Black Ice

No this is not about the black ice that we find in Ladakh in winters or as a matter of fact any frozenland.

AC/DC released their first album in Nov' 08 after a long hiatus of 8 years by the name Black Ice. I was pretty much excited when I heard in last July that AC/DC will be realeasing the album After all which rock would not like to hear another Back in Black from one of the greatest rockers of all times. And the name Black was common in the name of both albums, so I was really waiting for album to hit the stores. As soon as album released worldwide, I could see the revies on net which further increased the desire to lay my hands on the album. At last after a week, the album hit the Indian stores.
"Rock N Roll Train" An unusual name for a song. But the song rocks and rocks really damn good. I was listening to only this song for straight 2 days. Angus Young still has the power to make you headband melodiously. And no wonder why AC/DC's years without Phil Rudd were not productive. I have always liked Phil drums. They are not phenomenal but no one can fit into his shoes in AC/DC. His style is so unique and you can instantly tell its Phil on drums. He is always reciprocate to the rawness created by Young brothers on guitars.

Amongst other noticable tracks are Big Jack, Skies on Fire, Smash N Grab. Also the highlight is title track Black Ice. Rest of the songs failed to impress me. I was expecting much more good songs from a list of 15. So the verdict is that its not as good as Back in Black or I would rate Higway to Hell better than this.
Anyways, Rock N Roll Train has became one of my all time favorites.

Bullitt Mustang

I happenned to watch the movie Bullitt recently. I had heard that the car chase sequence in the movie is phenomenal. But you have to watch it before you believe it.

Man!! The car chase scene will surely blow you away. It is one of the most amazing and thrilling scene I have ever watched in any movie till today. What made it special was that the movie was made in 1968 when special effects weren't in. The villian was stunt driver himself, so he performed most of his stunts. Even the hero, Steve McQueen, had given his own stunts in the stunning 1968 Ford Mustang.

I will heavily recommend the movie because of this car chase. The rest of movie isnt that bad either. A typical thriller movie in which detective McQueen busts the bad guys. But it was one of the first movies which showcased hero as a rough n tough cop.

The 1968 Bullitt Mustang (the name it got after movie) in the foreground with GT390 Mustang in the background

P.S. :- I am a great fan of the species called Ford Mustang specially the 80s series.

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.

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