RIDES IN 2002 – WARMING UP YEAR

MY FIRST CRASH

My daily routine was fixed. Morning college, then evening at a friends place, then NIIT and then home. 8 am to 10 pm. One such day, I was speeding home from Nungambakkam to Tambaram late in the night. Well, its only fair that every new bike rider has to crash to learn the related dynamics associated with an accident and also gain some wisdom on when to slow down. And I too, learnt things the hard way. There is this stretch in GST road between Pallavaram and Chromepet where the Sodium Vapor Lamps don’t work for a few hundred metres. I was clipping at a speed of a tenth of 1 Mach ( 1 Mach is the speed of sound, 330 m/s & one-tenths of it is 118 kmph.. heh heh) in the darkness when suddenly there is a bloody fishcart dead in front of me moving perpendicular. I crunched into it dead straight and flew over the cart while the bus which was coming a bit behind me also screeched to a halt. I landed on my back and luckily absolutely nothing happened but for a few bruises. The bike was in a pathetic shape. The fishcart guy fled the scene and I was wondering what to do. The forks was bent & cracked, there was no evidence that there was ever a headlight and front indicators on the bike. The instrument cluster was completely broken and in the process had turned my bike key to ‘off’ position and broken the key leaving half of it inside (the odometer reading was about 3000 then) I just tugged off all the wires thus isolating the engine and kicked it to life. Rode with great difficulty and reached home, happy to be alive. Then learnt the process of insurance and stuff and got my bike ready..
Somehow, from that day, I was skeptical about night rides and got a mental block that I had to absolutely be able to see where I am going. I lost this fear five years later on a very special night ride, which I will write about soon!



KODAIKANAL, Dec'02

My first long ride. Me & Vijay on the P180 and Kaushik & Ajith on K’s Machismo. This was the time when cell phones were becoming very common. I activated ‘roaming’ on my RPG number to go for the trip. We started off by noon and reached Trichy in the evening and halted for the night. Next day, started off and the Bullet starts giving all sorts of problems. Engine head problems! After half a day and a few thousand rupees in Dindigul, we set off and reached Kodai. Had lots of fun there. No, digital cameras then.. The pics are in a printed photo album now. I remember, we had a free coupon for accommodation for two. So, we took a cheap lodge outside and swapped the rooms between us for the two nights we spent there.
I will never forget the ride back. Kaushik had sped off in the front from Kodai towards Vathalagundu. I was approaching a left hairpin bend on the downslope. I turned my head to the left and took a good look on the road leading to the hairpin bend and was almost sure there was no vehicle approaching it. Took the turn in a good speed and had drifted to the right side of the road. The bike is at a good foot peg scraping angle and voila! There is a mini bus dead in front of me. There is no way I can bend further to let the vehicle pass on my right and so I straightened up and swerved right letting the vehicle pass me on the left. All this happened in a split second and before I knew whats happening, I had hit some boulders which was surrounding a deep pit and nose-dived into it- bike first, then me, then Vijay (pillion), his rucksack and then a few of the huge rocks also. Under the muddle I can move any muscle when the people in the bus came to our rescue. Within a minute I was pulled out (in the reverse order of the entities which fell in, of course). I checked myself. Nothing broken. Not even a scratch. One lady offered me water. I was too embarrassed to even remove my helmet or even answer the questions which were sure to follow. I gently pressed the electric start, he started as smoothly as ever! Thanked the people hurriedly and sped off !!!
My disc brake, master cylinder yoke on the handle bar was broken. This was the day I lost my rear view mirrors and never used them till my road trip to Ladakh in Jun’08. (have mentioned this crash when I wrote about the time I was fixing my mirrors in Delhi) Rode back really fast and crashed in my relatives place in Pondicherry and reached home the next day.