Who Feels Love?

Who Feels Love?
Oasis - Band that changed my life

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

First Milestone for Red Stallion

On 20th December, the Red Stallion completed 10000 km.

Hmm it took me exactly 6 months to complete the 10K, although I had planned in less than 5 months. Maybe none of the things you plan out materialize. Also my riding schedule has gone a bit awry because of heavy office work load.

Anyways, the icing on the cake was that I touched the personal best in terms of top speed.

130 km/hr near the new Katraj tunnel on NH4. Sounds fast right!!!!!!

I know this is way beyond the top speed claimed by Bajaj (which happens to be 121). But I cheated and took the help of slope and also I fully ducted on the tank. Man! Things move too fast at 130. I was in a dual state of mind whether to look on the road or at speedo and I gave preference to former (obvisouly). But last thing I saw on speedo was 130.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Nitrogen works

I had heard on lot of motorcycling forums that filling up the tyres with Nitrogen greatly helps the performance. I had even heard that there is an improvement in mileage as well. So me the curious buff, decided to test the nitrogen myth on my bike. Results.....
  • The only advantage I found was that in last 5 months I checked the air pressure only twice after interval of 2 months each. Surprisingly the air pressure was low by only 1 or 2 psi. I wikied and found that the nitrogen molecules are bigger than oxygen and hence the air escape ratio is lower in case of nitrogen. This is a great news for a lazy bone like me.
  • Increase in mileage thing is a bluff. The truth is, people normally do not think that tyre pressure is an essential thing to check. So they do not care to check the psi level frequently which should ideally be done every 2 weeks which results in lower mileage. Now as they fill Nitrogen, the air pressure remains as it is so they fell that mileage has increased. But as a matter of fact, that is the mileage which they should be getting in normal circumstances.
  • Now the main thing... Price (Every Indian's criteria of judging the things). I filled up Nitrogen for 30 bucks in both wheels. Seems quite expensive!!! Well, I dont think so. Every fortnight, I end up paying 2 bucks to the puncture wala for checking tyre pressure. So eventually , in 7.5 months I will spend 30 bucks. The difference is that I will have to visit the local puncture wala for 15 times whereas for nitrogen, I will visit him just 3 or at max 4 times.

So final verdict is.. Nitrogen in tyres is good thing to have.

It is available with the HP pump in Hinjewadi (one having Crossword).

Mahabaleshwar ride

29th Nov 2008
We4 people --Ravi , his wife Trupti, my friend Devyani and me went to a ride to Mahabaleshwar on 2 bikes. Sadly, we chose a wrong day as it was pretty cloudy, but me and ravi were planning for this trip for quite some time and we didnt wanted to cancel the trip again. The decision proved a bit costly.
We started at 0630. The clouds became darker and darker as we approached Mahabaleshwar and mild showers were accompanying us all the way. And then it started raining heavily. As we approached the ghats, we were completely drenched by 0900. Started ascending ghats and the visibility started getting shorter and shorter. And in the end we were not able to see each other's bikes also. Visibility was almost 5 meters. Reached Mahabaleshwar by 1030.
There was no point in going to any tourist spots as visibility was next to nothing. All we saw was clouds. We were almost eating clouds. But then for sometime, the Rain-Gods showed some mercy upon us and the weather cleared a bit. Quickly we made our way to elephant point and clicked some snaps. As we were all drenched up, a hot cup of tea became order of the day. We had tea wherever we could lay our hands upon. But again the clouds got darker and rains...
Finally decided that not point in roaming around here and there. Even a tourist spot like Mahabaleshwar can become a ghost town. We lost our way in the town while returning back to Pune and we were really not able to find any people on the road to help us out. Finally some by passer appeared and showed us the way.
We purchased some strawberries and started back to Pune. On the way, decided to have lunch at Mapro's at almost 1500. Hmm, I had heard a lot about it,, but experience wasn't that good. A bit overpriced and way to over hyped is all I can say about Mapro.
Reached Pune at almost 1930 and I was shivering all the way back as I was completely drenched from head to toe. Making way through hopeless traffic of Swargate and Solapur road, I dropped Devu at Magarpatta City(one corner of Pune). Again making my way back through the same dumb-ass traffic, I reached my home at Pashan (other corner of Pune) at 2130.
Decided I will never ever pick a pillion from the other corner of Pune from here after.
Those final few kms in the city traffic are way more tiring than the hundreds of kms I cover during the day.
I didn't even have a dinner and slept of almost instantaneously as I was dead tired.
Statistics:-
Distance :- 323 kms
Route :- Pune - Mahabaleshwar - Pune