Thursday, March 8, 2007

4th march ride - Borapura,

Well it all started off well, and no nothing bad happened, it ended well too .... I'm talking about the second FSR on the 4th of March, 2007. For the uninitiated the FSR is the First Sunday Ride, organised by a group of like minded people who love their old and out-of-production bikes(RD-350 and Yezdi Road king), of which I am the only one riding a Yezdi Roadking. The objective of the First Sunday Ride, is to get people off their backsides as Santiago a.k.a Santosh would put it, him being a big techie "fan" and saying that all techies are in some form of "corporate comatisis". But in my opinion it's more of a get out of your state of inertia, that you would suffer throughout the month, from whatever profession the rider may be in, techies being the minority here, I might add. Anyways, enough of my rambling, I must admit I sorta lost the thread in the last sentence. The Ride started off with Indi landing up at my place at the unearthly hour of 6:00 am, I was just getting out of the bath when I heard his bike pull up. I got ready in a minute and pulled my bike out of the gate and we rode to the Command Hospital Curve on Airport Road which was the rendezvous point, where Cowboy Satya a.k.a SRK (naah not Shah Rukh Khan), Kumar a.k.a Hemant a.k.a Screech and Rajesh(Mr.Mysterious), were patiently waiting for us. >From there it was an smooth ride to Top Gear which was the rendezvous point for all, BK, Mangesh, Srikant were already waiting for us there. We parked the bikes and repaired to the Darshini for some overdose of coffee, while waiting for the others to arrive. We were graced by a surprise visit by Paapu on his Suzuki monster, who decided to ride out to Devahalli and parts thereabout. In due time everyone landed up and we decided move, BK suggested that we hit the NICE road instead of taking the Mysore Road, and join the Mysore Road after Kengeri. The bikes all roared into life and we hit it, with BK leading the pack we headed on to Kanakapura Road. It was nice to head out of the city, in the calm of the morning, with the early morning chill still on our faces. Out onto Kanakapura Road, past Metro and about 6-7 Km.s later, just opp a Petrol Bunk on the left, we had to take a right to get onto the NICE Road. The NICE Road is a speed-freaks heaven, straight as an arrow and smooth. I opened the throttle on the this road and cleared my Roadie's throat, and pretty soon was making quite a racket, SRK (disclaimer: not Shah Rukh Khan) was riding behind me got tired of the roar of the Roadie and quietly chugged ahead of me. We all reached the point where the NICE Road meets the Bangalore Mysore highway and started off towards the first pit stop which was the Cafe Coffee Day, just before Maddur. The ride was good and uneventful, I soon was tailing the pack and riding along peacefully, we passed all the villages and towns along the highway. I guess after the last FSR where we did the back roads, this ride was a li'l bit boring being on the Highway all the time. I was starting to get a li'l craving for a "ciggi" when I just reached the Cafe Coffee and saw the gang on the other side of the Road waving out to me, I slowed down and pulled up to join the gang. Santosh was missing and eventually he pulled up, explaining that he had some mechanical problem and he had get it fixed before he joined us. We all went in for breakfast at Indradhanush, the veg restaurant behind the Cafe Coffee Day. As we sat down, Haren pulled up on his Bullet and joined us, increasing our tribe to the stipulated "dirty" dozen. We ordered an assortment of "single-idly vada" and normal idly vada and of course Indi had to be different and ordered 3 vadas, to boost up his cholesterol levels. Santosh had preceeded this by ordering Kesari bath, to soothe his sweet craving, which was too sweet.This was followed by the inevitable cup of coffee, this being the third coffee of the day for me. By this time the lineup of the bikes parked outside had attracted a lot of attention from the tourists who had stopped for breakfast. They were admiring the bikes and taking photos, the most admired bikes were Harsha's BMW 650, SRK's(read disclaimer) XR 600 and Purshottam's Kawasaki ZZ4, though I'd like to concede that there were a few admiring glances towards my Roadie too. We all started up our bikes, we just couldn't stand all the admiration, we had to run away, except that I strongly suspect Santosh was telling all the tourists to get off their asses :-), before joining us. We rode off towards Maddur and the Borapura turn-off towards the left, I was riding with BK and Haren, we must have sounded like the "Symphony of Destruction", what with the roar of my Roadie, the thump-thump of the Bullet and the very muted purr of BK's RD-350. Just as we reached the turn-off, my Roadie clattered and clashed and fell silent and I rolled up to the waiting bunch. I was pretty sure the bike had seized and was already planning to get it up on a truck and transport it back to Bangalore, and then with the encouragement of Indi along with some passers-by, I tried starting the bike. The bike after a few kicks, roared back to life, well that was a relief, I started riding slowly followed by Indi and Santosh and we reached the Farm. The Farm was the idyllic setting with the Farmhouse and coconut trees and12 roaring bikes pulling up. We were welcomed by Baba and his father, who was immediately inspecting all the bikes and selecting which one to ride, he eventually chose Purshottam's Kawasaki speedster. We relaxed on the Farm for about a half hour during which we had some delicious tender coconut, just off the tree and were regaled by stories of past bikes that uncle had ridden, Matchless, Norton and Triumph figured mainly. We then decided to do Stage 1 of the K-1000 dirt section, and then chill out. We started off on the Dirt track with Harsha and Purshottam on Beamer and Baba and Srikanth on the RD, with BK leading the pack and were immediately covered in dust, Satya and Harsha were freaking out on their off-roaders roared off ahead of the pack. Eventually we all finished the Stage 1, with the curious looks of the trackside onlookers at the dusty bikers. We rode back to the start-up point for the most important part of any FSR(naah just kidding), the constitutional beer-session. We stopped and realized the the Dirty Dozen as we had christened ourself had to be renamed as the "Dusty Dozen"* (Copyright SRK: read disclaimer again :-) ) . It was dusty, I mean, Indi had blond eyelashes at the end of it. It was decided that we would chill out in the coconut and arecanut grove behind the Farm and the beers had to procured, and we all, very democratically I must say, elected Indi for the daunting task ahead, which he very bravely agreed to. There was a "jhamkaana" almost the size of a tennis court sent from the Farm house, and we all proceeded to repose on it waiting for the chilled beer. It was fantastic sitting in the grove away from the hustle and bustle of the city, the noise, pollution, traffic, stress etc.etc. that's a major part of our daily grind, and yakking with the old gang and making new friends. Pretty soon Indi rolled up in Baba's Indigo with the beers and we got right down to it. It was nice with old rally stories being swapped, bike stories with Harsha regaling one and all, Omi was sorely missed being held up at his Harohalli farm. Eventually the beers were all quaffed down and sadly it was time to head out onto the highway again, the afternoon sun was at it's zenith and I on a slow roast inside my leather jacket. Anyways I'm tired of typing, haven't written this much in a long time, thought I'd add my Rs.0.02 for this FSR. Thanks a ton all you guys for being there and make it happen, notably BK, Baba, SRK(read disclaimer), Santosh and everyone else. Looking forward to the next FSR. As usual it was a great experience and it was nice meeting like minded people who love motorcycles and motorcycling for what they are, till next time then, Adios Amigos. Cheers, Surdeep

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