Living on a Bullet...

7 days, 4 states, 3500 odd kms, I never thought I could make it that far. 

An absurdly early 4am alarm brings me out of a restless dream. A cold shower and equally cold breakfast later, I've geared up and fitted my saddle bags on my bike. It's time to ride. This will be my modus operandi for the next 7 days, the long awaited adventure has begun.

Warming up the tires, I tear out of the city.   It's cold but that's a relief, the day ahead wont be so forgiving. An hour later - sunrise. It urges me on and instills more purpose in the journey I have to make. 600kms to Bangalore. 

As the day progresses the summer sun shows no mercy, temperatures reach 46 degrees centigrade making living in a biker jacket impossible. As the miles fall away and numerous hamlets fly past, I can't help but remind myself "this is just day one", and a weird sense of satisfaction creeps in. Despite the weather and the enormity of the journey ahead, no biker ever complains of being given 7 days to ride.

8 scorching hours and two state borders later, Bangalore. An evening of meeting old friends and family. Some friendships amaze me, you can go years without talking and pick up as if you never missed a beat. There are some relationships to be grateful for after all. A good dinner, much needed rest and the thought "I never thought I'd make it this far". 

Day 2: An early exit from Bangalore, before rush hour traffic can prevent it. I cruise by Mysore in a couple of hours, a city of a thousand memories, dark storm clouds are gathering and heading my way.

I don't stop but pick up the pace, it makes sense to cover as much distance as possible before the inevitable strikes. And then, as I enter the Bandipur forests - rain.

Lashing out in torrents, cold, hard and unforgiving. You are not supposed to stop in a Tiger reserve, but I don't have a choice. I pull up under the biggest tree i find and get my rain gear on myself and my luggage, and before attracting the attention of a wild animal or a forest guard, speed off through the downpour. 

Couple of hours later, the deluge is not relenting, and has made visibility low and progress terribly slow.

As I pass my ever favorite hamlet of Masinagudi, something really hard strikes the visor of my helmet amidst the rain. Surprised I try to gather my wits to understand what just happened, when more hard projectiles land on me and the bike, immediately I understand - hail!

I pull up at a shop and take shelter under a thin tin roof till the storm passes. When there is a reprieve I get a view of the mountains I need to climb today - the awe imposing Nilgiris.

As I begin to climb the mountain roads, I get a grim reminder of why these are one of the most dangerous roads in south India, especially when wet. 

A lot of careful riding and 36 hairpin bends later, I arrive at sundown at the beautiful hamlet of Kotagiri, very close to the peak of the Nilgiris. (8.5k feet above sea level)

That night I had a visitor in the guest house who wanted to claim my bed as his own, after unceremoniously sending him on his way, I sleep like a log thankful that despite the elements, I made it this far.

Day 3: No destination today, but a lot of distance to cover. I spend the day riding round the Nilgiris. For those of you who haven't visited, The Nigiris (blue mountains), are a range of mountains forming a part of the Western Ghats which is located in the western part of Tamil Nadu state at the junction of Karnataka and Kerala states in Southern India. At least 24 of the Nilgiri mountains's peak above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). They cover 2500square kilometers and are full of forests and tea estates. 

I ride through the blue mountains exploring and being rewarded by beautiful views and amazing weather. Today I also do a 3 hour trek to Kodanad peak, which commands a sprawling view of 3 states on the plains beneath. As I gain the peak and the view, I stand breathless on the edge and wonder how I made it this far.

Day 4: The descent back to Masinagudi. Going downhill is always more risky than climbing uphill. I carefully navigate steep wet slopes from last nights rain. The treacherous hair pin bends being the most exciting. The rain last night has been worse than I imagined. Landslides cause roadblocks and detours, but I gain the plains and Masinagudi by early afternoon.

The day is spent catching up with an old forest ranger buddy, and hearing tales of the forest I have loved ever since I first set eyes on it 25years ago. I have come back every year ever since. We trek deep into the jungles of Mudumalai and Bandipur, sighting various wildlife along the way. It is always a relief to find this pristine wilderness abounding with life. Our stories go on around a campfire till late in the night and I have never felt more at home, ever more grateful that I made it this far. 

Day 5: I wake up to a very vaguely familiar, not very distant sound long before dawn. A growl which feels like it reverberates in my bones. Trying to make out what It could be I wake my friend. The forest ranger recognizes it instantly- the call of a leopard, just outside the forest guest house.

Leopards are highly elusive and as stealthy as a shadow, so it is surprising that the predator is going about announcing his presence. Slipping on our jungle vestment and carrying heavy flashlights we stalk out into the dark night and dense scrub. With the roars before us we scurry along the thin jungle paths as noiselessly as we can after it. The elusive creature always a furlong ahead. We trek through sunrise and 3 hours later finally track the big cat to a ledge of a hill, and what a reward awaits us! Not one but a pair of leopards appear on the ledge above us! He was calling for her!

Leopards are more solitary than elusive, so seeing one is rare enough, but seeing a pair is a once in a lifetime opportunity and treat!

Masinagudi, Mudumalai and Bandipur are always tough places to bid adieu to, but after lunch I pack my gear and set course for Bangalore, the ride is uneventful and reflective of memories of the jungle I've loved over the years. I reach Bangalore in time for a nice dinner, grateful for the memories and that I could make it thus far.

Day 6: The plan was to ride home, but I have a couple of days of leave left and a longing for the sea. I leave Bangalore at 5 am and instead of taking the Hyderabad exit take the Vellore road. 5 hours and 350kms later I am in Chennai. 

I spend the day with my favorite godson and visit Cove Long beach. As always the ocean has its calming and tranquil effect on me, and I begin to feel a sense of completeness for my trip. The bike has handled excellently so far without a single niggle. I have visited a hill station, a forest and a beach. It is now time to go home. I prepare the bike for the longest ride I am to make in a day and sleep very well, I have already covered 4 states and a lot of south India, I never thought I'd make it this far.

Day 7: Another 5 am start, with a 700 km journey ahead of me. By 7am i begin to lose focus, the 7 days of riding begins to tell on my body. At Sullurpetta i get off the expressway and head for Sriharikota, a beautiful ride piercing the backwaters of the Indian Ocean, to India's only space rocket launching facility. I take a long break, soak up the scenery, have some refreshments and gather courage for the journey ahead. 

The route from Nellore to Ongole is under repair, and slows me down considerably with constant detours, but After Ongole, I conquer the 250 kms between Adanki and Narketpally in about 2 hours, getting back on track to make Hyderabad by sun down. The 100 kms from Narketpally to Hyderabad is the hardest, as is always with a long journey, the thought of getting back to the routine after a week of pure bliss doesn't help. I drag myself back home, riding almost 800kms on the last day. Both the bike and me are beat, and the scorching heat has really taken a toll on the last day.

But the satisfaction I have isn't like any I experienced recently. Solo, I have made 3500kms in 7 days, through 4 states, through all the elements, and seen the places and the people I wanted to see. I remember my last thought before I drift into a fatigued slumber to be

"I can't believe that I made it this far" !!!

The other side...

Nowadays it's become quite a fad to own a cool bike. In India, specially a Royal Enfield. I wonder how many of the buyers think about the purpose a bike was made for before buying it. I pity the ever so common cruiser or sportsbike that only gets to ferry its owner from office/college to home and vice-versa. But here is why i call it a fad. These machines are not easy to mantain, and certainly not cheap. Sure you can get the occasional service/wash done and feel great, but if not taken care of properly, with the required amount of time, effort and money, they wont last a decade. I fear the current fad that is at a high, will only result in a few good brand names sustaining a lot of damage and mechanics making a quick buck in the process. Once major problems start kicking in due to years of improper use and insufficient care, the same buyers who don't know what their bike is built for, will only regret the money they spent and curse their makers.

Which is why I decided to write about the other side, the other side of motorcycing. Not the side that involves wearing fancy gear and clicking fancy pictures for fb and watsapp dp's. Not the side that involves roaring or zooming across a short section of open street feeling like Valentino Rossi, before getting tangled in traffic again. But the side that involves passion, patience and your purse! 

 I have done over 60k kilometers on my RE classic in about 3 years. It has brought me immense pleasure taking me to amazing places but also giving me the pleasure of its company in the garage. You read that right, i have spent many weekends and long nights trying to get rid of that nagging ticking sound, that mis-timed beat, that fuse blowing so frequently, that squeaky brake and a thousand more. Aquantances often say "why is your bike so fragile, you're always fixing something" well its not. Its taken all the extra add-ons that I've put into it and carried me all over the country, not to mention the daily 60kms commute to and from work. And I won't let it be in any condition except perfect, i can't ride her around with a fused brake light or sagging indicator. So i spend time with my bike and i enjoy it. 

Today i redid the entire wiring of my bike. There wasn't an immediate need, but she was showing signs of weak wires and like i said, i love to keep her just perfect. It took many long hours in the garage, but it was a recommitment of my passion not only to my bike but to the concept that has given me so much - motorcycing. I confess i prefer anything mechanical to electrical, and wiring is a nightmare to me. But it let me appreciate the intricacies and complexity of the beast i have come to so love.

As i keep saying to a lot of budding bikers, take care of your bikes. You don't have to fix everything yourself, but find a good mechanic and ensure that she's always perfect. Sitting and watching while your mechanic works on your bike is the first step to learning where what is, let alone fixing it yourself. And use your bike for the purpose it was built. Rather don't buy a cruiser if your not gonna ride long, don't buy a racer if it will never see a track, don't buy a dirt bike if it's always gonna be clean, you know why? Cause if its just a style statement, you'll never have the passion to see it through, the other side.

Hunting in packs

As the very name of my blog suggests, i usually am a solo motorcyclist. I enjoy my time alone on my bike, and don't do many group rides primarily because of some bad experiences i had with groups when i had just started riding. I rode away solo, and years have passed without me looking back, i have never joined any motorcycle club/group/gang or call it what you may.

But last Saturday, i met up with a few buddies from work to do a short (70km one way) breakfast ride to Jedcherla. 6 bullets and a KTM cruised the Bangalore highway with such finasse that it partially changed my opinon about riding in a group. The feel of 6 heavy machines, moving, rather than moving on the highway, with a rumble that caused a lot to stop and stare, was good fun! 

Group riding to me is all about bonding, and when priorities, interests and passions match, you have the basic ingredients for a good biker group. But it is very important to seek out actively, ones who match that outlook before rushing to join a group. Because having the same passion is more important than having the same brand of motorcycle.

I will still be mostly a solo rider, for i value my time with my bike alone on a highway over much else in life, but maybe the seeds are sown for developing a bond of the like of the oft written about brotherhood of bikers, maybe every once in a while, even a solo rider must hunt in a pack.

Check-list life...

1) Get hamster feed

2) Fill air in cycle

3) Buy a pair of black formal shoes

4) Get a new cover for love bird cage

5) Clean turtle tank

6) Pay airtel bill

7) Change bullet speedometer cable

8) Buy eggs and apples

9) Return library books...

...till saturday night, this is what my sunday looked like. A checklist of things to get done before the hustle of the week begins and all avocation is overcome by vocation.

But saturday night saw me sleep badly, I guess my mind was filled with the countless things I needed to get done, all the goals I had to achieve and all the dependencies I had to conquer to achieve those goals. I finally semi dozed off pretty late, wondering if I had gotten so busy trying to be someone in life, that I had stopped living at all (metaphorically ofcourse, otherwise I am quite alive).

I woke pretty early, as habit wouldn't have it any other way, and went through the  motions of getting ready. So preoccupied was I in some train of thought that I barely realised what I was doing till I very impulsively slipped on my riding boots. Snapping back to reality I reasoned that I couldn't possibly ride because I had a lot of things to get done today and I hadn't preped the bike for a ride, but then I had already gotten ready, and maybe I could just do a small ride and come back and get all the chores done...

Not trusting myself to the Bullet, I started the Jawa and set off on a highway around sunrise, hoping that since I had never ridden long on the Jawa before, I would be home in time for breakfast. But, before I knew it I was preoccupied again with some train of thought or the other and kept riding, when the bike went into reserve after Sangareddy, is when I came back to the present. It was too late to make it back home for breakfast, I muttered to myself "to hell with the checklist", found myself a fuel station, grabbed a bite and kept going.

As often occurs on long rides, I soon found my preoccupations fall away and began focussing on the ride and enjoying it. The 2-stroke 250cc engine hummed and fired perfectly along the smooth highway, the experience is very different from that of a 4-stroke, where you can dominate the highway, with little care for gearshifts or gradients. With a 2-stroke, you are cruising, responding to crests and troughs of the road with gear shifts and easing into corners rather than flooring the throttle. With the beauty of legacy behind it the 43 year old machine glided along the tarmac, leaving me to wonder if she could have been any different if she was brand new, and also leaving me to wonder if I had come too far from home, for in reality I had crossed the state border into Maharashtra!

Quite immediately, the road condition worsened and traffic increased. Stuck at a railway crossing for 15minutes, I  realised for the first time, how hot it was (40 degress Celcius). I was also aware that I was fast approaching a town called Degaloor, which is a major heavy vehicle transit point. This would mean more traffic and bad roads, looking for a way out, I found a mud road through a eucalyptus plantation and instantly, gratefully took it!

To my pleasant surprise, the trail wasn't a short dead end road and I did almost 5 kilometers in the dirt till I could no longer hear the sounds of civilisation. Taking a break in the peaceful wood, with the wind rustling through the leaves and the parakeets singing their happy song, I sit by my bike and write this blog post!

I will head home from here and I will reprioritoze my checklist. I will get done the absolute essentials in the time I have left today. We all need to keep putting those ticks in the checklist, it is an important part of our lives. But what is also important is to break away from routine sometimes and find ourselves in the middle of nowhere. For when our days draw to a close we will not remember the bills we paid, okay I might remember the bills because they are quite a lot! But I will not remember the routine, I will remember the adventures! 

I'll sign off and head home with a little bit of cliched Robert Frost and a picture! Happy Riding! 

 "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep..."

Of sways and longings...

I must confess, my latest longing has been for the sea. And 4 times in the 2 months that have passed this year have i found myself parked on a beach lost in the mesmerizing, almost hypnotic motion of the waves. It must be a similar sway that the moon has on the sea, that causes her to rise and fall at its movements. 

I digress, and must steer quickly to the point. Another and more important longing i fail to supress is ofcourse the longing to ride. But something is different, something has changed. It isn't the familiar almost irritable excitement that usually takes over before a long ride, it isn't the craving for the dizzying exhiliration of pulling a tight corner, nor is it the sheer thrill of gunning down an open highway. These more familiar sways have been replaced by a longing to move. Move more than just physically, if i may call it so, a longing to be moved. A quest almost, for serenity. A desire to go go and keep going irrespective of distance, time or speed, and not stop until everything within me is calm. This longing has been so indescribable and baffling to me, that i have taken up the good part of almost a week to come up with the lines i have so far and am still not sure i got it quite right.

Maybe it is what old riders call the spirit of the motorcycling. That the bike moves you more than just physically. Inexplicable yet constantly active, this sway draws me to search for the first opportunity to get on my bike and not look back, ride and not race, steadily constantly conquer miles and miles of highway, and most drastically different from before- be completely indifferent to all data and calculations of milestones to reach, time and speed such as what commonly plagues a long distance rider, and just ride with your heart and soul lost - in thought or in scenery, in philosophy or on the map, but lost to good effect- moved.

Consequent to what i have endeavored to expound, most of my rides now start at night, and last almost all night, with very few short breaks and long stretches of continous cruising till i reach a peaceful beach far away. There is something extremely synchronous between riding and the sea. Which bears out best when you hit a highway parallel to the sea with its waves crashing on its beach. Maybe the sea symbolizes everything a motorcycle is, calm and steady inside but raging and rearing to go on the outside. Maybe it symbolizes life itself. Beautiful yet deadly, silent yet strong.

Now i may have finally been able to give you a glimpse of what i mean by the changed frame of mind and the kind of thoughts that run through it.

I rode to Ramapuram beach, Chirala, last weekend. Rode out on Friday night after work and reached the beach by 3am. Keeping warm with a small bonfire on the beach. The sunrise, warm expresso and subsequent relaxed weekend was worth the wait. I remembered to take my camera gear for a change. So the result i will let u scrutinize below.

I don't know much about how long the current swaying for philosophy and the ocean will last, but i do know this, when some old biker wrote "two wheels move the soul", he couldn't have put it better.

To view a rider's eye perspective of the ride by the beach, check out: https://youtu.be/EuHqyZmnfwc

Why we ride

Movies, songs, books and God knows what else have been made in an attempt to answer that question. But nothing really can, and I wont try in this humble blog. Riding is an experience that must be felt, enjoyed, and craved for. The freedom of an open ribbon of highway, the breeze blowing gently on your face, the roar of your bike and the scenic landscape passing by are just the external factors that compliment the internal adrenaline rush when you make a tight overtake, wandering thoughts, memories brought back by scenes on the way and so much more.

Today, for the first time, I mounted my GoPro on my helmet and rode through Medak district around the hills and forests of Narsapur. 

After a while, I forgot all about the camera and kept riding like I always do. When I came home I was surprised by the amazing riders eye perspective the GoPro had silently captured. So I stitched the best clips together and threw in Metallica's Turn The Page (one of my favorite biker songs) as background score.

I don't intend for this video to answer the question "Why we Ride?" But I intend for it to give you a feel of riding. Maybe it will encourage some of you to fix up that dusty bike in the garage and hit a highway, or borrow a friends bike and ride. Then you'll know the answer to the question for yourself, and also understand why it can never be explained.

Because blogger wont let me embed the video here, please check out the youtube link below, turn the video quality up to HD and view on full screen. A nice pair of headphones would be the icing. Hope you enjoy it, i certainly did!

http://youtu.be/FJDm7Xn1KnA

Since this is my first stint with videos, feel free to leave feedback here, on youtube, facebook or wherever i may find it! Thanks, and keep riding!!!