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Who Feels Love?
Oasis - Band that changed my life

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Pune Nagpur Pune Ride

Date : - 8th November
Route : -
Pune – Ahmednagar – Aurangabad – Jalna – Mehkar – Karanja – Amravati – Nagpur
Distance : - 725 kms
Time Reqd. : - 12 hours 45 mins

Route Map:-


0500 hrs

I was ready for my ride to Nagpur. The one I was dreaming since long. My Red Stallion (P200) was going to see my home at Nagpur where I was born and brought up. Gosh!! I miss Nagpur sooo much!!! As usual I was a bit pensive at start of ride because this was my first solo ride for such a long distance. I expected to reach Nagpur somewhere by 2000 hrs. I wanted to hit NH6 near Amravati before the dusk so that I do not need to search for routes in dark. From Amravati it was all the way straight to Nagpur.
The Nagar road was empty unlike NH4 where I have done most of my rides before. I was waiting for dawn so that I can start ripping off. The stupid drivers on Indian roads like to ride with headlights in UPPER making life miserable for oncoming traffic especially the 2 wheelers. After 0600 the horizon started to lighten up. But still I was in no mood to start ripping. Also the road wasn’t that good. Still I made it to Ahmednagar by 0715. The tank wasn’t anywhere near empty but still I topped it up as most of my route wasn’t a National Highway and I was not sure of number of petrol pumps on the way. Having small breakfast of cakes and cookies which I had brought from home, started towards Aurangabad. I was not at all expecting a good road, but brilliant stretch just after Ahmednagar was a sudden jolt to me. Here the roads were so inviting that I couldn’t stop the urge to rip off. I told myself to make the most out of good stretch which will compensate for any bad roads further. Soon I was travelling at 100-110. The bike was responding like anything. I just fell in love with my bike again. During the whole ride I do not recall how many times I did.
The next 100 kms to Aurangabad I covered in less than 1.5 hours which raised my hopes of reaching Nagpur earlier than I anticipated. Now I was hoping to reach Nagpur by 1900 instead of 2000 as scheduled. The next stretch was towards Jalna. The roads are not so good. I was going so fast as compared to other vehicles on road that I always ended up with my rear view mirror empty. I am used to riding on traffic heavy roads like NH4 or NH17 which always had some Safaris, Mercs to make you realize that your bike is underpowered. But as this route was a State Highway (SH), the traffic was altogether different. I encountered only a handful of taxies on the way and the brainless State Transport buses. And not to forget the local town guys on their 100/125cc bikes. I got some weird looks from onlookers because of my attire. I was covered from head to toe with gloves and a heavy jacket because of so-called winter.
Just before Jalna, I missed the bypass somehow and ended up in a mess called as Jalna city. I started asking locals for Mehkar, my next stop. One auto-driver told me way to Mehkar. Somehow I felt that he was not telling the right way. I asked another auto-driver and then I came to know that there are two Mehkar towns, one in Beed district and other one in Buldhana. I wanted the Buldhana one. After maneuvering my way through small lanes of the city, I finally ended up on way to Mehkar. The road from Jalna- Mehkar is OK-good kinda road. Time was almost 1030 and heat started to rise. It was never unbearable though. This stretch was really lonesome and ironically my Ipod started playing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day.
So I walked(rode) alone... I walked alone....... :-)
I reached Mehkar and this time I made a point not to miss the bypass. I was quite hungry by now. The funny thing was that in this part of Maharashtra, not many people travel by personal vehicles. So absence of good restaurants was quite evident. There was not even a decent restaurant on the way. All were just makeshifts from a house to restaurants. Just few kilometers from Mehkar, saw a restaurant named Pariwar. After one look at it, I felt there must be a good restaurant inside it. As my bike was all strapped up, I had asked the security guard to just keep an eye. He responded enthusiastically. While leaving I handed a 10 bucks to him and he was really surprised. As this place was quite small, 10 bucks seemed to be a grand tip. I asked him the route forward to Nagpur and he was more than happy to help. He almost explained me the nature of next 2 diversions, one near Malegaon and next near Karanja. Those helped me a lot.
Wait a minute. This is not that Malegaon where recently some bomb blasts happened. I really wonder did Maharashtra villages run out of name during their naming-ceremony. I already know 4 Malkapurs, 2 Mehkars, 3 Khandalas and now 2 Malegaons in Maharashtra itself. And on the way I encountered 2 different Karanjas too. Phew!!!!The SHs in Vidarbha are excellent. Nice signboards on smoothly laid tarmac. Although the road was single lane, sparse traffic made the ride easy. Again I hit 100+ all the way till Karanja. I crossed Malegaon and then cruised towards Karanja.
Just before Karanja, I found 2 routes going to Nagpur, one via Wardha and other via Amravati. I stuck to my plan and took a left turn towards Amravati. The high speeds continued even after Karanja. I couldn’t believe I was going so fast. I had covered almost 500 kms since morning. The breaks were limited to just 5-10 mins after every hour or so. The bike was at its phenomenal best. It was performing as if it was built only for such rides. It was as if the city commutes don’t interest her. The growl at first gear, the half switch start, the pick up at any gear and on and on and on. I can go on writing about her pros.
At about 1450, I took one break just in middle of nowhere. I decided to take a good look at my bike and me. Washed up my face as I was feeling sleepy. My right knee had started to pain. I was using the right leg a bit too much as rear brake of Pulsar 200 is not very good and at every stop I had to apply a great deal of pressure for braking. I decided to purchase one of those elastic crep bandages for my knee in Nagpur for my return trip. The pain was there till end of ride. All I could do was to stretch my legs during the breaks.
I decided that I am going to rip all the way till Nagpur and see how fast I can reach there.At last I hit NH6 and was greeted by traffic. The road conditions degraded. But I was well before my scheduled time when I reached Amravati. The Amravati bypass is stunning which reminded me of NH4. I had last fuelled up after Jalna; the tank was more than half empty. I started searching for petrol pumps. Co-incidentally none of the pumps were having petrol. After searching for almost 50 kms, encountered a Petrol Pump which was overflowing with vehicles. As I made it the point to reach Nagpur before sunset, I didn’t want to waste any time. I decided to skip that one and headed forward and found out another pump hardly few kms ahead and it was totally empty. Took one 15 mins break there at a dhaba besides. The dhaba boy enquired about the bike and was pretty pleased to have a look at red P200 coming from Pune. Nagpur was about 100 kms of which first 50 kms from Talegaon- Kondhali was world class 4 lane road and then from Kondhali- Nagpur was worst class.
Just before Kondhali when the 4 lane -road was about to be over, I spotted a stationery police jeep at a long sweeping right hand turn. I was doing more than 100 at that time. I braked immediately but couldn’t slow down much and I saw a policeman waving at me. My heart skipped a beat. Last thing I wanted was a stoppage and that too by Police. As I neared him and I was about to stop, he just said loudly in Marathi “Halu re pora” (Slow down son). I apologized with a wave of my hand and was greatly relieved that he was just advising me. No further than 50m, I saw the reason for his advice. A heavily mangled bike was carried away by two people. But I couldn’t see the other vehicle though.
Suddenly I was brought back to the reality. I had made sure to take at most care while driving. I never overtook from wrong side and always gave side to bigger vehicles specially coming from the other side. Abruptly, the words of some of my near and dear ones about hazards of riding recalled automatically. It’s not that I am not aware of them. But the passion and craving for riding is much stronger than the fear of something untoward.
It is said by Paulo Coelho in THE ALCHEMIST
“If you really wish to achieve something, the whole universe conspires to help you in your endeavors”.
So I know as long as I have passion, I will always be guided in some way or other. Anyways I am now habitual of seeing accident sites during my rides and I always take them as a reminder and try to drive as safely as I can.
I finally made it to Nagpur by 1745. There I met my buddy Vishal whom I was updating my ride details since morning. He was also very well excited about my ride. He is one of my friends who loves riding as well and never questions me when I say I am gonna go for a ride. And it was he who suggested me the Mehkar- Karanja route instead of the Chikhli one and I ended up in Nagpur almost 2 hours before expected.
I took just 12 hrs 45 mins. Heck! I beat the Pune- Nagpur Super Fast express (15 hrs 30 mins) and also the Khurana Volvo (13hrs 30 mins). Feeling proud of myself for this small achievement, me and Vishal opted to party out in the night. Although I was tired, I didnt mind it.
One of the best days of my life and the my best ride till date.
HAIL! THE RED STALLION

*******************************************************************************

Date : - 13th November
Route : - 
Nagpur – Amravati – Khamgaon – Chikhli – Jalna – Aurangabad – Ahmednagar – Pune
Distance : - 746 kms
Time Reqd. : - 14 hours

Route Map :-

As expected, I forgot to purchase the Crep bandage for my knee. And I was to suffer because of that in the later part of my ride. I decided to start after dawn because the initial 50 km from Nagpur to Kondhali are not at all good. The 4 laning of the road is underway and as usual the upper lights of the oncoming vehicles would have created problems. So I started at 0600 taking the Hingna Road towards Wadi. The stretch till Kondhali was as expected very rough but at least most of the vehicles had switched off their head lamps so I made it to Kondhali just by 0700.
I saw a bunch of guys and girls on their bikes heading out for a trip or something. It made me remember my college days. Man!!! Those were great days.
The awesome Kondhali- Talegaon stretch was off in a whip. I was in some experimenting mood. I decided that I will break only after 100 kms and no way before that (just stopping for emergency leak breaks in between). Also this time I took different route back. I didn’t go to Karanja after Amravati but straightaway headed to Khamgaon via Akola. The trip was quite eventless till Khamgaon. Except that I tasted one of the worst teas at one of the dhabas on the way. I had to throw away the tea as I almost got nauseated because of its taste. I had a long day ahead and didn’t want to experiment with my health.
Till Khamgaon for almost 300 kms I took 10 mins breaks only after each 100 kms. The road used to switch from good- bad- worse- good. I made it to Khamgaon by 1100. A left before Khamgaon and I was off towards Chikhli. This time around I never encountered any problem for directions as the sign boards were quite helpful. However I miscued one of the turns and was on the way to Dhule before being corrected by a local. He asked me for a lift till Chikhli but sadly my back seat was all packed up with bag.
The stretch from Khamgaon to Jalna was quite lonesome but kind off scenic. I said kind off because the landscapes were not as beautiful as the any of the ghats in Sahyadris. It was just a barren patch of land for almost 100 kms with farmlands in between. There was quite upheaval in the land level which resulted in formation of small tekdis along the way. But somehow I really like such kind of places. All deserted with no remote human movement. Just a village after few tens of kms otherwise everything just silent.
The traffic was very less. The cattle and bullock carts were more of a menace on this road as compared to vehicles. Yeah, also the red ST buses. They never ever give a damn to bikers. During this trip I never encountered a bad truck driver but I also didn’t encounter a single good bus driver. Several times I had to go off roads because the ST bus in front of me wanted to use the entire road for overtaking without acknowledging my existence on the road. Well, I never had any other option. I decided to keep it cool and voluntarily go off road if I see any overtaking ST bus coming in front of me.
Well, I just didn’t took any major breaks till Jalna though I wanted to. I was stubbornly adamant that I won’t be having lunch before Jalna. At last I crossed Jalna at 1330 and now Pune was 300 km. I thought it was time for well deserved break. Got hold of one decent hotel where I thought the security guard will guard the bag on my bike all strapped by bungee cords with great difficulty. I didn’t want to repeat the process again. But he straightaway refused. I would have generously paid him for guarding the bag. But he was in no mood. I had to remove all that stuff from my bike and carry it in the restaurant.
Lunch break took 45 mins and I was feeling refreshed. But my bum had become sore and for the first time I felt as if I should stop for the day. I never had any option as I was supposed to be in office on FridayL. Strapping the bag again on bike took me another 15 mins. I started off with IPOD blurting Iron Maiden and AC/DC numbers so that I should not fall asleep after a good lunch.
Jalna- Aurangabad stretch is again a mixture- good-bad- worse. I reached Aurangabad by 1530. The city traffic hit me like a bolt and I was finding it difficult to carry on. The traffic was not heavy as in Pune, but still the ride was departure from the one I was doing since morning. I somehow managed to crawl off the city. I filled the tank up to the brim so that I could take a break and also be free of petrol worries. Pune read 220 kms. After starting, I had not even covered 40 kms and I had to stop otherwise my bum would have fallen off. Took out one T shirt from my bag and spread it on the seat so as to provide some cushion. Washed my face and started off. The heat was getting better of me. Thank god it was winter (although it didn’t felt like one, thanks to Global Warming).
At last reached the good stretch between Aurangabad and Nagar. Soon I was doing 100+. I had realized that I was not going to make home any sooner than 1930. So there was no question of bettering my personal best of Pune – Nagpur under 13 hours. I crossed Nagar at 1700. Took a long break and had one ice cold Thums Up at a dhaba with my bum resting on the stringed beds we typically find at dhabas. By now it was getting dark and again I feared the uppers from oncoming vehicles. So I started off quickly and tried to make as much distance as possible before complete dark.
But the Nagar- Pune road is a serious joke I think. There are so many lanes under various stages of completion. It reminded me of the Need For Speed 3’s one track named Lost Canyons. I thoroughly used to enjoy that track as it provided ample opportunities to overtake with lot of crash-boom-bang. But any of the crash-boom-bang here means I am off for good. Suddenly my prayers were answered and I saw one beige Baleno in front of me hastily overtaking all the vehicles ahead. “Bakra mil gaya” I thought. I started tailgating him at a safe distance on 50-100m and soon it was only 2 of us on the road with no one in rear view mirror. I have to admit he was one hell of a driver. I found it very hard to keep up with him as he was doing almost 80-90 on that stupid road. Tailgating at safe distance provided me 2 advantages:-
· I got to know about the diversions
· As I was driving on the left hand side of the car, it avoided the glare of the oncoming headlights.
But as all good things come to an end, a toll gate came and that car got stuck in the long queue. I don’t know for what they were collecting the toll, it was not for the road I am sure. I know I am heavily criticizing the road—maybe it wasn’t that bad. But at that time my mood was bad and the road just added to the irritation. The road was not having many potholes, but there were abrupt diversions and too many.
As I had lost my ally on the road I started searching for any other fast car to tailgate. But no car was going anywhere above 70. So I had to carry on alone. Soon I saw something flashing in my rear view mirror and I was more than happy to give side. And it was the same Baleno. Man!! This guy was a maniac. He cleared the queue at toll gate and still managed to catch me up in less than 10kms. Again I happily started tailgating him. This time my sore bum eventually made me stop and let that car go. Pune was less than 60 kms now and thanks to that Baleno, the last 60 kms seemed to be nonexistent. (The feeling for which I was hoping since last 200 kms). As it was complete dark now, my speed dropped considerably and reached Ranjangaon by 1815. From there it was traffic all the way to Pune. At last I reached Kalyani Nagar where again I encountered that Baleno. Poor guy!! Got stuck behind a PMT. I reached my home on Sus Road exactly at 2000.
Although the last few hours of the trip were kind of torturing for me, but still I enjoyed the trip immensely. First thing I have to do now is to get the seat covers changed and put some cushion inside it. Needless to say, mom was happy to see me back. Called up all of my worried friends and told that I have reached safely. Accepted bricks and bats from most of them and praises from them who are aware of this wonderful world of biking.

The trip meter clocked 1673 kms which included commutes in Nagpur as well.

Pulsar 200 - Review

I bought the Pulsar200 earlier this year in June. Now the bike has done over 6000 km and I found it prefect to write a review so as to help the guys who might be going (or not going) for this bike.

Performance :- The bike has a great pick up. On signals the bike wont disappoint you in zipping past other bikes. Vibrations are minimum for the city ride.Once you hit the highway, you wont even know when it reaches 100. But after 100/105 the bike drags a bit to reach to the higher speeds. The max I did was 124 on NH4. Bike vibrates a bit after rpm crosses 7000rpm. Pick up in 3rd and 4th gears are better than in 1st or 2nd which helps in overtaking a slowly moving vehicle in front of you. The engine isnt as refined as Karizma though.

Looks :- I think no comments are required in this dept. P200 is easily one of the best looking bikes on Indian roads. The total black theme with an Aluminium coated silencer gives it a really sporty look. It always seems ready to pounce upon roads and munch kilometers.

Mileage :- We cant expect a good mileage from any 200cc bike. The highest I have got was 48 during my running in when the top speed didn’t exceed 55. Otherwise in normal city riding it hardly reaches 40 wherein I do not race the accelerator excessively and average speed is 50-60. On highways, if you really want to rip apart, you better forget the mileage. During my 1000 km trip I never came below 100kmph and the mileage dipped to 35. Decent highway mileage can be obtained only at max 70-75 kmph.

Handling :- The bike is really stable at all speeds. The wide rear tyre gives you the confidence to keep moving at high speeds. Even the cross winds on highways are not an issue. The turning radius,however, is very large and the bike cant even make a decent U-turn. (Reminds me of the old Premier Padmini). Its very bulky and while parking in the highly crowded parking lots of Pune, its really a damn pain. Pillion is surely gonna complain. The rear saree guard doesnt have a footrest. So your mom will be complaining. The split grab rail -- The more gorgeous it looks, the lesser it is of any significance. The pillion just cant hold on to it. He/she either has to hold you or pray that you drive slowly.

Braking :- Front Disc Brake is capable enough to manage this beast. However I feel rear drum brake could have been made more powerful. Mind you, whenever braking at high speeds, apply both brakes especially on straights. Otherwise the bike wont stop where you want it to. When both brakes applied, the braking becomes awesome or even front brake is fine if you can manage it.

Chain :- The chain is uncovered and requires some special attention. You need to oil it every 1000km. The Bajaj Pro-Biking guys suggest you should clean the chain seperately which costs you 75 bucks. I would be doing it after 10000km. Planning to do that every 5000 km afterwards.

Gear-Shift :- The Gear shifting has thankfully been improved by Bajaj. No more false neutrals. Shifting becomes smoother as the bike becomes older. Yeah! Sometimes you can find it difficult to find the neutral due to the toe shifter(It is more of my problem than the bike’s).

Reliability :- I have made one 1000 km trip and scores of 200-300 kms trip. I have never encountered a single problem. You can happily cruise along at 100 without worrying about engine sieze up. Plus the tubeless tyres give the confidence that you can go on longer trips without worrying about punctures. The seating position is quite sporty. You might feel a bit elbow pain after some hours. But elbow rests (kinda we get at medical stores for 30 bucks) are a good solution for that.

Maintainence :- This baby is a bit costly affair. You should change the oil as receommended. Get proper servicings typically after every 2500km (either from Pro-bking or your trusted local ones) without fail and this bike will never ever let you down. The bike has only electric start. So its of utmost important to keep the battery in proper condition. Although there is an indicator in console which flashes once battery is low like the ones you have in cars. Standard battery is Exide Low Maintianence one.

Others :- Headlights are decent. I have done a few night rides on highways and am satisfied with the quality. They are way better than karizma. Horn is excellent. The digital speedo console has hell lot of goodies. All the switches are provided with backlight so that they are easier to spot in the night.

So if you want a sleek, sporty tourer with acknowledging glances in city.. this is the bike for you...

Price :- 74740/- On Road

Model :- June 2008

Dealer :- Bajaj Pro-Biking, Pune