1. The Plan and the Meet...!!
3rd April 2013, somewhere around 9pm….my phones’s whatsapp pings…!! Its Abby (Abdul) and Shaby (Shahbaz)…who create a whatsapp group to plan out a ride to Lonar, Aurangabad. It was long…almost after a month after we did our Rajasthan Ride that Abdul got an opportunity ride. He had some service issues with his R15 so had to miss out a lot of rides that our gang “RoadRunnerz” (RRz) did in between (Lonava,Lavassa,etc). So Abby was very excited and just wanted to ride for a good distance….!!!

The RoadRunnerz teee...
All three of us started to rack our brains and got on a conference call…( I was not going to ride…as I had planned a dinner with my college group…so I just thought of being a part of the planning process). We logged into our computers and started searching for routes and places to stay…but then the date decided for the ride was the coming weekend….6th -7th April, 2013. The distance was about 550 kms from Mumbai….and shaby and myself thought it would not be feasible to ride that distance…see the place and just ride back the other day, coz we would not be able to do some good time pass while we were off the saddle. But abby was firm on his decision of going to lonar…” Dude it’s a place of world heritage…meteor gira tha udhar…mast lake hai” but me and shaby just denied and explained it to abby that it wasn’t possible to have a lot of fun…coz we would ride the whole day…then we would see that lake and then had to sleep as again next day we had our return journey. All would be hectic……Abby somehow agreed…!! We started to search for place at a vicinity of about 350 kms max so we could ride…then have lots of Bakaar (Fun in Mumbaiya Language)……started off with places like diu,daman,bordi,etc,etc…..but then our super excited rider Abby comes up with this place named VANSDA NATIONAL PARK….. immediately shaby and myself…..”what???? VANS…kyaa???.....”
we could hardly locate it on Goolge Maps..
Abby was like “dude…VANSDA national park…Gujarat mein hai…and then he send us a list of 25 Animals and bird that the national park has living in a natural habitat….We always wanted to do a national park ride…and here it was….!! So I called up my college group and asked if i could skip the dinner plan as i wished to ride.... on some conditions ofcourse!!! Finally it was planned…I took care of the Riding Route…Abby looked after accommodation and shaby was allocated the task of inviting riders and posting event on the RRz fb group …..This time we thought lets take a few riders not from RRz but whom we know well….!! All got to work as per their allotted tasks.
RIDERS GATHER:
Shabby posted the event…I posted the route…and abby was searching for places to stay…!! I got a call from a dear fren Ronit (Ron)…a fellow skater who used to skate with me during my skating days….(Both being national champions). Recently he bought a Harley Davidson Superlow….He said he had a breakfast ride to attend of the HOG (Harley Owners Group) on the 6th at Ahura hotel on the NH8. And then from there he would join us directly at VANSDA…(We had planned to take the NH3 route via Nashik for our journey to vansda and return via NH8)…..wohooo..i was super excited…a Harley entering the RoadRunnerz….!!! A few more riders were gathered from RoadRunnerz and xbhp…a few denied and a few agreed to come. After a lot of invites here and there….we finally had 6 riders for the ride…!!
Ronit- Harley Superlow (to meet directly at vansda)
Shahbaz (Shaby) –Apache RTR180 ABS
Abdul (ABBY)- R15 V2
Taher- (CBR250)
Kaustav – (a new member a little less experienced rider but an amazing person) R15 V2.
and myself Kshitij (padfootmoony2006 aka paddy) Pearl White Karizma ZMR
The time and place for the meet was decided and the plan was set….now we had almost 2 days of inquisition and eagerness…!!

Stuff all set for the ride....
6th April 2013, sleepless night for almost all the riders…as the ride was on chart..!! Kedar a fellow rider (RE STD350) was to meet us at Mulund check naka as Abby required knee and elbow guards (Abby’s brother owns a KTM 200 and had some ride planned so had taken his gears, and RRz doesn’t allow riders without complete gears.) I was to meet Taher near my house…then we both were to meet Abby, Kaustav and Kedar (who wished to ride with us till Thane) at mulund toll naka…and then all of us to meet Shaby at Thane Majhiwada Mc.D’s….our so called Head Quarters…!!! Everything went as planned….Yes a little delay toh banta hai…after all IST- Indian Stretchable Time…it wasn’t that late…but yeah almost 30 mins delay than our planned time….!! We all met each other…a few riders were new to each other…Kaustav a new rider was made comfortable with the group….we had a nice pic clicked……we bid adieu to Kedar…ignited our engines….and left for the journey…….!!!!! At about 6.30am!!!

(Team RRz)
Part 2 coming soon.....!!!
Comment