TOURING ON SUPERBIKES: New Delhi - Mt Abu. - xBhp.com : The Global Indian Biking Community

ken cool · 10-23-2008, 09:57 AM

INTRODUCTION.

Bikeism is a new age coinage. And I seem to be not too far from it. I have not had a craze for high power between my legs. But I did not mind looking at the powerful bikes in the few magazines that my father got from his technical library and some others that I got to see from my biker friends when I was small. But I rarely got to see one in real life on the streets of India. In all, I would have probably seen a dozen bikes in this country where bigger capacity bikes is still a restricted item and rightly so. I had done some amount of touring in Rajasthan, some in Himachal and little bit as a kid sitting pillion with my father. But nothing compared to some of the extreme touring done by some people I know today. Then I went abroad and I got to see BIG bikes. I fell flat on my face as I saw those monsters roaming the streets freely like caged circus lions and other wild beasts let lose. And I took for granted that in these countries it is possible. And one can never own such bikes in India.

I let it go at that and I let go of a dream that I could have nurtured. Almost a decade later, with huge advances in IT, and the Internet crossing the billion users mark, I joined an online biker’s club, xBhp.com, with lots of offline activities. Soon I started joining in the offline activities and I started dreaming once again. And it wasn’t long before I started my search, this time in earnest for a superbike. We will not go into the details of definitions of what exactly is a superbike.

At the same time I was getting out of a terrible crisis in my personal life and Bikeism and a certain Ritu guided me through the dark period to get me grooving yet again. And I moved up in bike engine capacity. I went gradually into superbikingdom through stages. But that is another story that I will talk about some other time.

Once I had acquired my now-prized possession of a brand new Yamaha YZF R1, 2006 and had well and properly broken into it, I had to take it out longer than just the Greater Noida Expressway or a quick ride to the Aravalli Resorts on NH8 which is what most bikers with “Big” bikes do once a month. I knew Vivek, also from the same club. He has a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. He is also an avid tourer. I got hold of him and we decided to hit the road on our respective bikes some time in November. That is how this tour took shape.

---------------------------
The Decision... and it begins.

Touring on superbikes? You are crazy. No one does it here. You buy a superbike, put it in your bedroom, look at it, polish it, look at it some more, call people to look at it and go out in your car. And then sell it off at the end of the year to buy the newer model and put it again in your bedroom.

I like to tour. And I like touring on bikes. And I wanted to tour on my newest acquisition, my R1, which had just come out of breaking-in period. I told Vivek, lets go to Rajasthan. We could not and had not decided till the penultimate day where we were going. We met, we talked, we discussed, but we were undecided on our destination. Did we want to do fast straight lines through the desert, or did we want to do twists and some attempt at canyon scratching. It was either Jaisalmer with fast straights or Mt. Abu with lots more to biking than just straight lines. Finally we decided on Mt. Abu a day before our departure.

And soon, after much pestering Vivek at his work place with innumerable phone calls, I got a check list from him which looked something like this:

1. Camera
2. Thermal inner
3. General medicines
4. Octane boosters
5. Balaclava
6. Shaving kit + mouthwash + comb + shampoo + Soap
7. Moisturizer
8. SPF 30
9. Face wash
10. Mobile phone and charger
11. Handkerchiefs
12. Change for one day
13. 100ml measurer
14. Spare key
15. Trouser/payjama
16. Puncture repair kit
16. Air pump
18. Spare bungee cord.
19. Small tube for Petrol xfer
20. Eye drops
21. Cash for petrol

This was a pretty comprehensive list and I added Eicher Maps, swimming trunks and swimming goggles to the list. While Vivek and I were on phone calls over two days, another female voice started calling us from the electronic media, CNN. She was doing a story on the GQ= Golden Quadrilateral, her sector being Delhi – Jaipur, she wanted to cover us in that stretch. It is really a global village we are living in. Vivek and I had barely managed to nail our destination and the media already had the whiff of it. Why not, I mused! As long as our plans don’t get disturbed. But then that is another story.

(For people who ride Sbks, interesting info regarding Octane Boosters, you will get SPF octane boosters in Khan Market)

I started packing my stuff and I was wondering how will all my stuff from the check-list get into one bag that I was planning to carry on my back. I managed to do it, pack everything in. It looked a bit bulky. It felt heavier still. And on my back, I looked more like a trekker in Ladakh than someone who was planning to do 700 kilometers on a 174 Bhp Supersports bike! I checked myself in the mirror and decided that this will have to do. What a way to get things going!

The Riders: Vivek

And yours truly:

Photo credit: Sunny.

The Bikes.

24 Nov 2006.

Vivek was supposed to come to my house at 6 in the morning, have breakfast, and move on, meeting point with CNN on NH8, Airport Road, at the end of the runway, a place we lovingly call Jumbo Point since my JNU days since those days I used to go there with my girlfriend on my Blue Bullet sixteen years ago to see the Jumbos land and take off in awe while the ice-cream dripped all over our fingers. Now I was going there with another friend on a Ninja and me on an R1, both BLACK! Vivek was bang on time, as usual. He had a light breakfast and off we went.

The TV crew was already there in place. So were the POLICE! How can there be bikers and no Police! But these police were nice. They were in their best behaviour. So were we. Somehow we are in our best behaviour the moment there is a camera rolling somewhere! I even let the cops sit on the R1. And they even smiled! Yes the police can actually smile. I smiled back and they looked embarrassed.

After the takes of whatever they were shooting for our departure, we said that we would move off and wait for them at the uphill bend of Manesar. With that we left the CNN crew behind with their black Scorpio to pack up and Vivek and I started warming up our bikes on the flyovers in Gurgaon that have been opened to traffic. We were doing 150+ on those stretches, a sheer pleasure, with no traffic, the sun just about rising, the nippy morning air, and the five lanes in front, all to me. The tyres were cold, and I had to warm them too. So I started slaloming gently across the width of the five lanes at 150ks. Whoa! Have you done it? I strictly advise you to do it. If your tyres need breaking-in, go to the Gurgaon flyovers at 7 in the morning and slalom around the place at 150 km/h.

We started pretty early. At 0630 hours. We reached the bend of Manesar and parked to the side. We realized that the TV crew would not be there in a hurry. Vivek decided to lubricate my chain. It was quite early in the day, but I started getting worried when the black Scorpio did not show up for 10 minutes. I did not want to get too delayed. And finally they came limping up the slope, what a waste of a Scorpio. And then we were stopping every 15 kilometres, to shoot, to take sound bytes, to shoot us coming in, us riding off, us bending into a curve, and then retakes and re-retakes galore, coz a take is never good enough and a retake is just a repeat of the same mistakes! And before we knew it, it was past 10 in the morning and we had barely 150 kilometres. And a highway board announced Jaipur 107 kilometres. And we were a good 700 kilometres from our final destination! I wanted to leave Jaipur by noon at worst. But then the new age adage goes thus, Man proposes, Media disposes!

Waiting for the CNN crew!

The Reporter explaining finer points to Vivek the Rider!!

The whole team grabbing a byte!

Camel Vs Ninja!

Fuel to burn!

Amer Fort.

The Conquerors:

When the CNN IBN girl was finally through with us, it was nearly 1500 hours as we left Jaipur and we hit the GVK Expressway and we started unleashing our horses as we rode with the sun staring down our visors. But that was hardly a deterrent as we started flirting with the 200kms mark once in a while.

I saw a guy driving a Honda Accord really fast. I drew up alongside just to see how fast he was doing. My speedo showed 148 Km/h. I looked at the guy behind the wheel, crouched and focused. He glanced at me. I gave the hint of a smile and cocked my head to the road. I was acting flagrantly cocky. But then the horses between my legs give a license to be cocky at times to these often overtly cocky cage owners. I did not even need to downshift. A gentle twist of the throttle and I smoked that guy with effortless ease. It was so easy, I could have been sitting on that R1 eating a sandwich as I overtook that Accord.

Vivek was playing similar games with a Merc 220. The guys in the Merc were left gasping for breath and probably a decision to get a refund from their Merc dealer! This was the fastest average speed that I have done with an internal combustion engine, ANYWHERE! We did 92+ kilometres in 45 minutes flat. That is more than 120 km/h average speed.

That was one exhilarating ride. We probably managed to save a quarter of an hour while we played around on the Expressway with gearshifts, the RPM counter, braking by un-crouching and bringing up our bodies against the wind force at 150+ kms. There is a lot to be worked on, experimented, tried, smoothened out in bike riding. This is a continuous learning process.

And then coming into Ajmer, Vivek lost me. He went into the city. I took the bypass. We lost another critical hour as we were fast losing daylight. And if you have read my earlier articles, I simply hate riding at night in India for obvious reasons that I am not going to elaborate yet again. I looked in the RVM, I could not see Vivek anymore. I looked back, slowed down and finally stopped and started calling him. He did not pick up the phone. I decided to wait and not move at all and kept calling him.

When you are riding with someone, and you lose, first thing you do in our modern age, keep your phone at full charge at all times and check your mobile. Vivek called me after 40 minutes saying that he had crossed Ajmer and was waiting at the bifurcation to Pali. I asked him to wait. But on the whole we lost about an hour of precious daylight. Yes, that is precious to me. But I will stop harping on that now. I found Vivek waiting for me 26 kms down the road and we continued. I was coming to my second yellow light indication of going on to reserve. Another point to be noted that I refueled far fewer times than the Ninja. The R1 is a bit more fuel-efficient than the Ninja. And I had a tank bigger by a liter. And now we had no more the luxury of 97octane petrol satisfying the thirst of our machines. So we decided to refuel at Reliance mixed with Octane boosters. The strange mix of 97Octane petrol with Reliance (supposedly 90Octane) with boosters seemed to work really fine with the engines.

Romancing the roads between Béawar and Pali.

The sun had set. We had ridden together into the sunset, romancing the roads. The road from Beawar to Pali is really beautiful, well laid tarmac, broad enough for two trucks, that is our benchmark to define wide roads I suppose, twisting through the Aravallis, with not too much traffic, it was a pleasure going through this part. We were well into the darkness of the night by the time we crossed Pali. And the romance was over. And the difficult part had already begun.

It was past 2000hours and we were still 250 kms away from our destination with two thousand trucks to overtake and another three thousand coming our way. This was certainly not the best part of our journey. And the road from Pali to Sandérao was worn off in patches due to the inundations in September. Vivek said that he was blind and could not see much. He was just following me. Good, that way I would not lose him. I kept overtaking the trucks. And the trucks kept coming from front. And Vivek kept following me. It took us nearly 3 hours to do 220 kms. And finally we stopped at Abu Road to eat at a Dhaba, figuring out that F&B at the hotel we were headed would have closed.

The last 22 kms were the twisties of the climb to Mount Abu. We did it in total solitude, no traffic, no headlights to encounter, no overtaking, just sheer biking pleasure on hill roads in total darkness lit up only by the bright white lights of our machines. It was pretty cold, but the activity of bending the bikes non-stop kept us warm. We also realized towards the end of the ride that the palms and the Venus mound were aching from the twists. Changing gears often, more control on the throttle, moving the bike around brought into play a totally different set of muscles and this brought about a mild ache.

We reached Mount Abu and the temperature showed 7°C. And the trip meter showed 794 kilometres. Finally we entered the royal gates of BIKANER PALACE. It was nearly midnight. A room was allotted to us. It felt good to find a nice cozy bed and I was out like a light.

Nov 25 2006

Breakfast in Royalty.

This was a day of doing nothing. Took the bikes out for short rides. I had to go out. I cannot resist riding if I see my bike sitting there right in front of my eyes. In the afternoon we walked to the Delwara Temples, the most intricately carved marble temples in human history. No other marble carving even comes close. And the oldest temple is nearly one millennium old!

In the morning we walked to downtown, lazed around near Nakki Lake. We came back to the Bikaner Palace. Ambled around in the vast campus. It is a Palace built by the Maharaja of Bikaner in the beginning of the 20th century as a summer palace where he used to come down either with the Royal family or with guests, Indian or foreign in cooler climes.

Bikaner Palace, Mt. Abu.

We sat in the huge gardens soaking up the sun and we discussed our biking exploits. It was a fantastic ride the previous day. I never thought that I would be doing nearly 800 kilometres in a single day on a superbike someday. We talked about performance, about petrol quality, about bending and curves details of which are posted in the Notes section below.

We were still pretty tired and Vivek slept a lot! Both during the day and the night.

Royal Retreat!

Nov 26 2006

We took our time to leave. There was no hurry. We left after 10 in the morning. Initially the ride was downhill from Abu to Abu Road. I tried applying the techniques that Vivek had discussed with me. I realized that while coming down the curves, I was far less confident than the previous night. At night, I could not see the state of the road. Now during the day, I could see that the road was pretty slick. And each time I downshifted, my rear wheel fishtailed. But I tried to apply the basics. All the way down and I started growing ever so slowly in confidence even though I lagged behind Vivek a lot.

There was some confusion about the route that we wanted to take. And we got mixed reactions from everyone, right from the Palace, to the people at the Petrol bunk to the other riders and truck drivers. I knew the way back to Sandérao – Ranakpur – Gogunda, and this route is pretty decent. We were told to take another road via Balaji. And yet others told us to take the NH76 via Pindwara. Finally we decided to take this one and it turned out to be pretty decent after the initial patch where the road was pretty broken, uneven and a blocked up level crossing. But then the road smoothened out and we rode through the green jungle of the Aravallis, climbing, turning, curving, dipping, the works. And finally we came to the part where they are making a 2X2 highway. In those parts, with numerous diversions, we were being made to do long stretches of dirt riding with supposedly “delicate” Supersport Superbikes. Let me remind skeptics at this moment that I am proud to have done these roads and advice guys who are scared to take their superbikes out of their bed-rooms, there is absolutely no problem.

Mount Abu - Udaipur

Jungles of the Aravallis.

Dirt riding them superbikes!

We stopped a few times to take pictures, to drink water, to take a leak, and we arrived in Udaipur around 1400 hours after nearly 180 kms of riding. We had lunch and promptly took a nap. Vivek started sleeping profoundly yet again. Wow! This guy can sure sleep.

We went out to take a round of the Fatehsagar Lake at sunset. It’s a nice ride. Lots of young crowd, on foot, on bikes, in cars, on camels, guys, girls, come to hang out here. Curious eyes followed us. One of them even asked me if we were riding “original bikes”. I said, “No, they were duplicates!” I had a good mind of telling him they were photocopies!

Room with a view

Fatehsagar lake.

Nov 27 2006

We wanted to leave early to reach early to avoid the Gurgaon traffic. That did not happen. By the time we left the hotel, it was past 0930 hours. We stopped to take gas. And then we hit the four-lane highway. And we were cruising at speeds of 150km/h. There was practically no traffic. I did something to avoid strain. I did not crouch. I nearly lay down on the tank. And I started resting my elbows on my knees! This felt pretty neat and comfortable as I cruised at 150. Of course the moment there were bends coming along I got back to the usual riding stance.

I had started applying Vivek’s inputs on bending the bike and I was getting progressively confident. In fact I am pretty happy on wide large bends doing them at over 120 km/h rather than the close hilly curves. Me being a miserable bender of the bike, I ended up taking some curves upwards of 140km/h. I was pretty pleased with myself.

The Return.

Pit Stop

Raring to BLAST!

Pit stop again

We hit the GVK Expressway once more. Stopped for a light lunch. And continued our way to Delhi. I crossed 200 several times on this day on every stretch (see Notes below). Finally at 1730 we hit Gurgaon, horrible time to be there. Vivek and I split there and went our respective ways.

I reached home, parked, climbed the stairs, and unpacked. And then I started planning my next trip. I called up Vivek. He had reached home safely.

It has not even been 48 hours and we are already planning our next trip!

NOTES:

Need better helmets than Gp1! These helmets don’t stay in place on speeds higher than 130Km/h. The ears stay pressed and I don’t like that. I like the helmets like HJC that I tried in which my ears pop free once the helmet settles down on the head.
We were doing regular stops, every hour or 100 kms: to drink, re-hydrate, take a pee, stretch, clean visors which gets totally covered with smashed bugs after an hour of riding! It is very important to stop while riding really fast crouched. One should relax the neck, stretch the back and the cervical.
Bending techniques: Vivek’s input: I am a miserable bender of the bike on curves. Vivek said, get into the curve with a speed that you feel is the slowest that you can do at the optimum gear. Do not change gears once you have hit the bend, or do not accelerate fast before the apex and before you see the road clear ahead of you, even if this means doing the curve at 20km/h with a superbike. Doing this often enough will help you gain in confidence. And you will start getting into the curve progressively faster with time, patience and practice.
We decided to refuel with Reliance as we thought that there were less chances of adulteration since they are company owned pumps. I used Speed once and I was definitely not happy. I was putting in 120 ml of Octane Boosters to about 16 liters of fuel. But at the last fill, when I reached Delhi, I could hear pinging when I was loading the engine.
Crossing 200 on relatively busy two-lane highways with no fencing, jaywalkers, animals straying on and even vehicles coming in from the gap in the median, it is a question of sheer luck. If you believe luck is on your side, go ahead and do it. I advice you to stay between the 140-150 mark unless you are absolutely sure of doing faster times. On three-lane highways, like the GVK Expressway between Jaipur and Ajmer, with clear visibility, more spaced traffic, proper fencing, no stray animals, I was doing 200+ often, Vivek was going berserk in ecstasy and it was clearly less risky on this particular stretch. But I don’t advice it still. On the way back from Jaipur, while I was doing 150+ at one stretch when suddenly a Maruti 800 came on to the road without even looking on to the oncoming traffic. I don’t know how I managed to swerve to the left and save those poor soul’s lives, else I would have cut them in half probably. Bottom line: ride fast enough leaving enough reaction time to adjust and save damage to life and property.

Special mention and a big thanks to Ninja Rider Vivek for is company, his endless stories about touring, his expert advice and his readiness to help and tour. Hope to tour with you again.

Thanks to CNN IBN reporter, Urvashi, for not making life too difficult for us.

Text and Photos: Krishnendu Kes aka KEN.

Post Scriptum: A lot has changed in the last two years. I use Shark Helmet always. SMX4 Riding boots and so on. I am putting this post up yet again for the benefit of certain riders who may be contemplating a similar venture soon. There are two routes back from Udaipur. Both are fun. I have done both, recently and on Superbikes. I may put up the ride report shortly. Any questions... I will gladly answer.

For those who are aware of this thread... there will be the subsequent Part II, III and IV coming up as well.

Aryan · 10-23-2008, 11:08 AM

Topic Approved.

M@n()J · 10-23-2008, 09:32 PM

Touring on superbikes-WOW

.Hats off to you guys for touring on such beasts!!Lovely pics and narration!The Introduction part is awesome!!!Wish I could tour on such beasts someday

manan_in_2000 · 10-23-2008, 10:43 PM

Ken sir, why in this world you were touring on SBK in such formals....

Anyways! It was great read, I read this sometime back as well, but still it is as refreshing as ever.

ken cool · 10-24-2008, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manan_in_2000

Ken sir, why in this world you were touring on SBK in such formals....

Anyways! It was great read, I read this sometime back as well, but still it is as refreshing as ever.

Thanks.

No, I was not touring in formals. That was a photoshoot with Sunny during GIR just after leg 1 got over.

Aryan · 10-24-2008, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken cool

I saw a guy driving a Honda Accord really fast. I drew up alongside just to see how fast he was doing. My speedo showed 148 Km/h. I looked at the guy behind the wheel, crouched and focused. He glanced at me. I gave the hint of a smile and cocked my head to the road. I was acting flagrantly cocky. But then the horses between my legs give a license to be cocky at times to these often overtly cocky cage owners. I did not even need to downshift. A gentle twist of the throttle and I smoked that guy with effortless ease. It was so easy, I could have been sitting on that R1 eating a sandwich as I overtook that Accord.

Vivek was playing similar games with a Merc 220. The guys in the Merc were left gasping for breath and probably a decision to get a refund from their Merc dealer!

My personal two favourite part(s) in this whole article!!

rpmboy · 10-27-2008, 12:47 AM

Sbk 's can beat the shit out of cars ...........but like this way, was totally diff. gr8 write up n pics

kar1zma · 10-27-2008, 01:53 AM

interesting write up as always ken implanning on a shorter 450kms one way trip on my ninja soon this will surely help me plan mine better

haxor · 10-27-2008, 10:14 AM

this is what we call renewable v/s non-renewable resources of fuel....

EL LOCO DIABLO · 10-27-2008, 10:45 AM

Wow really interesting read this! How well did the tyres, shocks, and disc pads hold up against dusty and bad roads (if you had encountered any)? I heard somewhere that sometimes superbikes can get really thirsty for engine oil during prolonged trips, how was it in your case? Would be really helpful if you could elaborate on the technical aspects as well

10-23-2008, 09:57 AM	#1 (permalink)
ken cool Been Around Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: New Delhi Posts: 4,649	TOURING ON SUPERBIKES: New Delhi - Mt Abu. INTRODUCTION. Bikeism is a new age coinage. And I seem to be not too far from it. I have not had a craze for high power between my legs. But I did not mind looking at the powerful bikes in the few magazines that my father got from his technical library and some others that I got to see from my biker friends when I was small. But I rarely got to see one in real life on the streets of India. In all, I would have probably seen a dozen bikes in this country where bigger capacity bikes is still a restricted item and rightly so. I had done some amount of touring in Rajasthan, some in Himachal and little bit as a kid sitting pillion with my father. But nothing compared to some of the extreme touring done by some people I know today. Then I went abroad and I got to see BIG bikes. I fell flat on my face as I saw those monsters roaming the streets freely like caged circus lions and other wild beasts let lose. And I took for granted that in these countries it is possible. And one can never own such bikes in India. I let it go at that and I let go of a dream that I could have nurtured. Almost a decade later, with huge advances in IT, and the Internet crossing the billion users mark, I joined an online biker’s club, xBhp.com, with lots of offline activities. Soon I started joining in the offline activities and I started dreaming once again. And it wasn’t long before I started my search, this time in earnest for a superbike. We will not go into the details of definitions of what exactly is a superbike. At the same time I was getting out of a terrible crisis in my personal life and Bikeism and a certain Ritu guided me through the dark period to get me grooving yet again. And I moved up in bike engine capacity. I went gradually into superbikingdom through stages. But that is another story that I will talk about some other time. Once I had acquired my now-prized possession of a brand new Yamaha YZF R1, 2006 and had well and properly broken into it, I had to take it out longer than just the Greater Noida Expressway or a quick ride to the Aravalli Resorts on NH8 which is what most bikers with “Big” bikes do once a month. I knew Vivek, also from the same club. He has a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. He is also an avid tourer. I got hold of him and we decided to hit the road on our respective bikes some time in November. That is how this tour took shape. --------------------------- The Decision... and it begins. Touring on superbikes? You are crazy. No one does it here. You buy a superbike, put it in your bedroom, look at it, polish it, look at it some more, call people to look at it and go out in your car. And then sell it off at the end of the year to buy the newer model and put it again in your bedroom. I like to tour. And I like touring on bikes. And I wanted to tour on my newest acquisition, my R1, which had just come out of breaking-in period. I told Vivek, lets go to Rajasthan. We could not and had not decided till the penultimate day where we were going. We met, we talked, we discussed, but we were undecided on our destination. Did we want to do fast straight lines through the desert, or did we want to do twists and some attempt at canyon scratching. It was either Jaisalmer with fast straights or Mt. Abu with lots more to biking than just straight lines. Finally we decided on Mt. Abu a day before our departure. And soon, after much pestering Vivek at his work place with innumerable phone calls, I got a check list from him which looked something like this: 1. Camera 2. Thermal inner 3. General medicines 4. Octane boosters 5. Balaclava 6. Shaving kit + mouthwash + comb + shampoo + Soap 7. Moisturizer 8. SPF 30 9. Face wash 10. Mobile phone and charger 11. Handkerchiefs 12. Change for one day 13. 100ml measurer 14. Spare key 15. Trouser/payjama 16. Puncture repair kit 16. Air pump 18. Spare bungee cord. 19. Small tube for Petrol xfer 20. Eye drops 21. Cash for petrol This was a pretty comprehensive list and I added Eicher Maps, swimming trunks and swimming goggles to the list. While Vivek and I were on phone calls over two days, another female voice started calling us from the electronic media, CNN. She was doing a story on the GQ= Golden Quadrilateral, her sector being Delhi – Jaipur, she wanted to cover us in that stretch. It is really a global village we are living in. Vivek and I had barely managed to nail our destination and the media already had the whiff of it. Why not, I mused! As long as our plans don’t get disturbed. But then that is another story. (For people who ride Sbks, interesting info regarding Octane Boosters, you will get SPF octane boosters in Khan Market) I started packing my stuff and I was wondering how will all my stuff from the check-list get into one bag that I was planning to carry on my back. I managed to do it, pack everything in. It looked a bit bulky. It felt heavier still. And on my back, I looked more like a trekker in Ladakh than someone who was planning to do 700 kilometers on a 174 Bhp Supersports bike! I checked myself in the mirror and decided that this will have to do. What a way to get things going! The Riders: Vivek And yours truly: Photo credit: Sunny. The Bikes. 24 Nov 2006. Vivek was supposed to come to my house at 6 in the morning, have breakfast, and move on, meeting point with CNN on NH8, Airport Road, at the end of the runway, a place we lovingly call Jumbo Point since my JNU days since those days I used to go there with my girlfriend on my Blue Bullet sixteen years ago to see the Jumbos land and take off in awe while the ice-cream dripped all over our fingers. Now I was going there with another friend on a Ninja and me on an R1, both BLACK! Vivek was bang on time, as usual. He had a light breakfast and off we went. The TV crew was already there in place. So were the POLICE! How can there be bikers and no Police! But these police were nice. They were in their best behaviour. So were we. Somehow we are in our best behaviour the moment there is a camera rolling somewhere! I even let the cops sit on the R1. And they even smiled! Yes the police can actually smile. I smiled back and they looked embarrassed. After the takes of whatever they were shooting for our departure, we said that we would move off and wait for them at the uphill bend of Manesar. With that we left the CNN crew behind with their black Scorpio to pack up and Vivek and I started warming up our bikes on the flyovers in Gurgaon that have been opened to traffic. We were doing 150+ on those stretches, a sheer pleasure, with no traffic, the sun just about rising, the nippy morning air, and the five lanes in front, all to me. The tyres were cold, and I had to warm them too. So I started slaloming gently across the width of the five lanes at 150ks. Whoa! Have you done it? I strictly advise you to do it. If your tyres need breaking-in, go to the Gurgaon flyovers at 7 in the morning and slalom around the place at 150 km/h. We started pretty early. At 0630 hours. We reached the bend of Manesar and parked to the side. We realized that the TV crew would not be there in a hurry. Vivek decided to lubricate my chain. It was quite early in the day, but I started getting worried when the black Scorpio did not show up for 10 minutes. I did not want to get too delayed. And finally they came limping up the slope, what a waste of a Scorpio. And then we were stopping every 15 kilometres, to shoot, to take sound bytes, to shoot us coming in, us riding off, us bending into a curve, and then retakes and re-retakes galore, coz a take is never good enough and a retake is just a repeat of the same mistakes! And before we knew it, it was past 10 in the morning and we had barely 150 kilometres. And a highway board announced Jaipur 107 kilometres. And we were a good 700 kilometres from our final destination! I wanted to leave Jaipur by noon at worst. But then the new age adage goes thus, Man proposes, Media disposes! Waiting for the CNN crew! The Reporter explaining finer points to Vivek the Rider!! The whole team grabbing a byte! Camel Vs Ninja! Fuel to burn! Amer Fort. The Conquerors: When the CNN IBN girl was finally through with us, it was nearly 1500 hours as we left Jaipur and we hit the GVK Expressway and we started unleashing our horses as we rode with the sun staring down our visors. But that was hardly a deterrent as we started flirting with the 200kms mark once in a while. I saw a guy driving a Honda Accord really fast. I drew up alongside just to see how fast he was doing. My speedo showed 148 Km/h. I looked at the guy behind the wheel, crouched and focused. He glanced at me. I gave the hint of a smile and cocked my head to the road. I was acting flagrantly cocky. But then the horses between my legs give a license to be cocky at times to these often overtly cocky cage owners. I did not even need to downshift. A gentle twist of the throttle and I smoked that guy with effortless ease. It was so easy, I could have been sitting on that R1 eating a sandwich as I overtook that Accord. Vivek was playing similar games with a Merc 220. The guys in the Merc were left gasping for breath and probably a decision to get a refund from their Merc dealer! This was the fastest average speed that I have done with an internal combustion engine, ANYWHERE! We did 92+ kilometres in 45 minutes flat. That is more than 120 km/h average speed. That was one exhilarating ride. We probably managed to save a quarter of an hour while we played around on the Expressway with gearshifts, the RPM counter, braking by un-crouching and bringing up our bodies against the wind force at 150+ kms. There is a lot to be worked on, experimented, tried, smoothened out in bike riding. This is a continuous learning process. And then coming into Ajmer, Vivek lost me. He went into the city. I took the bypass. We lost another critical hour as we were fast losing daylight. And if you have read my earlier articles, I simply hate riding at night in India for obvious reasons that I am not going to elaborate yet again. I looked in the RVM, I could not see Vivek anymore. I looked back, slowed down and finally stopped and started calling him. He did not pick up the phone. I decided to wait and not move at all and kept calling him. When you are riding with someone, and you lose, first thing you do in our modern age, keep your phone at full charge at all times and check your mobile. Vivek called me after 40 minutes saying that he had crossed Ajmer and was waiting at the bifurcation to Pali. I asked him to wait. But on the whole we lost about an hour of precious daylight. Yes, that is precious to me. But I will stop harping on that now. I found Vivek waiting for me 26 kms down the road and we continued. I was coming to my second yellow light indication of going on to reserve. Another point to be noted that I refueled far fewer times than the Ninja. The R1 is a bit more fuel-efficient than the Ninja. And I had a tank bigger by a liter. And now we had no more the luxury of 97octane petrol satisfying the thirst of our machines. So we decided to refuel at Reliance mixed with Octane boosters. The strange mix of 97Octane petrol with Reliance (supposedly 90Octane) with boosters seemed to work really fine with the engines. Romancing the roads between Béawar and Pali. The sun had set. We had ridden together into the sunset, romancing the roads. The road from Beawar to Pali is really beautiful, well laid tarmac, broad enough for two trucks, that is our benchmark to define wide roads I suppose, twisting through the Aravallis, with not too much traffic, it was a pleasure going through this part. We were well into the darkness of the night by the time we crossed Pali. And the romance was over. And the difficult part had already begun. It was past 2000hours and we were still 250 kms away from our destination with two thousand trucks to overtake and another three thousand coming our way. This was certainly not the best part of our journey. And the road from Pali to Sandérao was worn off in patches due to the inundations in September. Vivek said that he was blind and could not see much. He was just following me. Good, that way I would not lose him. I kept overtaking the trucks. And the trucks kept coming from front. And Vivek kept following me. It took us nearly 3 hours to do 220 kms. And finally we stopped at Abu Road to eat at a Dhaba, figuring out that F&B at the hotel we were headed would have closed. The last 22 kms were the twisties of the climb to Mount Abu. We did it in total solitude, no traffic, no headlights to encounter, no overtaking, just sheer biking pleasure on hill roads in total darkness lit up only by the bright white lights of our machines. It was pretty cold, but the activity of bending the bikes non-stop kept us warm. We also realized towards the end of the ride that the palms and the Venus mound were aching from the twists. Changing gears often, more control on the throttle, moving the bike around brought into play a totally different set of muscles and this brought about a mild ache. We reached Mount Abu and the temperature showed 7°C. And the trip meter showed 794 kilometres. Finally we entered the royal gates of BIKANER PALACE. It was nearly midnight. A room was allotted to us. It felt good to find a nice cozy bed and I was out like a light. Nov 25 2006 Breakfast in Royalty. This was a day of doing nothing. Took the bikes out for short rides. I had to go out. I cannot resist riding if I see my bike sitting there right in front of my eyes. In the afternoon we walked to the Delwara Temples, the most intricately carved marble temples in human history. No other marble carving even comes close. And the oldest temple is nearly one millennium old! In the morning we walked to downtown, lazed around near Nakki Lake. We came back to the Bikaner Palace. Ambled around in the vast campus. It is a Palace built by the Maharaja of Bikaner in the beginning of the 20th century as a summer palace where he used to come down either with the Royal family or with guests, Indian or foreign in cooler climes. Bikaner Palace, Mt. Abu. We sat in the huge gardens soaking up the sun and we discussed our biking exploits. It was a fantastic ride the previous day. I never thought that I would be doing nearly 800 kilometres in a single day on a superbike someday. We talked about performance, about petrol quality, about bending and curves details of which are posted in the Notes section below. We were still pretty tired and Vivek slept a lot! Both during the day and the night. Royal Retreat! Nov 26 2006 We took our time to leave. There was no hurry. We left after 10 in the morning. Initially the ride was downhill from Abu to Abu Road. I tried applying the techniques that Vivek had discussed with me. I realized that while coming down the curves, I was far less confident than the previous night. At night, I could not see the state of the road. Now during the day, I could see that the road was pretty slick. And each time I downshifted, my rear wheel fishtailed. But I tried to apply the basics. All the way down and I started growing ever so slowly in confidence even though I lagged behind Vivek a lot. There was some confusion about the route that we wanted to take. And we got mixed reactions from everyone, right from the Palace, to the people at the Petrol bunk to the other riders and truck drivers. I knew the way back to Sandérao – Ranakpur – Gogunda, and this route is pretty decent. We were told to take another road via Balaji. And yet others told us to take the NH76 via Pindwara. Finally we decided to take this one and it turned out to be pretty decent after the initial patch where the road was pretty broken, uneven and a blocked up level crossing. But then the road smoothened out and we rode through the green jungle of the Aravallis, climbing, turning, curving, dipping, the works. And finally we came to the part where they are making a 2X2 highway. In those parts, with numerous diversions, we were being made to do long stretches of dirt riding with supposedly “delicate” Supersport Superbikes. Let me remind skeptics at this moment that I am proud to have done these roads and advice guys who are scared to take their superbikes out of their bed-rooms, there is absolutely no problem. Mount Abu - Udaipur Jungles of the Aravallis. Dirt riding them superbikes! We stopped a few times to take pictures, to drink water, to take a leak, and we arrived in Udaipur around 1400 hours after nearly 180 kms of riding. We had lunch and promptly took a nap. Vivek started sleeping profoundly yet again. Wow! This guy can sure sleep. We went out to take a round of the Fatehsagar Lake at sunset. It’s a nice ride. Lots of young crowd, on foot, on bikes, in cars, on camels, guys, girls, come to hang out here. Curious eyes followed us. One of them even asked me if we were riding “original bikes”. I said, “No, they were duplicates!” I had a good mind of telling him they were photocopies! Room with a view Fatehsagar lake. Nov 27 2006 We wanted to leave early to reach early to avoid the Gurgaon traffic. That did not happen. By the time we left the hotel, it was past 0930 hours. We stopped to take gas. And then we hit the four-lane highway. And we were cruising at speeds of 150km/h. There was practically no traffic. I did something to avoid strain. I did not crouch. I nearly lay down on the tank. And I started resting my elbows on my knees! This felt pretty neat and comfortable as I cruised at 150. Of course the moment there were bends coming along I got back to the usual riding stance. I had started applying Vivek’s inputs on bending the bike and I was getting progressively confident. In fact I am pretty happy on wide large bends doing them at over 120 km/h rather than the close hilly curves. Me being a miserable bender of the bike, I ended up taking some curves upwards of 140km/h. I was pretty pleased with myself. The Return. Pit Stop Raring to BLAST! Pit stop again We hit the GVK Expressway once more. Stopped for a light lunch. And continued our way to Delhi. I crossed 200 several times on this day on every stretch (see Notes below). Finally at 1730 we hit Gurgaon, horrible time to be there. Vivek and I split there and went our respective ways. I reached home, parked, climbed the stairs, and unpacked. And then I started planning my next trip. I called up Vivek. He had reached home safely. It has not even been 48 hours and we are already planning our next trip! NOTES: Need better helmets than Gp1! These helmets don’t stay in place on speeds higher than 130Km/h. The ears stay pressed and I don’t like that. I like the helmets like HJC that I tried in which my ears pop free once the helmet settles down on the head. We were doing regular stops, every hour or 100 kms: to drink, re-hydrate, take a pee, stretch, clean visors which gets totally covered with smashed bugs after an hour of riding! It is very important to stop while riding really fast crouched. One should relax the neck, stretch the back and the cervical. Bending techniques: Vivek’s input: I am a miserable bender of the bike on curves. Vivek said, get into the curve with a speed that you feel is the slowest that you can do at the optimum gear. Do not change gears once you have hit the bend, or do not accelerate fast before the apex and before you see the road clear ahead of you, even if this means doing the curve at 20km/h with a superbike. Doing this often enough will help you gain in confidence. And you will start getting into the curve progressively faster with time, patience and practice. We decided to refuel with Reliance as we thought that there were less chances of adulteration since they are company owned pumps. I used Speed once and I was definitely not happy. I was putting in 120 ml of Octane Boosters to about 16 liters of fuel. But at the last fill, when I reached Delhi, I could hear pinging when I was loading the engine. Crossing 200 on relatively busy two-lane highways with no fencing, jaywalkers, animals straying on and even vehicles coming in from the gap in the median, it is a question of sheer luck. If you believe luck is on your side, go ahead and do it. I advice you to stay between the 140-150 mark unless you are absolutely sure of doing faster times. On three-lane highways, like the GVK Expressway between Jaipur and Ajmer, with clear visibility, more spaced traffic, proper fencing, no stray animals, I was doing 200+ often, Vivek was going berserk in ecstasy and it was clearly less risky on this particular stretch. But I don’t advice it still. On the way back from Jaipur, while I was doing 150+ at one stretch when suddenly a Maruti 800 came on to the road without even looking on to the oncoming traffic. I don’t know how I managed to swerve to the left and save those poor soul’s lives, else I would have cut them in half probably. Bottom line: ride fast enough leaving enough reaction time to adjust and save damage to life and property. Special mention and a big thanks to Ninja Rider Vivek for is company, his endless stories about touring, his expert advice and his readiness to help and tour. Hope to tour with you again. Thanks to CNN IBN reporter, Urvashi, for not making life too difficult for us. Text and Photos: Krishnendu Kes aka KEN. Post Scriptum: A lot has changed in the last two years. I use Shark Helmet always. SMX4 Riding boots and so on. I am putting this post up yet again for the benefit of certain riders who may be contemplating a similar venture soon. There are two routes back from Udaipur. Both are fun. I have done both, recently and on Superbikes. I may put up the ride report shortly. Any questions... I will gladly answer. For those who are aware of this thread... there will be the subsequent Part II, III and IV coming up as well. __________________ The Wheel was a great invention; Two Wheels with a Motor in between was even better! BMW Motorrad Days 2011 Xbhp's Indo-French Kashmir-Ladakh Tour Last edited by Aryan; 10-23-2008 at 11:07 AM. Reason: Scaled down the resolution of some of the images to 800X600.

10-23-2008, 11:08 AM	#2 (permalink)
Aryan Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: New Delhi/ Shillong Posts: 18,275	Topic Approved. __________________ ...in search of that perfect world - My Travel Blog :)

10-23-2008, 09:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
M@n()J Responsible Rider Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 477	Touring on superbikes-WOW.Hats off to you guys for touring on such beasts!!Lovely pics and narration!The Introduction part is awesome!!!Wish I could tour on such beasts someday __________________ My life called biking! Pune- Chennai Solo Run 1300kms Maharashtra 1000kms Karnataka 1500kms TamilNadu & Kerala 1600kms Karnataka,Kerala & TamilNadu www.racingdept.com

10-27-2008, 12:47 AM	#7 (permalink)
rpmboy noTHing to Prove !!!! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: LondoN/Delhi/GGN Posts: 698	Sbk 's can beat the shit out of cars ...........but like this way, was totally diff. gr8 write up n pics __________________ "BiKiNg in INDIA is like JOGGING in IRAQ ,something may HIT YOU" --rpmboy "Seniority is NOT how fast u ride ,its in how 'Well' you ride " --rpmboy ''Bajaj-ing Since 2000 AD'' --rpmboy Ride A Bajaj ? make it big. Join BBIG -- A Social Group of xBhp.com . Ownerships going strong :- Bajaj Chetak 1981...clocking 2,00,000kms+ Pulsar 150 DTSi 2004...clocking 75,000kms+

10-27-2008, 10:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
EL LOCO DIABLO X-( Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Chennai Posts: 1,025	Wow really interesting read this! How well did the tyres, shocks, and disc pads hold up against dusty and bad roads (if you had encountered any)? I heard somewhere that sometimes superbikes can get really thirsty for engine oil during prolonged trips, how was it in your case? Would be really helpful if you could elaborate on the technical aspects as well __________________ I'm too intelligent to the unintended, and too dumb for the obvious.

10-23-2008, 10:43 PM	#4 (permalink)
manan_in_2000 The Terminator Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Always Crossing borders Posts: 359	Ken sir, why in this world you were touring on SBK in such formals.... Anyways! It was great read, I read this sometime back as well, but still it is as refreshing as ever.

10-27-2008, 01:53 AM	#8 (permalink)
kar1zma Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: hyderabad, Eastern Province(KSA) Posts: 422	interesting write up as always ken implanning on a shorter 450kms one way trip on my ninja soon this will surely help me plan mine better

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