one day ride to kaas plateau

Ride to kaas Plateau, Satara.

Mumbai-->Pune-->Satara-->Kaas-->Satara-->Pune-->Mumbai

Total 620 kms

Log by darth

Riders:
Me,Razorblades,Winzee,Ambidexterous and pulsarider and ChiragV(Till lonavala).

We had decide to meetup very early in the morning.
Had called up everyone 5:00 am and everyone was awake before.Good so there would be no late comers.Started early and reched powai at 5:45.
Winzee was already there.Five minutes later ambidexterous calls up and informs he would be little late as he has lost his keys.Meanwhile Razorblades shows up and we were joined a while later by ChiragV.
Ambidexterous shows up after 10 minute.A round of introduction later we are all set to ride.

Half a kilometer into the ride I slam my brakes.Front disk locks and bike starts fishtailing like crazy and I go skidding into the gravel.My brake settings are incorrect since its straight out of a mechanics place.Good I realised it on a small road then on a highway.Fell downPick up my bike mostly by myself,ambidexetous giving me a hand.Though I have done it often picking up bike at almost 6:00 in morning with me half alsleep and the sudden jerk I gave caused me a sprain in the back and I had to ride with a hurting back for rest of the day

Met up vaibhav at 6:15 ish at center one in Vashi and I adjusted my brakes while rest of the gang was chit chatting.Filled up near dattas while rest of gang had sutta etc.
Sunday morning so there were tons of bikers there.Spotted a R1 flying past on the road and Gopi and Winzee said they spotted a face inside the helmet and it seemed like a chic was riding it
Rode to RKs in lonavala and stopped there for breakfast.......

From left to right:
Pulsarider(Vaibhav),ChiragV,Gopi(Razorblades),Winz ee,Ambidexetous

Dehu Road to satara:
Alrite so finished all this yummy idli-vada sambar and rode to dehu road and from there to sataraWell there isnt
much to write abt this except we rode slow at times..add to it there was some traffic.
Took a couple of stops in between.We finally stopped abt 40 kms from satara where
we met a uncle riding his pulsar from mumbai.He showed us his new seat and expalined that difference is like a seat in volvo bus and ordinary bus
Met another local and we inquired abt our destination
Local:What is there in kass?
Us:flowers
Local:Flowers are all gone.If you want to see flowers you should go to himalayas
Local:You should see badrinath,kedarnath there(maybe wanted to say I have been there)and there are flowers at one place.
Us:Tell us the directions to kass and we will check out
Local gives directions

Bad attitude locals in central and south India have at times.Why the fck was he marketing himalayas when we
had come to his home town?
Just a flashback to my hampi ride I can recollect the cop who we bumped into bang outside the ruins asking me and Navin ,
"What have you come to see here?"."What have you come to visit here????This place ofcourse".
Indian youngsters visiting "Hampi ruins" didnt seem convincing reason.
You should learn a thing or two from people in Rajasthan :P

Call up roamer and learn that he has already reached satara and are planning to leave for Kas.

Reach satara and take old pune satara highway and I was sweeping following ambidexterous and others rode ahead
in the traffic and we got split.Called up Vaibhav and informed that we were waiting at Rajawadi chowk.Well we waited
this guys didnt show up.Suddenly glances on across the chowk and spotted them.Apparently some thulli(Lady thulla) was
speaking to the guys.I crossed the street and joined them.
Razor and Winzee were quite and apparently had no clue of ongoings or what they were charged for(i am sure they still hav no clue)
,with vaibhav and me the only person who understood marathi

I dont see any one way or dividers.
Apparently for a city where all the bikers were helmetless,three people ride on one bike,these guys were being charged
for riding on the wrong side of the lane.Well there was no divider either...... Apparenly a street lamp serves as a
divider and anyone who exits the road on the wrong side of the lamp is fined for riding on the wrong side.

Vaibhav's pocket got a lighter by 100 bucks and the righteous cop stopped us and asked us to collect
the reciept(Must be a fake one)

It was getting late(Must be 1:30 or something)We then rode to Kass which was only 25 kilometers now

'the secret levitation lessons' that we practiced :P

The Dam

Panorama of the lake..

RTR by the lake..

(to be continued..)

Few of my clicks

for some reason i got attached to this song maalai neram

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFZIghHa7dU

Which Ducati are you?

try this,
http://www.peer2.com/programs/detail/12

I got 1198 R

Motorcycle Touring

loved the below article

v. toured, touring, tours
v. intr.
1. To travel from place to place, especially for pleasure.
2. To travel among various places while fulfilling engagements.

Are paagal ho gaye ho kya? (Are you mad?)

Jana hai toh car main yaan bus se jao! Motorcycle pe risk bahut hai. (if you have to go, then go by car or bus! Motorcycle is too risky.)

These are just few of the replies that you get when you mention that want to tour on a motorcycle.

After all a car/bus/train is much more comfortable, you are protected from the elements and at the end of journey you are less tired than you would have been if you had done the same on a motorcycle. These are much safer and at the same time you need not be on a constant state of alert if you are taking a taxi/bus/train.

Then why would any one want to go on a motorcycle, only to reach the destination dirty and tired?

In motorcycle touring, not only the destination matters but also the time spent traveling. Your vacation starts the moment you sit on your bike and start the engine.

It might not be as comfortable or fast as other tools of travel, but then again it?s not a tool! It?s not just a mean to reach your destination; your bike is your constant companion. A cup of tea/coffee will never taste better than the one you will have on small road side tea stall on a cold foggy morning. Even a simple parantha at a road side Dhaba will seem more delicious than an extravagant buffet at a five star hotel, after hours of riding in hills.

You will only need one tour on a motorcycle to get addicted to it for the rest of your life. A day?s journey on a motorcycle will teach more about the world than a month long journey in train. You won?t be locked up in a cage with a small window to look at the wonders of nature. In the morning sun will come out to greet you, while the constant wind will give you a hug reminding you that you are one with the nature. The whole world is your play ground, with new things to discover, new challenges to meet, places to go where very few have gone before.

When you come back from a trip like this and talk to your friends about the things you have seen, places you have visited, there will be a sense of amazement in their eyes. Even though they would have been to the same destination as you, they would have never felt that you were able to feel. They can only dream of doing the same in a metal cage with a view from the window as their outlook to the world.

This, my friend, is the wonderful world of motorcycle touring.

A world where destination is just an excuse for the trip.

A world where less used village roads are preferred to super smooth national highways.

A world where strangers greet you as a long lost friend because both of you choose to tour on motorcycle.

A world where when you get off from your motorcycle suffering from acute mountain sickness and then one look back at the highest road in the world and you instantly make a promise to yourself to do the same road again.

A world where you choose the direction to travel rather than a destination!

source:http://www.bcmtouring.com/forum/articles-f20/motorcycle-touring-t123/

hmm.. long time no see?

its been a very long time since i have blogged..

busted my engine and shelled out around 10k for the below new ones,



bought a new casio watch.. actually it was my childhood dream to own one.. people ask me sarcastically "who in the world buys a watch and pay's emi for it?".. yes it costs 9 thousand bucks :D and i have to change to a better paying job!



nothing interesting that i have done lately other than these two

laters.

Around the Himalayas in 21 days - Motorcycling - Everytrail

Around the Himalayas in 21 days at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Around the himalayas in 21 days! (DAY3)

DAY3



sports tracker link,

Day3 Kishangarh - Delhi




Woke up a little late because of that darn unknown local made A.C! Finally saddled up at 8:30am fueled up in the first visible petrol pump and winzee was crying to get his oil changed since we have covered 1200 kms so far!

cant see any sign of castrol oil anywhere and only mak was avilable and he was not comfortable with it. so we started riding ahead. 50 kms or something, rachit suddenly stopped on the road and he was pointing to the wild camels

wild camels in the sense not fondled by our human race kinda camels. without giving time to the camel to runaway we rode near them very slowly.







those two were romancing and i went in like the villan in hindi films.







i am pretty sure the male camel might have cursed me inside his heart since the female ran away getting scared at me all fully geared up, who would not get scared?














after the refreshing peace in my mind (took a wild animal's photo ) came back to the ride drank some water and we were zipping across the highway. awesome roads.



winzee desperately wanted to change his oil and we promised him Jaipur, but after reaching there we learnt that the highway does not go inside Jaipur. we promised him to stop at the first shop to have castrol sign board.

we did stop at a lot of shops with Castrol in it!, and all were truck oils.. finally found a castrol bike zone and got his oil replaced and we oiled our chains!












Had a good breakfast+lunch.. lotsa omlette, bread and gallons of water. the wierd thing is that i drank around 5 liters of water and did not pee a single time! it was that hot! no liquids in the body! total dehydration! it was fun though!



after riding in the hot sun for a long time finally we found a tree! and bike automatically started going under it for the shade.







we found this interesting unknown bird there. can anyone recogonize it?







its mate got stuck in the ground and got injured in its wings i guess. it was not able to fly!








I was trying to help it to get out of that junk.. meanwhile the one on the tree thought i am going to hurt his mate, declared a state of war by shouting aloud and started to pilot against me.. whoa four close encounters to my face.. it was inches away.

i got scared at the noise it made and i finally gave up on the rescue plan. this is when i pointed a new celebrity the sparrow..,






had some garam chai in the scorching heat (prasad's idea) and we zoomed off..



got a call from delhi xbhpian's that they will meet us once we reach Delhi. we felt very warm inside our hearts! told them that we will be in Delhi around 4:30 to 5:00pm and bid 'good bye till then' and we were on the roads.



roads were butter smooth and we kept on riding! it was around 3:30pm and all were exhausted. stopped at a small dhaba, where we had the best nimbu paani ever! it was 40 bucks for one though!












there was this huge dog there and after seeing us came and sat at the center of the room where we were sitting.







friendly disturbance! he never woke up though!





when we were about to start got a call from dcs and gave me the phone no. of abisheik. before i could save the no. abisheik called asking me weather we have booked any hotel rooms and if not how much was our budget?

he told us to call him once we reach the big Gurgaon-Delhi flyover. entered Gurgaon and reached the flyover at last. Darn it was HUGE Felt like the capital of India.








Contacted Abhishek and he told us to take two flyovers and wait before the third one.. we crossed two and was riding long to find the third one

finally found a huge metro bridge and decided to stop.









We were all looking forward to meet the Delhi xBhp'ians who we never interacted with before. we have just seen their names in few threads and that is it.

Abisheik told us to stay where we are and he will come find us, since i was unable to give him the exact location of ours.



a long distant scream of an rx100 and we all were excited! Abisheik and Shivanshu arrived! God we were feeling good to meet them. someone to speak to in an unknown place.




and the big surprise came.. they said they have booked us a decent hotel room and they will take us there.. can anyone wish for more from a unknown stranger! now it felt really good to be a biker!

thanked the lord and started riding with them. later Kamal also joined.

The traffic was totally chaotic.. people ride in all kinds of directions.. we were literally escorted by Abisheik, Shivanshu and Kamal. they made sure that no one on the road touches us since we were having big saddle bags..

they made sure none of get missed in the traffic.. you must be know how hard it is to do in Delhi



we stopped in front of that hanuman statue at karol bagh entrance for a chit-chat..







from Left to right: Me, Rachit, Abisheik, Kamal, Winzee and Shivanshu.




I was a little embarrassed to get this much help from Delhi guys. I mean we never had met them before, infact never spoke to them before, never even knew that they were in our club!

just because we share the same interest 'biking' they are with us today. there are no words to explain how i felt. without them we would have been totally blind and lost in the big Delhi city.

Thanks a lot guys.



finally lodged into our hotel.. the hotel was awesome.. it had a big double bed, a big tv, a mini bar, couch, tea table and stuff.. all for 1500 and that too for two days in karol bagh!

kamal said he might have found a better hotel if we could have told him a little earlier! and these guys have applied half a day leave in their offices just to meet us.

I was like whoa! Guys like these do exist! Is there anything more to help us! we were very lucky to meet them!



finally they bid us good night.. they were strangers to us no more.. felt like we knew them for years!


we wanted to explore karol bagh.. took bath and we were roaming around the streets of Delhi listening to 'yeh Dilli he meri yaar' from Delhi 6.



and what BIG kulfi's they have there! yummy!





then we were hunting for monk but in vain.. not in delhi too settled for RC. Got a call from Maveric who came from Gurgaon to see us!

I rushed to the hotel and what a cool guy he was.. we were chatting about our trips `n` bikes `n` delhi `n` mumbai `n` the roads ........



the others came with loads of tandoori chicken and food!




Maveric bid us good bye and we feasted on the chicken. later zzzzzzz with the minimum possible a/c temp!