Long time No see

Its been long since my last post..... my RE350 needs a service, need to change her electricals and oil change among other things.

Havent gone for a long ride since long..... would love to go on a long ride with my wife very soon....

 saw a nice movie Bhag Milkha Bhag, a movie about Milkha Singh. started following Usain Bolt after watching that movie. He ran really well in the IAAF CHampionship at Moscow.

3 golds on this event.

I think the best is yet to come from Usain, he has kept it for the Rio Olympic at Brazil.

keep injury away would be the key.


 

Racing with RD350.

The other day i did a Vasai-Dadar Siddhiviniyak Temple - Matunga Kocchu Guruvayur Ambalam - Kalwa Ayyappa Temple - vasai via ghodbunder road with my wifey and ?? and who else my babyy...... Bullet 350.

A total of 54 + 5 + 27 + 40 = 136 KM's... WOW!!!! Aint that amazing!!!

while returning from Kalwa - vasai, we came across a RD350 trying to race with us. At around Majiwada circle the RD350 came close to us trying to race with us in a moving traffic making way through all possible gaps between rest of the vehicles. And it caught my attention hearing that typical sound of a RD350. I always liked this motorcycle for its sound and the speed it attains. some say it can attain a speed upto 165KMPH and 0-100 KMPH in 7 seconds. And all these statistic in the 1980 decade was a huge thing in india. I remember it had a name "Rajdoot" written in its Long Fuel Tank and "Torque Induction" in the side tool box. It was the first performance motorcycle for india. It actually is a Yahama make byke but sold in inda in the name of Rajdoot with some modification done to increase milage and reduce power( from 40 BHP to 31 BHP ).

So we did a considerable amount of racing in midst of traffic, surely the one who has good control and handling of their motorcycle will be leading and hence i was leading as i had good control and handling of my baby. But where ever there was a stretch of open space RD350 would vrooomm past me and i use to catch up again at next traffic signal.

Finally there came a turn where the RD350 had to leave the race and i had to take my ride forward towards the ghodbunder road. That racing through that small stretch of highway in thane was like my baby bullet350 is communicating with RD 350. It was awesome feeling. Loved it.

Also shared told my wifey what RD350 was and that i am going to buy one some day.

Few pics from that trip and also a RD350 pic from the web.

By the way, just a thought crossed my mind. Wouldn't a RD350 make and awesome Cafe Racer?? i think it has all the power and looks needed to be a Cafe Racer.

Anyways enjoy the pic.


By the way a RD350 would make an awesome Cafe Racer.

Reverse Brake and Clutch Levers that connect to the end of the handlebar

Saw a movie named DUMA. Its a nice movie about a wild animal cheetah named DUMA, a boy and his father. Apart from the movie being nice, one thing that caught my attention was the motorcycle used in the movie.

It was a BMW old motorcycle. And the thing i liked most about it was its handlebar had reverse brakes and clutch levers. I found this very interesting and would like to have them fitted in my Royal Enfield.

Not sure about how good is it to use. Have to start my hunt to check if i can find it somewhere in Mumbai or on the web.

Found a site that sells such products for BMW old models http://www.blitzbikes.com

Have emailed them with a query and a premission to upload a pic from their site with the reverse brake and clutch.

Found one image from the link http://artchoppers.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

Not displaying the pic yet, have emailed the blogger to approve using that image in my blog post. looking forward to it.

For time being, art my VJ

Wanna Paint her Red and Black.

Wanna paint her Red and Black.

You know who she is??

Its none other than my Royal Enfield.

I am thinking of a paint job for some time now.

And this combination in particular has caught my attention.

RED and BLACK.

Thats would go real awesome on my baby!!

It will be a long way before it actually happens, but an upload after the paint job is for sure.

Looking forward to it!!!!

What is a Cafe Racer??

Well, a Cafe Racer..... hmmm. Sounds really a good name.

Its vintage, and its retro and trendy.

It has got some history which i am going to mention later in the post. A motorcycle with a long fuel tank, a single seater, a clip ons low rise handle bars.


In the 60's there was this "Ace Cafe" which was one of the places in london where you would race from one cafe to another these motorcycles became cafe racers.


solo seat,
nice tank you can lay on upon your chest and

taking a standard motorcycles and take off as mmuch metals from it to make it lighter , may be adding a bit more power,

the frames sitting higher off the ground, the pipes are higher off the ground, so you can lean her over on the turns,

the grips on the handle bars have to be lower than the tanks , you just want that motorcycle to be part of you, thats a cafe racer.



where people would come on their Motorcycles and bet would be on to visit the next cafe before the music on the juke box is finished.



more on here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-NsYKM0n3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvWBXHRIauA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXY1PgvdzrU

An unsuccessful trip to malshej ghat

I was planning for a trip to the malshej ghat for a long time. And it happened not out of any plan. love it when things do not happen as per plans and we do things just instantly. Just as this happened. i had a weekly off and i asked my brother (Vinod) if we can go for a trip to malsjeh, yes was the answer and we were off to the trip to malshej. It was a bit late for such a trip, we started at 12 in the noon. with a drizzle of rain we started our journey. it was a usual ride from home till the highway, loved the stretch from chinchoti to bhiwandi. Nice lush green picturesque location and nice roads above all. not much vehicle seen on this strecth which makes it even better for cruising. Take a left corner of the road and go along.

Next up was bhiwandi, it is famous for cotton handloom industries. its a small town. not well managed, typical indian town with bad roads and with the monsoon season it makes it even worse. but still its not a long drive till you reach kalyan city. and further more take a left to murbad. that is the road that takes you to malshej ghat.

We went on to that highway NH222. it was amazing feeling of freedom. It makes you forget all your worries. Every one needs to have that feeling out of your daily life. Well then as we kept on going, out of no where the most un expected thing happened. We had a flat tyre. A biker is always ready for such things to happen. And i was excited that it happened, but my brother was not. He started getting frustrated and annoyed. I told him such things happens and we have to enjoy this. We are stuck on a not so crowded highway. with 8-10 vehicles passing by every minute. Thats just an estimate to show how busy that place was. So next thing in my mind was to calm down vinod which i succeed in doing and even he started enjoying with what we were going through. Well what we were going through was burn lots of calories on the way through NH222. turn by turn. Vinod had a kinda funnily dressed for a country side place. he was wearing a shorts with bright colors and a printed T-Shirt and a nike ankle lenght boots and a elastic goggles used as a hair band. Well if he had weared those goggles on his eyes, definetely he would have been the eye candy. We managed to reach a tyre puncture place afer about 1 KM of walk... But to our dismay, the owner of the tyre repair shop just left for a namaz prayer. we enquired to local people we manage to find on the way about the next tyre puncture shop and it was one more KM away. We decided to keep the motorcycle there and walk or get a lift to the next tyre puncture shop.

We started off with a hope that we will get a lift from some one. We made many attempt to get a lift, but unsuccessfull. finally got one from a truck. he dropped us to the destination. he charged us 10 bucks, which under the circumstances was too less. but he was happy to charge us 10 bucks. i had 400 and some 20-30 rupees change in my wallet. and i wanted to make sure i have enough money cause i was not sure what was coming from the tyre puncture shop for fixing the tyre.

Well there he was, the tyre shopkeeper (Abdul) agreed to help us after we explained him our situation. We had few country side people surrounding us. To listen to our story and to give some of their feedback. Loved that attitude people have. Always wanted to help people. So Abdul and me set off to the place we had parked our motorcycle with his toolkits. while vinod decided to stay at the shop and talk to the local people puffing a cigrette.

we reached the location, i was delighted to see the motorcycle safely parked as it was left. we removed the rear tyre and went back to the shop to fix it. Me and abdul did the Damage Analysis, there was a nail pearsed into the tyre and entered the tube and a major damage was that there was a crack on the mac wheel and it was bend. I was badly hoping that the fix should be enough to reach us till the city kalyan atleast. Abdul said we need to replace the tube as it had many fixes and he said it would be really risky to go double seat on it. Another major concern for me was the cost of the tube, i just had 400 bucks with me. and replacing the tube and Abdul's labour charge should not exceed 400 rupees. and when he said about the final amount it was 410 rupees. 360 for the tube and 50 rupees for labour. Good that we were not short of money, otherwise i would have got angry on vinod for not allowing me to go to an ATM to get cash. Anyways all's well that ends well. Me and Abdul went back to the place where we had parked the motorcycle after replacing the tube. Tyre was fixed and i kickstarted and off we went to pick vinod from the shop. Abdul advised to ride slow between 40-50 KMPH and aviod riding through the rough roads.

We started the return journey, there was no way we could have thought of going to malshej since we were in a risk of damaging the mac wheel. with the damage of the mac wheel in our mind we were comng back home. but we enjoyed the ride. while coming back we decided to have some photo session and we took a halt to have some photos clicked. we did some photography parking the motorcycle besides the highway. While we were still doing some photography, heard a bullet sound. saw there was one bullet coming with 3 people sitting on it. we asked them if there was any bullet garage near by. That guy turned out to be a bullet mechanic himself and he said there wont be any problem going till vasai. Also he suggested us some good macwheel that may last till 10 years, the brand RADO mac wheels are very good he said. need to find these mac wheels in mumbai. May be i can get  it at grant road.

Moving on with no money left in the pocket, kept on asking where the next ATM is. finally reached to the suburb of Kalyan city and managed to find a citi bank atm , withdraw some cash and went to have something to eat at the next dhaba. Thats how the unsuccessfull journey to malshej ends. Was a fun ride. But Malshej has to be invaded by me and my motorcycle. Not now but some where in the future and there will be a blog post for that.

This road takes you to the malshej........

The rider is Vinod. And myself Pillion. I know we should be wearing the helmet. Helmet was taken off for this photo.

Came across this eye candy building structure.. Is a temple from the looks of it.....

Motorcycle was riding us till it had a flat tyre and i had to ride her till the next tyre puncture shop.... was a good work out.... On NH222.

Vinod's turn to ride the motorcycle.....Vinod racing with a villager...

Thats a tired vinod after we reached the tyre puncture shop

After the tyre puncture fixed.

Yash Chopra's Untitled Movie starring Royal Enfield Motorcycles.

And yet again, yes. Time and again. Royal Enfield motorcycles has managed to make special appearance in movie's. Right from the Hollywood to Bollywood and don't know how many numbers of so called WOOD's film industry that exists in the great country of India.


Here comes another movie starring the legendary motorcycle and rest of the other so called star's by the people of india like Shahrukh Khan, Anuskha Sharma and Katrina Kaif.

Enjoy the pics

Dear miss Anushka Sharma, Please don't ride a motorcycle with that expression on your face. Atleast put up a good face for the camera.

Both SRK and Anushka should buckle up the helmet. They have not locked the strap.