Hi fellow bikers ! have been an avid follower of this forum for the last 6 years without becoming a member. No particular reasons, but decided to becaome a part of the community for more of motorcycling activity in and around my city ! Have been a solo rider as of now.
Where should I start ? I am on that side of 30 where people become the so called " uncle " category , 36 to be precise, however from the kids in the colony to the maid in my house, to shopkeepers have addressed me with the tag . Personally/mentally I still haven't crossed 25 as such look at life in the same perspective .
About my bikes I used to own a Thunderbird 2006 AVL which served me for 5 years . But as with RE it started developing niggling issues after the 3rd year. Around the 5th year I was spending more time maintaining it than riding it. One fine day suddenly decided to get rid of it . Oh, I forgot ! I suffer from cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis,thanks to the excellent vibrations of my RE. Was suggested by a freind of mine that now since you are entering late 30's its advisable to take care of your health and say goodbye to biking for good . By the way he owns a Suzuki Access. He instructed me to get rid of the RE and buy a new Access , reasons easier to drive and maintain, hassle free vehicle. Took his suggestion and sold my RE ( which by the way I still repent ) and got an Access. Wifey was dead against it since she knew the biker in me would rebel against it.
The Access solves its purpose the way it should . It had an excellent torquey engine and keeps you entertained in traffic. It even manages 60+ on delhi roads with ease. Overall had been pretty satisfied with the vehilcle. Trouble began when wifey went to Chennal for a month and I had nothing else to do except office and home. Generally in such situations used to trip to keep myself occupied, but with the RE gone started wondering what next ?
Had the courage and the odacity to think about taking the access for a trip . Decided to visit Agra which seemed to be the closest bet. Did complete the ride without any hassles except bad weather, but sorely missed a more powerfule machine on the open streches. I did force the little access to maintain top speeds of 80 but it literally got strained. Thus started the period of depression of missing a bike. It was around approximately 2 years since then when I decided to take the plunge of getting a bike again.
Had a lot of retrospection as to which one to buy. Initially zeroed in on RE however the major negating factors were 1> Higher prices since the time I had my TB 2> Waiting periods of around 3 months . Second choices were Karizma R and ZMR. ZMR seemed to be an excellent choice however with hero splitting with Honda and speculations of the tie up finally ending in 2014 was not sure of the future of the Karizma's. Finally got myself a P220F since it is a trusted and proven all rounder, with good highway runs and city roundabouts.
My freinds still keep saying you should have upgraded your car rather than taking the plunge again ( I own a I10 BTW, have done excellent trips on it ) but the biking spirit I guess had never died down. So folks glad to be here and hope you welcome me to your world !