A long drive is reverred by many. A long ride is the forte of a few. And when you get to experience both at the same time, it is an experience to cherish. Long cross country trips are done once in a lifetime. But 2 trips with a week in between is just mind blowing fun.

So the story starts when I decided to get myself a motorcycle after a considerable time of 3.5 years. I had become a car guy because enjoying riding in the NCR had become non existent. But things had changed when I got posted to Goa, where the climate is apt for riding. I was bitten by the bug of riding again. And things just happen when you least expect them to happen. One of my friend bought a 1800 km run Bajaj Dominar and got fed up of it pretty early because of his less height and heavy bike combo. So, I just got the bike from him in July, 2018 promising him that I will pay him the money sometime later.Hence I got my first middleweight bike (Dominar 400) after owning the first gen Pulsar 220 Fi variant while in college. The Dominar was being used by my brother at our hometown and he was really happy about it. I was just itching to get the bike to Goa somehow. But did not have the heart to transport it fearing that something will be broken during the transit. I had a faint wish to just ride from Delhi to Goa.

In the starting of the year 2018, I got myself a brand new Nexon XZ+ diesel. And from here started raining Nexons in our friend circle. We had 4 Nexons in our close friend circle till now; 2 white, 1 blue and 1 red. Here 1 of my friend decided to add Orange Nexon to the group on Diwali by selling his Maruti Suzuki Ritz. One other friend wanted a car for his home, so the Ritz was sold in a record 2 seconds. Now the Ritz needed to go to Haryana from Goa and a new Nexon had to be brought from there. But the bummer was everybody had booked flights. But a road trip is just way too tempting comparable to a boring flight. And we did not even bother to cancel the flights due to the meagre refund and more of it because of the laziness. On Thursday evening after Office, we started for Delhi. I was pretty apprehensive about the Ritz being a tallboy and car with a short wheelbase. Also this Ritz was a petrol Vxi and did not come with ABS. So I thought of driving it slow and not taking it too fast. We took the route through Chorla Ghat as the Amboli Ghat route was in shambles at that time.

We just got some fruits and biscuits for light dinner. And what a mistake it was to eat fruits in the night. I got stomach ache and acidity. This made driving difficult and was unable to enjoy in the later part of the journey. We headed towards Nashik, where one of our friends is posted. This is our default stay option while coming from delhi or going towards delhi. In time terms, we normally take 12 hours from Goa to Nashik and 20 hours from Nashik to Delhi. As we had completed many trips on this road, so it was as easy and normal as it gets.

Coming to our mode of transport this time, Maruti Suzuki Ritz, what surprised me about the car was that the chassis had a good amount of grip and it felt tight and taut. I was enjoying the car in the corners and had driven a petrol car for a good distance after a very long time. I was enjoying revving the nuts out of the engine. I was taking it to 6000 rpm in 2^nd and 3^rd gear and performance was pretty addictive and fun. The roads through the Chorla Ghat at that time were pretty good. I was enjoying the twisties with the tyres screeching and having immense fun doing engine braking and taking the revs well into 6000 rpm. Suddenly a turn came which was on the decline of road piled with small gravel and sand. I went through many thoughts in a split second. I could not brake and steer simulataneously as the car would have lost traction and would have slided sideways into the ledge or may be fallen into the ditch. What I did was keeping the steering straight and brake sharp heading towards the ledge. The car skidded and screeched and came to a stop just facing the ledge which was just beside the deep valley. It was an adrenaline pumping moment and my fellow travellers were frightened. But I knew from the control over the car that it would stop in time. Here the need for ABS and corner stability control was badly felt. Nexon would have easily managed this kind of situation. Nexon has an enormous amount of grip on offer whether you are on the twisties or hurling straight down the road. That car just sticks to the road and gives awesome confidence to push the car.

We enjoyed the journey and made into Nashik well into the morning at approx 7:00. Now it was time for some sound sleep which we enjoyed till about 1:00 in the noon. Meanwhile our host and friend went to office for some work. We freshened up and joined him for an awesome lunch near his office. With a heavy and sumptuous lunch, we started towards Delhi at approx 04:30 in the evening. The route we always take from Nashik to delhi is Indore-Chittoragarh-Udaipur-Jaipur-Delhi. We just had some tea breaks and a dinner break aroud 9:30 p.m. We were enjoying the drive very much. On this day, I found Ritz to be a very underrated car. This car is heavy and it sticks to the road. It is not uber light like the other Maruitis. So the suspension is pretty heavy duty and does not bottom out on the highway bumps easily. This car does not wallow on the highway joints or where the highway is uneven. Now I was getting confidence in driving this car. I was thinking on the lines that just if this car had ABS and wider tyres, it will just eat highways like no other.Both are available in the Z variants of the Ritz, so made a mental note that if I will need a pre-owned car in the future, it will be the Ritz. I purposefully tried to unsettle the car by going over the flyover joints carelessly and sometimes at bad angles also. This car never lifted any wheel off the road and never felt skittish on the highway. It was glued to the road with good suspension travel. I always had full control over the car, never having any moments where I lost control of the car even slightly. This car rivals Nexon in terms of stability on the highway. We friends call Nexon highway express due to its mile munching abilities. We did not get tired in Ritz also but as the travelling was in the triple digit speeds with heavy right foot always, the mileage was just pathetic to say the least. It was only around 10 kmpl. This is where the diesels shine. They do not lose mileage even with a heavy right foot along with AC on and a full load of passengers.

The road conditions were good through out, barring countless diversions and speed breakers in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The roads improve considerably upon entering Rajasthan. But Chittoragarh- Udaipur highway has some nasty ditches on the highway itself which can claim the suspension of the car definitely. Calling them potholes will be undermining their potential to wreak havoc with your car suspension. If a bike encounters them at speed, you are sure to be flying over the handlebar. They were that big. We drove non stop in the night with some tea breaks in between. We crossed Udaipur in the early morning. Had breakfast at Hotel Highway King Bagru, which is situated bang on the Jaipur-Udaipur highway. This hotel is pretty big with very reasonable prices and awesome food. After breakfast, we dropped one of our friend near Shahpura. My other friend and his wife booked their train tickets from delhi to Muzaffarpur. I assured them that we will reach till their train timing. We drove pretty enthusiastically from here and reached metro station Huda city centre at 01:20 p.m well before Google maps had predicted. I dropped my friends at Metro station from where they went to New Delhi Railway Station for their train. I went from Gurugram towards my home in Rohtak. It was a pretty fast trip and we were not tired in the slightest of sense. Even we were not feeling sleepy at all. Enjoyed the festival at my home with my family.

Now the new task was to buy an Orange Nexon diesel XM and get the delivery in that week itself and also completing the loan formalities. We asked for orange colour at every Tata showroom in the 100 km. radius. Even enquired in Delhi, but orange colour in Nexon was not available anywhere. This put a spanner in our plans. However, Tata showroom in Goa had a warehouse full of Orange and red colour Nexons. Everyone said that orange colour in Nexon just does not sell up here in the North India. So that was that, a decision had to be taken. So White colour Nexon it was. We confirmed the colour to the showroom and got delivery in the next hour itself. It was the smoothest delivery experience of ours till date. Full marks to Rama Motors Tata showroom in Rohtak. Then a short trip to Amritsar was planned to run in the engine and get done with the first service of Nexon in Rohtak itself.

Here I had it in back of my mind that no matter what, I will be taking Dominar along with Nexon to Goa. I had not told anyone this, lest my friends call me crazy. I revealed the plan on the last day that Dominar will also be going to Goa. We friends have an unwritten rule for long drives. We drive mainly in the night. The highways are calm at that time with minimal traffic. No jaywalkers on the highways and no dogs on the highways, which I consider biggest threat. We normally cross the towns slowly where the chances of accidents are more because of local traffic on the highway, but out on open highways, I have never found any sleepy driver in the night. We have the awesomely disciplined truck drivers for company who give way just with a flash of high beam. We really enjoy driving at night.

So the trip started from Rohtak with Dominar going to Delhi to get a helmet and gloves. I had not ridden long since the last 5 years and it was a test of sorts for my enthusiasm as well as hyper-riding character of the Dominar. I picked one friend from Delhi and we started towards Jaipur at around 04:00 in the evening. We decided that the Nexon will start from Rohtak and reach Jaipur via Rewari and we will meet at the Hotel Highway King in Jaipur. We averaged speeds of around 90-100 km/h on the Dominar and with a fuel break reached the hotel around 08:30 p.m. We had a good and heavy dinner there. Meanwhile, the Nexon had not caught with us and they had also stopped for dinner. We met at around 09:30 p.m. From here, my friend riding with me shifted to the Nexon and we started the journey.

In the night what I felt was that, the headlight on the Dominar was providing really good illumination. We decided to travel at moderate speeds of around 100 km/hr. The vehicles could do way better than that, but we felt these were safe and sane speeds. Whenever the highway allowed, and it did allow most of the time, we drove with both vehicles side by side with the Nexon just slightly behind. Both the vehicles benefitted immensely from each other’s headlight with the road illuminating like a floodlight lit stadium. The dominar headlight has very good throw and focus but the spread is a little less which was complemented by the Nexon’s headlight. We took small stops for fuel and for lubing the chain for the dominar. I had reset the trip meter to zero when starting from Delhi on the dominar.

I was waiting for the Nexon to cross the toll booth and my trip meter was showing a reading of 960 km and the time was around 10:00 in the morning. Here my friends who were amazed by the distance we have covered on our vehicles and I had ridden for the whole night, did not want me to ride any further. So one of my friend got the Dominar and I rested on the back seat of Nexon and tried taking a nap. But I was so excited to ride such a long distance without any tiredness, I just could not sleep. I was just thinking what I had been missing all along. While in college, I used to be a hardcore biker at heart. When presented with a choice of pre-owned Alto and a Pulsar 220, I bought the Pulsar without hesitation. I even learnt driving pretty late even when we had a Maruti 800 at our home. At that time, I just was not interested in driving. And here I thought that I had lost the stamina of riding long hours. And here I was who without any practice or trial runs was grinning from ear to ear after a long approx 1000 km ride. I was ecstatic to say the least. I have driven for very long hours without any hint of drowsiness or feeling sleepy at all. But riding for such a long distance was a revealation in itself for me. My thoughts wandered around that I could do way more long rides.

The temperature was really hot in the day and my friend who was riding the Dominar got exhausted but did enjoy the ride pretty well. Then another friend took over the Dominar. In the evening while entering Nashik, we encountered a huge traffic jam. In Nashik, we had dinner at a famous restaurant which was good. We reached Nashik around 10:00 in the night and straight went to sleep. In the morning, we were feeling slightly relaxed and made an awesome breakfast and just relaxed while gossiping and pulling each other’s legs. With friends, time just flies. We went for lunch at a nearby restaurant and while waiting for the lunch also booked return tickets for my friends to Delhi from Goa. After lunch also, we dilly dallied a lot and did not want to leave Nashik. Finally after having a home made dinner of Bread Omlette, we started for Goa around 01:30 in the night. I know our timings have always been odd but we know the route pretty well and we are not boastful travellers. If we feel any type of fatigue, we stop there and then and take a short nap or just take rest. We do not follow any targets, we just take the things as they come.

One of my friend took the dominar seat and he rode till just outside Pune. Meanwhile, I had a good sound sleep on the back seat of the Nexon. The Nexon is just so comfortable that I did not feel the myriad of speed breakers in Pune which are plenty. From here, I rode the dominar all the way through Satara, Kolhapur, Belgaum and then started on the same Chorla Ghat route towards Goa. This route is pretty good for bikers. It has many twisties and the road by and large is in pretty good condition. We started from Belgaum together around 08:30 a.m. I enjoyed riding thoroughly on this route. I was riding pretty hard and dominar with its good low end torque and awesome mid range was a hoot to ride in the twisties. You just had to be in any gear and whenever you pulled the throttle, it pulled clean and hard. I was grinning from ear to ear. This was an epic ride and moments to cherish for a long time to come. When we were about 60 km from Goa, I stopped to let the Nexon catch up. The Nexon was about 20 minutes behind the Dominar. Such was the advantage and accleration of the bike in the twisties that Nexon could hardly keep up and they also did not stop anywhere. From here onwards, my friend took the Dominar seat and I drove the Nexon. I was driving Nexon first time after starting from Delhi. I found the pick up to be really drab. It was the experience of the Dominar which affected me so much. I was expecting the same from Nexon. Such was the effect Dominar had on me. It had a freight train like pulling ability. The torque from 3000 rpm till 8000 rpm is just relentless. You just pass everything, the acceleration is really awesome. We reached Goa around 11:00 in the morning. I had to go to office on this day. Called in the office and asked if I can stay back. Slept for nearly 4 hours at my place.

We had safely completed a trip of epic proportions. Handed over the brand new Nexon to my friend. This was a major tick in my wish list to ride such a long distance. Long rides and drives give me immense satisfaction and it seems like everything else has stopped and for that time, all the tensions of the materialistic world do not seem to matter. On the whole, I rode the Dominar for about 1500 km out of 2100 km approx. The bike did not show any sign of heating or any dip in the performance. It performed as expected and brilliantly while awakening the sleeping biker in me again.
And I just remembered the old adage “Four wheels move a body, Two wheels move a soul”. On a motorcycle, you are exposed to the elements, you feel with the nature. You truly experience the places with all your senses. While a motorcycle is not as safe as a car, but all things that we do in life have a certain degree of risk inherited in them. So we should live life on our own terms and not be overly concerned about safety issues on a motorcycle. Just be aware of your situation, be alert always, be humble, do not push your body outside of its limits and do not ride for completing a target. Ride for the sheer enjoyment associated with it. Take breaks, take in the scenery and enjoy the nature. Ride at a comfortable speed and watch the scenery unfold. Riding is stress busting, enjoy it slowly, do not rush into it.