Riding with the moon..400kms of Night Ride to Nagar.

[ketan_r15]

Some one said very true about R15. "Once u get hold of this machine, every weekend will be meant for long rides..and not for girl friend/s.." It's that addictive and i am addicted.

As the week goes down and weekend approaches, plans roll down on floor. And this time i need not plan anything specially.
Ahmednagar, my friend's native place. We were about to plan something for this weekend and then this wedding invitation dropped in. It's his brother's wedding this Sunday and he is supposed to be there.

He just now called me and told me bout the plan. And here we go. A beautiful weekend ride is planned.

We are heading to Ahmednagar tonight. It'll be a full night journey. Around 400 kms from Mumbai. Really excited. I have been many times on that road but not at night and never this late.

We'll be leaving Mumbai by 2200 hrs. This may sound risky and insane but it is quite safe. Roads are tow way with a divider all the way till Ahmednagar. Even then some special care has to be taken as these days anything can happen. Maharashtra is like hot cake these days.

One more special thing bout this ride is, we could have opted to take both our R15s but we are taking only one. Thought behind this is, everyone knows fossil fuels are not gonna last for long. We must start doing something for that even though it's too late.

So we have decided that from now on we'll try to take only one bike where there's no need of 2. We'll change the bikes every alternate trip so that both the riders will get a chance to ride.

This way, we'll save fuel.
Save overall expenses.
We'll have more interaction while on the go.

Here are the places on map.
Will put up the pics and log once i come back from the ride.

[Aryan]

Topic Approved.

[cosgeo99]

The single bike is good idea. Keep up the good work.

Waitin for the pillion reviews of R15. As ur drivin at night with a pillion be carefull on the strech from Lonavla to Pune. There are some very bad speed breakers and at night yull not be able to see those.

[MG]

Lonavla to Pune is pretty good except the stretch around Dapodi and Khadki.Road from Pune to Ranjangaon(The huge LG and FIAT plants are there) is in top class condition but after that it is not in good section all the way till Nagar.

[Aryan]

Lonavla to Pune is pretty good except the stretch around Dapodi and Khadki.Road from Pune to Ranjangaon(The huge LG and FIAT plants are there) is in top class condition but after that it is not in good section all the way till Nagar.

Wow! Even hearing the names "Dapodi" and "Khadki" makes me nostalgic. Have been to both these places many a times. I've stayed in Khadki for a good 2 years.

[MG]

@ketan-Sorry for hijacking your thread.

@Aryan-Twice actually.Once I went to Kamshet and the other time to Mumbai and both time used the old highway.

[DriftKingNT]

@ketan Some part of the Pune-Ahmednagar road is in a very bad condition.

All the best for your Ride.

[ketan_r15]

This ride was really really full of expressions.. some really good.. some worst..so bad that we literally ended up crying.. We were like on a roller coaster thru out the ride..

Reached home late last night.
Just got up and saw ur response here... cooool...
Digi cam's with my friend so cant post pics right away. Will post pics along with log as soon as i get the cam back.

The single bike is good idea. Keep up the good work.

Waitin for the pillion reviews of R15. As ur drivin at night with a pillion be carefull on the strech from Lonavla to Pune. There are some very bad speed breakers and at night yull not be able to see those.

Yeah bro..Single bike idea is good..but not for long.. Will tell u why later..lot to ride bout R15's pillion review..

Lonavla to Pune is pretty good except the stretch around Dapodi and Khadki.Road from Pune to Ranjangaon(The huge LG and FIAT plants are there) is in top class condition but after that it is not in good section all the way till Nagar.

Yup...same again...lot to write bout the road..

@ketan Some part of the Pune-Ahmednagar road is in a very bad condition.

All the best for your Ride.

Hey thanx bro..

[HydBiker]

Waiting to see your expressions!

[MG]

@ketan-When you said single bike and two person I knew what to expect.As Hydbiker said waiting to see your expressions.

[ketan_r15]

I have already written in the introduction why n where we are riding this trip to. It's Ahmednagar. My friend's native place.

I wrote the introduction at 6.14pm on friday and was just waiting for the time to pass by. We had decided to leave at 10 in the night sharp. But then as i was just taking rest, i thought it wud b better if we leave a lill early because it was cosiderably long journey and to add to it, my friend was gonna ride who has no night riding experience other than city commutes. Another major reason was the newly installed Halonix white light bulbs. We had tested them on the palm beach road the other day, but still it's a city. There's a huge difference in city roads and national highways out side city. All this made me change the plan and I wanted to leave as soon as possible then. I immidiately called up my friend and asked him to come to my place asap to pick me up. He came to my place at around 7.45pm.

I was already feeling a lill down due to severe cold. I was feeling a lill weakness. Had a crocin cold n flu for body aech. With the initial plan we wud hav left after the dinner but now it was a different case. It was too early to hav dinner. So we decided to have one sandwich each n leave for the journey. You'll come to know why m telling this later..

So finaly we started our journey at 8 PM sharp. Heading towards sion, traffic started getting worse from bad. There was horrandous traffic, bumper to bumper. To add petrol in the fire, some minister was also heading in the same direction as we were and thus even more traffic jam. Bloody A#$^&&*..



Getting out of the city itself took a huge time. Once we crossed chembur and reached Deonar, road was comparatively free and traffic was moving. Found some open road just before vashi and whack..crossed the 100 mark several times. After crossing the Vashi toll naka, we took the diversion to Palm beach road. Simply heaven for biking. It was around 9-9.30 and traffic had faded down. Road was ideal for some real performance testing. We stopped at a red signal and looked around. There was no one to compete with except a dude on his new looking Hero honda Hunk. 3-2-1...Go... At the green signal.. it was fun launching the R15 and that dear Hunk couldnt last long. R15 ate her in 3rd gear itself. Then it was flat out till CBD.

Everything was fine uptill now. For both of us.. For him, cause there were street lights uptill here and for me because till there wasnt any pain in my butt. Once we crossed CBD, there arent much street lights and the real test of bulbs started here. Visibilty was quite poor. There were 2 reasons for this. 1. His light's alignment wasnt good. 2. White lights.

He somehow was trying to manage things and see if his night vision improves with time or not. We reached panvel somehow. By now the drop in temp was quite noticable and my cold started troubling me a lot. I cudnt even breath due to chocked nostrils. And those white light bulbs started bothering my friend as here there was total abscence of street lights. We took a small pit stop just before the Mumbai-Goa diversion. I took out the tool kit and decided to adjust the beam so that it'll atleast improve some illumination. Adjusted both the high and low beam.

Looking at the low temp here in panvel we understood what we have ahead at lonavala, khandala and then worst at Pune - Nagar road. I literally packed our selves. My clothing was something like this, Jean, t shirt, a zipper on it. shoes, hand gloves, helmet, a monkey cap inside and hanky tied on the mouth. all set and we left. I had to do all this because I was literally dieing with cold.

The visibilty was improved a bit now but still it wasnt upto the mark, not at all for a bike like this. It was quite late in the night and the road was lonesome. Hardly any traffic. Good for riding but not safe from safety point of view. I had kept the digi cam in the bag, so no pics. Kept on riding till Lonavala. And my butt...aaaah...dont ask..butt was screaming.. R15's rear seat is not that comfortable for long rides. It is exactly opposite to that of the rider's seat. In rider's seat u hardly feel any fatigue or stress. And if u r taller than 5'6" then u r done. The footrests r quite rear set and that makes it even more uncomfortable. To add to this, it was a late night ride. so taking regular haults was out of the list.

We both were in our own sufferings. My friend had a helmet with tinted glass. So he had to ride all the way with his visor open. Low speeds were not a prob but at slightly higher speeds it becomes painful due to wind. Also he was unhappy with the lights.

We were climbing the lonavala ghat after khopoli at close to midnight and mind it..it was scary. Not a single vehicle on the road except our bike and road such steep that u cant get over 45km/hr(except if u stretch the bike too much). On the curves as the high beem used enter into those dense forrests..used to send a chilling shiver down the vein. And this was becasue we had a real bad expereince in the same ghat in our last ride. Very bad one.

Crossed the ghat and finally reached Lonavala. It had started drizzeling now. We continued riding. Lonavala is all set for X-mas. Looked stunning with all the hotels beautifuly decorated with lights and x-mas trees. But the roads were empty at that hour. We zoomed pass lonavala and continued the journey towards pune.

After some time, took another pit stop at a tea stall which suprisingly was open at that hour and proved out life saver for us as we badly needed something warm. We were riding with empty stomach all the way and that drizzle made us a lill wet. Temp was now down like hell. Chilling lonavala winter. We had 3 cups of tea each and i smoked 2 cigerettes. Managed to take a snap.



To be continued..............

[ketan_r15]

This pit stop proved out a life saver as it also gave some reliefe to the back and ass and also gave some warmth. But that was just for the while, looking at my condition i knew my health has taken a toll and anytime i'll catch fever. But there was nothing i cud do except pray.

We then continued our journey. I was feeling the weakness very badly now. Fortunately the road is beautiful. No potholes, proper sign posting and one way. Friend had gained some nigt vision by now and looked comfortable now. So even i was a bit relaxed. In that relaxation, i forgot to inform my friend bout those 2 back to back huge speedbreakers which r der near talegaon nursery. What makes them risky is, there's no sign posting what so ever, and they arent even painted with white strips. As i said, he was riding for the first time at night and had no idea bout such hidden surprises. He was following a white Alto and it seems the Alto driver was my friend's brother. Or else he was dozzing while driving. He even with his powerful lights couldnt see those speed breakers and maintained the same speed. So did my friend. All of a sudden....there ws this loud sound of screaching breaks of both the vehicles and we both, us as well the alto,hit the speed breaker at unimaginable speeds.... We literaly were airborn and landed with a huge impact. Friend was scared like a rabbit thinking of the damage to the bike. But there wasnt any..Fortunately.... I appologised him for forgeting to tell him bout the breakers and told him, dont worry..no such speed breakers ahead. We continued the journey with a steady speed then after.

The speed was steady but the temp wasnt. Temp was dropping gradually and so was my health. By now i was sure i had fever. I was really really uncomfortable now and was poking myself from inside..regretting on why i took such foolish decision to ride when there was hint of bad health. But i cudnt express anything as i didnt want my friend to feel the burden of this and to add to his stress. He himself was suffering with cold wind inside his open visor and poor visibilty.

We had now hit Pune and were on the Pimpri chinchwad road. Aahh..what road...simply gorgeous..One can easily cruise at high 90s and low 100s on that road. It's that straight and smooth. Pune city was fast asleep at that time except a few hooligans out on there RX100s and splendors.. We didnt want to end up in an un neccessary dog fight and thus kept us apart from them. But as the pimpri chinchwad road comes to an end, the road becomes pathetic with lotsa diversions and patched roads with no lights at all. Potholes? or shall i call shallow wells..Bike took a lot of beating on that road.

some how crossed the city and reached Kalyani Nagar, where my office is located and from where Nagar road starts. In the haste of finding Nagar road, we forgot bout the dinner and all of a sudden realised bout it here, at the end of Pune city..

Hotel...was on the top of our list now, on Nagar highway. My ass was crying as if it's swollen.... To add to it, fever..even worse was the coldest wind and lowest temp of the journey so far. Nagar highway is famous for it's low temps. But then i remembered that the winter is at its worse once u crossed shirur on Nagar road. I wondered what was gonna happen.

We kept riding for nearly an hour and not a single hotel open. No choice but to continue. Cant even take a pit stop. It's 2 o clock in the night. The road was good though. That was the only reason for being happy. My friend's eyes had turned blood red by now due to constant bombarding of cold air and flying debri.

There wasnt much traffic at that time of the night except huge container carriers and toutrist busses. We spotted 2 cars completely wrapped around with covers and were ridden to their limits. I think those were test mules.

Bike was smooth like silk till now. No problem what so eva. I just love those high cruising speeds. but they were proving to b harmful this time cause of the low temp.

We continued riding and now we were on the verge of breaking. The hunger had died way back and we were just hoping for a safe place to take a pit stop. Our bodies were screaming. Specialy mine. That rear seat was like fckin most place on earth for me at that time. My knees were paining a lot at joints and back due to weight of the bag. Fortunately i had no issues with my eyes as i was wearing the helmet with visor closed for the full time.

We now reached Lonkand and saw Lonkand police station. what safer than a police station at 2.30am? We stopped right in front of it. And were taking rest on a bench out side. I was now dead sure that my fever had got worst from bad. I was shivering like hell. Nose was swollen. After some time a policeman came out for the inquiry. He sounded a lill rude initially, but once he saw our bike, he was more interested in bike's performance than his duty.

We left that place in about 15 mins. I had a crocin once again before leaving. We had to leave soon because though there was shed to rest but no tea stall around and we wanted one soon. We rode for sometime and saw a small tea stall open with some truck walas having tea. We knew it was risky stopping there, but had no choice. It was exactly opposite to the Chakan diversion/fata. Had 2 cups each. Tea stall owner updated us with the latest news that a night prior 2 guys on a pulsar looted a truck just a few KMs away from the same place. They had desi revolver and some pepper powder.

We didnt stop there for long and left as soon as we were done with the tea. continued our journey and to make matters worse the road ahead was in pathetic condition. simply pathetic.

Road is still under construction and therefore there are diversions every few meters. One way traffic becomes two way without any sign posting and lose raw materail on the road flies off in the air. my friend was taking a beating of life time. His eyes were like Dracula returns..!!!!!

This condition of the road is same till Nagar. So no hopes. And poor illumination of the light made riding even worse. Bodies started getting numb now.

We some how managed to reach Nagar by 3.30am and now it was the state highway to take us to his relatives place.

That locality is called chaitannya colony in motiNagar. There are only luxurious bunglows and row houses here but then why the heck r the roads in such bad conditions? We cud see all the foreign brand cars parked in the parkings of these bunglows, right from Lexus to Merc E class. May b they change their suspensions every season.

We reached his brother's bunglow at close to 4 o clock.
We didnt even have the power to bolt the gate. simply died in bed.

Ride was bad..not that good. But the faults were on our ends which made it worse.
1) Bad health even before starting the journey.
2) Bad choice of light.
3) Friend's helmet with tinted visor.

On the other hand, bike tried her best to co operate. The suspension was good but one cant expect much when roads are this bad. Bike's build quality is realy good. Took a heavy toll of bad road but no sound of clattering at all. Pillion ride is a big NO NO though for long rides.


To be continued....................

[HydBiker]

a rainbow of expressions already... what else do you have in store for us?

[ketan_r15]

If u call this as rainbow...still there are lotsa colors to unfold..
Lot of colorful pictures..cute beauties... and then lots of green color..
Just gimme some time... plz..

[ketan_r15]

As i mentioned..We were dead tired when we reached home by 4 am. Nagar city was fast asleep. Even Veerappan was snoring in his chair(our watchman).. We immediately got into the blankets and slept.

Next day got up with fresh mind. It was my first time to their place. So started checking out their home. When i came out in the compound, saw friend's bro's Pulsie...He had modified it with as many stickers as possible..
They have a small group of bikers in Nagar, called Racing Dynamics.






A small photo session was done. Then my friend's aunt called us for the breakfast. Special Samosa khari and tea.. Kiran, friend's bro told me that it's Nagar's specialty.. So the breakfast was done. We had those cookies like hungry tigers as we didnt have anything since last evening.

Though we woke up with fresh minds today, i still was feeling the weakness due to the fever. I decided to take a full day rest that day and also consult a Doc if needed cause i didnt want any trouble in the return journey. Temp was quite low there. So had to walk with socks and gloves put on.

We spent some time watching TV, chatting and listening music. Then just as i was taking a walk in the passage i saw this little beauty...on the 1st floor balcony. She's friend's other bro's daughter. Ahh.. she's so cute...gorgeous..


what next..immidiately went upstairs and got her down with us. And then there was this long photo shoot with her.
Look at the innoscence....ahh... beautiful...
By the way, model's name is Miss Sakshi..


















I could have gone on and on..but that's it said the model..



Then the rest of the day was spent watching DVDs.. chatting and taking rest. Saw Wrong turn once again.. Cool movie..
Also visited Doc. He gave a two days dosage. In the evening me my friend and his bro, all went upstairs on the terrece. We realised that this area has no buldings. All of these are bunglows. There were some really nice bunglows built near by.





Just as i was viweing thru the lense saw this huuge honeycomb on one of the bunglows.





It started getting dark then. so after some time, we went down. At night, we had dinner and then Kiran said we'll go to Nagar village for a short ride and to have some Masala milk, again one of the specialities of Ahmednagar.
We went to M G Road and there we saw these small stalls with those huuge utensils and boiling milk.




Ohh what taste..superb..That thick and pure milk with malai on it..Beautiful. We also had some Rabdi over there. Then went to some famous pan wala. Had chocolate pan.. neva heard this before.. but was good at taste.

Got back home and while coming back went to one of the friend's place who recently had bought Honda CBR 600RR. superb machine. What firing. Loud enough to wake up neighbourhoods.. Swanking new Red CBR. He bought it from Mumbai. Maharashtra Motors.

Finaly got back home and went to bed after some gapshup as we had to wake up early the next day.


To be continued....
Day 2 trip log and pics coming soon...
Hope u like this....
Thanx...