My touring experience
With this latest 2900km trip, the total touring experience i now have is more than 12000kms!! and i am just 22yrs of age. Wanna add a '0' and make it 1,20,000kms soon..


coming back to the trip, i started from pune on the morning of 30th oct at 3:30am and reached delhi on the morning of 31st oct by around 11am. Did a total of 1690kms, including around 60kms detour to Surat to visit a friend. Total time for breaks was around 5hours, including 2 in surat and around 90mins in Ahmedabad. I always kept a constant 100-105km/h on the speedometer. My bike stood by me, not even a puncture!

Had many close calls but nothin major. The worst thing that happened was that I was constantly fighting against sleep and actually slept many a times and had to shake myself up (along with lines of abuses), so as to avoid crashes. I dont remember doing certain stretches of roads!! I was day dreaming (night dreaming) but somehow managed to keep riding.

It was very cold. very cold, specially thru Rajasthan at night. I was wearing 4 layers of clothing including a leather jacket, but it didnt help. Used to stop a lot for tea and eggs and butt breaks.

Had a frightning experience before chittor, where 3 guys tried to stop me in the middle of nowhere. they were either cops who wanted me to go in a convoy with other vehicles or were robbers.. I didnt stop and as soon as i passed them, total isolation. not a soul around. to be on the safe side, i kept the needle above 120km/h and covered around 25kms in 15mins flat and slowed down only when i was convinced that everything was ok!!


This is mins before starting from Pune



All loaded up



The highway after Mumbai



Me and Arnob, who came till Ahmedabad with me




Some of the breaks i took thru out the night

Last but not the least
Mood:  happy

More pics
Mood:  happy
a jeep rolled down, the driver died!






more snow

Some pics.. enjoy
Mood:  happy
11 bikers started from Delhi..



6 more joined in from Punjab



and then the hills started..yummy



2nd day morning. trust me, it was freezing..



The bad roads



First instance of snow.. yo



and then it got colder n colder






me at the giri-ganga shrine




















MORE PICS COMING SOON..

yooo
Mood:  happy
Been there, done that. I am back in Pune after two dream rides. First from Pune to Delhi non-stop on my bike and then from Delhi to the Himalayas and back!






More pics to come soon.. watch out

yoo. I am leaving!!
Mood:  happy
hi all

i am finally leaving at 12 midnight..

right now in office. will go home and pack up and sleep for a couple of hours..

bike is tanked up, spirits are high!

will keep updating this thread from time to time.

what the...
Mood:  down
Shit Shit Shit
I am plannin to leave tomm mid-night (Sat night)and this massive headache has started...

The stone pain also started yesterday once again. I dont want it to hamper my trip. I remember how it screwed up my pune-mangalore-pune trip... Please GOD, help me!

Will sign off with this pic of me sitting on boss' Honda VFR 800 (taken a couple of weeks back)

The date has been decided.
Mood:  don't ask
Leaving on Sunday.. shit.. SUNDAY!
Will be staying the night at Udaipur, app 925kms from Pune. Hope to reach there by around 8pm..

Arn will join me from outside Mumbai till Ahmedabad.

I will sign off for the moment with this pic I took (the cam in left hand!!) The speedo shows 129km/h. With proper bending down, the max my bike does is around 137-138km/h, not bad haan!

Things arent looking good....
Mood:  irritated
Coz there is only one designer, things are moving at a very slow pace. I dont know when I will be able to leave. The maximum I can push is till Sunday Morning..

I dont know what to do..

In the meantime, this is a pic of my bike in the lush green hills around Pune.. taken some weeks back.. the green cover will be gone soon!

Why am I doing it
Mood:  energetic
See, the thing is, my love for biking started long long back. My cousin, Dharminder Lilly and his elder brother, both were into local races and all. Dharminder (Nannu) now owns a 2003 Yamaha R1 and is a national level snooker champ..

Seeing them, my love for bikes started, but what made me fall in love with touring? That begin when me and my family used to visit Shimla every now and then and I used to tell myself, "One day I will be conquering these roads on my bike"

And it started with the Shimla trip in Nov 2003. It was my first Himalayan trip and I was dead tired by the time I reached Shimla - just 350kms one way!

But over the time, I am now used to long rides.

This biking also made me ill. Sitting for prolonged hours on the seat has made a lump of infection in my lower back, near my tail bone.. But still, the love for biking makes me ride again and again. Will pop up pills and head out this sat or sun..

This pic is from my first Himalayan trip:
yes, my Karizma was silver originally!

Just 2 days left !!
Mood:  happy
2 more days and I will be off.. to my biggest bike trip yet!

From Pune to Delhi and then onto the Himalayas, this will be a 4500km return trip. Through 9 states.

I am currently using a June 2003 33000km+ Castrol Karizma which just had a good service with part changes too..

My previous experience has been like this:

1)Goa-Mangalore-Goa (750kms,Jan 2002 on a hired CBZ)
2)Delhi-Shimla-Fagu-Dehli (800kms, Nov 2003 on my Karizma)
3)Delhi-Shimla-Rohru-Mussoorie-Delhi (>1000kms, June 2004 on my Karizma)
4)Delhi-Mussoorie-Dhanaulti-Rohru-Shimla-Delhi (>1000kms, August 2004 on my Karizma)
5)Delhi-Chail-Shimla-Delhi (750kms, Sep 2004 on my Karizma)
6)Delhi-Shimla-Narkanda-Rohru-Kharapathar-Chaupal-Paonta Sahib-Delhi (>1100kms, Dec 2004 on my Karizma)
7)Delhi-Shimla-Kharapathar-Rohru-Narkanda-Delhi (>1100kms, May 2005 on my Karizma)
8)Pune-Mangalore-Pune (>1700kms, July 2005 on my Karizma)


But this will be the best trip yet.
Himalayas, here I come ..