lovely pics....!!

Nice work Sunny! BTW where is this track?

^^Yup, where is the track?

Superb

Awesome, ACE people were on track

Nice moments frozen Sunny Bhaiya....

WOW i have been missing offroading practice for quite sometime pssttt. Sunny bhai great pics, and Old Fox Sir as usual nice log. Just wanted to know who owns Honda.

And yeah its been ages I met Vivek Sir, Nitinjit, looking forward for more.

Bro will take you there, but it needs to be in early morning

This has been asked many a times and each time this question has gone unanswered. WHO owns the particular machine doesn't really make ANY difference whatsoever. I believe if it was to be disclosed, Sunny/ Old Fox sir would've disclosed it long back already.

@All: Please refrain from asking this naive question!

^^^ well just wanted to know nothing specific or particular in it.... just that its one of the best off roading bike in its segment. so wanted to know more riding technicality about the bike thats all.

Well if Sunny Bhai/ Old Fox Sir/ Ken Da/Vivek Sir or anyone felt offended I apologize for it

If you want to know about the technical details, I am sure you can find the required information all over the internet. That doesn't require you to find the name of the owner, per se! Anyhow.

@Sunny and OF sir: Thanks for giving us the brief report on this off-roader. Although, I have almost zilch knowledge when it comes to off-roading machines (I prefer more to be "on the road"), but the photographs says it all; the kind of fun that this machine can be, when in the capable hands (in this case Vivek sir).

Few months back, on one fine Rainy Sunday morning, I too witnessed this Madness!

Madness, because it was crazy to see a fully done up Yamaha RX throwing mud all over, making sharp turns at greater speeds, Sharper than what our bikes would do on a dry tarmac.
I was offered to ride one such crazy machine on that day. I was skeptical, for standing at an age of over 30 years, it is embarrassing to fall from a bike, and also, it takes more time to get up and longer for the wounds to heal. No, I just would not be a crazy bugger to Ride a bike in that hostile conditions.

But Vivek gave a go ahead pat on my back and said- "Go ahead. You will love it. "

The encouragement from Vivek along with the support shown by Ken along with Chintu made me dare to ride the crazy Yamaha RX.

Believe me, when I say this- It was Fun, Fun to see that those done up machine would just not let you loose the grip, if only you know how and when to use the accelerator. And I have been in love with it ever since. But for the work schedule plus lack of opportunity, I could not ride them again.

It was great to see the skills of Nitinjit ( who I learnt later- was just three or four days old on the track, Ken, Chintu few others and then Vivek.

The master rode and the machines obeyed.


anyways, coming back to present, I loved it all. Wish I too can ride any of them any day, or as, better said by Old Fox, put on the road tyres in that machine and take it to hills, perhaps that's where I belong!


All Cheers

dcs

Oh ho! that was something I missed to see in real.

Here are my views on saturday's ride and the motorcycle-

I had been waiting to try my hands on one of these ultimate machines which are mass produced for making people discover the "dirty" side of motorcycling and it's hidden pleasures. Made for sheer fun, these motorcycles teach the rider what "Throttle Control " is, and how important is it.This saturday, I had more than 4 times the horses on my call compared to my commuter motorcycle, but I knew what does it mean to provoke all of them even on a straight line, forget the corner. In fact I needed more of them over the corners rather than straights.


The riding experience-

Initially I was scared of riding it, but gradually the confidence inspiring chasis and precision of throttle started hypnotizing me. It was fun to ride the motorcycle that understands the protocol between the rider, the terrain and it's own behavior.A given motorcyle built for a given purpose has to behave/react in a given way for given inputs on a given surface. The surface here can be qualified as hard pack, loose dirt, bumps, bermed turns, flat turns etc. each rider plays exactly with above parameters to derive his own version of "riding pleasure" from a motorcycle.

The inputs can be weight transfer, steering inputs, clutch, brakes and off course and most importantly the throttle. The more I started pushing it with the right inputs, the more obedient it was getting. I have never felt this on any bike. Soon after 1st 4-5 laps I was deliberately trying to make the mistakes of lower intensity to judge the tolerance of the bike towards rider's mistakes.The motorcycle turned out to be very cooperative but was leaving very small window to accomodate mistakes. That was a very good reminder of the ground rules. One has to respect the machine as much as one wants command over it.I have seen people quickly turning these bikes and making controlled slides and spins for taking turns. This bike allowed even a novice like me to do that, but one mistake in the middle of maneuver due to lack of confidence or sharp practice, and it hits back hard.

Old Fox has written a very elaborative description of what all happened that day, but I was in altogether a different world. A world where everything is perfect. I was imagining people(honda in this case) building the machines for which others pay willingly. Things are expensive, but the experience you get out of them is richer.Nothing was pressing me to ride the bike faster, but my inner self wanted to explore it more and derivative was, I was exploring myself more. I was trying to be one with the motorcycle, I did not recall any instance when I felt that the bike was not mine. That time, I was toying with marvel of the technology. Just buying such a motorcycle will not give one the pleasure like other material things. One has to friend with that and has to earn that pleasure. Purchasing these machines is just the beginning. But as I understand, anyone who aims to purchase it, already knows what it means to buy a motorcycle that does not qualify to be a "motorcycle" by my standards because -

It is no good for touring , economic commuting, carrying passengers and do not last very long on a particular setup. These need to be tuned frequently. These do not have a main stand. The tires wear off very soon and the fuel tank range is very low. I can go on describing the disqualifications. But I am short of words to describe what does it bring along - ownership experience of a off road superbike.


I rode a WR250 another purpose built offroader back in 2008 and a WR450 this year in March. But those ride lasted only for 3-4 minutes and were on tarmac.But this session gave me a true feeling of a competetive offroad machine and it's character. These machines are easy to master because these are so light and a very slight input of rider's weight transfer translates into bigger proportion of combined mass transfer. The front end is designed for sitting near the front fork and loading it on a corner and it helps in accelarating out of corner. Any jerk to the throttle means rear tire will try to overtake front. YOU cannot kill the throttle in reaction, teh throttle needs to be let of by few mms and rear will gain traction again. So in short, the most important factor on these bikes are throttle. If you are going in straight line, throttle up. If you want to turn, throttle up more. If you can handle a situation, throttle up and if you cannot, throttle little more.

Finally, after writing few paraghraphs, I give up trying to describe in words about the bike and my experience with that. All in all I would term it as ultimate bike for dirt and I am thankful to everyone who presented me this opportunity of riding my dream machine. I just wish to have enough skills in me someday to even utilize 40% of this motorcycle.

Happy riding

Beautifully written and explained Sir. this shows that whatsoever machine and whomsoever the rider is.. there is always a sync between the machine and rider without which riding is not possible and this Sync always come through the respect, whichsoever it is.

Brilliantly written Vivekji. I laughed out loud when I read that. Basically, when in doubt, throttle it!

I am learning with every post. Throttle it some more so that I can learn more please!