As promised in the Mumbai offline meets thread, I am posting the trip log and pictures of a small 415kms ride on a hot Sunday.

As the weekend approaches, lots and lots of plans start flowing in on xBhp. Last weekend wasn't an exception either. Lots of plans were building up. Some were riding to Amby valley..Some wanted to go to Dahanu.. Some of us were interested in watching Ghost Riderz and other xBhpians perform at MTV Stunts Mania and what all and what not..

As usual, I was out of cash due to some back to back rides.. No cash means no long ride.. That's why I was out of almost every long ride which was being planned here. Only thing I could do was go to Lower Parel to watch the MTV Stunt Mania with other xBhpians as it's just minutes away from my house.

Saturday was spent very well at MTV Stunt Mania with Mumbai xBhp gang. Met some of the members after a long gap. I was getting invitations for Sunday rides since saturday but as told, No cash.. So said no to everyone.

On saturday night, me and my old friend Umesh(who stays near my building and owns an R15, the same guy at Amby's cornering G2G) decided to go to Palm Beach road late night for some ripping. That was the max I could do when running out of cash. I tried calling in some other members but everyone was busy with their work. So decided to go with him only. He took another of his friends as pillion with him. We returned home at around 12.30-1.00am in the night and went to Parag - the famous Pav bhaji corner in Dadar.

As we were having food, Umesh asked me if we are going anywhere tomorrow. I told him no rides tomorrow as am outa cash. He was disappointed on the thought that Sunday is to be spent getting bored at home. He then had an idea. He anyways had some work to Pune and he was supposed to go there by his car on Monday. He asked me if I can accompany him on Sunday so that we can go by bike. He was ready to sponsor the ride for me. I asked for some time to check if I had any liabilities on Sunday. I told him I'll confirm you once I reach home. He was cool with it. All he wanted is to ride on Sunday. He said we have only 10-15mins work in Pune and for the rest of the day plan something. I said I'll do it.

Went home - asked parents - and when they were ok with it confirmed the ride with friend at 2am in the night. Yippeee.. Couldn't sleep that night. Watched the movie Luck By chance till some 3.00-3.30am and took a small nap till 5.00am.

Got up at 5.00am and started getting ready. I had asked him to come to my place at 6.00am to pick me up. Thought of giving him a wake up call at 5.30am and heck..he was one step ahead of me. He too couldn't sleep for the night and had already left his home and was sitting at Shivaji Park since 5.30am. WTF..This guy's crazy I tell u. Crazy for Rides..

He came to my place at sharp 6.00am. I had nothing to carry for the ride except my sun glasses and cam. He had taken his bag in which he had bike's parking cover, Road atlas, water bottle, bike papers and few extra carry bags. I dumped my things into it..wore my helmet and off we were at around 6.15am. Climate was ideal. Not much heat and sunlight was der. So started cutting the distance at descent speeds. Reached the Panvel McD spot in time. As usual, took a look at the McD to see if any of the xBhpians waiting there. Not a single rider. So moved on without stopping. Entered the JNPT road and we were flying in crouched position. When we reached Pune-Goa Road-Panvel Juntion, I told him bout the snack store - Shri Dutt which DK had showed me sometime back. I still remember his lines.. "Yeh Panvel mein world famous wada pav corner hai"..

I asked Umesh if he wants to have some food there. Umesh is anytime crazy for spicy food and when it's from a Panvel mein world famous shop then toh he was pagal for it. We pulled over and got off. The shop was half opened by that time. Still there were people waiting there..

After some time the shop opened and I ordered Misal Pav while he had his hands on Wada Pav. As we were having the food, a group of bikers rolled in. They didn't seem to be assiciated with groups like us or MBC - just casual weekend riders. Bikers don't need any special recognition. Biking religion is enough for them to gel in. We had nice chat for a few minutes. They were heading towads Goa road some where.

Tummys full, we were ready to roll. We hit the NH4 and riding at constant speed covered the distance in quite good time. Meanwhile here are a couple of pics which I took on JNPT road.





By the time we reached Lonavala, I had started feeling slight pain in my back n A$$. Bloody pillion ride of R15. But it was still tolerable. We decided to ride without any stop and kept riding till we were a few kms before Somatne fata near Talegaon. There's a nice Jain Temple on the way and we stopped near it for a butt break. Pulled over to a small tea stall. Ordered 2 cuppa tea and while it was being served, took some snaps.





Tea was nice and was cheap as well. Rs.3/- per cup We finished the tea and I wanted a cigarette. Unfortunately he didn't have it. So we left and decided to stop at the next cigarrete stall. Just a few kms ahead, we saw the famous Huge Ganel Idol. Luckily there was a cigarette stall near by. So we stopped for both, cigarette as well as photos.

We didn't have time to cross the road and take the pictures avoiding the power lines, therefore kindly excuse for the power cables.





While we were taking pictures, we saw lots of..I really mean lots of people riding towards Pune on their cycles. Nice and modern cycles. People of all ages - young n old. It was really inspiring and we have decided to buy a cycle for us - Very Soon I had many cycles before. Used to roam a lot on them

Smoke was done..photos were in and we were ready to continue. As we moved ahead we kept on seeing more and more cyclists. If am not mistaken we saw at least 150-200 odd cyclists riding in close intervals. Took the right turn on Dehu Road and continued towards Kothrud. By now I had started feeling the pain of pillion ride and wanted breaks every few kms. Somehow managed to reach Kothrud and stopped on the high way from where I can see my Gf's house. Called her up from there and we talking on phone while seeing each other. She was standing in her balcony and we were on the highway. I agreed to meet her while returning home. Once the butt was relaxed we continued towards Katraj. Crossing Warje on the way, we encountered famous Pune traffic with absolutely non sense riders and drivers criss crossing the roads. My friend isn't that much experience so had to guide him and warn him to slow down several times.

We reached Katraj and kept on riding ahead for Kapurhol. On the way faced a huuuge traffic jam due to Toll Check point. Butt was paining..Knees were paining due to auckward sitting position..heat was killing..traffic jam.. Shucks.. hard time it was.

I had been to this temple before and therefore had no problem finding the left turn at Kapurhol. Temple is around 2.5kms inside from Highway. I had no idea bout the crowd and when we reached there, we were shocked to see sooo many tourists. Parking was getting full very fast.

Found a nice spot and parked the bike. Covered it with the parking cover. Had we left it open am sure we would have got bikini faired R15. Thanz to all the Splendor riders.. No offense.

The temple is built on a huge area and therefore well planned. One is supposed to hand over the shoes and baggage before entering the temple. And the chappal stand is quite far from temple. Not used to walking bare foot in afternoon heat we literally had to sprint for shade. On the next entrance we were asked to submit our Cam and cell phones at the counter. It was 10.40am and we were told that the darshan will start at 11.15am. We sat in the line on that cool platform under the shade. That was very relaxing. Spent the time chit chatting and by 11.00am the line started to move. There are sooooooo many things to be shot inside the temple but heck..cams not allowed. We took the darshan and sat down in the main premise for some time. On the exit got a huge laddoo as prashad. Was very tasty. Came out..took our chappals..took our cam n cell phone and were all set for photography. They also give us coupens for the free lunch which is served as prashad and but it's quite wierd in taste and we preferred not to have it and throw just like that. Instead better is to have just the laddoo.

Here are some of the pictures of the temple..























Pheww..lots of photos.. now time to go...

Till now everything was going ok if not good. But now on, I still haven't figured it out what, something went wrong. One by one all the things started to fall down.

We reached the parking bay and started taking off the parking cover. Can't tell you how hot it had become. We had kept a flat stone on the cover so that it wont be disturbed by the wind flowing. That stone had literally got enough hot to cook an omlet on it. No jokes. Seat was so hot... wasn't in a condition to be sitted on. And that's when my friend realized he's missing something. His gloves. His brand new Rs. 850/- DSG gloves. He went crazy. We couldn;t exactly make out how n when we lost them but most probably he took them off when we reached there and kept on the next bike while he was covering his bike. Shit... Mood was spoiled a bit but we didn't curse anyone thinking everything happens for a reason and that too it happened at god's own place.

When he started the bike, he couldn't hold the handle. The handle ends were hot like frying pan. He had to wrap the handles with hanky and ride. We decided to stop at a sugar cane juice stall to cool ourselves and the bike too. Found a stall and parked the bike in the shade. Cooled down and moved ahead after some time. Rode non stop till Chandni chowk and took the diversion to Pune City. Road from Katraj to Kothrud is.. am speechless.. such beautiful road. We then went straight to Durga - very famous cold coffee stall in Pune. Throats were dry coz of the long ride from Katraj to Pune. Had 3 glasses of cold coffee each. This is when the second incident happened.

My friend had parked in bike in no parking zone unaware that traffic scene near Durga is not so good these days cause of increase in traffic jam. Traffic police came there to toe away the bike. fortunately I saw it and my friend ran to save the bike. They didn't take the bike but charged Rs.100/-
Heck..what's happening? Rs.850/-+Rs.100/-=Rs.950/- gone in just a matter of few minutes.

I wanted buy some sweets from Chitale, so rode all the way to the heart of the city and heck..the store was shut.. Another let down.

While returning from there, almost got killed under a reckless speeding PMT. He literally brushed my clothes..he was that close. no point in arguing and fighting with those cheap *uckers. So moved ahead. Now we knew something's drastically wrong and causing all things to fail. We decided to be extra careful.

Reached my GF's home and my friend went away with the bike for his work. I spent sometime with her and Umesh returned after half n hour. I wanted to wait for more time but couldn't.

We left for a small hotel. Had some food. Then went near City Pride to drink Mastani. Yummy. Tummys were brim full. We finally started the return journey thinking that the bad time is hopefully over. But WTF..it wasn't. We both started to feel some stomach prob.

We pulled over to a petrol pump and one by one had been to toilet. Feeling little relaxed decided to buy some tablets for upset stomach. While I was busy in toilet.. friend took this snap of his lid.



When everything was settled down we started riding towards Mumbai. Rode for some time and stopped at our usual Petrol Pump just opposite Tony da Dhaba for refueling and cigarette and butt break. Spent a nice hour over there and continued the journey.

The bad time still wasn't over. I recieved a bad news on my phn as sms. I dont want to share it here..

Only thing I was scared is not to have an accident. That's the worst thing. But no, my rider was quiet good at his work and we managed to reach Panvel without any more trouble with some butt breaks and cigarette breaks in between.

By now, Umesh was hungry once again. He wanted to have Wada Pav at DK's Stall. But it was over crowded so we decided to skip that and rode on JNPT road. Later decided to ride via Palm Beach road.

Stopped at Nerul for snacks and had Dahi Batata Puris there.. Enjoyed some nice sceneries while having food. Some real nice chicks out there. Being evening time every girl was out for a brisk walk I guess.

Next stop was going to be home. So rode non stop till we reached home at around 7.30-8.00pm. Check out some of the pics on the way.





Can't even imagine the condition of my back n A$$ when I reached home. It was paining as if I was made to sit on a barb wire..

Finally here's the last picture of the journey showing the odometer reading for the day's ride.



415kms of extreme emotions and flavours. We enjoyed the ride but with some scars on the mind that we lost almost Rs.1000/-. We had so much tasty food..I met my GF after so many days..spent some time with her.. Had some real good laughter with my friend during journey..Learnt a few lessons. Was a terrefic trip. Most important thing was that I didnt spend my Sunday getting bored at home. Thanks Umesh for sponsoring the trip and such wonderful time.

Regards,
Ketan_R15