smile please

harvey ball, an american commercial artist designed the smiley button as a free lance artist hired by the state mutual life assurance company of worcester, massachusetts to improve the employee morale.

he took 10 minutes to design it.

he never applied for a trademark or a copyright of the smiley and earned just $45 for his work, which has gone on to become a international icon.

so.. please smile freely.. :)

My Cup of Woes

( i ve sent this mail to RE, and will add their response when it comes... if u r a enfield owner or planning to be one, keep watching this space to know your future.. :-P) - follow-up added below..

hopefully this mail will reach someone who will act on it...

dear sir..

i purchased a classic 350 in december 2009. am a bilateral amputee with a passion for motorcycle travel and have a sidecar fitted to the bike to allow me to ride it. am one of the early members of 60kph. my earlier bike was the first generation pulsar180. with the UCE engine and all the buzz about better quality, i sold my pulsar and bought the classic 350.

but.. i feel sad to say that i am really disappointed.

let me just list out the history and wait for your response to it.

i started using the bike on 1-1-2010. the first ride was to rann of kutchh. (60 kph anniv. ride)

the same day, the bike had a electrical problem. every time i turned the headlight on, it wud blow the main fuse. opened the headlamp, and found the dim bulb holder burnt up and the terminals were causing a short circuit. incidentally, its been a year now and the holder has still not been replaced in my 10 trips to your service centre coz they keep saying THAT PART IS NOT AVAILABLE!!

in 7 days the speedometer cable broke.

in a month the clutch cable broke. again, CABLE FOR CLASSIC NOT YET AVAILABLE! at yr service centres, so they installed a TBTS clutch cable which is longer and has scratched the mudguard to bare metal.

in four months, the starter sprag-clutch gave away spilling its parts in the clutch and jammed the engine. i was on my way to lonavla and had to get the bike towed to nerul service station. they informed me after a couple of days that they discovered a crack in the crankcase and wud replace it since the bike was in warranty. but of-course, THEY HAD NO SPARES!! so i waited for 6 weeks during which time they kept reminding me that they cud ve put the cracked crack case back and i would never have known! after six weeks i lost my temper and called yr chennai office and the crankcase landed in bombay in 3 days and i was back on my bike in another 2.

oh, but they lost the neutral indicator switch! and put back any switch they cud find. THEY SAID THEY DID NOT HAVE A SPARE FOR THE CLASSIC AND THE ONE THEY INSTALLED WUD ATLEAST PREVENT ANY DIRT FROM GETTING INTO THE GEARBOX EVEN IF MY NEUTRAL INDICATOR WUD REMAIN DEAD. (that switch remained elusive too till i had it installed at soniya motors in oct 2010)

as soon as i rode the bike out from nerul, my pants were smeared with oil leaking from the rocker cover. i waited for 3 hours while they fixed it, it started leaking again in a week.

the service centres are quick to turn u around coz they are ever so busy. so i kept topping up the oil as i rode. got it fixed at soniya motors in oct 2010, but it began to leak again in a week and finally had it permanently fixed at sharda motors in dec 2010.

in the meanwhile no clutch cable has lasted me more than a couple of months and i ve already replaced the chain sprocket set once and will need another soon.

after the crankcase/sprag clutch repairs in april/may 2010, the battery died in june. i gave it to nerul workshop for replacement under warranty. they gave me an old battery, till they cud source a new replacement. IT NEVER CAME! i waited for a couple of months and got tired and stopped calling them. so i still have an old battery given to me inspite of warranty.

i didnt need a powerful battery for too long anyways, coz the sprag clutch failed again! thankfully this time it just free wheeled withot opening up and jamming the engine. i continued riding using kick start in spite of my prosthetic legs.

coz frankly its really frustrating to pay more than a lac for a bike u ve dreamt abt and u get loads of problems serviced by inefficient people who are so busy!!!

then.. in dec 2010.. the gearbox snagged! the bike refused to go to 1st and neutral gear. thats when it landed at sharda motors. the gear rachet has broken they said and the whole engine needs to be opened. they did that. fixed the oil leak too. for sprag clutch, they said enfield is importing some sealed units from italy which will last forever. but i have to pay 3000 for it coz enfield wont own up a bad part and replace it for free. the bill for the gearbox work itself came to 7000 and finances did not permit me to spend another 3000 so I HAD TO ASK THEM TO REMOVE THE SPRAG CLUTCH TOTALLY to prevent any engine bust in the future.

its jan 2011 now. my bike is just 13 months/20,000 kms old.

just got back from a 10 day ride to rajasthan (60kph anniv ride again).

1. speedometer worm gear is busted.

2. connecting rod bush is probably worn, guessing from the sound the engine is making.

3. there is loss of compression and am having to add 250ml oil for every 500 kms.

4. the petrol tank is LEAKING!!!! the tank is corroded at the welding seams on the underside.

MY PERSONAL VIEW IS THAT YOU SHOULD BE RESTRAINED FROM MANUFACTURING ANYTHING IN THE FUTURE, SELL PEOPLE A DREAM OF "TRIP" AND THEN LET THEM DOWN SO BADLY!!!! But since we dont live in the utopian world, i wud expect and welcome just a positive response from you.

dont get me wrong, am not expecting the slickness of new technology from a classic machine like RE, but just saddened by the low standards being adopted by your company. am sure u wudnt dare to export a petrol tank that corrodes in a year and starts leaking. so why do u do it to your own countrymen?????

oh yes, i do love riding the enfield a lot over the pulsar.... but i cant rely on it on a long ride. NO "TRIPPING" u see? therein is the greatest shame! if u can see the point.

Thanking You,

Smit Palrecha

Mumbai

post this got a swift and positive reply and calls from enfield to check out my bike. my reply to them is listed below -

thanks a lot for your prompt response and apologies for this delayed reply.

Mr. Ghisad did call me up on monday morning and look at my bike immediately, but since i ve been busy at work we fixed it for later in the week.

enfield has a small but a loyal customer base. and i wish from the bottom of my heart, that base continues to grow. when i read back my mail, i dont feel i am saying anything new, its a very oft repeated complaint. on the other hand i have friends whose answer to this is "this is how an enfield is, take it or leave it", a reminder that some have lost all hope.

another point i found funny was a 10,000 km warranty. found it too little and wondered if that was a reflection of a company's faith in its own product.

i love my enfield. and this is what i wud expect from my enfield.

1. solidly bolted - if i am on a ride, i shudnt have to worry abt when it might prematurely end coz things are rattling inside the engine or oil is leaking out.

2. electrical wiring shud be more secure.

3. rusting e.g. of fuel tank (and leaking), frame, side boxes needs to be taken care of.

4. availability of spares needs to be taken care of.

5. enfields frequently go wrong coz of insufficient engine oil / or failed fuel pump. an oil pressure indicator wud be welcome here and at not a very great cost.

6. we need to evaluate the quality of clutch cable dearly. i am down to using a bajaj scooter clutch cable with "makkhi" and its actually giving me better service than the 3 RE cables i ve used.

7. no two enfields are alike. unfortunately right now that translates into - some bikes have no problems, others are loads of problems that dont get rectified for years and after numerous trips. we need to turn it into - a few bikes develop some problems after a 1000 kms which are rectified forever.

8. some bikes with serious problems stay in the workshop for a month or more. this is totally unacceptable.

to put the record straight - NONE OF MY BIKES PROBLEMS ARE AS GRAVE AS THE STORIES I VE HEARD. and not from novices. problems never got sorted out to the extent that they had to sell the bike. of course, they went ahead and bought another enfield but u need to graciously accept that, that is the power of the marquee and not a confidence shown in the company manufacturing it.

my intention here is not to whine about the problems with my bike but just to bring to your notice the facts and impressions i ve had. i wish you success in all your endeavours to bring the improvements which is a gradual process but sometimes need to be a war-like effort.

thank you again for yr prompt and positive response.

i remain a loyal enfielder.

smit palrecha

mumbai

02-02-2011

gave my bike at RE workshop at Nerul, Navi Mumbai today.

Mr. Ghisad checked and noted all the points. Have come back with the impression that RE knows things are not quite right and are trying to change.

i hope the change starts from the manufacturing and quality control stage at chennai. that will allow the service station to remain as service stations and not mini factories where multiple bikes are stripped and put together all the time.

RE is seeing better days with the UCE engines, but theres stiff competition coming in from 250cc bikes. so this will be a major issue for RE to not fritter away the enthusiasm created by the classic and UCE lineup.

what concerns us enfield owners is - only a strong RE can continue to give us better products and the objective of these posts is to get them aware of the problems on the road and fix the men and systems responsible for it.

how to get more out of my year..

if i was working for a company.... 52 weeks in a year - thats 104 saturday sundays + 30 casual/privilege/sick leaves.

thats a total of 134 days.... :-)

since i work for myself.. i cud take 2 sundays every month off.. thats 22 days gone.. a week off every month.. thats 77 days.. and....

......and i m still left with 35 days every year to do a long ride.....

a week long ride every month and a month long every year!!!

a memorable ride..

the 2007 monsoon ride to dangs ranks really as one of the craziest and funfilled rides 60 kph has done.. not for motorcycling maybe, but the getting together of folks, and the volcano of fun..

putting down the links here..

the masterpiece of a ride-report by kauk

the tribal wedding video

R- the film

enjoy!!!

Rajneeti

there once was a boy named prakash jha and he decided to make a film.

he took a sheet of spotless white paper and on the top wrote "RAJNEETI" in a sharp font. he loved the name of the film.

then he drew a figure of a sari clad lady, pallu on the head and one hand raised to herald her arrival. he painted her face white to distinguish her land of birth. next he drew the face of a suave clean shaven boy-man in rimless spectacles.

then he began to cry. coz he cudnt think of a story.

prakash's mommy came to his rescue. she suggested him to make a story on mahabharata, the evergreen block buster epic with all the masala for a wholesome hindi potboiler.

prakash was happy. he began to call the boys and uncles in the neighbourhood to play the evergreen characters. ajay, manoj, arjun, nana, naseer all agreed.

but when he called the new kapoor on the block for arjun, he said he wants to play michael. prakash was stumped and looked up his epic but couldnt find a michael.

michael who? he called up again.

Michael Corleone.

Arjun got the wind of that and decided he will play a yudhisthir cum bheem cum sonny corleone for the price of one.

prakash began to cry again and his mom came to his rescue. jha be, look at the bright side, u have characters from mahabharata and scenes from godfather to get inspired. prakash smiled. he liked the word inspired a lot.

and he made rajneeti. i saw. i cried.

i laughed too when -

1. katrina decides to accept arjun as her husband and there was a enlightened cat-call from the front.. isko bhi seetapur ka ticket chahiye.

2. kunti goes to meet karna to tell him that he is his son.. the same cat-call again... lol

Road Trip to Coorg

... digged out this half finished post from the drafts folder.. written 4 months ago and lay there.. just reminder to do things on time...

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its only a week old story now. but am amused by the pace of the city that clouds your memory so fast. next time hopefully will write as it happens.

20-05-10

finally.. am rid of all the ties to the work for the next 10 days.. discussed, instructed, delegated and forgotten.. can finally focus on the trip.. buying batteries, getting a haircut, meeting mom at sis's place and retiring for the night at s'cruz to avoid saifee having to drive in the morning to pick us up at kandivali.

21-05-10

we start at 6.00 am as scheduled.. target is to reach the jungle lodge at ganeshgudi by 6.00 pm. its saifee's new honda civic with automatic transmission on to her maiden long drive. its got no spare room with 4 adults, 2 kids, a baby and an assortment of small bags and waterbottles. taking a second car would have divided the small group so we avoided that, not to speak of the adventures of taking my 12 yr and 120k km old honda along. we did take her to mandu last oct and had our share of fun fixing an ageing leaking hose pipe 5 times on the road, finally resorting to a makeshift arrangement to replacing it with a sturdy brakehose that lasted just enough to get us back to mumbai safely.

the option of me taking the bike along was promptly shot down by everyone else, i suspect they dont want me to have more fun than they do. also the bike wud have slowed the car down and i argue no further.

its a 580 km drive to ganeshgudi (dandeli forest reserve) and decide to keep the breaks to the minimum to reach the destination in daylight.

breakfast and fuel stop on the expressway at khopoli and i take on the wheel. nice car and a boring highway but fast and efficient. music in the car is a bone of contention. kabir and sabiha dont like ours, we cant appreciate theirs and saifee cant bear any beyond a point.

sane words come to me and i tell the parents to learn to appreciate the music and other things their kids enjoy if they want to stay connected to them. funny how music can become walls between generations. i make a note to myself to follow that too. lol. kabir and i have real trouble picking and playing PS2 games, he thinks i am too boring coz i almost always pick those racing games, when the fun is in fighting wars and killing monsters. he was playing a war game once, i said its too violent and gory, he said its historical and he cant help it if history was violent. i shut up.

mum - pune - satara - kolhapur, where we stop for lunch around 1-30.

as we enter the state of karnataka, NH4 betters. the surface, the flowering plants on the divider, reflective strips, laybyes for bus stops, service roads..

approaching a petrol pump on a dug up service road, the civic scrapes a rock, one of the several in the days to follow to worry saifee abt the safety of his new shining car and doubt the sanity of allowing me to chart the route.

we miss the turn off belgaum, stay on NH4 till kittur and take a right to dandeli. the road is bumpy and civic's low ground clearance worries saifee further.

finally reach ganeshgudi at 6. a km long dirt track off the tar road takes us to the enigmatically named "old magazine house jungle lodge". turns out, the place was originally built to store gelatin sticks during the construction of dam over the kali river.

the cottages are decent and kabir is in depression over the "creepy crawlies". a 3 inch spider on his pillow worsens the situation. saifee rather undiplomatically announces the slaying of a scorpion in his own room. it aint cold but the campfire is lit and kabir takes refuge in it. the food is decent too. kiara is happy to be out of the confines of the car and busy playing with stones and mud and sticks. she knows no fear. yet.

22-05-10

you dont need an alarm in this place to wake up. i wake up to a cacophony of bird sounds and whistles.

though it was only a stopover for the night, we go for a coracle ride in the kali river. its a round basket for a boat. the river is magnificent and further down you can do white water rafting but we skip it. nice place to come back to.

we leave after a good breakfast. the route planned passes thru anshi forest to karwar. inquiries reveal its in bad shape. with the civic we are no position to discover the truth. so we are on the yellapur- ankola route and reach the NH17. lucky to spot a kamat's restaurant at ankola to stop for lunch.

having heard so much of it, pay om beach at gokarna a brief visit but cant stop kiara from getting into the waters. she loves it. its off a cliff. we park the car and then have to walk down the cliff to reach the beach. makes it very tucked in, but the weekend crowd spoils the fun.

as it gets dark, the drive on NH17 to mangalore gets slow and laborious. everybody is bored and we stop for dinner at udipi around 10 and reach the urban retreat in mangalore at midnight. theres a party on, of the coffee planters guild, and we are invited to join. but too tired to be interested.

23-05-10

wake up to find urban retreat a very homely place with a cozy patio at the back. we are recommended to visit the zoo and the artisan's village nearby which we do, instead of zooming towards coorg. zooming anyways is not possible. its a winding road uphill from mangalore to madikeri, the capital of coorg district. 140 km takes us 6 hours to negotiate and then another to reach linger by 6 on the bhagmandala road. its a beautiful drive but everyone is too cramped and waiting to get on the terrafirma. and the suspense of the place we will be spending the next 5 days in. i tell them its a homestay not a resort, and they are trying to figure if thats a good thing or otherwise.

the instructions to reach the place are clear, but we are escorted by a friend to the place. between the milestones reading 6 and 5 kms to bhagmandala is a bus stop on the left with a dirt track adjoining. 100 m inside after a few twists is a clearing to park yr car. then u walk down the track and come down to a flat open space with a cottage set back. a traditional construction, 2 rooms with attached toilets, one with a cozy attic bed, large verendah on three sides with a sloping mangalore tiled roof. coffee plantation of the slopy sides of the property and one side sloping down to a strip of paddy fields.

its been raining for the past few days and everything around is green. we are greeted with an overcast sky giving way to a light drizzle. complimented with fresh creamy coffee and onion pakoras by harish, our man friday for the next 5 days.

the place has a very private feel, and i guess people take time to warm up to it. the website for linger promises books and there is just a shelf full of those right now, but a good collection for everyone to find one. saifee does manage to finish one in his five days and really happy for it. kabir is lost but for the book. he is 11 and i guess he needs to have some company of his age. next time, i ll have asad or kani come along with us. he is also probably bored also coz there were no hose pipes to fix this time around. lol.

dinner is traditional coorgi food. pandi is a famed coorgi pork dish but no takers in our group of vegetarians and muslims.

24-05-10

bhagmandala.. mangoes ..medikeri.. east end.. cycling.. walk in the field

25-05-10

river.. kakabe .. talcauvery

26-05-10

dubare nisargdhaam bailkuppe

27-05-10

bhagmandala .. eve to talcauvery

28-05-10

drive to shimoga

29-05-10

drive to mumbai

Coorg Trip Planning

here we are into the week when the road trip to a 5 day holiday in coorg begins.
with 2 days to drive to and 2 fro, its gonna be as much time on the road as lingering in coorg.
stopping at dandeli for the night on the first days drive from mumbai, is sounding really exciting. to wake up in a forest lodge, ambling through the dandeli and anshi forest to reach mangalore for the second night's stopover. mangalore to bhagarmandala (where linger is) is just a short hop for the third days morning.
was looking at a lot of homestay options in coorg, abundant on the web, but when Vishu sent me a link to LINGER, found it too full of promises to look beyond. will write review of it here later after the trip.
lots to do in coorg and a place to "do just nothing" in LINGER, the world is wide open.
friends from 60kph are planning to assemble at sakleshpur, 100 kms away, after their sunfeast marathon run.. that sounds great.. will go meet them up or invite them over.

looking up for stopovers and planning for coorg, came across this interesting resort off karwar, too bad its closing today for monsoons and we ll have to target it some other time. next wud have to be a kerala trip, karwar makes for a good midpoint. :-)

21st - mum-dandeli

22nd - dandeli-mangalore

23rd to 27th - chill@coorg

28th - drive to hubli

29th - hubli-mumbai

route map on http://www.motowhere.com/maps/route/mumbai-to-coorg-and-back