Mahabaleshwar Ride (4th July, 2009)

Saturday, 4th July 2009

Mahabaleshwar Ride
Trip Log as narrated by Saurabh Wadikar

Rides: 1981 Bullet 350 std. + 1985 Bullet 350 std. + 2003 HH Splendor (from Pune)
Riders: Saurabh Wadikar (The Gent), Prashant Kumaran and his elder brother Pravin Kumaran
Plan: We never plan
Route: Panvel – Lonavala – Pune – Wai – Panchgani – Mahabaleshwar (Same way return)

As I said, we never plan. This was one of the first trips Prashant and I had made as a formed Bullet Club “BRO” (Bullet Riders Owned). Pretty exciting considering it was never planned to happen. However, we did talk about it last year when we made a sudden plan to ride the next day (in the rains) to Pune; the reason being Pravin’s B’day on 8th June `09.

We were stabbed on our backs when one of the BROs refused to join us for the ride, the culprit: Dhanup Pillai, with his deluxe 350 cc engine and recently worked upon bullet. Apparently, his Dad didn’t allow him to ride for 500 KMs (yeah right!).

Anyway, Prashant and I were supposed to meet up at the New Panvel flyover at 06:00 hrs, but as usual, he turned up late at 06:30 hrs. It was a good wait though, analyzed the sky for clarity, all geared up and talking to my bullet. We filled our rides up at the New Panvel BP petrol pump and rode off with a mighty presence on the highway; people waving their hands, looking out of their windows and admiring us. We took a small halt (engines running) just before the toll booth on NH4 (on the outskirts of Panvel) and took out Prashant’s trusty Kodak digicam and began the first photo-session of the ride. It was a little risky considering it was cloudy dark and the road had a blind bend. I had to stand guard for all the notorious ST buses and passenger transport vehicles. It was a good 5 minutes and we rode off again; this time below 60 KMPH (It is fast enough to kill you and slow enough to make you feel you’re safe) and believe it or not, almost alone on the highway, not an entity in sight. A good and smooth ride till Khopoli and as soon as the ghats started (Khandala), we were giving it a rev up. Soon we realized, it was not at all required as we were climbing like riding on an open road, just like butter (Did I mention, I had my head valves replaced with reinforced metal and ported & polished the head for a thundering performance?). Once atop the ghats, we stopped for a little “pee” break, and what a break it was. The picturesque mountains with cloud-caps almost seemed to welcome us to paradise. Dew wet roads and nice breeze throughout; very calmly we took to the Pune Expressway for a while till Lonavala (a good run of 5 KMs). This was almost like a movie scene where we couldn’t see a thing ahead of us, all fogged up for about 5 minutes. No sooner did the fog clear than the people started waving their hands out of their cars again. This time, they had cameras with them, clicking photos of us while we were riding. Celebrities? No way. Just Riders… I must admit, we felt like celebs for a while. Anyway, it was a good run till Lonavala and I even got to test the newly installed fog lights (just a day before the ride). We arrived at Lonavala at 08:00 hrs. at a small roadside snacks vendor where we ordered a double-egg omelette with “paav” & tea. Puffed a smoke and started riding again at 08:20 hrs. Have to admit, the b’fast was amazing as always!

Once back on the highway, we began talking to each other over any topic that was crossing our minds, be it traffic, rules, motorcycles and bikes. Yes, Motorcycles and Bikes. Big difference! Running our steeds at 60-70 KMPH was a lot of fun as we watched little wimps on their small bore engines trying too hard along us. We don’t do much boasting of the road thumping, it comes naturally. The roads too were like a blessing from God, not a single pothole in the entire stretch; felt like we were hovering. An hour of riding and comes a fork in the road. Which way to take? Both roads lead to Pune. We’d taken the left one last year, so we decided to go right, and what a choice! Never in my life have I seen a road made so beautifully, surrounded with trees, a full-fledged divider and a straight view towards the horizon. A good 3-4 KMs later, we met with the end of the Pune Expressway on NH-4 where we had to face a little traffic of container trucks, Volvo buses and unruly cars driven by the demi-“Schumacher” copycats. We stopped a few kilometres away asking for directions towards Kothrud, the place where Pravin was supposed to touch-base with us. Decent run in the outskirts of Pune till Kothrud seemed precarious as the traffic flow was mean and deceitful. However, we managed to reach the spot which was the start point of the Bangalore highway (still on NH-4) but only to wait for almost an hour for Pravin. Seems he had a turmoil elsewhere.

Pravin on his HH splendor with a side-bag and helmet only. Prashant was forced to give his jacket to his bro. Yes, he was wearing two! We started off slowly till both Prashant and I began to wonder if Pravin could keep pace with us. But Pravin was also a pro, as we found out. He usually commutes between Panvel and Pune on his 100cc splendor which is quite a feat considering the roads and the time of the year. We continued our way gradually uphill till we were close to the Katraj tunnel, 1.3 KMs long and dark tunnel. Amazing! The only thing we could see was the tail lights of the vehicles in front of us, and hear only the loud roar of our bullets echoing in the tunnel, deafening other commuters. We got hungry after a while and so we stopped at a small and decent snacks & ice-cream parlour. Grabbed a bite of one of the best “Misal-Paavs” I’ve ever tasted, while our photographer (Mr. Prashant) got on with his photo-session. We let the engines cool down after the terribly long, but gradual, incline till this place and fired our bullets for our destination. Staggering roads, wide and empty, almost like a scene out of the movies. Riding steady for about ½ an hour and we reached a small junction where we had to take a right towards Mahabaleshwar. Pravin had to fuel up his splendor at the petrol pump just close to the junction; while he was at it, me and Prashant waited with our engines running at low rpm. A few on-lookers asked us very curiously where we were headed, asked us about our rides and admired among themselves, commenting on the highness of the bullet.

We let Pravin ahead while Prashant and I started a few seconds later on the diversion at the junction. The roads started to look a little bad as compared to the heavenly freeway we’d just left behind. Nevertheless, it was not that bad, just a little test of our maneuvering skills over the small and despicable potholes while still at 60. The ghats started just after Wai and we began our ascent to the hill tops. Trust me when I say this, it was one of the best inclines and the safest roads I’ve ever been to (as against the popular belief of it being very dangerous). All it takes is a decent judgment and the rider’s experience… Of course, the roads are very tricky, but be in your limits and respect the traffic, it’ll respect you back. School going children, college guys and girls and the elderly, everybody had turned their faces on us while we went majestically cutting through the town. Soon, we had crossed the first hill of the five and decided to take a small break and enjoy the view from earth to the path we had to traverse. Hell, it turned out to be another “Pee” break. I still don’t recollect drinking water to that extent! Anyway, we let a few trucks cross and resumed our journey to the top. Cars, bikes, people, we let nothing come in our way. We rode and rode steady till everybody was left behind. It was just us (mostly Prashant and I) swerving all the way up. There was one point when we could actually hear the echo of our thumps across the hills. We were on such a good rhythm that we didn’t even bother to stop at the infamous Mapro Strawberry Garden, where all the tourists lined up their cars and bikes to pay a visit to the strawberry farm. Well, we didn’t really care. We straddled on till we reached a small cleft on the road and pulled over to enjoy the bliss that Panchgani had to offer. It was just exhilarating to picture ourselves on the brink of the steep cliff and overlook the valley. Prashant, as usual, got on with his Picasso image and started capturing the unforgettable memories of the ride. Good pics though! Dhanoop buddy, you missed it bro.

Things were going so well that it made me wonder, How? Why?? What’s the catch? I got my answer in a short while when a freak decision led me to get off of the road into a small deserted house just below a small hill, a few metres away. I made my way in only to realize the road wasn’t a road. It was one stretch of pure clay and silt soil. I got bloody stuck. Both my tires got caught in the fenders with clay in them acting like cement. It was a hell of a situation with me totally stuck in the mud and Prashant and Pravin looking at me and laughing their asses off. They came to my rescue trying to chug the bull out of the strip, and what a strip! A mere 5 metres of pushing took roughly an hour. Man! We were in deep *@it by the thought of rains. That really would have made things worse. It took Pravin’s hand to shove out all the clay from between the fenders and the tires to chug it for less than a metre. All that effort finally paid off and we brought the motorcycle out of the surface. Cleaned off the remaining soil and fired the engine to take it for a quick run for a kilometre, just to free out the wheels. In the process, we began hunting desperately for a service station to give my bullet a high pressure wash. I went back towards Panchgani only to find that there was no electricity in the service station. He told me I’d find one on the way to M’baleshwar and so I did. It was a pretty decent service station. The guy prioritized my motorcycle over others and did a good job. Damn! Cakes of soil came out of the fenders. He even gave all of us a free pressure wash. Yes, we were covered in mud, especially me! Well, gave him a hundred bucks instead of his demand for a measly twenty. But, he deserved it.

The ride continued till the heart of Mahabaleshwar, tearing through the foggy roads with near-zero visibility and snaky but beautiful roads. Felt almost like being in an old European village at the break of dawn. Now we got desperate for a hotel room, went on from hotel to hotel only to find “No Vacancy” boards all over. It wasn’t even peak-season and already?? Anyway, we caught hold of a few brokers offering rooms at 800 bucks for a night, but they didn’t seem very welcoming. We ignored them to find our own hotel. It took us an hour to find a good hotel named Pankaj Executive. They charged us 1200 bucks for the night; Large room with double-bed occupancy and good food at our disposal (expensive food!).

We rested awhile with our steeds neatly parked at the porch of the hotel. Tipped the attendant to take care of them while we catched a siesta. Both Prashant and I moved out in an hour to visit the marketplace and hunt for some souvenirs, but were out of luck as the only thing M’baleshwar is famous for was out of season, the strawberries. However, we did manage to find a nice joint where they specialized in Strawberry Crush, one of Mahabaleshwar’s finest delicacies priced reasonably. Packed one for Pravin (he stayed back in the hotel to rest) and moved around the marketplace in the rains looking for anything that met the eye. Sadly, nothing did! So we went back to the hotel, ordered some food & alcohol and went off to sleep.

The second day was very welcoming for us. It wasn’t raining but still was cold as hell. We started off at 09:30 hrs. and made our way through the snaky roads back to Panchgani where we made a quick stop for some cash at the ATM. While on our way to Wai, we came across a beautiful Tableland, a small cliff protruding out of the fourth hill of Panchgani. Beautiful! We halted for quite some time, relaxing, enjoying the picturesque and clicked some pretty amazing photos for our travelogue. Well, we rode off again with great poise all the way downhill till Wai and from there hit the road, a little shaky again, till NH-4. Stopped for a quick Cigarette break at the junction and headed towards Pune on the great highway. Mind you, the traffic is one of the easiest and the roads may get to your head, but a little concentration is all it takes. We were welcome by moderate-heavy showers till Katraj Tunnel and as if it was a time warp that when we emerged from the other end, it was all bright and sunny. Man! That’s one long tunnel… Anyway, we were “Dry as a stick” as Prashant exclaimed, by the time we reached Pune (It took us only an hour and a half from M’baleshwar this time) and started hunting for good food. Pravin took us to a decent hotel nearby where we ate voraciously to last us the winter, bid him goodbye till next week when he’d visit us, and Prashant and I started riding again for Panvel. Just as we reached Chandni-Chowk (outskirt of Pune), my speedo cable broke and had to ride blindly following Prashant to keep me notified of my speed as I didn’t want to break it in so fast. It was a good road ahead of us with no rains and no clouds in sight, only the sun seeming to bless us to prove Prashant’s provocative statement.

It was almost 16:00 hrs. by the time we reached Panvel and made our way home; parked out steeds nicely in their stable and an hour later washed it with diesel-water colloidal solution to a sparkling shine. We met late that evening at our favorite joint “Auberge” to exchange pics and the experience with Dhanoop and make him jealous of the trip.

Well! That was a brief of our first ride as a club. The experience is something that would never be lost but can be felt if you are willing to join us for a ride soon to come. Till then ride safe, ride steady and enjoy.

Cheers,
Bullet Riders Owned
bulletridersowned@gmail.com