Ohh..I wish this comes true....
err...but not exactly.... coz m thoroughly in love with R15..Wouldnt want to lose her so early...Neva...

Well bro..no need of any puncture kit when u r traveling on Mumbai-Goa highway... Road is absolute bliss.. This is easily one of the best roads in India for biking..650kms of race track u can say..with beautiful corners and straights for mind bending speeds....

And trust me.. going to Goa solo is not a big deal..The road is so beautiful and scenic..u dont even realize how fast u eat up those kilometers...And it's safe too...

Well arre only i know how i managed to do so.. bahaut papad pelne padte hai..

But this time there wasnt that much of trouble convincing them as i had already done 3 successful Mumbai- Goa rides..

Welcome back ketan. Waiting for pics and log.

good one there Ketan.....me too waiting fo more pics and the log.....

Goa is a destination where every one wishes to get to..especially for x-mas and new year. Not forgeting it's inherent party culture, no party poopers will ever want to miss this destination and occasion.

The chilled winter season coupled with various drinks and a partner or friends together is the ideal mixture for good gala time in the clubs or at any indoor celebrations.

New year celebrations weren't looking as bad as we thought..specialy in Goa after those terrorist attack threats. while the number of beach parties were less this year, nothing was stopping people from holidaying and enjoying the arrival of 2009. And why not? how long can one grapple with all sorts of stress? This year specialy people just wanted to take a break and travel to a relatively peacful destination and thus i chose Goa.

Plans were to travel there with bunch of friends and having blast on the new years eve..But it didnt work out. I had to call off the picnic at the last moment due to some reason. But then who'll sit at home doing nothing on 31st Dec? I wanted something special. I thought why not ride to Goa on my own? Because anyways I was thinking of riding to Goa some day on my R15. I have travelled to Goa on my all previous bikes. I was quite sure riding to Goa on R15 is a sure shot hit.

Only thing was convincing parents but that wasnt that difficult as they already have seen me doing 2 successful rides to Goa but then no ride is the same and no one knows what unforeseen incident lays ahead. some how managed to convince my parents.

Rider was all set and ready and now it was time to check if the ride is ready or not. My bike's second servicing was due on 30th Dec. So called the service center and informed them bout the delay. Fellow was helpful and agreed to give me my bike serviced after the Goa ride.

The night before the ride was the time to do all the packing. I didnt want to carry any unneccessary stuff as it would have been burden on my shoulders. So packed a few clothes. Checked all the documents. Got a bottel full of glucon D. And in my hip sack took a small torch and some medicines. I was sure from my past experiences that travelling to Goa at this time of the year means very bad cold. Specialy once u get out of Mumbai and reach Pen-Panvel. There temp gets very low, may be because of the Karnala forests and all. So I jacket gloves and ear plugs were among the most wanted list. all the preparations were done and I went to bed. I knew i wont be able to sleep coz of the excitement but atleast a lill sleep was needed as i was supposed to ride for the entire next day.

I had decided to leave at 5.30am next day. Set an alarm of 5 o clock. I got up at 5 the next day and before getting ready just went out to clean my bike. To my surprise it was a little too cold that morning. I couldnt even touch cold water to clean my bike. I thought if this is the condition just when i am standing what it's gonna be when i'll be riding at 60kmph.? From my previous Goa ride i had some idea bout the time I'll take to reach Goa and thus i was in no hurry. So i simply postponed the time and decided to leave after an hour that is at 6.30am..after the Sun is out. Because that'll help me getting some warmth. I went to bed again and got up after some time. But then I got a lill late and finally left for Goa at 7.15am.

It was beautiful early in the morning. Though the sun was out, i was still feeling the cold, even after wearing jacket on a t shirt and jeans..Gloves..Helmet and a hanky tied to my face. and of course shoes. May be that's the reason i couldnt go beyond 55-60kmph for quite long time. climate was nice but foggy.


As i was traveling alone and that too wearing those thick DSG gloves, it was a pain everytime getting the cell phone out of the hip sack for clicking pics. But still managed to take some pics while on the go. Roads were empty with little traffic and thus it didnt take much time to reach the first diversion - Panvel. Temperature was quite low and fog was increasing as I was getting out of city. From Panvel I took the route to Goa leaving behind the Pune route. Now it was a two way road without any devider in between. While riding that patch till Pen and then to Wadkhal I remembered in what bad condition i was on this road when i was riding to Goa last time- exactly a year ago. At that time i had left very early in the morning and i had reached this spot when even the sun wasnt out. At that time I had not taken proper care of the cold and I was suffering a lot.

Mile stones passed by while I was thinking of all these memories. While I was between Pen and Wadkhal temps were so low that there was moisture all over..on my helmet visor, on the RVMs, on bike's windscreen..everywhere. I literally had to ride with my helmet visor open. So much fog in front of me and to add to it this moisture on my visor..means total loss of vision.




Riding for some time took me to Wadkhal. There's this Hotel named Milind Vihar or something which is our usual pit stop point. I headed to it and took my first pit stop. I didnt want to eat anything so as to avoid any stomach problems in the rest of the journey. So just had a hot cup of coffee. Made some calls back home to inform them bout my position and left for the further journey.

Riding in Goa's direction was fun. Because it was now that the real journey had begun. Till wadkhal it's not the proper Goa road as the same road leads to alibaug as well. From Wadkhal the road quality is really nice. Roads are wide and very little traffic.


Now the riding speed had improved a bit as fog seemed to be disappearing and the road to was nice. But then just as i was thinking bout this and gaining some speed, after about 50 kms, somewhere near mangaon or indapur fog suddenly appeared once again and it was very dense this time. You can see in these pics that the fog is so dense you can't even see what's below the bridge.






I continued my journey with some 5-5 mins haults in between.


To be continued....

After some time, I reached Mahad and waited there for some time by the Mahad lake. It's a beautiful lake but it looks even more stunning in evening when the sun sets accross it, behind the mountains. Just before the mahad lake I had seen a fellow with his GF i suppose, on a Bullet.







This was my last hault and I had decided to ride for a longer time. Coz it was enough of these short intervals. And it was possible now, because by now the climate had become ideal. Sun was out..and it was perfect, not too cold..not too hot. I left Mahad after a short break and continued riding till I reach Poladpur. Poladpur is the place from where there's one diversion towards Mahabaleshwar and the other to Kashedi Ghat on Mumbai-Goa highway. Kashedi - One of the biggest and most exciting ghats in Maharashtra. I continued my journey without any breaks in between and started riding Kashedi. It's very difficult to call this a ghat. It's actuly a beautiful track. Yeah.. a beautiful track with some awesome corners and some equally blind and risky ones. If you really want to see what R15's handling means you gotta cross this ghat once. Simply amazing peice of road. Almost entire ghat is smooth and complete except a very small patch of just a few meters which is under construction. And i had to take some extra care while going thru that patch as R15 loses it's grip very easily on gravel. But once past that patch, it's just fun riding thru this ghat. People who have changed to fatter tyres just for looks are really fools. I swear these are best rubbers on any indian bike till date. They just stick to the road like a leech. This ghat as i said looks like a tracj because there's hardly any traffic on the road and you can use almost every inch of the road while cornering, even of the road in opposite lane. Just have to be a lill carefull on those blind corners.

One more noticable thing about R15 was that many people are cribbing about R15's low torque. Well no doubt it's low on papers and u feel like some better torque when u r into a race with someone, but other than that this bike is just perfect. You need not shift down when there's a steep climb. Bike easily picks up from speeds as low as 30-35 in 6 th gear without much hesitation. Only when there's a steep hairpin curv u gotto shift down a gear or 2. But rest the bike was flawless.. Engine doesnt show any signs of getting hot. also i never fell short of that thrust while overtaking some vehicle and when oncoming traffic suddenly comes close and u need to zoom away quickly. Bike responses realy well to the throttle inputs. That sporty stance adds up to the fun while in ghats. People in other cars and trucks were watching with their jaws dropped as i was tilting the bike on curves and overtaking them with so much ease.













It hardly took any time for me to cross that ghat and as I just was blown away by R15's cornering and handling abilities, I was offered this beautiful and straight patch of road which leads to Khed. It's some 20 odd kilometer patch of road which is simply meant for high speed cruising. There arent any villages in between and that means no oldies crossing the roads, no rikshwas poping in suddenly and no cows and buffalo. I managed to touch 133kmph on that patch and with cruisng speed of nearly 100kmph i reached Khed in no time. There was one Maruti Suzuki Versa on that patch and trust me even that car was finding tough to keep up with R15. I m not at all saying that r15 is more powerfull than Versa and neither saying that the driver didnt know how to drive. But what was making him difficult was on those slight turns and curves. He was already finding it difficult to overtake me at 120-125kmph and that too when a turn comes he used to slow down but with r15 I could tackel those curves at unimaginable speeds. Unimaginable- atleast to me.. It was real fun. I let that fellow pass by at Khed with a smile on his face. I could recognise that was a Mumbai Car and may be that family was on a holiday to somewhere.

I had ridden for quite a long time now and therefore was cruising at relatively slower speeds. My next target was Chiplun. I had preplanned that I'll take my lunch at Chiplun in Hotel Ayoddhya. I had been there before and the food was nice with good parking facility. Also i was confident enough that I'll make it to Chiplun by lunch time.

So riding for next half an hour or so was gonna take me to Chiplun. There's one more ghat before Chiplun called Parshuram Ghat. It's named after a god called Parshuram. There's a temple of that god in this ghat. It is said to be the God of konkan as people beleive that he created the Konkan with his bow and arrow by pushing the sea behind. Just after i passed this temple I waited for a few mins to capture the beautiful Vashishthi river.





After continuing the journey I finally reached Chiplun. This is one village/city where need to be a lill extra careful. People over there are absolute fools and have no sense of rules and road safety. You never know when an autorikshwa wala will hit u from behind or will simply turn left/right in front of you without any signal. They are just insane. Then I reached hotel Ayoddhya. Was feeling a lill tired now. So parked the bike and first got fresh.



Washing my face...having a veg Pulav and taking some rest refreshed me and I was ready to roll once again. My next point of target was Hathkhamba/Ratnagiri. Hathkhamba is located on a hill top and from where there's a diversion to Ratnagiri village. There's also a famous petrol Pump where I had planned to refuel my bike. Now I was feeling the afternoon heat and also the lunch had made me a bit sleepy and lazy. So i prefered riding at slow speed. Because anyway I was ahead of schedule and was in no hurry. Slow and steady crusing brought me to hatkhamba in some time.

I had topped up the tank before leaving Mumbai- the night before the journey. Even though there were 3 sticks of petrol left in the tank I decided to refuel as that was gonna avoid stopping for refueling ahead. Rs.360/- worth of fuel and the tank was full again. I continued my journey once again.
Just for information, there's a hotel just opposite this petrol pump, I dont remember the name right now, may be Hotel Alankar or something, which is very good. Food is brilliant and also has good lodging facility. you can consider it if you r traveling on this route.

As i was in ratnagiri ghat, I saw this thing.... I still have no clue what to call this.. a real earth mover. but unfortunately he had got stalled due to overweight and unability to climb the ghat. but look at the shere size man...humongous...



Just as I had preplanned to have lunch in Hotel Ayodhya at Chiplun, I had also planned bout my evening coffee at Hotel Madhuban at Kharepatan. This is a village adjescent to Ratnagiri - sindhudurg district border. And while leaving hathkhamba, this was my target. My funda over long rides is to always focus on such small destinations instead of milestones of the final distination. This'll ease of the stress and looking at small distances has it's different psychological effect.

Things were going as planned. I reached kharepatan at around 4.00-4.30 in the evening - evening coffee time. So i pulled over to Hotel Madhuban to have a hot cup of coffee avoiding any snacks as still 1/4th of the journey was left.



This small break refreshed me a bit and I was off again. Next big villages were Kankavli and Sawantwadi. Between these kharepatan and these 2 villages are many small-big ghats. One of them is Nadgive ghat. This ghat has a temple of a godess, right in between the road. It acts like a devider. I dont know why but this temple has a very strong impact on me. I started feeling this ever since I first travelled by this road, with my parents when I was a kid. Even my mom believes a lot in this temple and I stop here without forgetting everytime I use this road. It's a very very small temple with lots of bells tied at the entrance. Just waited for a few mins..prayed and continued my trip.



Sun had started going down slowly and I was riding continuously. I had started feeling a lill stress now. The only part which was screaming for relief were my wrists. They were paining a lot. Surprisingly my back and buttocks were less painful as compared to my trip to Goa on P200. I was loving it. But there was one thing which was making me ignore or forget bout that wrist pain. and that was the response I was getting everywhere. When ever I used to enter any village, people from all age groups used to look at the bike with eyes wide open. Small kids going or coming back to/from schools used to shout and point at the bike upon looking. She's surely a head truner and I was loving it. It gives u a sort of a celebrity feeling. When ever I used to stop for a smoke break children used to gather around the bike and used to ask all sorts of questions.

The wierdest incident happened somewhere between Kankavli and Sawantwadi. I pulled over to a small cigerrete shop and was smoking near my bike. There were a few guys standing over there. They were like on seeing the bike. while i was smoking they started examining the bike. One of them was trying to act smart over the other. When they came to the right side of the bike, they were surprised like anything seeing the brake paddle. Because what they have been seeing till now was a flat brake paddle, but this one looked exactly the same like gear shift paddel. One of them asked the other fella(in marathi of course)"Hey look look...Look at this..This bike hasnt got a brake or what?" Then the other guy(the smarty) examined it carefuly and came to a conclusion. He said to the other.."Hmm... This bike has 2 gear shift paddles one for up shift and one for dopwn shift. And in place of clutch lever it has got the rear brake lever.." the other fella was convinced as well as surprised at the technology and I was like.........

when I told them the truth, the smarty was falling short of earth to hide his face...hahaha...

anyways, back to the journey, I was now somewhere between Kankavli and Sawantwadi and where i saw these nice coconut trees reminding me that m close to Goa now.


Then the sun was going down fast and it was starting to get dark. And still there was one more ghat left to cross, one which is just after Sawantwadi. And it's damn risky. It's a very small one but very risky. Even in broad day light it's dark in that ghat because it's totally covered with trees. I wanted to cross that ghat in day light. I was pushing hard. But i knew no matter how much i push hard here, I wont be able to do so in Sawantwadi. The road there gets very narrow and people are like crazy. Riding and driving their vehicles like anything. Road is so narrow that if 2 buses come face to face there are very dense chances of either of the buses brushing the houses on the road.


I reached Sawantwadi when it was just about to get dark. This is Sawantwadi lake.


This was the last pic of my journey as I had to hurry up from there. There was ghat ahead and I wanted to cross it as soon as possible. Reason behind this worry was the bulbs I've used. I know I am comfortable with them but to be frank they are not upto their mark. Stock ones are anytime better than these. These bulbs illuminate the road quite well but they dont have the deapth in them which makes them useless. I was ok riding with them on straight roads but I didnt want to take any chance in ghats. I comfortably crossed the ghat and now was heading directly for the home. Couldnt take any photos as it was dark then. The road till Maharashtra - Goa border was good but then between those 2 borders the road is very poor. Once u get in goa, road gets a lill better but not tht good. I didnt want to take anymore breaks now and thus kept riding hard. Reached Mapusa. And the road there was under construction. Pathetic condition it was in. Once you cross that patch, rest of the road is top class.

As goa was on red alert, there were police on almost every nook and corner. Fortunately I didnt have any trouble of checking. I passed by swiftly and fianally reached home at 7.40pm. It was quite a feeling of completing this looong journey safely and within time.
All the credit goes to this wonder that Yamaha has created. Truely mind blowing machine. Yamaha - You are back once again. What makes this machine ideal for touring is the high cruising speed and relatively less effect on engine. No matter for how many hours you cruise at speeds as high as 95-100kmph the engine just doesnt seem to get hot. and this high cruising speed helps in gulping down kms over kms in real short time. I thoroughly was impressed by this machine. And wait till you read my return journey trip log. R15 has become a God for me since then.
All in all, this journey was full of fun, excitement, looks of passers by..and thrill of high speeds... I really loved it.

To be continued...

Regards
Ketan Nikharge.
9970078695

Nice pics and log.
BTW You are doing so many trips that your parents must be thinking that why did they give you this bike.
How was the performance of the Headlamps? I am going to install the stock bulbs once again.

Well no.. not exactly... even though do lots of trips i do them with regular intervals...not back to back.. otherwise my parents wud hav kicked me out of my house..

Bout the headlight performance...I didnt get that much of night ride in Goa trip as i said i reached Goa by 7.30pm and while on the way back i reached home even before at 7.00pm.

But yesterday i had gone to Pune by bike for some official work, one day ride. I left Pune at around 6.30pm. So it was full night ride. And mind u I was ****ed up by those bulbs. Today I m going to SS at 1.30pm. got some work there. At that time m gonna switch back to stock bulbs while m gonna keep the white pilot lamps the same. I m literally gonna crush those blue bulbs to death forget bout keeping them for future use.

Anyways, Thanx for commenting....

I changed the bulb just now. Really those bulbs are useless.

Hey same here...

Me too changed my bulbs just now...
Had gone to SS..And while my bulbs were being changed there was a fellow with his black R15. He asked me bout the bulbs. He had seen those bulbs ON before they were removed. I told him they r just fine in city riding but on highways they r pathetic.

But still he insisted on me selling them to him..
I was anyways happy as i had nothing to do with those bulbs. Sold them to him for Rs 300/-
I m loving it........

Told you guys that the blue lights are useless

Good trip Ketan... you are raining long rides as if there's no tomorrow... seems like you were planning for these for some time and you have a good ride with you now to execute the plans...

Hey thanx hydbiker..for commenting...

Well no not exactly.. I've been tripping even before..when i had Pulsar 200.. It's just that I was not der on xbhp then n i had no platform to share my pics n experiences.. Writing trip logs was/is my hobby it's just Xbhp is a place where i can nurture it very well.. Thanx a lot xbhp..and all u members...

LOL. You made good profit.

Great trip Ketan. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I notice that a lot of R15 guys are going all over the country these days. You and then the jungle Indiana Jones adventure trip log...

I also appreciate the fact that you park your vehicle off the road when you stop. This is good basic road and civic sense. You do not block traffic coming from behind. Really appreciate it.

And keep on touring. Good to hear the R15 is holding its line everywhere. Now someone has to take to Leh!

Hey thanx Ken..

Well yes.. parking the bike or for that matter any vehicle on the shoulder or off the road is always a good thing..from our as well as others point of view.. Coz not only it avoids any road blocking to others it's safee for us as well. Specially on curves and roads without dividers, Coz in worst case if some one from the opposite lane is overtaking some one and at the same time if a vehicle is coming from ur lane, then it becomes very difficult for all of them to manage if ur bike is parked on the road. And then the loss is everyone's... So why not park it off the road and avoid such incidents...

Anyways..thanx for writting bro..I m just about to complete the trip log..the remaining part...

Great trip and well presented in the log. Good way to end a year. You seem to have had a memorable time bending and leaning on the Kashedi ghat roads