Oh boy. What a landslide!

Approved

Thanks Ken for the approval.

so true .....

Waiting for the entire log . The excerpt sounds good

Lovely picts.

Why an "extract", post the entire log an all the pics.

Now! This is interesting... Keep em' comin'

Have already seen the pics on fb. amazing ride. The log is well worth waiting for

now thats why i alwayz tell you to write the log... you make the ride more memorable....

bring on the logs and pics....

Awesome Ride.
Nothing like this is happening here

Trip log First Part

I will not go into much detail about how we came out with the route. Actually, I wasnt even involved in the planning process thanks to office keeping me busy for the whole week.

The interesting thing is, for a ride that claims to be a pioneering venture into the unknown, the names involved in the route do not conjure the same enigma.

The route planned was as follows,
Pune->Tamhini(Village)->Lavasa->Panshet

These are all well known tourists spots as well as fabled biking destinations. The important thing is, the exploratory parts pertains to the routes/roads that we take rather than the places we eventually end up at. So to give a better idea, this was how we planned to hit the waypoints,




There were a lot of people interested in the ride however not all could make it. Some that were tentative, did.
Here is the rag-tag troupe of riders that eventually turned up at Chandani Chowk at around 5 am,

1. Rishabh - FZ16
2. Surojit - CBZ Classic
3. Nikhil - Machismo 500
4. Kashif - P-180
5. Saad - P-220 DTSi
6. Me - RTR 160

Navendu would join us in some time at Tamhini on his ZMA.

So we left from Chandani chowk around 5:30 am, towards Pirangut and from there to Tamhini. It was still a bit dark. Nikhil wanted to fuel up so he was up ahead. However, no fuel pumps were open at the wee hours in the morning. We were making decent progress. Just after crossing Mulshi, we could feel little droplets of rain about and could see some heavy rain up ahead.
We stopped for a bit and everybody geared up for the rains. However, as things turned out it was quite unnecessary. We didnt come across any heavy rain for some time to come. All of us had left early and with no food, we were all real hungry by now. We went ahead, hopeful that some kindly businessman would be an early riser and may start his business this early in the morning. Unfortunately, we didnt find any places that were open. We did come across a few travellers who had stopped, but we never found out if those places were open. Nikhil was so taken by the road, that he was hardly paying attention to what's around and inspite of incessant honking and headlight-switching, he went his merry way, oblivious to the helpless cries of some famished souls that followed in his wake.

Soon, we reached a fork in the road. The road to the right went to the Tamhini ghat and the one to the left was the one we were to embark upon. However, we would be lucky to find another living soul on that road, let alone a place that served food. So we thought we might find something in the village up ahead. I went on to investigate. The village was small and still enjoying a late Sunday morning. Finding nothing I turned back.









By this time it had started to rain.Not too heavily but enough. We didnt have a choice, so we moved on. About 500 mts into the road, we came to our first roadblock. It consisted of some stones and broken pipes. It had a comfortable gap to the left, where we could easily pass through. Here we also waited for Navendu to catch up. He didnt keep us long. After a small photo session. We moved on.









The road now was gravel and mud. It soon gave way to a patch consisting on Cement blocks.
At one point on this road, the cement path just ended with half-a-foot drop. Thankfully, we werent going too fast and avoided a nasty bump. The road up ahead was climbing steeply with only mud , gravel and loose rocks representing hint of a road. Nikhil had gone ahead. His Machismo making short work of the road. Kashif had a sudden shot of adrenaline on seeing lack of any prepared road and had raced ahead right behind him.
Followed by Rishabh , Me and rest of the gang bringing up the rear. In front of me, the FZ was fish-tailing its way to glory and the fat rear tire displacing whatever it touched. Before I could be shot down by a rogue pebble, I moved ahead of the FZ. The road wound its way up the hill with a steep gradient. We soon came to nice opening to the left that offered a fascinating view of the hill side and the villages far off in the distance in the direction that we came. We stopped there for a while. Rishabh followed soon after and then came Surojit. We waited quite a while for Navendu and Saad. After about 10-15 minutes, there was still no sign of them.Looking down below, we could see Saad sitting besides his bike looking at the engine. There must be something wrong with Saad's bike. Nikhil went down to see what was wrong. It turned out that Saad's bike kept dying after running a while.Somehow, he managed to get it running and made it to the top.Soon, after everyone gathered, we moved on.









Not farther up the road, we came to a small stream, beside the road. The road was completely blocked by rocks with a small opening. Enough for a bike to go through, even an Enfield.We somehow managed to get past this roadblock. We reached the apex of the hill we had been climbing.
At the peak, we were greeted with what would be the toughest hurdle in our progress. A tree had fallen and was covered with a mound of mud and soil. With no passage or even a crevice to either side.
We decided we have to move on. There is no turning back, never ever. Ask Rishabh. Questions were raised, doubts cast over the sanity of such an action. Eventually, everyone came around to it.







We decided to try with the lightest bike of the lot. It would be Surojit's CBZ classic. Without flinching, Surojit jumped at the opportunity. He made it some way up. But soon we had to jump in to help him out and get him to the top of the mound and then across. Next we allowed the Enfield to cross. Big Mistake. Nikhil, who confidently proclaimed that we could easily cross this hurdle, so started having second thoughts about the whole idea. But not enough for him to back down. The Enfield too didnt make it too far up. All of its mighty 40 Nm of Torque was being expended in throwing mud on the people around. All of us had to really grit our teeth and pull this 175 kg iron horse across to the other side.After much pulling and pushing , we finally helped the Machismo get across to the other side. All of us were now panting and with beads of sweat on our brows.We took a breather. 2 across, 5 to go. Kashif said he had done enough hard labor and it was his turn to have a break.So he went next.

The Pulsar 180 was much lighter and easier to haul across but after the two bikes crossing, the mud was completely displaced leaving a deeper path. We again had to put in an effort to the 180 over the
tree and across to the other side.






I went next. The bike's rear wheel got stuck at the rocks at the bottom of the mound and started spinning in place. I revved and revved but the bike didnt budge. So others lifted the rear tire and moved it up a bike. We made it to the top of the mount. The displaced mud had exposed a root of the tree and that was hitting the bikes main stand preventing the bike getting across. After shifting the bike around a bit, the RTR finally made its way to the other side. Coming down from the mound wasnt easy either. There was a very narrow path leading down with the fallen trees branches covering the entire left side.









It was then Saad's turn with his 220. The 220 made an eager jump at the mound and then suddenly died.We tried starting it. After a few tries the bike started but after moving half a metre the engine died again.
So we stopped trying to start the bike and instead just pushed it all by ourself. What a pleasant surprise it was to see that it was infact easier to push the bike with the engine turned off. We were able to easily
move it across.








Then came the FZ. The FZ had similar problems to the RTR with its rear tire spinning in place. But being very light we were able to move it up the mound and from then on it wasnt much trouble. We did have some trouble with the fact that the FZ did not have crash guards. With other bikes were using the crash guards to hold the bikes and pull them up.












Finally it was Navendu's turn with the ZMA. We were all really tired by now. Thankfully the ZMA gave us no trouble at all and we were able to move it across easily. Also, fortuitously, Navendu had installed crash guards on his ZMA which helped us a lot.The ZMA also had Michelin Sirac at the rear which might have gripped better in the mud.







The narrow pass was already making some of nervous. Every once in a while, a small bunch rocks would come rolling down one of the sides as if to warn us of an impending landslide.Strangely enough, someone had built a small temple in this abandoned place.Another fallen tree lay in our paths. This wasnt nearly a tough as the last one. There was a small gap to the left. A gap not many would fear to pass, when it fell between two cars in the city. Here however, everyone was measuring it up to see if there bikes can go through because to the left of the gap was drain about a foot below the road.Each one of use slowly made our way through it, one-by-one.










The road now was littered with fallen rocks and mud. It corkscrewed ts way down. As we descended, the sides gave way and gave us a view of the surrounding landscape.

To be continued..

Awesome pics !!! .... to boldy go where no bike has gone before !!

So.. When is the Leh Trip?

Ashutosh - tell me something.. Do you read loads of novels.. You write in a Fantasy Language. Feels as if I am reading a novel.

it was a long time after i went on these roads and was speeding and pushing to the limits.Touching 100 at times on some sections . Didnt see anyone in my mirrors honking or flashing
bas sir aapki kami thi
Yeah , its a good read .... i just remembered the first half of the trip , turn by turn ,step by step

Matter of fact, yes I do.
Just trying to put down as much detail as I can without sounding long-drawn.