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**fireblah** · 10-10-2009, 01:52 PM

^^ amazing work mate .... it must be a pleasure and a proud feeling, riding the bike knowing that all work done on it was done yourself....

And the Leh pictures are breath taking. Hope one day I'll go there too !

Literally gives a feeling of being close to the heaven...

**EngineCooled_Sandy** · 10-11-2009, 10:04 PM

Every moment I see these pics my inner-self pricks me with a perennial question.." What am I doing in Singapore

?? I should be there.."

Rummages of memories, thoughts and thrills from HOW! Sikkim Chapter overflows me, and the biker in me says with condescension "Duh! man you've missed it!" The tagline "This is it" pinches me even more...

Kudos to you guys !!!! it was indeed a great trip with has been made even more herculean since the amount of pressure of office, coordination amongst fellow riders (Rahul in US, Ritwik in B'lore, Neel in Kolkata, ousted me in Singapore

), family pressure, finance (topped with recession

)...

This shows how deep down flows the undercurrent of a common craving for bikes and bike-rides if not only ABC, the group we 4 formed eons back

**chicane1879** · 10-14-2009, 09:12 AM

Some stunning shots there. Where are the rest, guys!!

**Bhaski9836** · 10-14-2009, 12:22 PM

waiting for pix's....

MG · 10-14-2009, 12:56 PM

Typical HOW stuff.

@pistonheadz-Welcome back.Very well narrated.Hoping to read more from you and all other HOW members.

**archistar** · 10-14-2009, 01:14 PM

Fantastic stuff there... all your photographs have their own charm...

and some good info about the 'Enfi' for a dumb head like me about RE... thanks pistonheadz

**pistonheadz** · 10-14-2009, 01:20 PM

Thank you everyone for the encouragement. The next lot of pix and writeups will be up by tonight.

**pistonheadz** · 10-14-2009, 05:30 PM

A sputtering start..

15th August, 2009, 10:55 am – Nizamuddin station :
Twenty minutes more to New Delhi station. Twenty minutes, that is all that stands between me and the start of the biggest adventure in my life. I stand near the compartment door as the Karnataka Express rolls out of the Nizamuddin station. It’s been over two years since I have been chasing this dream of conquering the highest motorable road in the world. And the past nine months have really kept me on my toes. Whatever I did directly or indirectly linked to this trip. Every weekend would see me tinkering on my bike, shopping for parts, clothes, other equipment. And if did not have any such think to do, I would merrily pass on the day by reading up tons of materials on Ladakh – trip logs, photo features, articles etc. It was nothing short of an obsession. People close to me have already started to complain of my un-social behavior. There would be regular conference chat sessions with Indra and Rahul back in Kolkata just keep all of us on the same page. Phone bills were at their all time high. Thanks to the repeated STD calls to the Kolkata team. As the D day approached there was a frantic rush for the last moment knick knacks. And boy, time did fly and on 13th August, 2009 I found myself seated in seat 47 coach S2 of Bangalore – Delhi Karnakata Express, my bike safely loaded into the brake van at the wee end of the train. Little did I know that the next 36 hours would be the longest hours of my life.

The wait was excruciating. With every passing minute I was one minute closer to my dreams, so close yet so far. I literally bored my co-passengers with my over enthusiastic description of my plans. But there were some interesting comments too. “Why don’t you take a bus ?”, “Is this (jacket) bullet proof ?” and the best one.. “One wrong route and it will take you to Pakistan, be very careful”. But even such interesting moments could not stop me from feeling restless and by the time the train rolled into Nizamuddin station, the second last station, I was literally in my riding gear minus the helmet. Train passengers clad in full face helmets are not taken nicely by the authorities specially on 15th August. Finally New Delhi Station – helmet tied to bagpack, saddle bag in one hand, tank bag in the other I literally jump out of the train.. yeah babyyy.. Ladakh, here I come !!!

Mission Gurgaon :
Joined Indra and Rahul in the platform itself. We had no time to waste. They were to pick up their bikes from Maulviya nagar where there bikes are to be delivered by GATI and I had to clear the goons in the railways dispatch and get my bike released. Within moments, I chalked out a reasonable plan by which they can pick up their bikes and we can meet somewhere on Delhi – Chandigarh highway. After a moment I realized that nobody was listening. Indra and Rahul were looking at each other rather sheepishly. Me - “Your bikes are in Delhi, right ?” ; Indra – “Err.. it will be here shortly”. DAMN !! my worst fears have come true !! GATI courier service (very highly spoken off) has screwed up big time and our bikes are not likely to be delivered today. And next day being a Sunday, they don’t dispatch. So with the current state of things we are already 2 days behind schedule. We were pretty much having the worst day of our lives.

Running out of options, we checked into a hotel in Pahargunj. Rahul keeps calling the GATI service line to get the latest updates. In the meantime me and Indra try and chalk out different alternatives to minimize the damage caused by the loss of days. No matter whatever way we tried to map it, we have to make a compromise sooner or later. Just as the excitement was about to give way to despair, at around 17:00 hrs we get a call on Rahul’s cell. It was a GATI agent. “Sir, your consignment has reached the South Delhi depot”. Now THAT was news !! we gathered all the necessary stuff and literally stormed out of the hotel. Destination Gurgaon. Yes you heard it right. GATI’s south delhi depot was actually in Gurgaon. That is what we thought.

As the cab flew passed the Palam airport diversion, my mind was again back to its chirpy self. We entered Gurgaon at about 19:00 hrs. Rahul calls up the agent for the direction to his godown. Driver confidently says he knows the place.
20:00 hrs – We are no where near the depot. Rahul reconfirms directions. Driver is still confident.
21:00 hrs – We are screwed big time !! We just came to know that the depot is 23 kms from Gurgaon at a village called Jamalpur. Hearing this, our cabbie refused to be a part of this adventure and demanded that we relieve him of his “services”. When no amount of coaxing, tempting could change his stand, we finally had to let him go.
21:10 hrs – Here we are beside a pitch dark highway in the middle of nowhere without a transport, trying to reach a place which is 23 kms away. This is definitely a case of “infantile disorder” if not “gargantuan insanity” . Heck we don’t even know the name of this place.
21:15 hrs – HEADLIGHTS.. I see headlights, a pair of them !! Frantic waving, screaming and chasing on foot managed to stop the vehicle. It was a white Mahindra MAX. The driver knew the GATI depot and the deal was struck at Rs. 10 per head. 10 rupees for 25 kms, my bike goes 10 kms with petrol worth 25 rupees !! Welcome to rural India. Finally at 21:50 hrs we see a large blue gate with lots of trucks parked inside. Paid the guy a 50 rupee note. Didn’t even ask for change.

The agent was there at his desk waiting for us. Got the formalities completed in a jiffy. But it took a while unpacking the bikes. Finally at about 22:30 hrs we started our journey back to Delhi, me riding pillion on Indra’s silver electra 5s, Rahul ripping away merrily on his blue 220. Reached our hotel at around 00:00 hrs. Crashed into bed a few minutes later. THE TRIP WAS ON !!

Coming up.. Delhi to Mandi (with Pics)

**scarecrow** · 10-14-2009, 05:59 PM

good write up, waiting to read the continuation part

**Jonak** · 10-14-2009, 06:40 PM

Very well written. Straight from the heart. Waiting for the rest of the log and pictures.

**pistonheadz** · 10-14-2009, 08:36 PM

Delhi to Mandi

16th August, 2009 : 07:00 hrs – New Delhi

We make a lavish start at 7 in the morning. It rained last night and the roads were wet. We take it slow. Within an hour we were ripping on the Delhi - Chandigarh highway. I personally feel that the quality of the highway is kind of over-hyped; especially if one has got the taste of the GQ roads he is not going to be impressed by this. The road had regular undulations on its surface, which every now and then would upset the composure of the bike. Plus there was too much traffic compared to the width of the lanes. Nevertheless, we managed to maintain speeds around 70-80 kmph. Had a breakfast comprising of aloo paranthas with white butter at a roadside dhaba. One thing I must admit, dhabas at this part of the country are really wonderful compared to the ones I come across in the south. After a couple of butt breaks in between we reached the outskirts of Chandigarh around 12:00 hrs.

Breakfast @ dhaba

Entering Chandigarh

Man, Chandigarh is sooo confusing. “Go straight, cross 4 circles and on the fifth circle take a left, then go straight for 3 more circles, then take a right”.. was pretty difficult to keep a count on the number of circles and ogling at the pretty ladies at the same time

. Will definitely ask for a transfer to Chandigarh. After much confusion and a wastage of two hours, we managed to hit the highway to Ropar leading to Manali. DAMN.. this one is surely a sorry excuse for a highway. There were no potholes but HUGE CRATERS !! Perfect testing ground for NASA’s moon rover !! One look at Rahul who was riding the 220 made me thank myself for buying the bullet. The 19 inchers made me thunder through the lunar surface without much complain. Me and Indra were literally ripping over all the dust, muck, gravel, boulders and whatever the NHAI threw at us. Poor Rahul was left behind trying in vain to negotiate one crater after another.
After a couple of hours of ‘off-roading’ we take the right turn which leads to Manali. This is where the fun part starts. Welcome to the first brush with the hills. All the days fatigue seemed to vanish in an instant. Soon we were ripping, leaning and scrapping foot-pegs with an ear to ear grin. Boy it’s such a wonderful feeling. Flying down a straight – light dab on the brakes – downshift – lean out – throttle; and as the bike thunders out of the turn with the foot pegs screaming for mercy, you are the happiest man on the planet !!

Rahul.. having the time of his life

Like all good things come to an end, we encountered a slight drizzle sometime before Mandi. Result we went into ‘Grandpa’ mode and lost a whole lot of time. At end we managed to reach Mandi at 21:00 hrs and decided to call it a day. At the end of day 1 we were 100 kms short of our initial target of Manali.

Coming up.. Mandi to Vashist

**burnoutz** · 10-14-2009, 11:13 PM

Wonderful ... wonderful narration... Escp. this part :

Originally posted by pistonheadz View Post

Boy it’s such a wonderful feeling. Flying down a straight – light dab on the brakes – downshift – lean out – throttle; and as the bike thunders out of the turn with the foot pegs screaming for mercy, you are the happiest man on the planet !!

You have quoted the exact feeling while we were cruising through that road !

**speedo_rocks** · 10-15-2009, 01:26 AM

Yes in the midst of those craters , one sole reason to keep me happy was that the ghat section will welcome us shortly.....and once i took the first c-turn.....WOW...riding there was like inherent in me and an extension of Sikkim.....effortless and smooth...

@pistonheatz: Those words have captured the exact mood

**burnoutz** · 10-15-2009, 12:43 PM

As the rain started, I was like $^&#&@#@!

After negotiating all those pot holes for around 80 odd kms, when the ghat section started, it was a welcome relief for me. The sun was on his way to The West and I was leaning over the twisties and as ritwik said, as my 2 month old Bullet thunders out of the turn, I was the happiest person on the Earth. I was thinking that, I would ride on those craters for another hundreds of noon under the scorching heat, to get one afternoon like this. And then suddenly the Rain started. This is undoubtedly the most irritating thing while riding on hills, as you cannot lean out at the turns, the whole rhythm of the ride breaks. And again I had to start negotiating with slippery turns.

And then I stopped at a turn like spell bound. I saw the biggest rainbow I have ever seen. Ahh.. heavenly !

Thanks to the rain !

**Jonak** · 10-15-2009, 01:05 PM

Finished reading this part also.

Now bring the rest of the log.

Can't wait.

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