Our Bullet

Apu not alone!

So now Apu is not alone with him is yet another bike from our helmet stories stables. Hopefully by Christmas all our bikes shall be back on the roads where they belong.

Can't wait ...
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Rider Mania ride

Back to Bombay, joining up on NH4. Now its a dual carriageway all the way home.
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Mollem Ride, Goa

Chilly water stream, the perfect pit stop on a muggy day
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Mollem road

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Rider Mania, day 3

Tooling off to the Mollem reserve forest
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Rider Mania, Trials

Clean run from local rider Faisal
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Rider Mania Day 2, 500cc dirt race

Chotu Baljit wins the 500 class by a country mile
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Dirt Race, practice

Mayhem already on the practice lap!
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Rider Mania, Day 2

Old friend Javeen getting his 'question mark' bike ready for the custom competition.

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Helmet Stories

A clutch of helmets at Rider Mania 2010. If they could speak, I'm sure they would have some interesting tales to tell about the journey to Goa, just like how ours was.
Tomorrow is the dirt track and trials events at RM which I suspect should provide some thrills and spills. Watch this space...
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Rider Mania Begins!

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Rider Mania ride, day 3, finis. Goa!

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Latest Performance Mod

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Rider Mania ride, Day 3, morning (2)

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Rider Mania ride, day 3, morning

Thick fog delayed the planned early start. In a strange synchronous kind of way, the hotel we pulled into on a deserted stretch of the NH 17 highway had a familiar face. KY Nachre was a waiter at Cafe City restaurant in Worli Naka, Mumbai where I used to go for kheema pao and over the years got to Nachre quite well. Nachre has moved back to his village and is working at Sidhant Hotel. What are the chances of bumping into him after so many years? This happens only when riding!
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Awzom!

Ouseph's expression sums up the last couple of days...
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Why we ride Enfields

Jamshed's back on the road after some DIY spannering. Ok so what if his rear sprocket is missing a few teeth! Perhaps we'll call it a day as soon as it gets dark. No point pushing our luck too much today!
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Blown Bike

Jamshed's bike got some serious knocking from the engine. The oil feed line is blocked too. Doesn't look good...
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Icon Helmet

My new Icon helmet is quite superb. Ventilation actually works and very quiet at speed. A good buy at closeout price I think
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Rider Mania ride, day 2, afternoon

25 km short of Ratnagiri. Curve upon curve of flowing tarmac from Poladpur to Sangameshwar where the tarmac is broken up.
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Kashedi Ghat top

Ten km of wonderful twisties up got us to the top of Kashedi Ghat the regular pit stop for chai on NH17. The heat is rising, but the riding is excellent. Doesn't look like we'll reach Goa before dark.
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Rider Mania Ride, day 2, morning

Woke up to this view in the morning. Almost didn't ride today as Jeh mama's place is just the panacea for urban malaise! Karthik has to meet his crew in Goa so we dragged ourselves on the bikes at 11am!
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Rider Mania Ride, Day1, Part 2

Just short of Mahabaleshwar. Stopped to pick up Karthik's silencer!
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Dirt Track from Kas to Mahabaleshwar

It does get better
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Rider Mania Ride: Day 1

Can it get better than this?
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The thing that lies ahead and beyond what you can see

Tomorrow morning, before first light, I hope to hit the road on Bumblebee along with a couple of buddies, riding-wise and otherwise, friends whose lines I trust and whose company I am at ease with off the bike too. A slow churn of excitement has already begun in the pit of my stomach as I contemplate the ride ahead. Our destination is Goa to attend the Royal Enfield Rider Mania and escape the real world for a few days.

There is something special about just hitting the road on an unarranged adventure, a couple of days worth of clothes in the saddlebags, a handful of spares and nothing more than a vague direction of where you’re headed. The plan is to head south on NH4 from Mumbai till Satara and then cut across to Mahabaleshwar via the Kas plateau, where hopefully the unseasonal rain is still nourishing the wildflowers. Google Earth shows a promising route winding up and down the bluffs of the Western Ghats, the road a faint promise of the potential for fun. 

Hopefully, we'll be grinning as idiotically as Debu at Kas

Top Gearhead and friend Debu, who was in the vicinity a month ago has given typically vague directions like: ‘take a right on the dirt road on the plateau after the last dhaba,’ so we know it’s going to be a memorable ride, one way or the other. It feels good to not be worrying about where you’re going, just that you’re getting there.

Where's the road?

It’s illogical and yet it’s trips like this that makes the motorcycling life so much fun. More than the sum of their parts, these rides are built on a collection of random roads and off-the-beaten path routes, which expand your personal geography transcending the ride, road and machine.

Enough introspection. It’s time to ride.

Monday's

scraping the exhaust before wrapping it

We spent the better part of yesterday with Antons (our favorite mechanic). But it seemed we had the run of the shop as he and is assistant were hardly there.

We took apart the Thunderbird and put new bars on it and wrapped Bumblebee's exhaust. It took us all of 4 hours but twas worth every minute of it.

Then on the way home I was enjoying the weather and the bike when it started pouring cats and dogs and by the time I got home I was soaked down to my bones.

What an awesome day just the way we like em.
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looking good with its new set of bars

How Does It Feel To Ride A Motorcycle

Perfect viewing just before the Royal Enfield  Rider Mania ride to remind me why we ride... never mind the marque!

Bumblebee Gets A Bath

Prepping for the Rider Mania ride. Bumblebee's first bath after Ladakh!
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The Commute

Because Every Day Could Be Your Next Motorcycle Adventure... Great vid from the guys at Revzilla

Boy racers

Is it just me or has anybody else noticed when riding and you overtake one of those Boy racers (on their Pulsars, RTS's, Hunks etc with a girl clutching on for dear life as a pillion) on your Enfield (which is louder than most) it is like you have challenged him to a death race. Instantly you hear that he has dropped a gear and clutching the bike and is trying to get by you however he can regardless to his or his bombshells safety.

This happened to me two nights ago when I overtook a guy on an RTR he obviously took it to heart and went nuts trying to overtake me. I was not slow mind you but was not fast either. He would overtake me and then get stuck in traffic. At one traffic light I pulled up and parked next to him he and his "chick" gave me the stare while he revved his engine (Whack job) and took off with his bike screaming. After overtaking him again because he got him stuck in traffic, he pulled his most death defying move ever. He dropped a gear and decided to overtake a bus pulling up to a stop avoiding people standing on the road and a tree in his way. With his "chick" looking back laughing. Weird !!!

Whatever these guys were on they need to share...

Festival of lights

Here's wishing all of you a super diwali. But hang up that helmet before you start the partying. Because drinking and riding just aint cool at all.
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Salt!

Evocative video of a Deus Cafe in the salt pans. Rann of Kutch anyone? Anyone? Anyone

Deus Salt Racer SR500 from Deus Customs on Vimeo.

Photograph from my Rann of Kutch ride earlier this year.