The Durex ride was taking place on the same day. And I must say, I was feeling a little guilty after deciding not to participate. But I really needed to get away from the city and my morbid life.
And so did 8 other bikers.And they were :

Ameya220 - P220
Priyank - Karizma
Ttusharz and his friend Mayur - Karizma
Tail gunner -P220
Puneet - Karizma
Praneet Rao - P220
Abhay - P220
Anant - P220

A ride to Dahanu, Bordi and Umbergaon was planned. Most had confirmed pretty much on time and I assume I was the last one.

The only person I had spoken to, before the ride was Tail Gunner.Got Ameya's number,bugged him with directions from Khar to Goregaon and dozed off at almost 2 AM, too excited about my first xbhp ride with the Mumbai gang.

I believe I was about 15 mins late.Priyank and Ameya had been waiting when I reached Goregaon and it was about 5:45 AM.We met everyone at Fountain Hotel.The regular intro talk and the hand shakes and the gup shup followed.

So we were all set now.All bikers present.Geared.Ready to zoom off to hours of sheer pleasure which only we motorcyclists can understand.

And so we rode.....

Ttushar led the pack of wolves very skillfully, doing a constant 70-80 Km/hr.It was damn cold and I was freezing to death, crying over my ignorance of not covering myself well.The DSG jacket offered no respite because of the missing warm liner.And the Pro-Biker gloves were hardly doing any good.Later on I realized, that everyone was in a similar state.We were only wondering how it must be riding in Leh if this was our condition in Maharashtra weather.





The first break was a much welcome reprieve.I just wanted to get my hands near the engine and warm them nicely.Some of us did the usual pissing-in-the-bushes-and-not-washing-hands routine.Clicked a few pictures and moved on.

Just one more break in between and there we were, Dahanu.The roads on the highway were nice and smooth.After you get off the main highway and turn towards Dahanu, the roads are little short of a camel ride, but then I assume I was the only one flying off my seat at every bump.Almost felt like I was off roading.












Abhijeet (Tail Gunner), was given the task of tailing, and he was doing an amazing job of it, making sure no one was left behind, though later on I realized I was the only one being left behind everytime.

Dahanu beach.
It is huge,between clean and dirty and deserted.Though there is a line of small hotels next to it,all I saw was an aunty doing her morning walk and a couple of local guys roaming around.We parked our bikes side by side, clicked a few pictures and the chit chat started.By the way, the chit chat was to be our biggest attraction for this ride.More on this later


We stayed there for an hour or so.Now we had been pretty heroic getting the bikes on the sandy beach but getting them back did take some effort and muscle work.It was worth it at the end.

A question for the readers, is it possible that someone to have a crash at 120 Km/hr, and have no damage done to him , to add to it the helmet also suffers just a single minor scratch ?

If yes, then skip the next couple of lines.

If no,

So Praneet's friend, Abhay, has been there and done that and Praneet was super aroused telling us all about how he crashed at 120 and was the luckies man alive.Apparently, he had to spend 60K on the bike, some covered by insurance.
Kinda hard to digest ?

But anyway,after the first stop we started scouting for a place to at.Stopped at a roadside place and gobbled medu vadas,dosas and idlies.Not bad.

After breakfast, Praneet and his friend Abhay bid adieu and left as he had to leave for ganpatiphule the next day.We carried on towards Bordi, another 15-20 Kms from Dahanu.



Now Bordi beach is slightly change,you need to walk what seems like 10 kilometres to reach the water,none of us were really interested so we just parked and sat down for another chit chat session.Chit chat se yaad aaya,I must compliment Punnet here for his ability to imitate and his ability to humour
people around him It was fun listening to tales of other Mumbai Xbhpians and all the other funny stuff.
Before leaving, we took our bikes on this beach as well,with Puneet doing quite the unthinkable.He asked for Tail Gunner's 220 for a test ride on the beach










After another hour or so of chatting we moved towards Umbergaon, another beach.this one was the best.There are these trees next to the beach, which make you feel like you've just arrived at a movie location and will soon see an actress coming from behind a tree and breaking into a song dance sequence o the nineties.Dogs were sunbathing too.


We sat in a circle and discussed everything under the sun.It is amazing how we "boys" can connect over so many things just because of our immense love for bikes.Chatted about everything under the sun.Sitting on grass and discussing bike related stuff was too much fun.If you weren't with us, you missed out







Me with the boys




The ride back was slow for the major portion.All of us were damn hungry.Priyank was the only vegetarian and Tthushar wanted to eat chicken ONLY and he is a very determined young man.I am sure we passed at least 15 veg-only restaurants to find one place which was ready to serve us non veg food.While looking for a place to eat, I was thinking that maybe people have decided to go home and eat



The place where we stopped was pretty decent but for one thing, the loo had no flush I held me breath while taking a leak ! Phew !

We ordered a kilo of chicken handi which came along with at least five of oil for free.It was pretty decent but for a place like that and it was 4 PM by the time we had arrived so we were only too happy to eat what was there in front of us.

Another thing of mention about that place was this shop outside the restaurant.It was a mall on it's own stocking everything from viagras to food to toys to warm clothing to cigarettes.Talk about all in one !

After a heavy lunch,we started out at a faster pace.Mumbai wasn't far away but the traffic situation was bad in patches.Lots of dust everywhere.I was finding it hard to catch up with the rest,with sleep also working against me.If it wasn't for Abhijeet's pepping up, I am sure I would've reached an hour or so after the others.

Managed to reach fountain hotel.Content after a nice day only to see maddening traffic.And only Priyank,Ameya and myself had to go into it.But then for someone who lives in Mumbai,traffic is child's play, isn't it ? Reached home after another one or one and a half hours and looked at myself in the mirror.

Dirty jacket.Dirty jeans.Red eyes.Face covered with dust.

We,the bikers.
















Some videos :




The first one !

Riding on the beach

YouTube - 26th jan 2010 mum xbhp ride2

YouTube - 26th jan 2010 mum xbhp ride4

Thanks to Mayur,Puneet and Ttusharz for the pictures and videos.