka also acknowledged the contribution of RoadShakers in building their riding club and overall riding community across the country. I felt very proud to be a RoadShaker.
After nice dinner with all the fellow riders, we went on small distance stroll and retired to our cottages. Morning came with all the allegations about who was snoring whole night and disturbing others and all kind of claims. After hearty breakfast, we decided to push-off for small ride down the Ghats with Thumpers and then return to Pune while they will carry on. That was great experience as over 40 Bulls, roaring with their unique throaty grawl, riding slowly though the Ghats, where one side was mountain and other, not valley but clouds. It was breath-taking moment. We rode few kilometers down and parked our bikes to have final rendezvous. I clicked lot of pictures and captured many VDOs on cell-phone. All the passing by vehicles were in awe of the congress and the expressions of great surprise and appreciation can be easily seen on the faces. After spending some time together there we decided to start back to Pune.
While returning we took a detour which consists of broken road and no road kind of route. By now, everyone might have understood that this is the road RoadShakers like more than tarmac. It was steep climbing to start with, and after a brief halt to top-up Baljeet’s bike's engine-oil and few clicks, we ripped through this jungle road and reached Junnar. We had hearty snacks cum lunch of Vada-pav, missal-pav and tea. After reaching the Nashik-Pune highway, it was all same as it used to be and not worth mentioning after such a nice experience we had. We reached back to Pune around 3:30pm and I was home by 4pm.
It was awesome ride, and based on the success of this combined ride, we are planning one more similar ride to a nearby place to Pune in two weeks time.
Riders and their noble steeds:
1. Manish Kothari - Machismo 500
2. Baljeet Singh - Citibike 500
3. Ekalvya Mahapatra - Machismo 500
4. Amit Nangare - Machismo 500
5. Raza Hamid - Citibike 500
6. Yuvraj - Std500 ESDB
7. Ajit Pathak - Electra5S
8. Simron Singh - Thunderbird
9. Doc, the LeadFoot (myself) - Std500 ESDB
The pictures of the ride can be seen at Raza's album on http://picasaweb.google.com/razahabitat/Malshez7n8OfJuly
And can be downloaded from JP Shetty's site http://www.jpshetty.com/2007_07_07_malshej_part_01.zip
http://www.jpshetty.com/2007_07_07_malshej_part_02.zip
RideHard but RideSafe...
- Doc, the LeadFoot... :)
The day started on the hectic note as my horn was not working and Alex was not in town. So Baljeet agreed to help me with it and I got the new relay fitted which didn't solved the problem, only to be found that not the relay, but the switch has the problem. The problem was nothing but just dirt which was settled there while previous weekend Tamhini ride.
We were planning to start the ride at 2:30pm, but due to certain delays we could push-off only around 3:00pm towards Malshej. The route was simple as Shivaji Nagar, Pune to Nashik diversion, Bhosari, then to Alephata, left turn to Sushant resort, Malshej. Finally 9 bikes turned up, and to our great surprise, 7 out of them were 500cc, only 2 were 350s, moreover 4 were in the process of running-in. Overall classification of bikes and riders is given in the end anyways.
The ride till Bhosari was pathetic as Mumbai-Pune highway had a traffic jam as usual, but once we took turn towards Nashik, the highway was like dream and as we had decided to keep the speeds under limits, we were enjoying the constant thump and every where people were looking at our bikes in awe. Nine big Bulls riding in tandem, in zigzag manner generating good amount of thump and pomp was a sight to watch. Kids waved their hands and we waved back. We had very less minimal breaks while riding on the highway and reached Alephata, from where we were supposed to take left turn. Sushant resort was around 40kms from this place, and we had come almost 80kms from Pune, so it was short ride as per RoadShaker’s standards.
Till now all our efforts to wear the raingear had gone waste as we had not met any rains so far, but the further road was looking very promising. I remembered this road as I had been to this place few months back for the trek to Harishchandra Gad. And I knew that the mountains and hills on this side of the Sahyadri are very capable of changing the weather and get us drenched in no time we could sense the clouds all around and road is superbly covered by flora on both sides with ample number of mountains on both sides. We kept the steady speeds around 70-75kmph and were enjoying the ride. Baljeet was leading the pack and he opened the throttle on that empty road and all followed him.
As Manish and Eklavya were running in their new steeds, I preferred to stay back with them and what happened next was magical experience. All of us, 3 Bullets with constant thumping music rode through that jungle which had got darker due to thick clouds in the sky and approaching evening. The wind was very strong and chilled but still no rains. We stopped at one bridge where the wind intensity was so high that we feared that bikes put on the stands may be pushed to fall off by the wind. After few photos and some fags of smokers we decided to push off. By the time we reached, it was quarter to 7 and the resort was already waiting for us, thanks to Manish who had taken extra pain to be there previous weekend to make all the arrangements. We decided to occupy two out of 6 cottages and be at home while waiting for Bombay IndieThumpers to arrive. We were chit-chatting and ordered for cold-drinks, which were not cold, IndieThumpers arrived, and my God, how many of them, almost over 30 we could see all the long trail of headlights and thump resonating the atmosphere.
The Resort manager and few of us helped them to park their vehicles and then the series of introductions and long-time-no-see kind of hugs and kisses. Manish and Baljeet knew many IndieThumpers guys. I was seeing all of them first time, but it was great time to meet Rajiv, Kaka, Shyamal and none other than Keve. I knew him for long, but only through online ways, chats / emails / sms / orkut scraps.
As we could manage to book 6 cottages, we decided to leave one more for our Mumbai counterparts. It was great atmosphere filled with fun and frolic.
The electricity at the resort kept on playing hide-n-seek, but the place where the resort is situated is great. We could see the clouds actually falling over the ridge in front of us. It was not raining, but the whole stage was set to heavy downpour. We were having good time and saw many new guys being introduced and inducted in IndieThumpers group. Unlike RoadShakers, their induction program was noisy and little less well-planned. I was surprised to see that even after 2 hours the main big group arrived, every now and then couple of Thumpers keep on arriving till pretty late in the evening.
They even found out that 2 of them had gone missing, which were caught and brought back. Then in usual hype and hoopla, Manish and Baljeet addressed the whole gathering, while JP Shetty, former RoadShaker and current IndieThumper kept on clicking as many pictures as possible. Rajiv and Kaka also acknowledged the contribution of RoadShakers in building their riding club and overall riding community across the country. I felt very proud to be a RoadShaker.
After nice dinner with all the fellow riders, we went on small distance stroll and retired to our cottages. Morning came with all the allegations about who was snoring whole night and disturbing others and all kind of claims. After hearty breakfast, we decided to push-off for small ride down the Ghats with Thumpers and then return to Pune while they will carry on. That was great experience as over 40 Bulls, roaring with their unique throaty grawl, riding slowly though the Ghats, where one side was mountain and other, not valley but clouds. It was breath-taking moment. We rode few kilometers down and parked our bikes to have final rendezvous. I clicked lot of pictures and captured many VDOs on cell-phone. All the passing by vehicles were in awe of the congress and the expressions of great surprise and appreciation can be easily seen on the faces. After spending some time together there we decided to start back to Pune.
While returning we took a detour which consists of broken road and no road kind of route. By now, everyone might have understood that this is the road RoadShakers like more than tarmac. It was steep climbing to start with, and after a brief halt to top-up Baljeet’s bike's engine-oil and few clicks, we ripped through this jungle road and reached Junnar. We had hearty snacks cum lunch of Vada-pav, missal-pav and tea. After reaching the Nashik-Pune highway, it was all same as it used to be and not worth mentioning after such a nice experience we had. We reached back to Pune around 3:30pm and I was home by 4pm.
It was awesome ride, and based on the success of this combined ride, we are planning one more similar ride to a nearby place to Pune in two weeks time.
Riders and their noble steeds:
1. Manish Kothari - Machismo 500
2. Baljeet Singh - Citibike 500
3. Ekalvya Mahapatra - Machismo 500
4. Amit Nangare - Machismo 500
5. Raza Hamid - Citibike 500
6. Yuvraj - Std500 ESDB
7. Ajit Pathak - Electra5S
8. Simron Singh - Thunderbird
9. Doc, the LeadFoot (myself) - Std500 ESDB
The pictures of the ride can be seen at Raza's album on http://picasaweb.google.com/razahabitat/Malshez7n8OfJuly
And can be downloaded from JP Shetty's site http://www.jpshetty.com/2007_07_07_malshej_part_01.zip
http://www.jpshetty.com/2007_07_07_malshej_part_02.zip
RideHard but RideSafe...
- Doc, the LeadFoot... :)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Faith-Full ride to Kolhapur
It was long time due to visit Kolhapur Mahalkshmi Temple. In fact I remember while we were coming back from Tarkarli in Nov-Dec last year, while tanking up at the highway near Kolhapur, Darshana said to Vivek that lets get into the city and visit the temple. Then somehow we decided to push off and make it to Pune before 4pm to avoid the traffic jam in Katraj ghat... and come back in the early next year... Lots of time gone after the new year started and lot of workload and few changes left this wish un-fulfilled... It was coming to my mind lately that lots of problems I am facing in this years are due to this, so finally decided to go for it, even if nobody will be there to accompany me...
Fortunately that didn't happened... Amol, the son of my landlord was also eager to come along, and we decided to head for Kolhapur in the early morning on Saturday 7th April.
As we had planned to complete this pilgrimage in a day, it was necessary to start as early as possible in the day...
Date: 7th April 2007; Odo reads: 29842kms; Location: home; Time: 0610hrs [This format will continue]
As per decided we woke up early and after all the morning chores, we were ready to hop on my machine to set off for Kolhapur, but how much we planned to push off on or before 6, we could manage it by 6:10, but nevertheless, it was quiet well in time... :-)
The new Katraj tunnel and the whole by-pass road is like a dream and my babe's favorite spot is the tunnel...where she loves to do over 110, last time we did 120, this time 115 as we were riding double seat... i just love the way she roars in the that tunnel and how everyone makes way for her ;-)... we kept on ripping all the way as the road is smooth and deserted in the morning...
7th April 2007; 29907; Sai Sahara; 0720:
After riding for almost an hour, which we enjoyed very much due to initial chill was there in the climate, we decided to take a tea break at the usual place where RoadShakers take a break, Hotel Sai Sahara, just before the toll booth before the Khambatki ghat...
As discussed already, gave a missed call and sent SMS to Param, who is currently in Satara and wished to meet us en route...
But just after leaning my babe by the fantastic twisties of Khambatki, Amol was dead scared... I just told him to sit tight and go with the flow...We took a small site seeing break in the ghat and admired the beauty of nature... It was only at this place we realised that we had forgot the camera in the hullaboo in the morning :-(
On the way, somewhere around 20kms from Satara, I noticed some sound coming from bike, every time she passed rough patch... so we got down to check it... it turned out to be broken plate of the chain cover... so we need to find some mechanic, rather welder to get that fixed as soon as we reach Satara...
7th April 2007; 29955; Satara; 0815 [0815 to 0955 at Satara]:
After reaching there, we searched for the mechanics/welders which were closed for sure as its pretty early in the morning...one more call to Param and he said, he will reach to us in 10 minutes... he came with his newly done-up metallic green 500 which is undergoing the running in under his watchful eyes... the babe looked superb and within no time, this resourceful guy found out the welder's workshop and got it opened and the things fixed... :-)
We had misal-pav as breakfast in Satara and after spending over an hour and half, we headed towards Kolhapur, after formal goodbyes and invitation to Satara for overnight ride... :-)
Param advised us to wait till 1600hrs before we start back as it will be very hot and engine may get overheat in lesser time to make us stop every now and then...This advice was little tough to follow, but still we kept it under consideration.
On the way I shown Amol my odometer as the numbers were running and my babe crossed 30000kms mark... BRAVO!!! still we have very long way to go together.. ;-)
7th April 2007; 30077; Kolhapur; 1120:
We didn't took any break till we reach Kolhapur... and kept on ripping as the road was smooth and straight...
After reaching outskirts of Kolhapur, we started asking for directions to the temple and it was always go straight and turn left... so we thought, it will be simple while coming back straight and turn right ;-)...which obviously was not true...
Traffic police were generous enough to call me as "Sir" and were very friendly, but that was all because of my babe, its very obvious that people get subdued by her very easily... :-)
After having leisurely darshan at the temple and spending some time in the courtyard, we decided to start off from the temple complex... We headed for Prarthana Hotel, we had our fill there and around 1345 started heading back to Pune.
7th April 2007; 30095; Started back from Kolhapur; 1410:
It tool us almost half an hour to get out of the city as our initial smartness of straight and turn right had backfired...hehehe... nevertheless we were on the highway and riding towards Pune at 1410hrs... one more thing remaining was fuel tank-up and oil top-up...
7th April 2007; 30141; Tank-up Reliance bunk; 1455:
So finally looking for decent petrol pump ended when I saw this Reliance bunk... and there I tanked up, also checked the oil-level, which was okay, but still added 250ml of engine oil to be on safer side...
Surprisingly, this tank up happened in 9ltrs, which means 306kms of distance in 9 litres and that's amazing 34kmpl... nothing can beat the satisfaction of getting such a good mileage, that too while I was ripping and was riding with a pillion... but I guess all the credit goes to steady riding, as I didn't fluctuated the speeds too much and abstained from over-revving...
7th April 2007; 30220; Satara; 1615:
As decided we took our next break only in Satara... called Param again and updated him about us, had sugarcane juice to restore the fluid levels in our bodies... and headed off to Pune, feeling happy that we made it to Satara in around 2 hours... and Pune was 110kms which also can be easily covered in 2 hours... Best part of this ride was we met light showers and they kept us and the babe cool...so we didn't cared about the temperatures and they didn't soared as they were supposed.... and even the road towards Pune also looked under similar shadow of rainy clouds and nothing could beat that great feeling...
7th April 2007; 30324; Home; 1755:
Only one butt break for Amol after around 60kms from Satara and we reached home before 6pm... We met light showers even in this patch as well so we kept on ripping continuously. As usual we did 115 in the Katraj tunnel and had good fun on Khambatki ghat also as we could manage to reach 125kmph due to downward slope...
I generally face some problem or the other on this Satara road... 2 times I got the ignition coil failures and this time the broken chain-cover... It's sort of jixed for me, I guess, hehehe...but all is well that ends well...
Riders and steed:
1. Doc, the LeadFoot on his Bullet500
2. Amol as pillion
Vital Stats:
1. Total distance covered gate-to-gate = 482kms
2. Longest ride (distance wise) I had done after Goa to Pune
3. Total time taken for the ride ~ 12 hours
4. If we exclude the 4 hours (1 extra hour in Satara and 3 hours in Kolhapur), we maintained good average speed of 60.25kmph
5. Tank-up to tank-up mileage 34kmpl, Continuous riding at 95-100kmph, double seat
Adios guys...keep thumping...
RideHard but RideSafe
- doc, the LeadFoot ;-)
Fortunately that didn't happened... Amol, the son of my landlord was also eager to come along, and we decided to head for Kolhapur in the early morning on Saturday 7th April.
As we had planned to complete this pilgrimage in a day, it was necessary to start as early as possible in the day...
Date: 7th April 2007; Odo reads: 29842kms; Location: home; Time: 0610hrs [This format will continue]
As per decided we woke up early and after all the morning chores, we were ready to hop on my machine to set off for Kolhapur, but how much we planned to push off on or before 6, we could manage it by 6:10, but nevertheless, it was quiet well in time... :-)
The new Katraj tunnel and the whole by-pass road is like a dream and my babe's favorite spot is the tunnel...where she loves to do over 110, last time we did 120, this time 115 as we were riding double seat... i just love the way she roars in the that tunnel and how everyone makes way for her ;-)... we kept on ripping all the way as the road is smooth and deserted in the morning...
7th April 2007; 29907; Sai Sahara; 0720:
After riding for almost an hour, which we enjoyed very much due to initial chill was there in the climate, we decided to take a tea break at the usual place where RoadShakers take a break, Hotel Sai Sahara, just before the toll booth before the Khambatki ghat...
As discussed already, gave a missed call and sent SMS to Param, who is currently in Satara and wished to meet us en route...
But just after leaning my babe by the fantastic twisties of Khambatki, Amol was dead scared... I just told him to sit tight and go with the flow...We took a small site seeing break in the ghat and admired the beauty of nature... It was only at this place we realised that we had forgot the camera in the hullaboo in the morning :-(
On the way, somewhere around 20kms from Satara, I noticed some sound coming from bike, every time she passed rough patch... so we got down to check it... it turned out to be broken plate of the chain cover... so we need to find some mechanic, rather welder to get that fixed as soon as we reach Satara...
7th April 2007; 29955; Satara; 0815 [0815 to 0955 at Satara]:
After reaching there, we searched for the mechanics/welders which were closed for sure as its pretty early in the morning...one more call to Param and he said, he will reach to us in 10 minutes... he came with his newly done-up metallic green 500 which is undergoing the running in under his watchful eyes... the babe looked superb and within no time, this resourceful guy found out the welder's workshop and got it opened and the things fixed... :-)
We had misal-pav as breakfast in Satara and after spending over an hour and half, we headed towards Kolhapur, after formal goodbyes and invitation to Satara for overnight ride... :-)
Param advised us to wait till 1600hrs before we start back as it will be very hot and engine may get overheat in lesser time to make us stop every now and then...This advice was little tough to follow, but still we kept it under consideration.
On the way I shown Amol my odometer as the numbers were running and my babe crossed 30000kms mark... BRAVO!!! still we have very long way to go together.. ;-)
7th April 2007; 30077; Kolhapur; 1120:
We didn't took any break till we reach Kolhapur... and kept on ripping as the road was smooth and straight...
After reaching outskirts of Kolhapur, we started asking for directions to the temple and it was always go straight and turn left... so we thought, it will be simple while coming back straight and turn right ;-)...which obviously was not true...
Traffic police were generous enough to call me as "Sir" and were very friendly, but that was all because of my babe, its very obvious that people get subdued by her very easily... :-)
After having leisurely darshan at the temple and spending some time in the courtyard, we decided to start off from the temple complex... We headed for Prarthana Hotel, we had our fill there and around 1345 started heading back to Pune.
7th April 2007; 30095; Started back from Kolhapur; 1410:
It tool us almost half an hour to get out of the city as our initial smartness of straight and turn right had backfired...hehehe... nevertheless we were on the highway and riding towards Pune at 1410hrs... one more thing remaining was fuel tank-up and oil top-up...
7th April 2007; 30141; Tank-up Reliance bunk; 1455:
So finally looking for decent petrol pump ended when I saw this Reliance bunk... and there I tanked up, also checked the oil-level, which was okay, but still added 250ml of engine oil to be on safer side...
Surprisingly, this tank up happened in 9ltrs, which means 306kms of distance in 9 litres and that's amazing 34kmpl... nothing can beat the satisfaction of getting such a good mileage, that too while I was ripping and was riding with a pillion... but I guess all the credit goes to steady riding, as I didn't fluctuated the speeds too much and abstained from over-revving...
7th April 2007; 30220; Satara; 1615:
As decided we took our next break only in Satara... called Param again and updated him about us, had sugarcane juice to restore the fluid levels in our bodies... and headed off to Pune, feeling happy that we made it to Satara in around 2 hours... and Pune was 110kms which also can be easily covered in 2 hours... Best part of this ride was we met light showers and they kept us and the babe cool...so we didn't cared about the temperatures and they didn't soared as they were supposed.... and even the road towards Pune also looked under similar shadow of rainy clouds and nothing could beat that great feeling...
7th April 2007; 30324; Home; 1755:
Only one butt break for Amol after around 60kms from Satara and we reached home before 6pm... We met light showers even in this patch as well so we kept on ripping continuously. As usual we did 115 in the Katraj tunnel and had good fun on Khambatki ghat also as we could manage to reach 125kmph due to downward slope...
I generally face some problem or the other on this Satara road... 2 times I got the ignition coil failures and this time the broken chain-cover... It's sort of jixed for me, I guess, hehehe...but all is well that ends well...
Riders and steed:
1. Doc, the LeadFoot on his Bullet500
2. Amol as pillion
Vital Stats:
1. Total distance covered gate-to-gate = 482kms
2. Longest ride (distance wise) I had done after Goa to Pune
3. Total time taken for the ride ~ 12 hours
4. If we exclude the 4 hours (1 extra hour in Satara and 3 hours in Kolhapur), we maintained good average speed of 60.25kmph
5. Tank-up to tank-up mileage 34kmpl, Continuous riding at 95-100kmph, double seat
Adios guys...keep thumping...
RideHard but RideSafe
- doc, the LeadFoot ;-)
Monday, March 5, 2007
Freaky gadgets…
This is pretty interesting phenomenon, just as an extension of what Capt Nandu and me were discussing on ride and what me and Reshma were talking about today morning… and after some deliberation, I think this thing worth to be here on my blog… :)
We always hear all the time, people are possessive about people and things they have, its very common trait of human nature to be possessive of the materialistic objects and even other human beings :)…
But can it be vice versa also? But if this trait is shown by things, what can we say about that?
This is obviously about my babe, my dahling, my Bullet 500. She is definitely showing such possessiveness towards me… how? I will say she behaves very differently when she is admired or ridden by someone from the fairer sex…lolz…
First time it happened in last monsoon, when we ridden to Mahabaleshwar on one good Sunday and one of my friends came along with me. In the due course of time, my friend ridden her and while coming back my babe started throwing fits. First the muffler holding broke off, and then the accelerator cable gave way. We have to toe her till Pune for almost over 80kms.
Then, in last October, when we ridden to Tarkarli, I was riding, err... rather flying my babe with the new muffler and great sound. We enjoyed our ride to reach to the fullest. Every other GoldStar muffler seems too soft in front of mine... While coming back, during lunch, Preeti (Ram's better half) praised the outcome of my babe (loud thump and etc etc…) and BANG!!! My bike went berserk and the ignition coil went kaput… :( and I have to put her in Tempo to reach Pune halfway through…
Similarly, gone weekend, we have been riding to Varasgaon dam which is pretty close-by to Pune and its very short distance ride and nothing can go wrong. But again she struck again, had few loose bolts (which made her immovable) and got a flat rear tire, first in her lifetime…
This is not only about my babe, this phenomenon seems rampant in other gadgets or equipments too… Today, I came to know from one of my friend that she was trying to send me SMS and her cell didn’t allowed her at all… she tried and tried several times but nothing to avail. To her surprise, her cell phone either shown either ‘message sending failed’ or hanged…
So then I realized that even these gadgets and machines about which we are so possessive also becomes possessive about us… whatssay you? Let me know…
RideHard and Ride Safe
- doc, the LeadFoot…
We always hear all the time, people are possessive about people and things they have, its very common trait of human nature to be possessive of the materialistic objects and even other human beings :)…
But can it be vice versa also? But if this trait is shown by things, what can we say about that?
This is obviously about my babe, my dahling, my Bullet 500. She is definitely showing such possessiveness towards me… how? I will say she behaves very differently when she is admired or ridden by someone from the fairer sex…lolz…
First time it happened in last monsoon, when we ridden to Mahabaleshwar on one good Sunday and one of my friends came along with me. In the due course of time, my friend ridden her and while coming back my babe started throwing fits. First the muffler holding broke off, and then the accelerator cable gave way. We have to toe her till Pune for almost over 80kms.
Then, in last October, when we ridden to Tarkarli, I was riding, err... rather flying my babe with the new muffler and great sound. We enjoyed our ride to reach to the fullest. Every other GoldStar muffler seems too soft in front of mine... While coming back, during lunch, Preeti (Ram's better half) praised the outcome of my babe (loud thump and etc etc…) and BANG!!! My bike went berserk and the ignition coil went kaput… :( and I have to put her in Tempo to reach Pune halfway through…
Similarly, gone weekend, we have been riding to Varasgaon dam which is pretty close-by to Pune and its very short distance ride and nothing can go wrong. But again she struck again, had few loose bolts (which made her immovable) and got a flat rear tire, first in her lifetime…
This is not only about my babe, this phenomenon seems rampant in other gadgets or equipments too… Today, I came to know from one of my friend that she was trying to send me SMS and her cell didn’t allowed her at all… she tried and tried several times but nothing to avail. To her surprise, her cell phone either shown either ‘message sending failed’ or hanged…
So then I realized that even these gadgets and machines about which we are so possessive also becomes possessive about us… whatssay you? Let me know…
RideHard and Ride Safe
- doc, the LeadFoot…
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