Enroute the way to procuring the Bonnie, I had begun to get a fair idea of the local edition of RAT (Riders Association of Triumph) christened BRATs. I was given to understand that this group was a fairly active one and had quite some rides done these past months and that was what I was looking for.
So on the 13th evening, I paid a visit to the dealership to get the bike registration sticker in place and then went late evening to the SHELL petrol pump to tank up my bike and filled up around 3 litres.
I decided that I would only ride with the group upto the breakfast point although not knowing where it would be, since I was a bit under the influence of the antibiotics.
The drug drained the energy out of me as I crawled onto bed for hopefully a good night's sleep and a great ride on the morrow.
The mobile alarm buzzed at quarter before 5 and as I sat up the excitement began to rush in.
Inaugarated my new mesh riding jacket with the rest of the riding gear and left home around quarter past five.
The ride to Yeshwantpur Metro (our rendevous point) about 20km away was filled up with sights of a Sunday Bangalore morning with the walkers, cyclists, milk and newspaper vendors going about their business as the Sun slowly but surely began to warm up the eastern skies.
I was the fourth one to join the group and slowly the rest began to trickle in.
Venky who was organizing the ride, called all of us in for a brief to discuss the ride plan. He mentioned that about 3 others would join in from the NICE road junction. As with every ride, we had a structure with a "point" leading the ride, a "sweep" who made sure that no one fell behind and the rest could ride anywhere in between. Safety at high speeds was the key.
We started off and as we moved towards Nelamangala and beyond the traffic started thinning out and then each rider started showing their true colors of their rides.
About the rides themselves were a Rocket Roadster 2300cc, a Thunderbird Storm 1700cc, a Yamaha MT-01 1700cc, a couple of Street Triples 675cc, three each of Bonneville & its variant T100's 865cc.
The Rain God was kind enough throughout the journey to provide us with dark monsoon clouds and not have them rain yet during our trip.
Finally around 8:30am, we reached Sira and entered the premises of Kamat restaurant. The locals and the security guards gathered around these bikes as we made our way into the restaurant. We ordered a nice spread of Idli vada, poori bhaji, plain/masala dosa, vada sambhar followed by filter coffee.
After some chit chat, we came out to have some photo sessions in the open which didn't take too much time.
Then we tanked up on some of the bikes and the group split in two - one headed back home and the other continuing further to Vani Vilas Sagar dam near Hiriyur.
The ride back was uneventful and I was home by around 11:30am.
A few items to upgrade in order of priority.
1) Change to a full face helmet. Above 100kmph, my helmet intended to take off if it had not been buckled up.
2) Procure knee guards
3) Try to source a good pair of riding shoes.
So on the 13th evening, I paid a visit to the dealership to get the bike registration sticker in place and then went late evening to the SHELL petrol pump to tank up my bike and filled up around 3 litres.
I decided that I would only ride with the group upto the breakfast point although not knowing where it would be, since I was a bit under the influence of the antibiotics.
The drug drained the energy out of me as I crawled onto bed for hopefully a good night's sleep and a great ride on the morrow.
The mobile alarm buzzed at quarter before 5 and as I sat up the excitement began to rush in.
Inaugarated my new mesh riding jacket with the rest of the riding gear and left home around quarter past five.
The ride to Yeshwantpur Metro (our rendevous point) about 20km away was filled up with sights of a Sunday Bangalore morning with the walkers, cyclists, milk and newspaper vendors going about their business as the Sun slowly but surely began to warm up the eastern skies.
I was the fourth one to join the group and slowly the rest began to trickle in.
Venky who was organizing the ride, called all of us in for a brief to discuss the ride plan. He mentioned that about 3 others would join in from the NICE road junction. As with every ride, we had a structure with a "point" leading the ride, a "sweep" who made sure that no one fell behind and the rest could ride anywhere in between. Safety at high speeds was the key.
We started off and as we moved towards Nelamangala and beyond the traffic started thinning out and then each rider started showing their true colors of their rides.
About the rides themselves were a Rocket Roadster 2300cc, a Thunderbird Storm 1700cc, a Yamaha MT-01 1700cc, a couple of Street Triples 675cc, three each of Bonneville & its variant T100's 865cc.
The Rain God was kind enough throughout the journey to provide us with dark monsoon clouds and not have them rain yet during our trip.
Finally around 8:30am, we reached Sira and entered the premises of Kamat restaurant. The locals and the security guards gathered around these bikes as we made our way into the restaurant. We ordered a nice spread of Idli vada, poori bhaji, plain/masala dosa, vada sambhar followed by filter coffee.
After some chit chat, we came out to have some photo sessions in the open which didn't take too much time.
Then we tanked up on some of the bikes and the group split in two - one headed back home and the other continuing further to Vani Vilas Sagar dam near Hiriyur.
The ride back was uneventful and I was home by around 11:30am.
A few items to upgrade in order of priority.
1) Change to a full face helmet. Above 100kmph, my helmet intended to take off if it had not been buckled up.
2) Procure knee guards
3) Try to source a good pair of riding shoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment