ABikerAtHeart

Hello Fellow xBhpians...

I'm now 21. And its been a long journey so far.

As a kid, I always wanted a Pulsar. I'm talking about the times when the Twins were launched. It was such a pleasure to watch them parked on the road. So much to admire, so much to aspire. Everytime I saw a Twin, I'd say to myself, "definetly male!"and feel all happy about it.

Time passed. I grew. The love of watching a Pulsar only grew deeper. I never did know what the 150 or the 180 stickered to the tail cowl really meant, but I was sure of one thing, the 180 was better than the 150. But they were the better than all the other bikes. Then came a time when the next Pulsar upgrade was launched. I remember, far too clearly, the review show hosted by Rajiv Makhni on NDTV. And a evening or two later, while heading home from School, I noticed a bike, much sharper, much bigger and with something stickered to its tail. I knew what I saw. And I knew, the place it was parked was only a block away. That evening, finishing homework, I rushed to where I wanted to be. To much surprise, there it was. The Big Brother. The Pulsar 200. Lean, mean and everything a beast could be. It was painted blue all over. I went and carefully touched its tank. It a feeling, not many can expain but I'm sure almost all here know. Wow!

I remember Rajiv saying, "The much doubted Pulsar 220 is next in the pipeline. But to my belief its just another speculation." Little did he know it was just couple of months away.

School and the exams had taken my attention, along with my time. There barely was any time to go hunting the Definite Males in town. Time passed. My interest in Pulsar too. But not untill the "much-doubted/speculation"came to life. It was a blue Pulsar220 DTS-i. Probably the only other bike ( the other being Karizma) with a fairing I'd seen and the only bike with a fairing I admired. It was awesome. The big pilot eyes and the supercool projector headlamp, only drew my attention and admiration to a Big Howling Wolf. It was big and it was sexy. And I loved it.

I was growing as a young man, but not any as a biker. I had learnt how to ride a bike however and lil did it amuse me, for I found my Scooty Pep way more comforting.

That was also the time when the R15 was launched. I still had no knowledge what the 150, 180, 200 or the 220 did in the bike but I had however learnt it should for the cubic capacity.
Now I had learnt that the R15 housed a 150cc engine and the only the other fact that it was expensive, besides being extremely good looking (to others). Little did its rear tyre please me. And lil or none at all was I interested in it. All good things dont come cheap. But there wasn't any good I could see in a One-Five.

Time passed by. I was almost an adult, at the verge of completing teenage. And there came this beautiful lady in my life, Sneha Dayanand. She was more beautiful than anything I remember in this world and I loved her for no reason at all. And she was biker chick. No she dint ride bikes, she dint know how to ride bikes at all. But she liked Yamaha, moreso, Rossi. His biggest fan,maybe. And she loved the R1. Irony is, I dint know what the R1 even looked like. She knew all the SBKs from Yamaha and all its Indian launches too. Our relationship lasted for a lil less that a year. All because she wanted to go back to dating her ex who had previously dumped her (and eventually would do it again in a little less than a year to follow).

She had gone. But her memories remained. I'd miss her every moment. And little did I know what to do. So I'd go google. Google all the things that she liked. I started reading about guitars, Rihanna, pasta and Yamaha. And one fine search led me to the Bike Of The Gods, The Yamaha YZF R1. Even if in pictures, what a bike it was. Beautiful!

Its when I just couldn't take missing her anymore that I decided to get myself a bike. And no prizes there for guessing which company I'd pick. I started reading about all the launches of Yamaha in India and the ones currently in production. R15 never interested me, more because it was so pathetically designed in the rear and even more pathetically priced. But the Fazer150 almost instantly swept my heart away. The big fat tyre and the hot-headed semi fairing was a total treat to eyes. To my good luck, the Midnight Special had launched just 2 weeks ago. And boy-o-boy, it was absolutely ridiculously convalutedly orgasmic.
And to my better luck, it was all sold out.
Well, only a thousand of these babies were produced and it took them only 2 weeks to sell them all. Sweet luck!
The White and Blue LE that was launched 2 months later was a no-brainer. Looked sad, really sad.

In terms of looks, nothing could be compared to whatever came out of the Yamaha stable.

In all the comotion, the Pulsar never really did fade outta my mind. When Yamaha launched the Midnight Special, Bajaj launched the Pulsar 220F. Barely anything what changed form wise. But sure as hell alotta things changed within. A new colour was released,however. And it sucked. Big time!
Googling on the interet let loose all its reviews. And they weren't something Bajaj would want a prospective Pulsar customer to read. The Fastest Indian grew to not be the fastest more me suddenly. I soon realised it wasn't the one for me. And I, thus, had given up on the Pulsar.

I was well aware of Yamaha's marketing strategy of releasing cosmetic upgrades every 6 months. So I decided to wait for the next Fazer upgrade. I'm never wrong with my guesses. The new colours were all out.

But so was the news of something new in the R-series. A 250 maybe.

This is was all when I had grown much intelligent in terms of what, how and why a bike engine worked. And quite inevitably the Deltabox had become one of my favourite subjects of study. An air cooled 13ps 150cc engine was far too uncool. The waiting had to be extended. Meanwhile, there were speculations of my transfer. I dint want to get a new bike and have it re-registered elsewhere, with all the trouble of transporting to boot. The wait was thus indefinitely prolonged.

Yamaha,meanwhile, was only growing closer to my heart. And I wont lie, I still missed her.

With time and tide, alot changed. My knowledge about bikes improved. I learnt a no. of things, hovering over xBhp and the fb page New Yamaha R15 2011. The admin of the page,for some reason, believed it was an R15 but in a much upgraded form. But I,however, contradicted. I wanted to see a quarter litre R-series and wouldn't stand anything below it. When the news was out on the official Yamaha site that it indeed is the R15 but in a better form, I was unreasonably disheartened. Disheartened because it wasn't a 250cc engine and unreasonable because I never had ridden anything more than a 180 Pulsar, ever. I couldn't stop viewing the fb page though. It was probably the most active page in the history of facebook. Soon, I started participating in the discussions. And then about a month later a friend suggested I go check the bike in display in Forum, Kormangla, Bangalore.

On asking the guard at the entrance he advised I go straight to the third floor. The climb was a lil clumsy. Reached the floor however. Placed 20 yards away from the staircase was a white RTR180 ABS. The guard misunderstood, I thought to myself. I shook my head outta sheer boredom and turned to head back home. Before hitting the staircase, I glanced over the left, at something gimmicking the mob around. I couldn't see a thing. I wasn't in the mood anyway. Someone from the centre shouted "whatta hot bike from Yamaha man!" I knew what he was talking about. But it wasn't a 250cc and I wasn't much interested. Besides, I had the seen and ridden the old version a couple of times. Wasn't much impressed by the version 1, given the bad low-end torque and the ugly rear end. I stepped towards the staircase. But then I thought if I've come to the mall why the not simply have a glimpse and leave. Atleast, I could tell my friend that I did go check it out and dint like it.
Pushing through the mob was a task. I waited a couple of minutes to let the mob free a little. But nah, that wasn't happening. More people gathered than those who left. So I somehow pushed my way in. Managed to reach the front but not without a fall because of a push from behind. I stood up and dusted my pants. And I looked up to what was before me.

Blue.
Big.
Beautiful!
*blink* *blink*

I dont remeber seeing anything better than this EVER!!

Man, my heart, its lost.

Whao!

Checked the specs. The upgrades definitely weren't just cosmetic. Damn, I needed a test ride. Spoke to the guy there, was told the test mules are still a month away from hitting the showrooms. And so were the deliveries. Came back home more than esctatic. Dont think I felt any happier. Convinced Papa about the bike. But there was a transfer awaiting 6 months down the line and I had received confirmation already.

Then on, I've made New Yamaha R15 2011 as my home page and been hovering over xBhp for all the detailed reviews. About a month later, the test mules dint arrive but the delivery of a friend sure did happen. I let the dude complete the run-in before I even simply sat on the rider's seat, the whole of which took less than 2 weeks. And then, it was all mine. I knew what the version 1 lacked and now knew exactly why the version 2.0 was born. The bike was more than perfect. It was "absolutely ridiculously convolutingly orgasmic".

I've changed the State and shifted to a new city now. Landed here in December last year. A friend I made on the fb page, and who rides a Black version 2.0, suggested I wait for the Auto Expo now that I've waited so long already. And I'm glad he said that.

My 50th Anniversary Special Edition is booked with a waiting period of a month.






Part 2

The waiting period is a killler, I'm sure every biker would agree. The bike's fantastic, I wouldn't want to hear anything otherwise, anyway. Most of my spare time is spent in reading reviews, learning more about what is housed in a R15. Test rides are one thing, riding your own lean mean machine is altogether a whole different experience, I bet.

My family, with 3 Splendors and 1 Activa, has always been a Hero Honda fan. "Splendor ka bharosa", now you know. But the first bike in the family, quite amusingly, was the (Yamaha) Rajdoot 175. I'm only carrying on the legacy.

Everyday is turning out to be a Science class. The break-in process was something, before hitting the fb page New Yamaha R15 2011, I never knew een existed. The Activa at home, no wonder, gave a mileage of only 20kmpl. The rings couldn't possible have seated at all. Afterall, the kids in the family were all eager to test the top end of the new ride, its very first day. Poor thing had to take it all. And it drilled quitea hole in the pocket in vengeance.

I feel so much more matured as a biker. I know I have alot to learn but tell you what, the journey has already begun.

sunilg

You've come a long way from a boy to a biker,

but next stop for you to is to become a man and start posting your threads in the correct section, you posted same thread twice and both time in wrong section

Jokes apart, I liked reading it and I hope others will like it too.

But for others to like it more, please edit it and give more space between 2 paragraphs

__________________
(Been There Done That) x 3.25

Join xBhp On

Hoodibaba

+1 to Sunil's observations.

Frankly it took some time to read this. But would surely like to read your First Travelogue.

Welcome to XBhpian fraternity.

Drive Safe!!

__________________

Quote:

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GETS GOING

princesirohi

Welcome to xBhp...

__________________


Tyre Sizes _ Spark Plugs

Pirelli & Michelin Tyres for Indian Bikes

Motorcycle Headlight Focus

ASHTAVINAYAK & SHIRDI BIKE TOUR WITH WIFE

kevinlane

A fantastic journey dude. Congrats on fullfilling a long cherished dream.

Sent from my GT-I5801 using Tapatalk

__________________
Keep Watch for Potholes, Junctions and the FOOLS on the road. Treat none differently.

ajaydhansu

Your journey left me with smiles!

All these years i've been watching so many BOYS turning in BIKERS!

Thanks to xBhp.

& yes, congrats for the new stead!

__________________
facebook.com/shadyencore

ABikerAtHeart

Appreciate the advice.
I'm struggling a li'l finding my way around here. Besides xbhp, i'm new to the Office Word '10 as well,where apparently much space is shown inbetween. Will be carefull next time,anyway.

As a 'ritual' i might also add, 'thank you for the approval'.;P

raja_roadster

Love you bro get some gears ride safe My hearty wishes for more miles with smiles ; Girls may come and go your bike will never leave you or let you down

ABikerAtHeart

Thats so sweet. Thanx bro. First a helmet,ls2 probably,and then the rest will soon follow.

raja_roadster

Take a look at the nuvo helmets once and happy hunting for gears