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Day1-
Life is pretty lame for many of us with the same monotonous lifestyle. Though I won't specify the time frames of monotony here just coz earlier it was 9-5 jobs and now it's freggin every working individual regardless of the time..
Though there is different breed of people who call themselves bikers,with flashy gadgets on the helmets, suited up head to toe with riding gear which is a great stuff but especially from Mumbai where do u ride! Lonavala, Lavasa or max to max charoti? I mean what are you trying to prove and to whom.. To the people who actually don't give a shit about you. Riding to nearby locations again and again in the groups of dozens, does that really make you a biker?
For me biker is a person who is wandering without a reason to show off. Who believes is exploring new and offbeat places. Who believes in meeting up new people. Who chooses very carefully asto who he is gonna ride with, coz on the road you gotta watch each other's back in every situation. You can't have someone who won't stand with you in a situation of a bike break down just coz it's too hot.coming to the actual point there are less bikers than posers now a days and this has been the situation the the recent 2-3 years at the max.Stop being posers and feel what the real aura is of being a biker.
It started off with a call on a monotonous day from sourabh, well defining sourabh a guy with a bit of gray hair in his mid 30's. Veteran rider who has been riding for 12+ years and I happen to meet him on one of the Xbhp G2G's 2 years back..Plan was to ride to gokarna and murudeshwar with 3 days in hand.post discussion we decided that 3 days is a pretty tight schedule considering hot climate and road condition being a long weekend. I was the first guy he approached for this ride so it was gonna be a yes without any question. Soon with 20 days in hand for planning we were joined by abhijeet ( rides a 390 recently back from ladakh and have explored rajasthan) so we were sure he will be able to cope up.sanket mahure ( shotty with an R15, this insane guy managed to reached dhanushkodi solo from Mumbai and back) well he also had an history in xbhp of not been able to join the rides on the decided time but to reach the venue solo regardless of the time which means literally post midnight.. But that definitely changed with this ride. And last but not the least karan ( got a 220 kinda newbie with not much experience of riding with a group or high speed highway runs apart from his recent ride to velneshwar
Plan as to meet at palaspe phata (welcome hotel) at 3am. Though all being from the xbhp background we assembled by 3.30 and started the ride at 4am.it was relatively humid but the excitement for ride was enough to keep all of us cool.Riding on NH4 is always an adrenaline experience for me. 5 riders riding in single line formation all by themselves as formation was not discussed earlier was mere experience that each of us had within ourselves. Cool breeze hitting the face with proper 4 lane road and cruising at 110-120 we were soon ahead of lonavala. Plan was to cover as much as distance possible in the early hours coz our speed will be dropped in the later part of the day due to weather changes and everything was just perfectly aligned.post lonavala was our first halt for water and tea.
I remember telling abhi that I can feel something wrong with the rear tyre as I was loosing traction on the curves.though he suggested me not to check the tyre pressure now begin hot tyre. But we Indians are always famous for not listening to the suggestions and going with the instincts.post our first halt I decided to check pressure on a fuel pump and this ****er screwed up big time.something was wrong with his Guage which made sure that tyre pressure is dropped by 5 points than what I told him. Which I definitely raised layer, while I was hung up due to this tyre rest of the group zoomed ahead and it took me good 20-30 kms to catch up with them. I was not able to run on high speeds due to wobbling on the rear.the ghat which is just before vai, was my worst riding experience as I had to literally get on the speeds on 40s to take a turn and was unable to lean..decided to halt at a decent place for breakfast and enjoyed some great misal.everyone was cursing me for my goof up on the tyre. While everyone was getting ready to get back on the road again post breakfast, I looked for a tyre guy and he gave me a shock that it's low by 5 points against what I actually wanted it to be. All the previous guy who checked my tyre was wonderful words from my mouth. We tanked up fuel and back on the road again..while I was riding on these roads my memories were getting right on front of my eyes from the not so recent kochi ooty ride. With some great tracks from tomorrowland playing in the earphones and absolute no oops moments on the road till now. We crossed kolhapur.
Few calls to the dear ones and sourabhs call to his office we decided to move ahead and halt for fuel some where near nipani ( as per my last experience fuel was cheaper by 4 bucks their) crossed nipani and the much needed fuel and water break was needed with no water in the hydration packs.
It was almost 1pm when we were in nipani and as per maps we were still 3 hours from the destination..these wet wipes karan is showing in the above pic was a great freshener. It was a heaven feeling with extreme hot outside the shade and cold feeling on the face which also felt very very fresh.. I'm so gonna carry them for all my next rides. With temperature shooting up and not sure about the route my phone was mounted on the handle bars with sudden music stop and the phone for switched off.pulled over to check what the problem was as I was riding on the tail from nipani..
The phone was literally getting ****ed up and fried.had to wait for few minutes to let it cool down and also to hydrate myself with some water. After a turn from belgaum we were lost in the city as we were following the maps and it showed us the shortest route. Well that's great but what if the route is going through a ****ing vegetable market. The situation was like people shopping for groceries and 5 rides honking to get free way and also asking locations as the phone heated up again. I could Sense the level of discomfort within the rest trying to maneuver those bikes with loaded saddlebags on both sides on a vegetable market at 2pm in belgaum with the sun at its peak of temperature. After logs and lots or asking and U turns we were finally on the route where the road to and dandeli chorla divides.. Took a break with still 150 kms to go.
We decided to take less breaks to cut down on time wastage and continue towards the destination. I am actually doing injustice by describing the roads ahead of this point till dandeli in words. Entire 150kms was a forest region with single roads thick forests on both sides and cruising speeds of 110. Wow what a feeling it was, Views were spectacular with greenery around everywhere, monkeys playing with each other on the sides and 5 riders riding in sync with each other and munching miles after miles. it was 5 in the evening when we reached dandeli.. Initially we were completely ****ed up cuz dandeli was supposed to be a forest region where we were gonna camp on a river side wherein what we were looking at is a proper township with houses and buildings. I was like wtf and checked the maps again to see if we are in the correct location after riding for so long . Well yes we were on the correct location and this is how it was gonna be as per the reality as none of us have visited this place earlier . Standing at a junction trying to think what to do we managed to ask a guy about what we thought this place was gonna be like v/s what it was .. He was a savior.
He told us about a place which is on the banks of Kali river with a complete setup of camping and the will be providing us food for the night and breakfast next morning for 600. With absolute no options we all were down to the plan and started to ride at this place which was around 3 Kms from the main city junction. It's crocodile hunch resorts.
Honestly after riding for 700kms and being awake since 2 in the morning we decided to settle down for this place and started to put our tents so we can call it a day and relax .
We were served with amazing evening snack and trust me they were super tasty with equally delicious veg and non veg dinner in the night. With endless bakar and some buds we called it a night at 10 and we're off to beds in our respective tents.
Subscribe and stay connected for part 2 which is thrilling and bone chilling ..
Cheers
Amit
Life is pretty lame for many of us with the same monotonous lifestyle. Though I won't specify the time frames of monotony here just coz earlier it was 9-5 jobs and now it's freggin every working individual regardless of the time..
Though there is different breed of people who call themselves bikers,with flashy gadgets on the helmets, suited up head to toe with riding gear which is a great stuff but especially from Mumbai where do u ride! Lonavala, Lavasa or max to max charoti? I mean what are you trying to prove and to whom.. To the people who actually don't give a shit about you. Riding to nearby locations again and again in the groups of dozens, does that really make you a biker?
For me biker is a person who is wandering without a reason to show off. Who believes is exploring new and offbeat places. Who believes in meeting up new people. Who chooses very carefully asto who he is gonna ride with, coz on the road you gotta watch each other's back in every situation. You can't have someone who won't stand with you in a situation of a bike break down just coz it's too hot.coming to the actual point there are less bikers than posers now a days and this has been the situation the the recent 2-3 years at the max.Stop being posers and feel what the real aura is of being a biker.
It started off with a call on a monotonous day from sourabh, well defining sourabh a guy with a bit of gray hair in his mid 30's. Veteran rider who has been riding for 12+ years and I happen to meet him on one of the Xbhp G2G's 2 years back..Plan was to ride to gokarna and murudeshwar with 3 days in hand.post discussion we decided that 3 days is a pretty tight schedule considering hot climate and road condition being a long weekend. I was the first guy he approached for this ride so it was gonna be a yes without any question. Soon with 20 days in hand for planning we were joined by abhijeet ( rides a 390 recently back from ladakh and have explored rajasthan) so we were sure he will be able to cope up.sanket mahure ( shotty with an R15, this insane guy managed to reached dhanushkodi solo from Mumbai and back) well he also had an history in xbhp of not been able to join the rides on the decided time but to reach the venue solo regardless of the time which means literally post midnight.. But that definitely changed with this ride. And last but not the least karan ( got a 220 kinda newbie with not much experience of riding with a group or high speed highway runs apart from his recent ride to velneshwar
Plan as to meet at palaspe phata (welcome hotel) at 3am. Though all being from the xbhp background we assembled by 3.30 and started the ride at 4am.it was relatively humid but the excitement for ride was enough to keep all of us cool.Riding on NH4 is always an adrenaline experience for me. 5 riders riding in single line formation all by themselves as formation was not discussed earlier was mere experience that each of us had within ourselves. Cool breeze hitting the face with proper 4 lane road and cruising at 110-120 we were soon ahead of lonavala. Plan was to cover as much as distance possible in the early hours coz our speed will be dropped in the later part of the day due to weather changes and everything was just perfectly aligned.post lonavala was our first halt for water and tea.
I remember telling abhi that I can feel something wrong with the rear tyre as I was loosing traction on the curves.though he suggested me not to check the tyre pressure now begin hot tyre. But we Indians are always famous for not listening to the suggestions and going with the instincts.post our first halt I decided to check pressure on a fuel pump and this ****er screwed up big time.something was wrong with his Guage which made sure that tyre pressure is dropped by 5 points than what I told him. Which I definitely raised layer, while I was hung up due to this tyre rest of the group zoomed ahead and it took me good 20-30 kms to catch up with them. I was not able to run on high speeds due to wobbling on the rear.the ghat which is just before vai, was my worst riding experience as I had to literally get on the speeds on 40s to take a turn and was unable to lean..decided to halt at a decent place for breakfast and enjoyed some great misal.everyone was cursing me for my goof up on the tyre. While everyone was getting ready to get back on the road again post breakfast, I looked for a tyre guy and he gave me a shock that it's low by 5 points against what I actually wanted it to be. All the previous guy who checked my tyre was wonderful words from my mouth. We tanked up fuel and back on the road again..while I was riding on these roads my memories were getting right on front of my eyes from the not so recent kochi ooty ride. With some great tracks from tomorrowland playing in the earphones and absolute no oops moments on the road till now. We crossed kolhapur.
Few calls to the dear ones and sourabhs call to his office we decided to move ahead and halt for fuel some where near nipani ( as per my last experience fuel was cheaper by 4 bucks their) crossed nipani and the much needed fuel and water break was needed with no water in the hydration packs.
It was almost 1pm when we were in nipani and as per maps we were still 3 hours from the destination..these wet wipes karan is showing in the above pic was a great freshener. It was a heaven feeling with extreme hot outside the shade and cold feeling on the face which also felt very very fresh.. I'm so gonna carry them for all my next rides. With temperature shooting up and not sure about the route my phone was mounted on the handle bars with sudden music stop and the phone for switched off.pulled over to check what the problem was as I was riding on the tail from nipani..
The phone was literally getting ****ed up and fried.had to wait for few minutes to let it cool down and also to hydrate myself with some water. After a turn from belgaum we were lost in the city as we were following the maps and it showed us the shortest route. Well that's great but what if the route is going through a ****ing vegetable market. The situation was like people shopping for groceries and 5 rides honking to get free way and also asking locations as the phone heated up again. I could Sense the level of discomfort within the rest trying to maneuver those bikes with loaded saddlebags on both sides on a vegetable market at 2pm in belgaum with the sun at its peak of temperature. After logs and lots or asking and U turns we were finally on the route where the road to and dandeli chorla divides.. Took a break with still 150 kms to go.
We decided to take less breaks to cut down on time wastage and continue towards the destination. I am actually doing injustice by describing the roads ahead of this point till dandeli in words. Entire 150kms was a forest region with single roads thick forests on both sides and cruising speeds of 110. Wow what a feeling it was, Views were spectacular with greenery around everywhere, monkeys playing with each other on the sides and 5 riders riding in sync with each other and munching miles after miles. it was 5 in the evening when we reached dandeli.. Initially we were completely ****ed up cuz dandeli was supposed to be a forest region where we were gonna camp on a river side wherein what we were looking at is a proper township with houses and buildings. I was like wtf and checked the maps again to see if we are in the correct location after riding for so long . Well yes we were on the correct location and this is how it was gonna be as per the reality as none of us have visited this place earlier . Standing at a junction trying to think what to do we managed to ask a guy about what we thought this place was gonna be like v/s what it was .. He was a savior.
He told us about a place which is on the banks of Kali river with a complete setup of camping and the will be providing us food for the night and breakfast next morning for 600. With absolute no options we all were down to the plan and started to ride at this place which was around 3 Kms from the main city junction. It's crocodile hunch resorts.
Honestly after riding for 700kms and being awake since 2 in the morning we decided to settle down for this place and started to put our tents so we can call it a day and relax .
We were served with amazing evening snack and trust me they were super tasty with equally delicious veg and non veg dinner in the night. With endless bakar and some buds we called it a night at 10 and we're off to beds in our respective tents.
Subscribe and stay connected for part 2 which is thrilling and bone chilling ..
Cheers
Amit
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