Ride to Nowhere (20th November, 2009)

Friday, 20th November 2009

Ride to Nowhere
Trip Log as narrated by Prashant Kumaran

Rides: 1985 Bullet 350 std. + 1981 Bullet 350 std.
Riders: Prashant Kumaran and Saurabh Wadikar (The Gent)
Plan: We never plan
Route: Panvel – Lonavala – Pune – Wai – Mahad – Goregaon (near Srivardhan) – Panvel

Yet another never planned. Me and Saurabh wanted to go on a ride desperately and all credits to the stressful weeks we had. So where to go was the question and answers not known. So we decide to meet early morning round 6:30 all geared up. Tried asking our mates to join us, just once for this time to Mr. Dhanoop, coz knew the answer already. And so on Friday the 20th of November, we meet. This time Mr. Wise guy a.k.a Saurabh, compensates my last ride getting late by making me wait. And there he comes with his high raised self made handle bar (hope I gave it enough words). First long ride on the doubtful handle-bar, so being the wise guy he carries along his spare handle-bar and God knows what not. Coz he carried stuff to fill 2 bags, and trust me the whole ride of 2 days he never needed to open the bag, yeah, not even to change his historical clothes, whew! He might be able to fill in the details of that. So we get our tanks filled to the brim and next I say, “Let’s go to Pune and try to convince Praveen to join us for a ride to nowhere”, who had plans already and was not planning to join us.

So we leave from Panvel, thumping along, of course letting the whole sleeping neighborhood know our presence. And quite a FOG for the start, almost blinding, but faded away with the rising Sun and off we go. An empty beautiful road was a gift for us and we made sure to relish it well. Along the old Pune Highway we rode for about 45 mins till we reached the Ghats to enter the expressway to Lonavala with my frequent Pee breaks (was full of water in this cold morning, what do you expect Saurabh?). The motorcycle climbed pretty smoothly for our doubts and then after the steep climb we took a photo break at the entry to the Expressway. It was a clear sky, so got a good picture. Then we resumed again to Lonavala along the expressway. Not to forget the weird stares and “luks gr8 maan” stares to Saurabh’s new HIGHLY RAISED Handle bar. So we reach Lonavala and stop at our usual Omlette Pav stall, we never miss that.

Suddenly I realize that the medication I am on has some what got Laxative effects (Yes, I am under medication which also requests me to take rest, but I prefer riding) and I need a washroom with an obvious bit of desperation. So, like any other human would do, I go to a restaurant and order coffee while I use their privileges for my desperate needs. Why a special mention? Mr. Wise guy insisted my tragedy to be mentioned in the log so he could laugh out about it.
Ok! Enough melodrama

We leave for our next stop, PUNE, only stopping for a Pee break or two, until we reach the crossing where one road goes to the city and the other one outside. I suggest the city road like my brother told us, but Saurabh said we will take the other road to avoid traffic and I agreed coz we wanted to ride and not slither along the traffic. And then, for being smart we got lost. Had a hell of a ride going in circles in Pune city asking for directions and guess what everyone has a new version. Eventually reached my Bro’s office and he took us to his house and what a house! An ideal Bachelor’s Joint, Untidy, dirty, lots of rubbish here and there… of course we got comfortable soon enough. Saurabh was having some problems with his Motorcycle, his footrest was getting swanky and needed some attention. So we are out searching for a bullet spares shop and that’s when all hell broke loose. Trust me guys, you never want to be in Pune when you don’t know the roads to places. You end up reaching the same places from different directions, a vicious circle I would say. And when you commit the mistake of asking directions, everyone has a new version of it. Both of us went crazy with it and let it stay for round 2 hours. Eventually we gave up and went for lunch. A decent one, disagreed by Saurabh. Back to house then, getting bored. Praveen left for his work at office and would return in the evening. We decided to resume the ride next morning. Good I had bought my laptop along. We watched Russel Peters and were laughing crazy all the while. Russel Peters show is one of the most amazing comedies I have ever seen. You should check it out. In the evening we did a bit of local shopping for water and stuff.

Then late evening we left for dinner pretty hungry. We went to a joint called HAKA, a famous Chinese outlet and really good food. The food was too good for Saurabh and I guess he was pretty hungry too, didn’t mind picking the fallen chicken piece and eating it, Yeah!!! I saw that Saurabh.

We left and reached our place at 23:30 and guess what Saurabh has a flat rear Tire. And at this hour how to get it fixed coz we had to leave pretty early in the morning. Praveen rushed out to find an open shop who would fix it. He returned with a positive response. Saurabh and I removed the wheel ASAP and Praveen and Saurabh left with it to get it fixed. I stood back guarding the rides. They took really long to come back. Supposedly the valve ripped off and luckily the Great MALLU Puncture Man they had gone to was the only guy who knows how to fix it, with a guarantee that it would last a ride up to Kerala. Coconut power I guessed. And then we crashed at home. We watched Russell Peters for some more time to have a good end for the day and slept off.

Early morning we woke up got ready and planned to leave. Praveen would not join us, had some serious business back home. We dropped him at the bus stand and left for God knows where. We entered the Satara Highway (NH4) via some Ghats, and what a ride that was. Wide, smooth roads on the Ghats with the perfect twist you always want. Then after an hours ride we reached a junction with a right turn. Didn’t know where but somebody said MAHAD and we said ok lets go. We rode along the road for quite some time, till we reached a dam (Khondari) and did a couple of pictures. Then we entered pretty bad roads; got kinda pissed. Then we entered more Ghats and those were the most amazing ones we had ever been on. One could never have the time to straighten ones ride, once u slide through left curve then comes a right. It was very thrilling and not to forget very dangerous. We were taking serpent turns at 40-50kmph fully leaning on to the road having no idea what could be ahead. It could be a head-on collision with a vehicle or the known ST bus from the front in the Ghats. But we were really good at riding our machines; it seriously brought our expertise in riding. Saurabh was pretty confident coz he thought we were pretty slow. His speed box was not working so he never realized his speed.

I have to admit that Saurabh and I have amazing co-ordination with each other. When we rode we rode as one. When I was leading I would act as the Head and he the tail, I am responsible for the front and he just follows watching my back and keeps communicating and vice versa. And so we ride together. Hate each other, maybe, but when it comes to the Bullet we manage to be the best riders together.

Coming back to the trip, as we were cruising the Ghats, we ended up at this place in the Sahayadris. And trust me people, its one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my entire life. You will have an idea of it in the pics we upload but the real deal is the Real deal. We were awed with the beauty of it. It was this deep valley between the Sahayadris which was closed was some Dams. And this Valley was holding water and the whole scenario was breathtaking. No wonder we stopped there, let our rides cool while we went on clicking pics for the record. We left the place back to the ghats and more amazing views and more stops for clicking around.

Then we reached NH17 took a right from there. Felt good to be on smooth roads and let ourselves rip through the roads. Then we stopped at this place called Goregaon and took a right towards a place called Shrivardhan. The roads started getting very nasty so we came back after a while and had a good Malvani Lunch at Goregaon. We left that place and resumed the ride on NH17 towards home PANVEL. Another 100 kms to go. It was good for a while. But after the thrilling experience at the Ghats the straight long roads started to get us bored. So to add up the thrill we open up the throttle dodging traffic and stopping for none. Saw a couple of nasty overturned trucks on the way but didn’t slow down coz a cozy Home was the destination. Stopped at a fuel station and filled the tanks up. Another couple of hours ride and we reached home at around 16:00 hrs. Saw the meter reading; we had done a good 475 kilometers ride. All worth it I would say.

And that would be our ride number two. A ride to nowhere…

Born to Ride,
Bullet Riders Owned
bulletridersowned@gmail.com