The Official Pune Offline Meet(G2G) Thread

[KTJ]

Who all did go on the ride? How did the ride go? I wanted to come but there was knee-guards problem and bike ran out of fuel at midnight while coming back home.

[!_Devil_Jin_!]

A great start to the new year.. A 250kms+ ride , ganpati darshan , windfarm...
Thanks Vishwas,Sirhud,Vrathor,Biru,Roadzilla,Inder,Dk,May ur,Maestro,Nin,Rishabh,Neha and Jaei for making this trip memorable..

[vikram kumar]

Hey guyz

I have a set of basic knee guards but now i wish to purchase a set of knee sliders.
can you please suggest some make and also the approximate costing of the same.

It would also be helpful if you could direct me to a store in pune where i could purchase them.

Thanks for the help guyz.
Happy new year

[trustvishwas]

A great start to the new year.. A 250kms+ ride , ganpati darshan , windfarm...
Thanks Vishwas,Sirhud,Vrathor,Biru,Roadzilla,Inder,Dk,May ur,Maestro,Nin,Rishabh,Neha and Jaei for making this trip memorable..

It surely was a great trip. why don't you upload photos?

[TenHut]

It surely was a great trip. why don't you upload photos?

Facebook has destroyed online forums. Its like the mother of all forums now when it comes to viewing/uploading pics.
Already saw some great pics in RishabHs album.
How good are the roads ?

[ROCKRZ]

A word of caution

Hi everyone.. Our goa trip was very good with a good share of riding.. However, my return journey was solo via the kolad - nagothane - pali - khopoli - lonavala stretch.
this is a very dangerous route in the night cos there is a stretch of 20kms of nearly no road and no help. This stretch is also known by the locals to be a loot pone area.
Yesterday, when i was returning via this route, i stopped at a small dhaba for tea.. There 2 partially drunk teens asked me about my gear, where i was going and all that sort of questions. I just had a small chat and they asked me if i could drop one of then to lonawala? I said no and left. Since it was night, i id not exceed 40kmph.. Suddenly, a bike appeared from behind and these guys asked me directions to lonawala.. I explained them the route without stopping.. Still thy asked again, pretending that they did not get it. So i explained again. Suddenly the other guy asked me if i could lend him some money.. I smelt something fishy and started increasing the speed but thy realised this and started hurtling abuses.. So i stopped and waited them to pass.. They too stopped nd then Almost immediately, the pillion jumped off the bike and showed me a nice long knife. I understood that this was a loot.. But it was too late, i had stopped the bile and the guys were besides me by the time i realised this. So i was sure that i was gonna be looted. However, since this was my regular route, and i had already been told long time ago about the importance and the ways to divert their attention from me , i then i got an idea to divert their attention. I gently pressed the foot brake lever and suddenly left it. This diverted their attention towards the brake.. I took this oppurtunity, punched the rider on his face. I was wearing the riding gloves. His nose instantly started bleeding and he fell on the ground in front of the bike. Since both were drunk, i pushed the other guy away and immediately started my bike. Since, the pillion was still lying with his legs in front of my bike, i simply decided to run over his legs and flee. So i just ripped the bike as hard i could.. But since the road was bad, i was not able to cross 65. the other guy started his bike and started closing on me.. Soon, i realised that he was closing real fast so as soon as he reached besides me, i braked very hard. The other guy tried to brake but he slipped and fell so i went ahead and after 20kms of ripping, i finally saw a jeep with a mh- 14 numberplate and with 3guys. So i stopped them, explined everything and they assisted me in finding the nearest police stn. I was actually worried that i might have killed the other guy. The moment i reacned the stn, i exlained the police everything, thanked the jeep guys for the help and waited for the police action. They took my liscence, kept the zerox of my bike papers as a precaution. I then called up my uncle explaining what had happened, he talked with a local big shot and after 1hr of wait, the police agreed to escort me till lonavala. Then i waited there for the next police escort but since they did not turn up till 3, i decided to ride alone. And reached home by 4.15.
I consider myself very lucky that i was somehow saved. I hence request everyone to not ride on this stretch alone. If you have to come to lonavala from mahad or kolad, please take the nagothane - pen - khopoli route. It is much safer and a relaxed ride.. Also, ride solo only if you have the balls to survive such a situation or are plainly stupid. I was plainly stupid that even i knew about this danger, i chose to face it.

[Hyperion]

Hi everyone.. Our goa trip was very good with a good share of riding.. However, my return journey was solo via the kolad - nagothane - pali - khopoli - lonavala stretch.
this is a very dangerous route in the night cos there is a stretch of 20kms of nearly no road and no help. This stretch is also known by the locals to be a loot pone area.
Yesterday, when i was returning via this route, i stopped at a small dhaba for tea.. There 2 partially drunk teens asked me about my gear, where i was going and all that sort of questions. I just had a small chat and they asked me if i could drop one of then to lonawala? I said no and left. Since it was night, i id not exceed 40kmph.. Suddenly, a bike appeared from behind and these guys asked me directions to lonawala.. I explained them the route without stopping.. Still thy asked again, pretending that they did not get it. So i explained again. Suddenly the other guy asked me if i could lend him some money.. I smelt something fishy and started increasing the speed but thy realised this and started hurtling abuses.. So i stopped and waited them to pass.. They too stopped nd then Almost immediately, the pillion jumped off the bike and showed me a nice long knife. I understood that this was a loot.. But it was too late, i had stopped the bile and the guys were besides me by the time i realised this. So i was sure that i was gonna be looted. However, since this was my regular route, and i had already been told long time ago about the importance and the ways to divert their attention from me , i then i got an idea to divert their attention. I gently pressed the foot brake lever and suddenly left it. This diverted their attention towards the brake.. I took this oppurtunity, punched the rider on his face. I was wearing the riding gloves. His nose instantly started bleeding and he fell on the ground in front of the bike. Since both were drunk, i pushed the other guy away and immediately started my bike. Since, the pillion was still lying with his legs in front of my bike, i simply decided to run over his legs and flee. So i just ripped the bike as hard i could.. But since the road was bad, i was not able to cross 65. the other guy started his bike and started closing on me.. Soon, i realised that he was closing real fast so as soon as he reached besides me, i braked very hard. The other guy tried to brake but he slipped and fell so i went ahead and after 20kms of ripping, i finally saw a jeep with a mh- 14 numberplate and with 3guys. So i stopped them, explined everything and they assisted me in finding the nearest police stn. I was actually worried that i might have killed the other guy. The moment i reacned the stn, i exlained the police everything, thanked the jeep guys for the help and waited for the police action. They took my liscence, kept the zerox of my bike papers as a precaution. I then called up my uncle explaining what had happened, he talked with a local big shot and after 1hr of wait, the police agreed to escort me till lonavala. Then i waited there for the next police escort but since they did not turn up till 3, i decided to ride alone. And reached home by 4.15.
I consider myself very lucky that i was somehow saved. I hence request everyone to not ride on this stretch alone. If you have to come to lonavala from mahad or kolad, please take the nagothane - pen - khopoli route. It is much safer and a relaxed ride.. Also, ride solo only if you have the balls to survive such a situation or are plainly stupid. I was plainly stupid that even i knew about this danger, i chose to face it.

Wow, thats quite an adventure. But yes, riding solo at night on non-Highway roads especially, is very dangerous. Why were you riding alone? What about the rest of the gang?

You showed pretty good presence of mind, but since that guy had a knife, it was a pretty dangerous thing to do. You should not have taken the risk.
In any case, I think you shouldn't have stopped and just sped away. I dont think guys with pillion could have caught up with you.
Good to know, you are alright. Good luck and ride safe.

[TenHut]

yeah why did you stop at all ? Why were they catching up on you even tho they were pillion ? Maybe cause they were locals and knew the road better than you ? How does pressing the foot brake distract them long enough ? I didnt get that part.

Glad you are ok.

Must have been a shit scary experience seeing that knife lol.
I say ride with a fcukin gun and choose to ride that road on purpose. 9mm between two drunk eyes will make sure they never drink again :|

[haxor]

^^^

[ketan_r15]

Hi everyone.. Our goa trip was very good with a good share of riding.. However, my return journey was solo via the kolad - nagothane - pali - khopoli - lonavala stretch.
this is a very dangerous route in the night cos there is a stretch of 20kms of nearly no road and no help. This stretch is also known by the locals to be a loot pone area.
Yesterday, when i was returning via this route, i stopped at a small dhaba for tea.. There 2 partially drunk teens asked me about my gear, where i was going and all that sort of questions. I just had a small chat and they asked me if i could drop one of then to lonawala? I said no and left. Since it was night, i id not exceed 40kmph.. Suddenly, a bike appeared from behind and these guys asked me directions to lonawala.. I explained them the route without stopping.. Still thy asked again, pretending that they did not get it. So i explained again. Suddenly the other guy asked me if i could lend him some money.. I smelt something fishy and started increasing the speed but thy realised this and started hurtling abuses.. So i stopped and waited them to pass.. They too stopped nd then Almost immediately, the pillion jumped off the bike and showed me a nice long knife. I understood that this was a loot.. But it was too late, i had stopped the bile and the guys were besides me by the time i realised this. So i was sure that i was gonna be looted. However, since this was my regular route, and i had already been told long time ago about the importance and the ways to divert their attention from me , i then i got an idea to divert their attention. I gently pressed the foot brake lever and suddenly left it. This diverted their attention towards the brake.. I took this oppurtunity, punched the rider on his face. I was wearing the riding gloves. His nose instantly started bleeding and he fell on the ground in front of the bike. Since both were drunk, i pushed the other guy away and immediately started my bike. Since, the pillion was still lying with his legs in front of my bike, i simply decided to run over his legs and flee. So i just ripped the bike as hard i could.. But since the road was bad, i was not able to cross 65. the other guy started his bike and started closing on me.. Soon, i realised that he was closing real fast so as soon as he reached besides me, i braked very hard. The other guy tried to brake but he slipped and fell so i went ahead and after 20kms of ripping, i finally saw a jeep with a mh- 14 numberplate and with 3guys. So i stopped them, explined everything and they assisted me in finding the nearest police stn. I was actually worried that i might have killed the other guy. The moment i reacned the stn, i exlained the police everything, thanked the jeep guys for the help and waited for the police action. They took my liscence, kept the zerox of my bike papers as a precaution. I then called up my uncle explaining what had happened, he talked with a local big shot and after 1hr of wait, the police agreed to escort me till lonavala. Then i waited there for the next police escort but since they did not turn up till 3, i decided to ride alone. And reached home by 4.15.
I consider myself very lucky that i was somehow saved. I hence request everyone to not ride on this stretch alone. If you have to come to lonavala from mahad or kolad, please take the nagothane - pen - khopoli route. It is much safer and a relaxed ride.. Also, ride solo only if you have the balls to survive such a situation or are plainly stupid. I was plainly stupid that even i knew about this danger, i chose to face it.

That's pretty scary experience! Glad you escaped unhurt.

I am leaving for Goa in couple of days and I read on Mumbai thread that the Panvel - Pen - Wadkhal - Nagothane route is in even worst condition than what was during our last Varadayini waterfalls ride. Therefore a couple of local friends suggested me to you the route you mentioned above to skip that pothole infested wadkhal route. But I had already heard bout the incidences on that road and therefore straightaway denied to use that route. I chose to leave a little late(5.30am instead of 5 am) and ride the bad stretch in day light.

And here it is, one more scary incident on that infamous route.
Anyway, take care n ride safe!

^^^

Lol..

[satyenpoojary]

Wow, thats quite an adventure. But yes, riding solo at night on non-Highway roads especially, is very dangerous. Why were you riding alone? What about the rest of the gang?

You showed pretty good presence of mind, but since that guy had a knife, it was a pretty dangerous thing to do. You should not have taken the risk.
In any case, I think you shouldn't have stopped and just sped away. I dont think guys with pillion could have caught up with you.
Good to know, you are alright. Good luck and ride safe.

We rode together, but Anant apparently wanted to use the washroom (speculation) and so blasted away ahead. While we with the not so strong bike/bladder/intestines decided to use the dhaba, after trying to hard for about 50KMs.. Trust me for this, a punch in the nose and a kick to the nuts is the best form of self defence against such people. They get scared seeing blood.

yeah why did you stop at all ? Why were they catching up on you even tho they were pillion ? Maybe cause they were locals and knew the road better than you ? How does pressing the foot brake distract them long enough ? I didnt get that part.

Glad you are ok.

Must have been a shit scary experience seeing that knife lol.
I say ride with a fcukin gun and choose to ride that road on purpose. 9mm between two drunk eyes will make sure they never drink again :|

Doing something that they cannot understand helps... its a good distraction to confuse the already weak minds.



After getting this story on the SMS, I was paranoid about riding... I saw a Cop, punched him in his face... ran over him and then found a group of ugly looking good men in a jeep and told them about it, they promised they would take care of the body.


~kidding!

PS: Happy New Year!

[trustvishwas]

New Year Ride

Riders from Pune -
Inder.cool
Beourist
Roadzilla
Vrathor
RishabhShukla
Trustvishwas
Devil_Jin + 1
SirhudKalra + 1

J But Pune team being smart, stayed away from his sales pitch.

Then we decided on going to the Suzlon wind farm located around 10 km from the hotel. Antz had suggested that location. Sirhud was trying to blow air to make the wind mill move. DK and Rishabh tried climbing the windmills. They wanted to take them home for upcoming summer season.

After half an hour at the wind farm and obligatory photo session, we all returned.

Ride was uneventful and no falls, skids, crashes etc.

Great fun.

[alankarmisra]

Angry rants; lessons in safety

The title is misleading. This is a conversation I'm having with two that rode with us and finally decided to ride without us (aka Anup and Antz.bin). The only reason I'm having it in the open is because I think there's a lesson in this for all of us (you can chose not to learn though, I'm just a middle-aged idiot who no one listens to anyway).

Background

We (me, Satyen, antz.bin, rockerz, sachin nair, anup) were to ride back from Goa to Mumbai yesterday after the new years ride to Goa and decided to take NH-17. Antz.bin and Rockerz would part ways with us somewhere down NH-17 and head to Pune and the rest of us would head to Mumbai. At least that was the plan.

Anup decided to lead, while I was assigned the task of sweeping. We lost Anup pretty soon into the ride only to be informed later by him that he was ahead of us and riding at 70kmph so that we could catch up with him. We never did (more on this later).

Satyen then took lead. Hours into the ride, Satyen needed to take a break from piloting us and antz.bin was asked to take lead. Not long after, we lost antz.bin too as he rode ahead. Satyen resumed leading.

We exchanged messages with antz and he said he would wait for us at a specific location. It took us 45 minutes odd to catch up with him. Yes we took that long to catch up, no its not because we are f***tards on the throttle, its because we had to accomodate everybody's needs and ensure that the new riders were not forced to ride at speeds they were not comfortable with.

We took a short break, decided the optimal exit for Antz.bin and Rockerz from NH-17 to Pune and continued riding, once again with Antz.bin in the lead. He decided to lose us once again and ride solo (by this time he had pretty much ridden solo for the most part of the ride) and we couldn't get in touch with him for several hours after that since his phone was out of reach. We left him an SMS about our whereabouts. He replied some time later saying he had already taken an exit to Pune. Which meant, Rockerz would have to take the Pune exit alone.

Satyen, Sachin and me left Rockerz at one of the exits to Pune at around 12:30 (or the whereabouts).

En route, 2 guys tried to loot Rockerz (details on the Pune thread) - Rockerz punched one of them bringing him down, rode off and stopped at the police station following which the police arranged for an escort for him to Pune. Satyen received this information via SMS by which time we had reached Mumbai.

@Antz.bin:

I don't understand the purpose of having 2 hour long conversations about safety and security with us when you are going to ignore all of it when you are on the road.

Satyen asked you to lead, not to ride ahead. There's a big difference between the two. As a lead, you are supposed to keep us in your RVM. If we disappear for more than a few seconds, you slow down. If we disappear for more than that, you stop. If we still don't appear, you assume there's a problem and you ride back to help us. You help us navigate the traffic, you spot intersections, you draw our attention to potential threats and accident zones. You do not ride ahead and send us SMSes about your whereabouts and wait for 45 minutes. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

But don't believe me. I'm nobody to tell you right from wrong. Trust your own experience. Being a witness to your experience, let me recap some of it. You rode ahead leaving Rockerz behind. Perhaps you were not more than a 100kms away from him or perhaps you were even 10kms away from him. Did it matter how many kms away from Rockerz you were when he was attacked? Would it have made more sense for you to be WITH HIM at the time or do you still believe that this "I will ride ahead - you catch up" theory of yours makes sense? And its not just guarding against attacks. What if Rockerz had a spill? But of course that's too theoretical - we never have spills right? So lets just stick to the facts. The fact that Rockerz was attacked you weren't there for him.

Fortunately Rockerz escaped unharmed, but what if he hadn't? Would you take the blame? Or would you blame it on Rockerz stating he was riding slow (compared to your standards, Rockerz kept up with us pretty good all the way) and that he probably deserved it?

And if "each man for himself" is the philosophy you ride with, why ride with a group at all? Why not just do the whole trip solo instead of giving us the impression that we have one additional rider in the group we can depend on? For you certainly seemed undependable yesterday.

Here's what your 'I'll ride ahead you catch up' philosophy achieved yesterday:

1) Satyen had to lead despite his exhaustion and did not get a break (while I continued sweeping!).
2) Rockerz was exhausted at one point of time and began lagging. As a sweeper I stayed behind him but his weary eyes could not decipher the road under the constant abuse of the high beams from the oncoming traffic - at which point he asked me to lead him out. I landed up doing YOUR JOB. We didnt have to ride long in that formation though, Satyen had noticed us missing in his RVM and was heading back for us following which he took lead.
3) We wasted precious time messaging you and trying to figure out where you were all through the trip because we did not want Rockerz to ride alone. You ditched us in the last hour of the ride. Had we known you wouldn't be riding with us, I'm sure Satyen would have taken us via NH-4 so Rockerz would have company all the way.
4) Rockerz was attacked and you weren't there for him.
5) You did not impress me or anyone else with your speed - Satyen and I can certainly keep up with you (and then some) but we chose not to in the interests of the safety of those that ride with us.

@Anup:

Dawg you disappointed me big time. Firstly its not possible that you were riding at 70kmph. Satyen and I rode ahead in a bid to catch up with you and we've hit 110kmph in the process (consistently and for very long) and you were still nowhere in sight. At which point we gave up and decided to maintain 80 to 90kmph. Even if you were riding at those speeds (which you were clearly not), you could have just waited for us at some restaurant and allowed us to catch up. Since you didn't, it would appear that you preferred that we didnt. I understand your yearning for a solo, careless ride. But in doing so (and combined with antz.bin riding into oblivion), you managed to put a lot of strain on Satyen to lead. I haven't done much piloting and I wasn't about to experiment with the group's safety in pitch darkness on NH-17. Your experience would have helped greatly but apparently you chose not to share it. Satyen finally took a cat nap with his head on the tank back at a petrol pump for several minutes to gain some sanity following which he lead us through the last stretch of the NH-17.

For someone who has seen the advantages of being there for each other in times of crisis not so long ago (remember the accident?) and sang praises of the xbhp and biking brotherhood, you certainly showed very little of that brotherhood yesterday in your quest to absolve yourself of your responsibility (you did share other things in the name of brotherhood and for that I am thankful ;-).

Dawg, that's some serious disappointment right there.

@Everyone:

I think it's high time xbhp had some protocols for what 'leading' and 'tailing' constitute and the responsibilities of both the pilot and the sweeper (is this already in place? am I missing something?). People have VERY DISPARATE thoughts on what these responsibilities constitute and it would be nice if someone experienced laid down some ground rules for those who lead to follow. If they fail to follow, they should be held accountable for it and the consequences to follow. I've seen too many of the 'I'll ride ahead, you catch up' variety of pilots and to be honest I'd rather not have anything to do with them. They endanger themselves and they endanger the group they lead. Can we formulate protocols? Can we assign specific responsibilities? Can we hold the leads accountable for mishaps that could have been avoided to begin with? Can we make people think twice, thrice, a LOT before they accept the responsibility to lead?

I rarely lead; but I'm told its a lot of fun if you ignore all your responsibilities, make it a solo trip and ***** about how slow these people are in after parties. Mebbe we should all try it sometime. I mean, who gives a shit about safety anyway. That's for the old people. We prove our worth by advocating safety gear but team work? Naaah! Too much of a bother. Lets just ignore team work. Lets just wear shiny new safety gear, burn some rubber and ride like its each man for himself. Its so much more fun that way. Who gives a shit about the brotherhood. Its overrated anyway. No?

[Hyperion]

The title is misleading. This is a conversation I'm having with two that rode with us and finally decided to ride without us (aka Anup and Antz.bin). The only reason I'm having it in the open is because I think there's a lesson in this for all of us (you can chose not to learn though, I'm just a middle-aged idiot who no one listens to anyway).
.....

Alankar, I owe you one. Your words pretty much echoed what me and a few others talked to Antz after the SIE ride.
I hope Antz takes this in the best spirit possible. And I concur and second and third everything that you have said.

[trustvishwas]

This is an attempt to lighten mood and nothing else.....

I took this oppurtunity, punched the rider on his face. I was wearing the riding gloves. His nose instantly started bleeding and he fell on the ground in front of the bike. Since both were drunk, i pushed the other guy away and immediately started my bike. Since, the pillion was still lying with his legs in front of my bike, i simply decided to run over his legs

I hereby designate ROCKRZ as our official hitman.

@Rockrz - may be I was too hasty in organizing Bash Rockrz G2G....