kissed the tarmac !

pulsar180 - Rs.65000
jacket - Rs.4500
gloves - Rs.750

when you dont wear the 4500 worth jacket - useless
slip in a banking and still getting out without major injuries - priceless !

prelude :
i sit as the pillion to get my bike from servicing.. we are at chembur and d rider wizzzez thru till vashi doing a good 100kmph..
get my bike serviced and ready for the lonnng runs...
meet a few friends and are deciding on having a dinner together.. wait for "the rider", but then decide to help him out in his work to get it finished..
he has to deliver some cutlery to his uncle and so we decide me will leave him to the house and then move ahead for dinner..
he sits back.. i turn the throttle..

action:
he says "abhi badla lega kya" (will u take a revenge now?") .. i say "NO", but i see the nice banking turn up ahead and am ready to bank..speed touching around 45-50kmph..i slow a bit and i bank a bit tooo much and the rear looses the grip.. i leave the bike and slide on the tarmac.. gloves do the job of protecting my hands.. but i am not wearing the jacket ! so arm kisses the tarmac... watch "the rider" and bike slide along with sparks towards the divider.. "the rider" hits the divider pretty hard but stand up.. we pick up the bike.. hear people murmuring "thoda dheere to karna tha" (should have slowed down)..

climax:
bike is ok.. i am a ok with my jeans torn and arm bruised.. check "the rider" ,he has got more injuries but none serious.. cutlery - no where to be seen..

retrospection:
overconfidence in banking caused the slide..
should have been more cautious with a pillion behind me..
should have taken the jacket along..

TheSaddleTramps @ Harnai

Destination:
Harnai Port




Route taken:
Mumbai-Vashi-Panvel-Wadkhal-Mangaon-Poladpur
-Kashedi-Khed-Dapoli-Harnai

View Larger Map

Distance covered approximately - 570 kms from mumbai

Batch-1 Riders:
Vaibhav (p180)
Prasad (Zma)
Ishitiaque (LB500)
Sarang (Platina)

Parimal (P180) - meets batch-1 at Mahad

Batch-2 Riders:
Deepak (P150)
Abhijit (Unicorn)
Amit (P220)
Glen (Zma)
Vinod (P180)

Pillion Riders:
Salil with Deepak
Sanket with Glen

the ride:
It all starts as a small group ride for a weekend to the coastal destination of Harnai.. this is near Dapoli, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
Some of the riders decide to start at friday night.. They are all set to ride out at 1am.. messages are exchanged and the time is fixed.. meeting point is the Kings Circle petrol pump.. its 12.30am and Vaibhav rides to Prasad's house who is all set to start the ride.. Sarang is picked up near and the three ride to the pump, fill up the tanks to the brim and are waiting for IshtiBhai..










Prasad calls up IshtiBhai only to understand that Ishti is having some problem with his cramster..so he thinks it might take a max delay of about half an hour .. an hour passes and Prasad calls up again.. This time Ishti doesnt revert the call and they think that he might be on his way.. wait for another half an hour and they get a call..Ishti has still not started.. its already 2am.. by now even the petrol pump workers are perplexed as to what are these 3 upto...
its 3 am and they get a call ..Ishti has finally started his journey from South mumbai..He meets the three standing for 3 hours at 3.30am and finally they start their onward journey at 3.45am..

Ishtibhai the lead and Prasad the drag..

Pit Stop 1 - Pen
distance covered - about 70kms..










Pit Stop 2 - Nagothane..
distance covered - about 110 kms..










Start from Nagothane at 9.30ish after a nice hour sleep.. get a call from Parimal..he was near Mahad..They meet Parimal at Mahad and start their onward journey..

Pit Stop 3 - just before Kashedi
distance covered - about 155 kms..











Pit Stop 4 - Kashedi top..
distance covered - about 175 kms..











Riding the Kashedi at any point in time is awesome.. everything about that Ghat is just perfect.. the riders did enjoy the ride..
They rode for about 50kms and reached Dapoli..Everybody was hungry as the places we stopped were not hotels or dhabas..So another stop at the junction at Dapoli.. This turned out to be the Pit Stop 6..
by this time its all getting under Parimal's skin who had expected a dash to the destination.. but he keeps his cool as usual and moves on with the pack..

Now Ishti's LB needs to quench its thirst.. Pit Stop 7..

Then they just rode till they we able to see the sea..Stop near the beach for some snaps.. by now everybody was looking for a place to place their saddle..Got a great deal at a Hotel Ocean Breeze which is next to the Kamath (MTDC)..

Now the wait for the batch 2 began.. Call up to understand that they have not yet started and its already 6pm..
Ishti and Prasad strike another deal with the hotel guy for the dinner preparations..
Prasad Parimal Vaibhav along with the hotel shef ride to the Harnai Beach Fish Market..










Come back and take some rest.. and are just waiting to hear from the other batch.. there is no contact for sometime.. Tension is increasing in the camp and Ishti tries to calm everyone by lighting the all favourite hukka.. ahh.. all are into the air and everything just settles down....

The batch 2 finally reaches at around 2 in the night .. everyone is tired and most are off to sleep.. some sit back and enjoy the moon lit night..

Next day morning.. Prasad and Parimal decide to leave early as they have personal priorities.. Others leave for the beach to enjoy the morning.. A photosession with all the so called autographers trying their best to get a shot..
They finally leave from there without enjoying the Dolphin ride or the paragliding (Rs.200 for a 2 km run)..They rather prefer the desolated Suvarnadurg and reach there through a water kingdom ride..Guides takes them around for nearly an hour and its time to leave..
Reach back to the hotel.. have lunch.. relax just a bit too much and leave at 5.30pm..Reach Mumbai in the next morning at 5.30am..Covering around 500 kms in abt 12 hours !

First group ride for thesaddletramps was a huge success !

full ablum accessible here

d wild ass ride...

Riders..
Vaibhav Gokhale - Pulsar dtsi UG2
Amit Patil - Pulsar 200

Destination..
The little Rann of Kutch

Route taken..
Mumbai - Ahmedabad - Sakhrej - Sanand - Viramgram - Kharaghoda

Distance covered..
approx 1380 kms

Time taken..
3 days (29th Dec'07 - 31st Dec'07)

Call up Amit on 28th dec and ask him if i could ride with him..He happily agrees and even gives me confidence about riding along..we decide to meet under the andheri flyover at 6am..
i call up Parimal to get some tips for the loooong ride..as usual he is as helpful as he can be.. lends me his Saddle bag(which definitely helped a lot)..
all packed and ready to leave i put an alarm to get up at 4.30..

29th dec:
fone buzzez under my head.. its 4.30am.. get up right away without any snoozing.. Amit gives a call to check if im up and ready to go..
get ready and go down to put on the saddle bag.. it was easy.. not rocket science as i felt :p
leave from house at 5.45am and reach below the andheri (jog) flyover at 6.00am..
wait there and c a guy all geared up for the ride.. Amit it was.. introduce each other and get a few tips from him for the ride..
Amit leads d way..

As we get out of mumbai it starts getting colder..we reach near manor n decide to take a pee stop.. its damn cold there.. hands are numb.. start from there in 10mins..

keep riding through the truck traffic for about 45 mins.. its around 8 am and we have covered only about 80 odd kms.. stop again.. This time have bread jam which amit has packed for the ride..
This time the stop exceeds the 10mins..
keep taking break after every 50 odd kms.. The tarmac is fantastic to ride on..

...butt shaking back breaking ride to Bhimashankar...

Wednesday evening i sit in the office after work and prepare a ride plan... mail everyone the ride plan so that they get the feel of the coming ride... guess what! a call from arun saying dhanajay was in town without his AMD powered pulsar...
a sinking feeling of the ride getting cancelled creeps in my mind... and the fears are confirmed by another call from mohit..

Day 1:
its friday and i start thinking hey its a long time that i have gone for a ride.. and Bhimshankar has been on my mind for a long time..
the itching starts to increase as the day goes by.. i start thinking of some alternative for a day ride so that everybody else can join..
but Almighty had different plans..He wanted me to give Him a visit.. and i an idea flashes across the mind.. how abt riding to pune on friday night! stay at uncles place for the night and start for the ride to bhimashankar the next day!! sounds great.. give it a try.. dial -- home -- dad on the other side.. explain him my plan and .......silence....hesitation.....but i get a Yes.... ask my boss if i could leave early..get a nod.. reason -- pune with family :) On the way i pickup glares for night as the new helmet has a mercury coated visor..
Reach home at 4.45pm.. start packing my stuff into the sack.. get a bottle of juice to give me company through the ride..
Start from matunga at 5.15pm.. its pretty sunny so far..Think that i may be able to get to the ghats before the sunset.. blunder at calculating the timing..
Reach Panvel at 6.30 and the sun is already set..take the panvel bypass...decide to quench my thirst as well as my bikes and fill up petrol at a reliance petrol pump at the bypass..wait for around 10 mins before i start for the journey again..
the sun is already behind the hills... just the orange tinge in the sky making the sky look like it was blushing..
Start from Panvel and reach Khopoli..take a pit stop to inform home that the ride is going safe and have reached the start of the ghat..it was dark by now.. the clock might be around 7 with no sign of the orange or red .. it was black sky..
Start the ascend of the ghat with a biker in front of me on a pulsar and a biker with a pillion behind me on a TVS star..
i think to myself.. boon or bane.. none at the end as they stop just at the start of the ascend to have a sutta at the corner shop..
go ahead alone with only the sound of the engine revving.. gears changing.. the ghat is done without any incidents so is the remaining ride till Chinchwad..my pitstop for the night.. reach there at 8.30pm.

Day 2

Alarm rings- its 5.30 am in the morning... get ready as fast as i can to leave for Bhimashankar..
There are 2 routes that we can take if travelling from Chinchwad.. One goes through the city and out to the NH50 and the other is the NH4 till the Nashik phata..
i chose the NH4 as i did not want to get lost in the city maze...
Start from home at around 6.15am and go to a bunk on NH4.. its closed.. but i have fuel which can take my around 80kms.. so no worries...
Start the ride on the newly laid road of concrete..am doing some 80kmph and miss a lane to get to the flyover...thinking nothing i brake.. and a SCREEEECH!!!! i get to hear some @%#@ early in the morning.. i say sorry to the Toyota Qualis driver and start my ride with more concentration this time...
reach the next fuel bunk on the NH50.. around 20kms from home.. closed.. i reached too early they said.. these bunks open at 7am..
NH50 is a great highway to ride on.. its a four laner just like NH4 but with more and huge trucks..
stop to take some snaps of the NH50..


Back on the pulz to ride to the destination ..The sun was getting hotter as the time passed by and the needle was starting to tilt.. The next bunk i see was on the opposite site of the road.. being the 1st time on that road dint know if there will be any bunks nearby.. so decided to take a u-turn and entered the gas station.. NO PETROL said the truck driver standing there.. a bit disappointed i left the bunk but asked the driver if there were any pumps ahead.. and he replied.."bahut saare".. The next bunk and i quench the thirst..
Forgot to mention that there are two roads that lead to Bhimashankar from NH50.. one diverts from Rajgurunagar and goes through a secluded area of Chas and Wada.. and the other about 10 kms longer diverts from Manchar..

Asked the petrol pump dealer which was better... he said if you go through Chas and Wada there is little chance of getting any help if anything goes wrong... but manchar road condition is also better and has more vehicles towing the road so chance of getting help is much much better...
being alone i decide to ride the 10 kms.. which turn out to be around 18-20 kms.. but that was fine..

Ride for sometime on the straight road and see a board telling me that i was about to ascend a ghat. Khed ghat.. stop to take snaps here as well as a butt break.. Some distance travelling on under the hot sun at around 7.30am.. i reach a spot with a small dam built to restrict water.. It was just awesome and jaw dropping to see the scenery all around.. with little mountains surrounding the place it felt like i was standing in seventh heaven..

i stop at the side of the road looking for some place to get down to water...on the right of me is a hilly region where the Villagers herd theire sheeps and cattle.. i wave to the gaavala pavna..and ask him if there is a place to go down...very happily he shows me the directions to the water.. asked him the name of the village .. heard .. Pohe.. which later turned out to be Dohe..

Wave him off to the water and take some snaps..

This scenic beauty was the start of Pokhari ghat..ahh..not out of pleasure but the pain..Apt to its name .. the pokhari ghat is all Pokharlela (pokharlela = dug up in marathi).. its not exactly dug up but its like moon with all craters on the surface with some road smooth..the ghat is of approx 8-10kms..The ride through this ghat drained me out completely.. the butt was totally shaken and by back nearly broken..

The road after Pokhari ghat was even worse.. There is a 2 kms of patch on the road where there are only ROCKS.. supposedly forgotten to lay the tarmac on that.. I would have been a great classical singer had i rode sometime more on that road..

fortunately the rocks led to the smoothest road that i travelled.. and lead to the jungle of Bhimashankar.. The 1st sign board said.."Drive Cautiously We are passing by"..WE=Leopard, Barking Deer,Bear..etc..Amazed to see such a thing..

i was about 30 kms from Bhimshankar at around 8.15am.. had covered approx 100 kms in 2 hours..The remaining 30kms took me an hour and 15 mins to complete..This is how much the road was bad..

Reached Bhimashankar at9.30am.. took some snaps.. decided not to do some daring stunts to check out Gupt Bhimashankar and head back to Pune at 11am reached safely through the two ghats at 2pm for lunch..

Solo ride to Karnala..

Decided to start at 5.30 in the morning today..meet Mohit Arun at Vashi and go ahead to Karnala..
Got up at 5.00am..n all i was able to hear was the noise that the rain was making on the roof top.. it was raining really hard.. n i was not able to understand how long it was raining.. so called up Mohit and we decided to drop the plan as we had to be back by 10.00am..

but i wasn't happy canceling the ride.. i was so excited to ride that road.. i got up at 11.00am.. and decided to start for the ride alone at 12.30pm..
as i go down to start my bike so did the rain.. it was as heavy as it could be.. so i stopped for a while but the rain Gods had a different idea i suppose..

started my ride in the rain.. It was around 12.50pm then..
i was riding in a heavy downpour.. for a change the roads towards vashi are still in good shape.. so was able to ride at an average speed of 50kmph...

Reached the Palm beach road and my horn started honking continuously.. so stopped beneath the palm beach flyover..tried to remove the wires n put them back..but that dint work.. the horn still honking..a guy standing on a scooter besides me checked it out..he told me the problem was in the button n not in the horns..so that was done.. but the downpour had not yet stopped.. so i decided to wait there for a while..

The rain hadn't stopped yet.. but i was itching to ride.. so started again in the rain.. it was really really heavy and the winds also hard.. riding was made difficult by the bad helmet wiser which the studds helmet has.. anyways had no other choice...but was a great experience..

The rains made way to a beautiful weather as i reached belapur..
decided to fill up petrol near the panvel bypass road.. n took the panvel bypass.. its a toll road similar to the expressway..
reached panvel in no time.. took a right for the NH17 mumbai-goa highway...

the road is all twists and turns.. beautifully laiden.. embraced by nature..
i rode the whole way at a consistent 70-80kmph...saw karnala bird sanctuary pass by me n thot that it was too short.. so decided to ride a few kms more.. rode towards Goa which was just 636kms away.. reached a toll naka and turned back to the sanctuary..reached there at 2.30pm..

parked my bike outside the sanctuary and went in to be disappointed.. there were only 4 cages inside.. one with rabbits.. one with parrots.. one with pea-hen and the last with a pea-cock..
but if one dares.. then there is a Karnala Fort which can be trekked to.. i dint dare it as i was alone n the Fila shoes had no grip..

started back at 3.00pm.. no rains till this point in time.. sat on bike.. n rains.. n the same maddening rains...
rode till the toll naka again to get a feel of the awesome twists...

reached belapur to meet mohit.. made him jealous.. n reached back at 5.30pm to matunga..my residence..
no pics as it was raining so dint take a cam..
but it was an beautiful ride..n the rains made it amazing..!!!