Sunday, August 28, 2005

The haunted ride!!!



Y'day had dinner at office and was goin to ma cubicle for another session when i get a call from ashwin luring for night ride to savandurga, the closest awailable twisties from bangalore. first was like GOOBA(ullu) wat r u talkin bout. but it was for real. ma office was in the way so told em to give a call there and i will see. cos had lost quite some sleep past few days at office and my cozy bed home was very inviting. sat at ma desk and ... no i couldnt work now!!!!. Took permission and got out of the office at 10.15 and went to the fill fuel and wait for the gyes to show up. which they did after 30 mins. sanjay, ashwin, vicky, vinay, praveenS and santhosh it was. Savandurga is supposed to be haunted place it seems where ppl have seen things at night. we were goin to investigate it:D. the place is kinda spooky even i day times with almost nil traffic. but has got 25-30 kms of awsome twisties. 7 of us roared towards maaagadi, ruining the silence where ever we went. at one place saw 6 gyes haveing a night out on victors and splenders. guess they were doubles to share fuel. hehe. ripped past them and get out of town. was a bit scary to me with my fork behaving differently. hit the twisties none the less. now that was some adrenelin rush at night. ashwin and vicky first time to the place tharoughly enjoying. the highlight is a wide 180 defree turn which takes the by surprice for the first timers there. We stop quite a few times. discussing wheather to go to Savandurga or continue to hit the NH (towards mangalore). but the haunted roumers appealed more to the gyes. we were polluting the noice environment there else there would be eiery silence. off the Sdurga it is. this 15 kms is a bit bad road but narrow and winding like throught forest. do some of it and reach the end. park our bikes in front of a temple. what a paradox the supposed haunted places has two big temples.

could see the big mountain only as a bit darker shade above. we decide to walk and bit and see if any ghosts are there. was sooo quite with jungly noice. just then a dog jumps us surprising everyone. now this was a "hutch" dog following us. ;) saw some ppl afar have beedies or cigerets or what ever. well din wanna mess with them so backed to our bikes. took some pix and 2.00 in the night when we start for home. this time decided to do non stop. every one well adjusted to the environment ripped like crasy. these pulsar gyes remove the end portion of their rear mud guard for show and had pirallis too. tailing them ment getting showered in debri. a stone too hit ma hand. dat one could have easily broken the headlamp hehe. hit the main strech and this is where the fun beings. sanjay as usual gets away past every one and i would not leave his tail this time. rip past the debri spiting pulsers to catch him. this gye on hi rx 135 has got the light so bright dat car could envy and one twisti maniac. i keep his tail and gorge on the tasty twisties SLURRRR!! at 80+. this sthrech has many tight S's. was totally adrenelin pumping leaning to max. dare i do that alone with my stock cbz lamp. the 10 mins was awsome loved doin that after quite a long time. hit the straight strechs with ppl taking turn leading and me sticking to the leaders tail. these gyes had got the pulser's headlamp coil winded and real brigt lights. come to mysore road and rip towards devegoda petro pump. this is my regular office route but never took it past 95 but with these gyes around we did it 100-105 on the empty roads. Devegowda petrol pump it is by 3.15. PraveenS wanted to carry on to nandi hills to catch the early morning mist. but rest gyes din have enthu and i too had to catch up wid lot of sleep. so we head home and at bed by 3.30 am.

aaaaah!!! wat a ride. just 150 kms but was odd time and odd place. disappointed to have not found any ghost hehe. living it up.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Back to highways - krishnagiRI(P)


had been a long time since i hit the highways n touched 100 on the speedo(one month) cos of ma crash and office work spilling over to weekends. my riding had totally changed towards the over cautious side, expecting every dog and tvs champ in town coming in ma way. first day to office after gettin the bike after 2weeks, it took me 40 mins, where i never crossed 24 mins. desporately needed a rip to get back my rythm. krishnagiri i thought to go all out. beautiful 4 lane high way for 50 KMs after hosur. sunday morning it was and badri was in for the ride. nithin could not be reached.

was at badri's hourse by 8.30 and we start from there to hosur. negotiating the traffic, badri on his powerful lamb went ahead and i was lookin everwhere for ppl straying on the road. at one point where i normally would have gone fully crouched, but went a bit slow thinkin wat if some one jumps of the tall divider. to my surprice some distance ahead a tvs champ cuts in from the divider goes accors the road. would have been tight had i ripped. now got to know why nithin was congratuliting me on my new bike. it behaved quite differently. the forks were never the same. had to learn my bike now. hmmmm.. ok we continued till hosur to have break fast. now its fifty KMs of holy rip. was like ma tails on fire. stopped in between to take some pix. then decided to go non stop to the toll gate some 25 kms. soon left badri behind and went full throttly crouching. heard of ppl getting their personal best on the speedo here. wind was beind and there i go. felt real good to do it after quite some time. at one point i see ma speedo goin 115 and may be higher. tought now gonna break ma record of 116. but it the tacho meter in more hurry than the speedo, which had red lined past 10k rmps and was faster than the speedo. not wanting to make a record on the tacho eased the throttle a bit. from then on for about some 5 kms i could not ride full throttle cos though speedo stuck at 112 the tacho was goin over the redline many times. every time it redlined a special scooping sound i could here. yeah now ma bike gives a sonic boom when it redlines:D. i go to the toll gate and wait for badri. 5 mins and there he comes all happy. "Ma speedo touched 120 man!!!" said badri very extatic. the powerfull lamb did it again. one more gye updates his record there from 115 to 120 on ambi. me like why not me why not me. k now amature photographers at work goin click happy. badri wanted a pic with he hands off the handle bar. cam in my hand and 5 unsuccess full attempts.
1)he put his hands down too soon
2)i clicked too slow
3)he went off given cam to me in non click mode. (never used digicam : there are so many buttons!!!)
4)when was bout to click the cam went to stand by mode
5)bout to click and battry exhausted!!!! :D
hehe no more pix from now.

then we head back. give badri a head start of one minite and off i go. now wind was against us and ma bike would not go past 112 no matter wat i do. badri stopped me pointing towards a narray exit. lets explore he said. wow twisties in between rip fest. we hit it. man it was jem of a road narrow twisties with no body around and smooth tarmac. again my bike was aliean to me here. breaking and leaning to get used to again. missed the cam. 5 kms and we enter a village. equired a villager to where it leads, no where he says deadend. we carry on to see it. pass through a village only to find the whole village staring at us. we back us at the dead end, stop at the entrance at the village and thought of doin some trekkin to a near by hill. we had many ppl staring at us and privcy lost. went for a quick trek. could observe the noice level aroudn the village increase and kids gathering near our biks. guess since it was a dead end they were not used to outsiders. we quit the trek and headed to the bikes and left. had some nice time zipping between trucks busses and cars.

ripped to a hotel near badri's college in hosur for some fluids. swapped bikes. the riding posture was uncomfortable atleast for me with his three piece handly bar. on the road again. the lamb revved so smooth inviting to rip. reaching 80-90 is no problem but have to earn hard every km after that. could manage 105 once. initially when i thought 120!! may be speedo problem but it doesnt go past 90 dat easy. n speedo climb later is gradual. n 120 on dat speedo meant business. bike pretty much smooth and was enjoying the throttle responce zipping between vehicles. thought why is ma bike not as quicker off the mark. reached silk board flyover and got back our steads. the only thing badri liked was the he could reach 100 quickly on ma bike. bid adiou and left after a 180 km ride. indeed mine was quicker off the mark but vibration it gives doesnt get the feeling of being quick. now feeling much bettor. seemed to have fought off some fear and devils in ma mind. ditched goin to office and went out with family.

now craving for a big ride.............