giftadreamride: Less than 48 hours to go- super excited!

giftadreamride: Less than 48 hours to go- super excited!

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ABOUT: The Gift A Dream ride and Me!



Hello everyone! Most of you know me as bluevolt on xbhp, the guy who first filled the ‘Ninja 250 is here’ thread with countless comments before he got his bike, and doing all sorts of DIY on his bike and posting them on the forum after he got it. But I never got around to making a proper introduction on this website (bad, bad bluevolt) so better late than never, as they say.


And why GQ?

I really don’t have a one word answer to that. Maybe somewhere in the my sub-conscious during the night, the brain decided that the four-laned GQ highways and the Ninja 250R were a good match (dating website type thing) so one day when I woke up, I suddenly had this very strong wish to ride the GQ. And I also have not had a chance to ride a motorcycle through the eastern side of the Indian peninsula and also on the Calcutta-Delhi stretch, so a GQ ride seemed a perfect opportunity to do that. And since I have done all my past rides solo, so why should this be any different?

Time began to fly - I started planning my trip in October, and now my trip is now soon going to begin! I will write more about the planning /trip build up in my travelogue which will follow soon in the next few days.

Riding a motorcycle is certainly fun and I will not forget to have fun and discover incredible India as I begin riding the highways of the Golden Quadrilateral! But at the same time, we must not forget that we are a strongly knit community, and I will be riding to represent that community.


A good way of letting the world know of what this community is all about is to spread the word around the two things we strongly believe in:

1. Giving back to the society: There are thousands of families in India who barely manage to eke out a living, stressed by meagre financial resources. The children of these households are deprived of a happy childhood and often have to work at an early age and are abused by the hostile environment they are brought up in. Without the help and support of other people, these children have a bleak future, having no education or life skills. You would be very surprised to know that my few early years in Bihar (I was around 10) were spent in abject poverty due to unavoidable and difficult circumstances, so I know how that feels first hand. I was very young, but I can still remember things as if it was yesterday – the only difference between me and the other kids is that my parents tried their best to give me a proper education which made the whole difference. I believe that those years shaped me as the person I am today, and I am extremely grateful for little things in life which many of other people take for granted. So the spirit of this xBhp roadtrip will be about caring for others – we are supporting an organisation called dream-a-dream (www.dreamadream.org) which makes a difference in the lives of underprivileged children. I would urge members to come forward with their contributions however small – it would collectively make a big difference. On a personal front, I will be contributing a minimum of one rupee for every kilometre which the Golden Quadrilateral covers, which will be close to 5,500 kms. An ideal amount to donate will be the rupees equivalent to the number of CCs your motorcycles is. For example if you have a Pulsar 220, you can donate 220 rupees (or even more if you want!). To read details on how to donate please read this thread.
2. Ride safe: This is the essence of being a responsible rider, and what all of us at the xBhp community believe in. Apart from wearing all the gear all the time – I will also be sharing my experiences and insights regarding riding safely on the highways in my travelogue. And though you must have heard this a million times, I will say this for the millionth and first time – wear helmets. And not only wear them, strap them on securely. An unstrapped helmet which might cost Rs. 15,000 offers only marginally more protection than wearing a baseball cap. Nothing saddens me more than seeing people who ride with their helmets hung around their forearms, or taking off their helmet as soon as they enter their neighbourhood.

That’s all from me for now - I will be updating my travelogue on a daily basis, though there might be areas in the Calcutta-Delhi stretch where I might run into connectivity problems. Let all of us make this xBhp charity ride a huge success!

To spirit of motorcycling - the glue which binds us all, Rahul aka ‘bluevolt’

To Share my ride please share this page with people outside of xBhp: http://www.xbhp.com/gad/
Route: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/gift-dre...28th-feb-2010/

The Gift A Dream Ride: Route

Here’s my planned itinerary for my GQ road trip, which starts from February 12th and ends on Feb 28th. I would be covering the Chennai-Kolkatta- Delhi stretch first and then return via Rajasthan-Mumbai. I have planned a total of 17 days for the whole journey with a reserve day on March 1st in case I have to spend an extra day somewhere. I will not be riding nights at all, and I will usually start from a point at 5am in the morning and end the day’s ride before dusk. Apart from covering the GQ, I will also be wandering a bit into Punjab to catch up on some old friends as well!

• February 12th, Friday: Bangalore-Vijaywada (795 kms)
• February 13th, Saturday: Vijaywada - Bhubaneshwar ( 803 kms)
• February 14th, Sunday: Bhubaneshwar- Kolkatta (426 kms)
• February 15th, Monday: Kolkatta- Bodh gaya (494 kms)
• February 16th, Tuesday: Bodh gaya-Kanpur (574 kms)
• February 17th. Wednesday: Kanpur-Ambala (674kms)
• February 18th, Thursday: Ambala- Jalandhar (167 kms)
• February 19th, Friday: Stay in Jalandhar, do Ludhiana too.
• February 20th, Saturday: Jalandhar-Chandigarh (95 kms) – get engine oil changed.
• February 21st, Sunday: Stay in Chandigarh, meet up with friends
• February 22nd, Monday: Chandigarh-Delhi ( 241 kms)
• February 23rd Tuesday: Rest day in Delhi.
• February 24th, Wednesday: Delhi- Ahmedabad (892 kms)
• February 25th, Thursday: Ahmedabad-Mumbai (550 kms)
• February 26th, Friday: Spend day in Mumbai
• February 27th, Saturday: Mumbai-Pune (148 kms), stay night in Pune.
• February 28th, Sunday: Pune-Bangalore (852 kms)
• March 1st, Monday: Reserve day

Total days: 17 (+1 reserve)
Total kms: 6,700
Estimated fuel consumption: 219 liters
Estimated total time on saddle @ average speed of 60kmph: 110 (60kmph average includes city traffic on the way and slow speed on bad roads)
Estimated amount of fun: Unlimited!

People, please keep pouring your suggestions etc about places to stay, eat or anything I might need to know while being on the road!

Also, PM me your number if you can meet me along the way. I will give you a call if possible and we can hook up!

But remember, the main aim of this trip to raise charity for children.
Click here to know how to Donate!

Inspiring stuff there, bluevolt. Truly said - 'to the spirit of riding'...I'll surely spread the word across, and donate some amount for this cause too. All the best, bluevolt!

And good to know that you had actually "won" a motorbike - be it the 100cc street, even! Good going there, bluevolt.

HOW TO DONATE: Help a child get a dream!



Dreams are one of the most powerful forces in the world. They can bring about real life changes which can affect a person and a whole world. Many underpriviliged children in India cannot dare to dream because they even dont an immediate future. Their present is threatened by meagre resources.

Everyone who is reading this has the resources to get onto the internet and pay for it. For many of food and other basic amenities and taken for granted.

Not for these young children.

We must thank god that we have managed to get what we have today, and we must learn to share, even a little to enable these children to get up on their feet and become someone, someday.

Here is your chance. A gentleman named Rahul (aka Bluevolt on xBhp) is going around India (the Golden Quadrilateral) on his Ninja 250 for 6700kms in 16 days to raise money for a NGO called Dream a Dream.


About Dream a Dream NGO:

How to Donate:


1. ONLINE: Go here to donate securely:

http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/xBhp


2. OFFLINE: By attending one of the xBhp offline meets arranged in either of the following cities:

• Delhi
• Hyderabad
• Chennai
• Bangalore
• Mumbai/Pune
• Kolkatta

Or by Sending cheques directly to DaD:

Please send a cheque in favour of Dream A Dream to 11/17, 3rd Cross, 1st Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560011

Please ensure that you attach a cover note to the cheque indicating that you are donation is in favour of “Gift a Dream” stating your Full Name, Email, Phone, Full Postal Address to help DaD issue and send across a receipt to you. Also mention that you are donating as a result of the Gift A Dream ride on xBhp.

FAQ

Asked by Aryan:

Answer: The responsible volunteer will collect and declare the money collected in front of everyone at the meet. He will then deposit the cash in Dream a Dream's (DaD) bank account . The bank a/c details will be provided by DaD later. DaD will then issue a reciept and send a copy to the volunteer depositor. They will also scan the reciept and send it me so that I can put the scan up in the offline meet thread for everyone to see and verify.

@rahul: I wish you all the very best in this noble endeavour. Thank you for sharing your rich background with us and letting us know the wonderful person you are.

I wonder what would have happened if you had taken part in the Castrol Power1 Passion Hunt in 2009, the R1 could have been yours!

Anyways, best of luck!

Would love to meet up with you in Chandigarh!

All the best Bluevolt.

One more all India trip going on with out hyderabad in the route.
Rahul, hope you would consider it.

about this online donation. please can you let me know how to go about. On the site there is a button on the right-hand side "DONATE". should i click on that and donate the money. But thru that i am making a donation in USD. is it ok. Please let me know.

Very inspiring stuff there ! The idea of riding and donating to a cause feels just brilliant. Looking forward to many such trips on xbhp. All the very Best Bluevolt.

Way to go Rahul, I'll be waiting for you in Chennai. Good Luck

Rahul, I wanted to donate, but I couldn't click!!!

@rakowli: Yes, the option is USD but it will be converted to INR when you use your Credit card (its the paypal link i assume). Also dont forget to mention in the text "xBhp Gift a dream ride " in the comments to seller, so that we can trace how much donation we got from xBhp

Also, all those who donate online via xBhp please let us know in this thread if possible, so that more people get motivated!

Great thing dude .... wish I could join you