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It all started with an ad about a new bike in 1998(when I was in 8th grade) from Yamaha in a auto magazine my uncle got from USA, with a picture of the bike called the YZF-R1 in a Red-white-black color scheme and that’s when I decided that I am gonna buy one.
After lot of fighting, my uncle agreed on me cutting out that bike picture from the magazine, so my next task was to find more about the bike like power, top speed, price and yes of course mileage.
Yamaha had caught my attention then from the wheelie RXs to the loud RDs...
I just couldn’t get the thought of buying The One out from my head..
So started my mission(then) to save money in a piggy bank(my chocolate allowances, bus travel fare, cycle repair money, painting competition cash money etc) through high school... I often wondered why is there a wall-poster of Sachin Tendulkar available but not of the R1..
During my pre-university years, I used to copy notes, assignments or write records for classmates (more or less everything which couldn’t be photocopied and submitted used to end-up with me) and I used to get paid like Rs 5 per page..
I could finally find a wall-poster of the R1 then and hence picked it up..
My 2003 R1 Poster
Engineering opened new avenues to earn and save money, being a bigger campus and lot of diverse students opened new and big ways to earn money for the bike like hosting parties, working for music concerts, new product promos, call-centres and as a pizza delivery boy. But my most cherished one was pizza delivery at Dominos; At 19, I was paid to ride a motorcycle; all it required was a valid DL (Driving License) and 3 hours of time per day.
Additional incentive was the betting among the delivery boys about who makes the fastest delivery to a particular address - some of my most insane riding days, no rules only speed. (Regret pissing off and endangering so many pedestrians and motorists)...
Somewhere in my 2nd year of engineering, dad got me a 2005 Pulsar 180 and was given a fuel allowance of 800 bucks a month,I saw an opportunity there, so I used to take the bike from my place park it at my friend's place on the adjacent road and used to travel by bus..800 was big money for me then...
By the end of my graduation, I had graduated from the a 2003 R1 poster to a 1:12 Scale model of the 2006 R1..
In fact so happy was I to hold the scale model that I went and bought 2 more models of different colors of the R1 the next day, making it to 3 of Red, Black and Blue color each..
The R1 Triads
Whats left was to pick the life-size replica...
By the end of engineering, before my first job as a programmer I had saved at least 1/4th the money worth the R1..
During my software stint after engineering, the saving mode hit the power band. At the end of about 2.4 years of slogging, ensured that the remaining amount to buy the motorcycle was in my bank account..
During my tenure as a software engineer, I realized that had I bought the R1 then I didn’t have the time to ride it and off course my fitness levels were at the least during that period due to the sedentary lifestyle..Hence I decided that this madness will end the day I pick up the bike..
So after a pursuit of about 11 years, on Jan 3rd 2010, the dream transcended to a reality, from a paper-cutting, to a wall poster, to a scale model and finally onto the real bike, The R1 was realized and it was worth every penny I had saved, worth every moment I had yearned for it
That moment when I saw my name written as the owner in the RC book still and shall always be with me and cant be put in words; better than the taste of Godiva, better than the rush at 200kmph heck better than that first kiss.
The after-effect being a bank balance of Rs 400
My R1
It will be a year with my 2008 R1 in about a fortnight and I want to give her a very special gift, which would be remembered by the biking fraternity in xBhp and in India.
PS: I no longer have that paper-cutting from which this dream started, but I can never forget that piece of paper which was everything to me then, from which that dream took off, that urge started, that pursuit or madness as many thought then started to materialize into a 2008 YZF-R1, 11 years and 48 days and the love story continues…
After lot of fighting, my uncle agreed on me cutting out that bike picture from the magazine, so my next task was to find more about the bike like power, top speed, price and yes of course mileage.
Yamaha had caught my attention then from the wheelie RXs to the loud RDs...
I just couldn’t get the thought of buying The One out from my head..
So started my mission(then) to save money in a piggy bank(my chocolate allowances, bus travel fare, cycle repair money, painting competition cash money etc) through high school... I often wondered why is there a wall-poster of Sachin Tendulkar available but not of the R1..
During my pre-university years, I used to copy notes, assignments or write records for classmates (more or less everything which couldn’t be photocopied and submitted used to end-up with me) and I used to get paid like Rs 5 per page..
I could finally find a wall-poster of the R1 then and hence picked it up..
My 2003 R1 Poster
Additional incentive was the betting among the delivery boys about who makes the fastest delivery to a particular address - some of my most insane riding days, no rules only speed. (Regret pissing off and endangering so many pedestrians and motorists)...
Somewhere in my 2nd year of engineering, dad got me a 2005 Pulsar 180 and was given a fuel allowance of 800 bucks a month,I saw an opportunity there, so I used to take the bike from my place park it at my friend's place on the adjacent road and used to travel by bus..800 was big money for me then...
By the end of my graduation, I had graduated from the a 2003 R1 poster to a 1:12 Scale model of the 2006 R1..
In fact so happy was I to hold the scale model that I went and bought 2 more models of different colors of the R1 the next day, making it to 3 of Red, Black and Blue color each..
The R1 Triads
By the end of engineering, before my first job as a programmer I had saved at least 1/4th the money worth the R1..
During my software stint after engineering, the saving mode hit the power band. At the end of about 2.4 years of slogging, ensured that the remaining amount to buy the motorcycle was in my bank account..
During my tenure as a software engineer, I realized that had I bought the R1 then I didn’t have the time to ride it and off course my fitness levels were at the least during that period due to the sedentary lifestyle..Hence I decided that this madness will end the day I pick up the bike..
So after a pursuit of about 11 years, on Jan 3rd 2010, the dream transcended to a reality, from a paper-cutting, to a wall poster, to a scale model and finally onto the real bike, The R1 was realized and it was worth every penny I had saved, worth every moment I had yearned for it
That moment when I saw my name written as the owner in the RC book still and shall always be with me and cant be put in words; better than the taste of Godiva, better than the rush at 200kmph heck better than that first kiss.
The after-effect being a bank balance of Rs 400
My R1
It will be a year with my 2008 R1 in about a fortnight and I want to give her a very special gift, which would be remembered by the biking fraternity in xBhp and in India.
PS: I no longer have that paper-cutting from which this dream started, but I can never forget that piece of paper which was everything to me then, from which that dream took off, that urge started, that pursuit or madness as many thought then started to materialize into a 2008 YZF-R1, 11 years and 48 days and the love story continues…
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