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As my first year of college came to an end, I felt the need to get a vehicle because I would be moving out of the hostel and into a flat that would be at some distance from the college. Having never ridden anything other than a Honda Activa that belonged to my parents I wasn't even considering getting anything other than a scooter. So with a budget of around 30K, I started looking at all the options that I had. I had always wanted a Vespa, but none fit into my budget. I did find one that had the British flag painted all over it, but my friends convinced me against buying it.
Being new to Pune I had no idea where I could find used vehicles. After a bit of Googling, I found out about Nana Peth. I decided to go down with my best friend, who also happened to have some experience riding motorcycles. At this point, I was still looking for scooters and was waiting for that magical Vespa deal to pop up. Having not found anything after about two hours of running around, I was almost ready to go back. One of the last shops that we went into had this black Bajaj Avenger 220-DTSi. It looked nice and shiny. I asked the price thinking it would be a lot, it turns out it was 36K. After some bargaining and putting in another 3K from my savings, I had myself a new bike. It was 8 years old and vibrated a LOT, but I loved it.
The odometer didn't work, neither did the fuel gauge. I had no way of telling how much fuel was left at any point. The clutch was extremely hard which made the bike stall all time, but again, I had no idea to tell then. I knew how to drive manual cars, so getting used to the bike wasn't very difficult. I did end up grinding some (a LOT) gears though. Eventually, I did get a hang of it though.
The first-ever trip I did on it was to Muslhi damn. The broken roads didn't help, neither did the fact that there were two of us on the bike. The bike took a fair amount of beating but it got us back home pretty safe.
I used the bike for getting to college mostly after that trip and later on to the office during my summer internship. It did some weekend runs to Lavale though.
It was during the summer holidays that the bug to travel long distances bit me. Summers in Pune can be extremely hot, but I managed to go to Lonavla a couple of times and once to Mahabaleshwar. The trip to Mahabaleshwar was harsh. I got blisters from the heat, but the bike had it worse. The long highways weren't nice as it vibrated violently even at 80 kmph. The moment I got back to Pune, the cable for rear brake snapped. Somehow I dragged it to the closest shop to get it repaired. This was a very common occurrence, and I wasn't surprised because the machine was pretty old and had not been well maintained.
At this point, I realized I wouldn't be able to do long trips without worrying about something or the other breaking off or the bike giving up on me. So for some time, I stuck to city commuting as I saved up for a better machine and looked for a potential buyer.
I had owned the bike for 7 months and put lots of kilometers on it. Not sure about the exact number as I never fixed the odometer. I learned to ride on it as well and liked it a lot. Unfortunately it was just turning into more of a headache to keep running every single day. And that was how the story of my first motorcycle comes to an end.
Being new to Pune I had no idea where I could find used vehicles. After a bit of Googling, I found out about Nana Peth. I decided to go down with my best friend, who also happened to have some experience riding motorcycles. At this point, I was still looking for scooters and was waiting for that magical Vespa deal to pop up. Having not found anything after about two hours of running around, I was almost ready to go back. One of the last shops that we went into had this black Bajaj Avenger 220-DTSi. It looked nice and shiny. I asked the price thinking it would be a lot, it turns out it was 36K. After some bargaining and putting in another 3K from my savings, I had myself a new bike. It was 8 years old and vibrated a LOT, but I loved it.
The odometer didn't work, neither did the fuel gauge. I had no way of telling how much fuel was left at any point. The clutch was extremely hard which made the bike stall all time, but again, I had no idea to tell then. I knew how to drive manual cars, so getting used to the bike wasn't very difficult. I did end up grinding some (a LOT) gears though. Eventually, I did get a hang of it though.
The first-ever trip I did on it was to Muslhi damn. The broken roads didn't help, neither did the fact that there were two of us on the bike. The bike took a fair amount of beating but it got us back home pretty safe.
I used the bike for getting to college mostly after that trip and later on to the office during my summer internship. It did some weekend runs to Lavale though.
It was during the summer holidays that the bug to travel long distances bit me. Summers in Pune can be extremely hot, but I managed to go to Lonavla a couple of times and once to Mahabaleshwar. The trip to Mahabaleshwar was harsh. I got blisters from the heat, but the bike had it worse. The long highways weren't nice as it vibrated violently even at 80 kmph. The moment I got back to Pune, the cable for rear brake snapped. Somehow I dragged it to the closest shop to get it repaired. This was a very common occurrence, and I wasn't surprised because the machine was pretty old and had not been well maintained.
At this point, I realized I wouldn't be able to do long trips without worrying about something or the other breaking off or the bike giving up on me. So for some time, I stuck to city commuting as I saved up for a better machine and looked for a potential buyer.
I had owned the bike for 7 months and put lots of kilometers on it. Not sure about the exact number as I never fixed the odometer. I learned to ride on it as well and liked it a lot. Unfortunately it was just turning into more of a headache to keep running every single day. And that was how the story of my first motorcycle comes to an end.
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