june 30th - started from home at 5-30 am, all geared up for the big one. the bike sounded healthy and was glad there was no rain to start off. in fact it was dry all the way to bangalore except some misty showers enroute between kolhapur and hubli. scheduled stop at lonavla to meet parents and breakfast.
rode on the smooth NH4, stopping only for petrol, tea, smoke and lunch and reached hubli (640km on the odo) by 6pm. nothing intresting, except the fact that the bike was guzzling too much fuel and the carb seemed to be the probable culprit. lunch led to a 90 minute nap, having had little sleep the previous night. beyond this point, have no memory of the ride, the light was fading, the body tiring.
another 100 kms is haveri, and when the test started. the construction of four-laning of NH4 in this sector is still in progress and continuing the ride in the dark thru the dust, potholes and the multitude of diversions felt like a senseless thing to do. so i rode on senselessly. :-)
my average speed went down, the urgency to reach bangalore lacking, the mind flirting with abandoning the 1k and crashing out at a dhaba. then came a saviour. another biker on the road decided to chase me up and we raced along for abt 35-40 kms till he suddenly vanished. probably he had reached home or knew of a better paved diversion.. lol. but that set the pace for me and i zipped and skidded as much as my bike can manage. then the under-construction stretch ended and opened to a smooth expressway but i was too tired to note the kms and time, and rode on.
vishu called to say they will rcv me at a toll booth after tumkur, and he with sanjuz, biju and srini drove 40 kms to that point in the middle of the night!! what a family i got in 60kph... if my wealth were to be measured in the number of friends i got, i wud be a tycoon (to borrow from gaurav's comment in Riding Solo) :-)
reached bangalore at 3am and completed the 1k i set to do. didnt feel anything special except that it had to be done and was done. lol.
next wud be to attempt the 1400 of mum-delhi in 24 hours someday, however senseless that wud get, it does feel like a milestone till you cross one.
july 1st and 2nd - stayed at sanjuz's place, spent in leisure, attended the wedding (that was the pretext of the ride). 2nd was satrao's bday and the bang gang was in full attendence for the meet at sanjuz's place and it was great to meet up with all. it was novel to see them clean and dressed in formals, having always met them on rides and in riding gear.
july 3rd - srini and masood saw me off till the same toll booth as i rode towards honavar enroute to goa. after the partying of the previous night i had started off pretty late at 11 but had till next day's noon to reach goa, so i was cool. farida was to land at 2 pm and i was supposed to be at the airport b4 that. 5th was our wedding anniversary (15th) and we had planned to be in goa for the weekend sans the kids who were under her sis's care. and then to ride back to mumbai together on the 6th.
but.... the bike seized. hundred and forty kms from bangalore and still another 500 to go, the bike broke down 8kms out of tiptur. on a ride, its always a coordinated effort of the man and the machine to go the distance and its heart breaking when a breakdown happens. but if one were to get dejected by this, he/she will never get on a ride again.
i tried what i could, to no avail. there was shame in it, coz it was caused by the oil which had thickened to a slurry and i hadnt checked it before starting from bangalore. there was no reason for the oil to go bad in 1200kms, but worse, there was every reason i should have checked it. darn!!
a mechanic helped push the bike to tiptur, and he opened it up, but tiptur is a small place and he cudnt find the piston and pin (which was the culprit, it was fused to the piston) needed there, and i had no time to wait there till the next day. boarded a train for vasco at midnight from there, which reached late by 3 hours at 2pm. farida reached cidade de goa by herself and i reached by 3.
the next two days was a relaxed weekend celebrating the anniv. and the bike problem out of the mind. without the bike there wasnt any venturing out of the resort, and we soaked in the luxury we paid for. got lucky in getting upgraded to a suite too.
july 6th - monday morning, it was time to head back. farida took a flight back to bombay and i took 4 bus rides to reach tiptur at 2 am and checked into a hotel.
july 7th - started from tiptur at 9 with fingers crossed. the bike sounded fine but one never knows if the mechanic had bolted everything well. it had a new piston in a rebored block and the engine had to be run in. i managed to ride the first 100 kms under 60 but progressively felt confident that i wont harm her if i kept it till 80.
mumbai was 1000 kms of highway via hubli or 1200 kms of state roads via honavar and goa. the lure of coastal roads, and the new route compelled me to do the later and it was beautiful to ride after shimoga to the most beautiful ghat section from sagar to honavar. it passes thru a thick forest and goes on for abt 40kms up and down the hills, the rains adding to the charm. reached honavar at 4pm without any stops except to take a glimpse at the majestic jog falls and a promise to visit the road soon, with family.
in a hurry to reach bombay, stuck to the NH17 for the rest of the journey from honavar to karwar to goa to mumbai, enroute missing the lovely places i had heard of from friends.. gokarn, om beach. could have also tried to seek out a route more closely hugging the coast than the NH17 but guess that was not the day. should have planned for a couple of days more and put some purpose in the ride but work beckoned and i had to get back.
took a break at panaji for an hour and started at 11pm on a dark and dreary commute back home. somewhere along the way the body gave up, but had to ride for an hour to find the first dhaba to crash in. the rains were heavy and the rainwear protecting me was doing a lousy job of it. i was wet all over but slept without a care for 3 hours and started again at 6 am. the dhaba owner loved music and was swaying and singing to some punjabi music channel on tv all along. theres something about taking a break at a dhaba (instead of a hotel) that feels so integral to the riding / travel experience. like an oasis of a travelling commune. was glad there was another biker using the dhaba for the night, enroute to goa.
july 8th - finally reached mumbai at 4 pm. thank you bike, for bringing me home, without another breakdown.
july 18th - am riding to dadar to attend a meeting and in hurry to be back for the screening of "one crazy ride" and "riding solo" at st. andrew's auditorium, bandra. the bike stalls at wadala. refusing to start. i ask a local mechanic to see it. after he touches it, there is no compression. wow! another breakdown... but glad it didnt happen that night between goa and mumbai. :-))
looking back at those 3 days of 2300kms, i can remember only hazy details, flashes of places and moments, continuity lost in numbness.. eerily resembling the life we live.
