Tweet
Today I bid adieu to an old friend, my companion through the best days of my life, my Red TVS APACHE 150 IE-Surge , after 12 years and nearly 70000kms of creating amazing memories…
Sometime in 2005 I thought of buying a new bike. I had managed to save around Rs 25000 and would borrow the rest from my father. I headed off to the Honda Showroom to check out the recently launched Unicorn. However the response from the showroom was rather disappointing. I was told that they are not accepting any more bookings and they had no idea when they will resume booking due to the overwhelming demand. Since I had the money to spend I went ahead and bought myself a camera instead…
Circa 2005 I went with a group of friends for a 3-day monsoon ride to Konkan on a friend’s Pulsar, and the itch for a new bike returned (at that time I was driving me elder brother’s Samurai which was almost 10 years old, after he went to US for further education.) By the last quarter of 2006, I had managed to save enough to think of getting a new bike. The TVS Apache was the obvious choice (the Pulsar never appealed to me and the Unicorn had lost it’s chance). By mid-November 2006 I had my first new bike bought entirely with my own earnings.
The 12 years that followed were a roller-coaster of a ride, with lots of ups and some downs, but, looking back, I can say that this was the best phase of my life. This phase saw me falling in love, packing up and selling almost everything including car & bike to migrate to USA (luckily I had sold my bike to a cousin’s husband and was able to persuade him to sell it back to me), cancelling migration plans a week before departing (I lost my job to recession even before I could start it) and starting fresh, getting married, buying my own car (no loans), having a daughter, and now dropping my daughter to school every morning.
In comparison to my life in that phase, the ownership experience of the bike was almost monotonous. The only trouble faced was the complete failure in the meter console at around 750km into the ownership, which was promptly replaced in warranty. The bike was extremely reliable always, returning a fuel efficiency of around 55kmpl consistently. The bike has been my companion on many short day –trips and some long tours including a fabulous Manali – Leh – Jammu trip. The testament to the reliability is the fact that despite being stranded under snow for over two days, the engine was running in two kicks!!
I could go on and on with memories, but the time has come to move on! Today I will be letting go of my faithful friend and pray that the next user takes as good care, and creates as many happy memories. I am letting go only because I a few months ago, I began to itch for something more. As I close this chapter, I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter in my life. My new companion will be joining me in a few days. Things can only get better……
Sometime in 2005 I thought of buying a new bike. I had managed to save around Rs 25000 and would borrow the rest from my father. I headed off to the Honda Showroom to check out the recently launched Unicorn. However the response from the showroom was rather disappointing. I was told that they are not accepting any more bookings and they had no idea when they will resume booking due to the overwhelming demand. Since I had the money to spend I went ahead and bought myself a camera instead…
Circa 2005 I went with a group of friends for a 3-day monsoon ride to Konkan on a friend’s Pulsar, and the itch for a new bike returned (at that time I was driving me elder brother’s Samurai which was almost 10 years old, after he went to US for further education.) By the last quarter of 2006, I had managed to save enough to think of getting a new bike. The TVS Apache was the obvious choice (the Pulsar never appealed to me and the Unicorn had lost it’s chance). By mid-November 2006 I had my first new bike bought entirely with my own earnings.
The 12 years that followed were a roller-coaster of a ride, with lots of ups and some downs, but, looking back, I can say that this was the best phase of my life. This phase saw me falling in love, packing up and selling almost everything including car & bike to migrate to USA (luckily I had sold my bike to a cousin’s husband and was able to persuade him to sell it back to me), cancelling migration plans a week before departing (I lost my job to recession even before I could start it) and starting fresh, getting married, buying my own car (no loans), having a daughter, and now dropping my daughter to school every morning.
In comparison to my life in that phase, the ownership experience of the bike was almost monotonous. The only trouble faced was the complete failure in the meter console at around 750km into the ownership, which was promptly replaced in warranty. The bike was extremely reliable always, returning a fuel efficiency of around 55kmpl consistently. The bike has been my companion on many short day –trips and some long tours including a fabulous Manali – Leh – Jammu trip. The testament to the reliability is the fact that despite being stranded under snow for over two days, the engine was running in two kicks!!
I could go on and on with memories, but the time has come to move on! Today I will be letting go of my faithful friend and pray that the next user takes as good care, and creates as many happy memories. I am letting go only because I a few months ago, I began to itch for something more. As I close this chapter, I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter in my life. My new companion will be joining me in a few days. Things can only get better……
Comment