One Ride 2012

April 1st - One Ride Riders: me, Pawan, Mikey, Vinit, Nikhil, Arvind, Mahesh, Jammy, Ela. Meetup point: 5:45 @ Airoli toll plaza It had beena while we had taken up a ride, after a lot of back and forth, we decided that we'll go for a small breakfast ride, more like a half day ride that would end before noon or at most around noon. so the obvious destination was Big Wheels and just there was the mini-Bhima Dam. still remm. the place from a visit back last year with Pawan Mallikarjun, it was infact right there, i had decided to go in for the Himalayan Odessey, sweet day that one was :) so anyways we started off, on time, met folks at various points, Airoli toll plaza was as usual buzzing with traffic even at 6:0 AM, most folks met here and so we started to proceed towards Datta vadapaav and took a small tea break there. After some refreshments, began the long haul stretch on NH4, and just as we started off, a groups of super-bikes started off too.... so i distinctly remm. there were atleast 3 Honda CBR1000RRs, a couple of Hayabusas and few Dukati 1198s. super expensive super bikes all of them. needless to say they rocketed past us at blazing speed...just hearing their firing was so satisfying, it was nostalgic for me though...i patiently waited for each one of them to pass by me, loved the view in the rear view mirror and then besides me and of course in a split second the rider was out of sight at the horizon. to sum it up, it was a treat for sure. NH4 ride proceeded, just as any other weekend ride, it was pleasant, smooth and well..honestly very predictable. was however excited about the fact that we were going to do a little bit of off-roading, was looking fwd to that part for sure since the start of the ride and also to have some good meal at BWMC, it had been a while so.... just around after we got off form NH4 expressway section, we were asked to take a diversion, aparntly an 18-wheeler had mis-calculated the height of the bridge and was stuck right under it. and we were missing a couple of riders too in the traffic so decided to halt right at the kamats restaurant in Lonavala. Kamats was a delight, the ever so famous vada recommended by vinit, was truely worth relishing and gobbling down the calories...not one-two or three..but i claimed 6 of them. yes! i was totally gonna gobble down a couple of more, right then i relaised it was the cardio that i had done the previous evening that was making me do that. so i stopped...at 6 vadas...and trust me it ws totally worth it :) At kamats we saw a few Harleys, a few 48's, a couple Nighsters, one V-rod and there were a couple of fatbobs and fatboys too, shining bright in the sun, totally finished products, chiseled to impress any onlooker...we took some pictures, some small talk...asked about the on-road pricing and blah....and then i thought to myself....

bloody hell, none of these bikes have even the slightest bit of dirt on 'em! forget grease marks or mud or you know usual signs of the fact that the bike and the biker went out and had some fun with them!!!

at that point i though to myself....so there it is, the Harley's here are all trophy bikes! or atleast the riders didnt seem to find non-tarmacs stuff intriguing enough... On our way out, Nikhil said to me, so ask 'em if any of the machines to take Ladakh as our bullets did, and that truely was not possible in those machines. I mean ladakh, leh the terrain was simply too much even for a bullet to handle, despite it's configuration etc. let alone a machine that was truely a street ride model like harley's. yet they were charismatic, they had a tuck-in finish and were surely quality machines, just not for the kind of fun stuff that we were about to do ..... we eventually arrived at the little patch of dirt road, it had been made much better since the last time i remm. it so that actually killed a bit of fun, yet again some of us were with pillions so it flew by pretty well with them, i had insisted that we all should go and not let any pillion stay back....the whole idea was to stick together...

up on the dam, the riders look like tiny dots, but it was a good picture to be in still. up the dam wall we spend some time and got back after some snacks etc. reached BWMC to join the 200-300 odd bikes for the day, had some hydration and a nice meal, it had started to get hot yet was enjoyable with the riders and the bikes all around the place.

just then i made eye contact with someone really pretty, tall, long hair, fair, totally a non-biker chick, i could tell form what she was wearing, and she definitely didnt knwo how to wear a bandana, her footwear, her thin fabric kurta style top suggested she def. didnt do this often...she was really soothing a site :) after a little while here, mahesh, mike an ddoc left, we stuck around a little longer, finished food, paid off the bills and geared up ourselves to make a move too... but before i left, i gave that babe a profile and wht do i find!!??? she was following me with her eyes too! and i was a gentleman, gave her the last look and left.... all in all a great half day trip!!! God Speed...