Garage Noise

Wishful thinking: ZX12R.

2009-08-02T23:21:00.006+05:30

Hey guys,

It has been ages since I thought about bikes and riding in general. The past two years were spent completing my Masters (Computer Science) with no bike and no possibility of affording one. But now I'm on a job hunt, and what that means is, once I find a job, I hit Craigslist.

What am I dreaming about? Everything really. My original plan was to go for a Kawasaki ZX6R or a Kawasaki Z750, ride that for a year or so, and move up to a Kawasaki ZX-12R. Considering how rare it has become to find those Kawasaki ZX-12Rs now, it makes sense for me to go for that directly. Yes, from the staunch belief of not stepping into the shoes of a big bike without going up the chain, to fulfilling a childhood dream, I am hoping I secure a job soon. The ZX12R makes perfect sense today.

One in good condition would cost anywhere from $4500-7000. The best part? It is as fast (if not faster) than most modern superbikes in a straightline, looks AMAZING, is comfortable for someone my size and with that kinda rwhp stock, it'll be a while before needing any performance enhancements.

I can't stop looking at listings on craigslist and wishing I get some moolah in the pocket before someone goes ahead and steals an AMAZING deal.

Just look at it. What ever happened to the time when bikes had a simple flowing design and individual look that matched the engine performance and characteristics..?

Ahh.. make mine a green? Please?

So what?

2007-11-18T15:46:00.001+05:30

That's the emotion that runs through my mind when I see a ten-nine-eight or a slammed out busa. The only time I remember getting excited was when all the noises of roaring v8s kept tearing into my head when I got here. Clemson, South Carolina. The noises were magical. The house where I was to stay temporarily, did not have the adjacent highway in sight, but the sounds were distinctly magical. I remember that pack of Ninjas distinctly. They rolled up at the red light, took a right on the highway and rode away leaving behind a glorious symphony of akrapovics.

If there's one word to define the US of A, it's 'Excess.' And in that vein, there's an excess of power on all vehicles. People drive alone in ten seater (at the least) SUVs. Each truck is bigger than the next. Everything from Cheese to Paranoia is in Excess.

I haven't gone out hunting for photos of automobiles cos there's just too much of it all around. I have a couple of snaps from here and there which might be of some interest. Note that I'm staying at a very conservative, college town where SUVs and trucks dominate the 4 wheels while Harleys and Customs dominate the 2 wheels. The 4 wheelers far outnumber the 2 wheelers here. And for good reason. More on that later though.

EDIT: I noticed after uploading that photobucket has started messing with the quality of the images.

Enjoy the pics:

Well these are just random few images I clicked. I'll try to cover more stuff as time progresses. BTW Clemson's official color is Orange, and it is considered a 'cool' color. So vehicles in orange are special!

I got a video of the 1098:

P.S.: You may use these images but please include the source along with it.

What's up with GarageNoise?

2007-10-24T19:40:00.000+05:30

Sorry for killing the blog off. I've been busy with my *insertfavoriteexcusehere* and found no time. Blah blah blah..

Time to revive GarageNoise. This time I have a camera with me. Sadly I've lost a truckload of Kodak moments already, but let's just say this blog is gonna see a lot more photos.

I have a couple of pictures (and stories) from past few months which I need to share with you guys. I already have forgotten the finer points (I'm pretty sure), but hopefully the pictures will speak up.

I have to resize all of them (and sort em out), so this post WILL have no photos, but the next one will be all out.

To all my friends, keep in touch guys!

Garagenoise v2.0.

Kawasaki 2007 Bike Week Blog

2007-03-22T01:04:00.000+05:30

All those who bleed green, check it out. The 2007 Bike Week Blog.

Fast?

2007-03-19T20:53:00.000+05:30

Yes, but retarded. Watch and decide.

Navi Mumbai Meet Video Edit

2007-03-19T00:54:00.001+05:30

Hey guys, spent a few hours straight on this one. Picked up a few pics from the Meet thread at xBhp. Thanks for the pics to those who deserve it, you know who you are. :)

Here's the vid. Instead of those small (but nice) videos I figured this could be a much better way to remember the nice meet we had.

I will upload the vid asap for download (it is 26MB), but as of now, here's a "light" version of the video. It loads up pretty quick so dont worry, be a little patient :D

If you dont know what I"m talking about Check this post for the pics and this post for the vids!

Cheers!!!

There was so much I could have done but I didn't have enough time. Have to catch up onsoime studies too.. exams begin next week. :D

Manas Karekar. (Originally posted: 15/11/06)

Navi Mumbai Mega Meet Pics

2007-03-19T00:53:00.000+05:30

November 5, 2006. A nice piece of road a little away from the Ghansoli station. Those who missed it, read and weep.

AnthonyDcruz and See_me_wheelie(Vinit)

NOS anyone? :D This recently acquired stock RD was running well.

The Famous Mr. Muntaser a.k.a RaginBull from the hugely popular Bike and Car India magazines, made a guest appearance at the meet. (But had to leave as soon as he saw the big bikes)

Fred proving Zma can take the 400rr. Notice the wings. Also notice the 400rr rider's indifference.

Huge turnout.

Nice bike. Nicer dude. Thanks for the pillion stoppie!

Doesn't this pic make you smile?

And so the day rolled..

But Fred's Rickshaw wouldn't. Sorry about the bruised elbow dude.

Fred and Powerslave (Me) Slagging (slow dragging for the uninitiated), and I'm winning :D. [Pic courtesy: Ascetic Rogue]

Sherzad and Nitrox (Kshitij) returning after their drag.

Sorry the batteries ran out so soon. Someone forgot to charge them and it wasn't me :D Else this page would've run much longer.

For videos, Click here. Trust me, you don't wanna miss them.

P.S.- Those who missed this, I'm sorry for you.

(Originally posted : 6/11/06)

Navi Mumbai Mega Meet Videos

2007-03-19T00:52:00.000+05:30

Nov 5th, 2006. Navi Mumbai. Those who missed it really missed something nice.
Here's what you've been waiting for, and don't forget to turn up your volume all the way!

Listen!

The RDD350 and CBR400RR having some fun of their own

The CB400N and Red RD havin some fun.

The Rdd350 (Rashmobile) and the Cbr400rr slugging it out. Some problem with the rd popped up.

The rdd350 (Rashmobile) was supposed to be the fastest bike till it's age decided to play spoilsport. Something broke.

I used to like this bike, now I LOVE it.

Have you seen the pictures of this meet? Click here if you haven't!

P.S. Those who've missed this, please pray something similar comes through soon.

(Originally posted 6/11/06)

TVS Apache gear - Gloves!

2007-03-18T15:19:00.000+05:30

Bought a pair of new gloves, within 30 minutes of knowing about it. Picked up the first pair in the showroom. It's that good. :D
Superb, Blue size medium. INR447/- It's a steal!

Highlights of the gloves from it's pack:

- Manufactured as per SA8000 and ISO standards.
- Spandex and Lycra on the back for superior breathbility and comfort.
- Terry towel over the thumb to wipe sweat.
- Specially developed rubber pads on the knuckles and fingers for extra protection.
- Lycra forchettes for a better fit.
- Digital print on palm for a secure grip.
- GEL sandwich pad on pressure points for extra shock absorption and comfort.

My first impressions were:

- Nice breathing.
- Nice padding on the palm (where it has hurt me the most in my two falls).
- Nice fitting.
- Nice sticky grip on the palm.
- Knuckle guards seem properly placed.
- The thumb area is made up of terry towel material which indeed is nice for sweat absorption.

They've also launched some kickass tankbags (affordability is what makes it kickass) and nice helmets (Vega).

More stuff here: http://nowornever.in/AccessoriesHome.aspx

Mumbai Speed Run - Day 2 Pictures Bikes

2007-02-19T05:48:00.000+05:30

Captions and details to follow, enjoy the pics for now. Bikes at the Mumbai Speed Run 2007.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Mumbai Speed Run - Day 2 Pictures Cars

2007-02-19T05:47:00.000+05:30

Cars Pictures from Day 2 from the Mumbai Speed Run 2007 .

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Mumbai Speed Run - Day 1 Pictures

2007-02-19T02:38:00.000+05:30

Here are the pictures from the Day One of the Mumbai Speed Run 2007. Please note that these are limited by of a prohibitive memory card and half of it being unaccessible due to reasons. These are not all the images I have from day one, but they will give you a good idea. Pics from Day 2, and videos from Day one and Day two will both be put up soon. I'm phasing it out so you get to view em asap.

More stuff to follow soon.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar

Pulsar 200 Dyno Ride

2007-02-12T20:57:00.000+05:30

Took the ride on Friday (or was it?). The dyno was impressive. The readout was on an LCD screen. It showed rpm, speed, o-60 (mph I presume), max power etc.

Nice dyno. It was a bit overwhelming, to actually let the feeling sink in that you're doin a dyno run in India, in a Company Showroom. Nice.

About the test ride, not a good concept. But considering other manufacturers (even international) don't allow test rides for the bikes on the road, it gives you *some* relief. I was not given a test ride on the Karizma till I put my money down for one (2 years after its launch). Can't comment much on most aspects of the bike due to limitations to the functionality of a dyno.
Here's what I CAN comment on.

- Beautiful bike. Very Very good package. Remarkable goodies.

- 0-60mph (unless it was kph) on the dyno said 11.## sec (I wasn't really aiming for it). This is fast(unless it's in kph, not really sure, cos it was a recorded statistic from my many runs and I never really went for a 0-60 sprint, I was kicking the shit out of gear 1 for most time to try to get max power figure).

- Max power figure I could get was 12 rwhp. Now this is far from accurate, cos god knows how bajaj have tweaked the dyno. Moreover, the power above 8k rpm fell to 2-4 rwhp. No power curves on display. :(

- One thing I didn't do was tally the on-screen speed to the speedo indicated speed. (Could someone fill in the missing details here please?!)

- Seat is super comfortable. Ditto for pillion.

- Exhaust sound *seems* nice.

- Riding position very nice.

- Exhaust styling not to my liking.

- Nice tankpad.

- 10k more than a Pulsar 180, 10k less than a Karizma.

Bajaj have made the probiking showrooms into something really nice. They've got a really REALLY *cough*bullshit*cough* long advert of the old 180, and that maybe updated soon enogh.

The bike isn't up for delivery in Navi Mumbai yet, but orders are being taken. This is one bike to watch out for.

After the p220 has been hogging the limelight, this is the worthy upgrade to 180 to watch out for. I like.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

What Kawasaki is about.

2007-02-02T20:38:00.000+05:30

This is what Kawasaki is about. Won't talk much, just enjoy the advertisements. I will just say no one comes close to Kawasaki in the 'attitude' department.

Cheers.

India's first online two wheeler magazine!

2007-01-28T11:27:00.000+05:30

Such a big country this. With the most number of two wheelers on the planet (I think). We do not have a single E-zine meant for two wheelers. And although we've recently had a dedicated print magazine for bikes, there's still a ridiculous lack of information/garage projects/expert opinions
for the bikers of the country.

Stuck with very small bikes (Fuck You Bike Lobbies), with even smaller doses of information about how we can actually modify our bikes for fun, performance and usability reliably, there is a screaming need for specialists to take up such jobs to the mainstream. You see magazines abroad take the Superbikes and modify them as pet projects. We need this culture here. (And the Superbikes). With no professional direction and the hogwash dished out by existing print media, biking is more esoteric a subject than a hobby.

Hoping to see a lot of action now with the arrival of the slightly powerful bikes ( pathetically slower than even the learner bikes from other countries), I think this culture of e-zines needs to take off right now. It will not just open up a new avenue for enthusiasts to work their hobbies out as a full time job, but also help demystify the crypts of biking in India. It will work at great length to explain correctly the much misunderstood culture of biking.

It's about time Indian Bikers stand up and demand world-class bikes, just like the other Indian markets. And I think we have a new start-up in the right direction by the name of IndiaOn2Wheels.

This is India's First Online Bike Magazine (e-zine if I may). And seems to have a good feel to it. Finally something about bikes and not about egos. They have a forum too and I would like to wish them All The Very Best.

To the newbies out there, think twice before judging a book by it's cover. Quality has been amiss and hope this one lives up to the expectations.

Best Of Luck IO2W Team!

Chilled.

2007-01-23T01:46:00.000+05:30

If you've read the previous post about the GF stud boy, this post will make that look like a prologue of sorts.

It's not new to me now. It's been awhile. I don't go all out on the roads anymore. Atleast no foolish life-at-stake stunt riding.

Things I do :

- Traffic Light GPs. Ends in a hell-bent-to-prove-a-point-rider who will overtake you after 'the drag is over. When this happens, you know you have hurt some ego. Fun.

- Do play on open stretches. Fun to honk at and pass people who are doing max speeds. Pisses the hell outta them. Obviously.

- Do a lot of stupid things when I'm riding for fun, alone. Relax if someone gets too excited. Unless I'm on a nice open stretch (which I generally am).

- Sometimes ride off the sides of the road even if it's a nice road. If the road is nicely done up, it becomes boring. Too much India.

- Cruise at comfortable speeds when unsure of what lies ahead. Sure sign of post-puberty.

- Wave out to bikers. Not all of them wave back. Post-hauled-ass syndrome.

- Back off if the action is getting out of hand. Living > Dying. Quite unlike a few seasons back.

- Flip generously.

What I don't do:

- Break rules. Within Indian tolerance limits.

- Mess with cages. There's a lot to lose.

- Play if someone starts to mess around in traffic. Unlike earlier.

- Fist fights.

- Honk the hell out. Till someone deserves it.

Ride fast, not stupid.

Stupid Vs. Fast

2006-12-23T19:27:00.000+05:30

On the 23rd while going to college for my exam, I was cruising nicely at 80-90 kmph on the highway, cherishing the soothing smoothness of the Karizma. A bike started whizzing on my tail. I have a tendency to cruise on the left edge of the lane-marker between the fastest and second fastest lanes when I'm moving faster than the general traffic.

This guy comes up in the right-most lane, on a rattly GF170. Not wearing a helmet, ripping as if he was on a suicide mission. Not realising how desperate he'd get I decide to have some fun.

For people who know about the roads here, I was on the Thane Eastern Express Highway going towards Octroi Naka. Ofcourse I wasn't letting him pass me. As we know what is comfortable speed for the Karizma is pretty unsafe for most other (Indian) bikes today. So I keep pulling ahead, just enough for him to catch up. As we approach the toll naka I slow down nicely and the guy is trying hard to get by. This toll naka is a Bike-Nazi Zero-Lanes-For-Bikers types. So what bikers are forced to take is the leftmost quarter of a car channel. In short, only one bike can pass at one time.

I pop there first. The guy in front of me chickens out of taking the lane as a truck is paying up it's dues in the rest of the lane. I brake smooth and good to a complete stop. I, slightly nervously, check my rear-view for any signs of him nicking me from behind, but as it turns out, I watched another 100cc cmmuter rear end him. Ha Ha! What a laugh! As I sped outta the toll booth, all I could do was look in my rear view mirror at the arguing twosome and laugh like a freak inside my helmet.

There's a signal immediately after the toll booth.. which turned red. As I waited for the Go sign, this dude pulled up somewhere in the bunch of cars. As the light turned green, I obviously sped away in true traffic light GP style. Clearly pulling ahead of everyone, I saw this blue/grey speck in my mirror. I also saw a piece of road approaching which hadn't been too kind to me in the past. I must be doing some 100 kmph when I approached it and slowed down considerably to 60 kmph odd in a pretty scary moment. Scary because I was shit scared of being rear-ended by our Max Biaggi. As expected he whizzed by me with no loss of speed and jumping all the bumps. I could only pity the guy for getting so desperate to risk his life (no helmet, remember) trying to prove what?

That he was a better rider than me?
That he had a faster bike?
That a slower bike could beat a faster bike?
That he was a retard with all of the above reasons and very little common sense.

As I watched him pull away from the patch of bumpy road, I was left feeling strangely reminded about my crash exactly at that spot. It was a high speed fall. And felt a bit uneasy in the guts, and to the fact that my ego had supposedly been dented cos I let him pass me like that. But then I realised, I just guaranteed myself another day to ride. I "won" many times over, I just let him pass this time. I was satisfied that I didn't get caught up in the moment and repeat the same mistake twice. Ah, maturity kicking in. As I rode upto the beautiful Airoli bridge, I thought of the incident at the toll booth and chuckled my way to my Exam.

The Airloli Bridge

Cheers,
Manas.

Ten Insecurities of an Indian biker

2006-12-09T11:58:00.000+05:30

After having ridden on Indian roads for almost 6 complete years now (recent four of which comprise complete highway riding) , I think I have a little perspective on the insecurities of bikers, not just in India. This article does not stem from any recent close-calls or mishaps. I think it warrants a mention that I have been riding on the highways on a 100cc Splendor for the first three years and a 223cc Karizma for the past year.

Tenth insecurity of a biker on Indian roads would be having yourself confer the title of Spittoon on wheels. If you're lucky, you might even get yourself some red spit from that paan. I consciously avoid riding behind the sides of any vehicle.

Ninth would have to be the riders who think they are the best. Now there are very few people who actually don't believe that, myself not included, but those who go all out to prove it to everyone are the ones that scare the shit out of me. A little maturity has taught me to let such people pass, even if it means giving them the false satisfaction of having beat a bigger and faster bike. No thanks, I'd rather die fighting sharks, atleast my family wouldn't be ashamed to tell others about it.

Eighth insecurity is held in the "City Riding" set of insecurities buffer in my head. The most dangerous automobile on the planet, and not without reason - the Autorickshaw! It turns on a dime, it flips in a blink, stops after a lot of convincing and crawls in the fast lane for eternity. City rider's worst nightmare. Buses fall in the same category.

Seventh, I would have to go with the Indian Goddess. The much beloved and respected - the cow. We are taught in primary school " Gaai Hamari Maata Hai " (The Cow is our mother), but a also a serious road hazard. Not too much of a problem in the cities, but very very risky on the highways. In cities, Dogs substitute.

Sixth one is traffic light jumpers. These are just plain retards. They not only risk their lives, but of those following traffic rules too. Somehow they never realise that " I'll make it just before the other signal goes green" seldom works the way they picture it. Sooner or later crash on their own.

Fifth scary thought would have to be the unforgiving water tankers parked bang in the middle of a fast lane. Imagine this, you're doing 95kph on your favourite highway and there's a car in front of you. You're at ease with yourself thinking about the day that passed you by, and in a split second from hell, the car in front swerves and changes lanes to reveal the water tank that now looks like the Rock of Gibraltar. What do you do? If you're lucky/skilled/alert, more importantly lucky, you may get away. But imagine the other 50% possibility. You bang straight into the tanker. Like hitting a wall. This is not too uncommon. On my everyday route, I have atleast two stretches of 100kph+ cruising capability with such tankers gracing the venue occasionally. Scary.

Fourth one would have to be that pothole from hell. You never know when one could pop up even on your everyday route! There's always this ticker in the back of my head telling me to keep an eye out for potholes. I've had my fall thanks to some nice ones. Being in India, I measure how well I know a road by how well I know the location of each and every pothole on a certain route. I've always wondered, people would pay good money to watch regulars of a certain route carve their way in and out of the hazardous path just to get to work on time, everyday. I can bet it would be more interesting to watch than watch ANY track race. Isle of Man? What is that?

Did I mention people who slam on the brakes and swerve out of their lanes in the middle of a highway just to avoid a pothole?

Third insecurity would be drunk drivers. I have exchanged a few such stories with friends where all of us have been on the receiving end. Such incidents generally end in a violent and bloody mess.

The Second would be the Politicians' 'Laal Batti Gaadi' ( Red - Beacon Car). Most times the drivers of such cars are

- drunk,
- not holding any licenses,
- fearless of any traffic control,
- fearless of running you over,
- holding weapons,
- in a hurry,
- looking to pick a fight.

They scare me the most, but lose out on the top spot because of one simple reason - they are easy to identify, and thus, easy to keep away from, unlike the sleepers who mingle with the traffic and hit you out of nowhere.

And my Numero Uno insecurity is undoubtedly road rage. A raging person with 2 tons of metal at his command, who also happens to be in a mood to kill is the scariest thought that runs in my mind. I have had my share of incidents with such people and it would sound something out of a film script but let's save those stories for some other day.

This list is by no means comprehensive. That would take up quite some space.

Cheers!
Manas.

All images copyright of their respective owners.

Smoking on the bike ?

2006-11-17T03:49:00.000+05:30

While watching some Zx14 Videos on YouTube, I came across this video. Now I've seen a lot, and trust me when I say, a lot of bike videos, but never did I come across such a video. Maybe it's just me.

The video titled "Smokin on a bike" starts off to a guy putting on gloves, sitting on his zx14 parked in the garage, switching on the bike and it's headlights, and lighting up a nice smoke! Now I thought he may proceed to ride like that on the street or something, but he just stood there, displaying his flair while smoking, and finally shut off the bike!

I can understand a person loving his bike so much as to go to it, sit on it, and pretend to be going somewhere even when it's parked. But, going up and lighting a smoke on it- well maybe that's cos I dont smoke! But the crazier part was the props his fellow smokers gave him for the video!

Watch this and tell me what you make of it. There are a few more posted by the same user, if you wanna go through those.

Lemme know what you make of it!

Cheers!
Manas K.

Navi Mumbai Meet - Pics and Videos

2006-10-25T03:37:00.000+05:30

The Navi Mumbai meet that took place on the morning of Sunday, October 22, 2006.

Pics:

The 2006 Pulsar 180 Dts-i.

The Digital Speedometer with a nice tachometer and a shift light.

The international aftermarket favourite - LED taillight.

Joshua Crasto's (BSMotoring) Work-in-progress RD350.

The Classic Honda VF750F

Alan's (IndianChief) RD built to US-Spec with the works. For details visit RDDreams.

Rohit's RD350 built by RDDreams, the Rashmobile.

Alroy's Rx135 4-speed done up by RDDreams. It left my Karizma for dust.

Videos:

Alan's RD being taken for a spin.

After the ride

Firing up the Honda VF750F

Rohit ripping the Rashmobile

Joshua ripping his RD350

And again..

And yet again!

If you liked these and would like to attend any further meets, please get in touch. Just leave a comment here.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

SuperVirgin No more

2006-10-17T15:42:00.000+05:30

After truckload of dreams and fantasies, countless desperate glances, infatuation to the point that it starts hurting, and babbling about it like there's no tomorrow, I finally got a "real" superbike ride.

I had my vivas at 9AM Nerul. Woke up nice and cosy at 7, was ready to leave by 8, when I get a call from Manav. He asked me if I was busy as he had just entered Thane. He was headed to Pune which incidentally follows the same route as the one that goes to my college.

15 minutes later we meet up, he shows up in a Honda CBR600rr, and I slip into the saddle. Not expecting anything I'm kinda shocked and a bit scared when he hands me the keys saying "Don't rip too much"

Quick thought process in my head - " Scared as its the first ride, how would be the throttle response, how sensitive will be the brakes, when might the front wheel come up? Should I just turn the chance to ride it, down? "

Hell No!!!

I plug in the key, turn it to see Honda's HISS (Honda Ignition Security System) perform the dancing needles routine. Slot it into first, Manav advises not to mess with the first gear, so I slot into second and slowly let the throttle roll. The bassy roar fills up the air and slowly and steadily the revs climb, I'm shortshifting and by the time I reach gear 3 I'm doing 110kph, even while I was expecting to go "real" slow.

We turn around, the steering is pretty different from the smaller bikes I'm used to, and took some effort to turn in. Even the gearshift is a bit too clunky, though precise. But that's just me, cos it's something which can be justified after wearing riding boots.

On the way back, Manav takes the reigns and advises me to hold tight. He rips like crazy and I have never been more scared in my life. I found no grip on the tank to hold on! My hands kept slipping off the tank while I was literally flying off the bike. The acceleration is mind-blowing. And that's just a stock 600cc. At the end of the straight Manav tells me we were power wheeling and touched 160kph in that short stretch. I don't disagree.

I'm shivering, in fear and respect while I mourn the fact that we, Indians, don't get this REAL biking, and are forced to ride puny 17bhp bikes that struggle to cross the 130kph mark. Bikes which take 5 gears and a few years to touch 100kph. We don't know what biking is. We have been missing it all these years and until we get hold of such machines, we will continue to do so.

I'm a changed man. I know what biking is, now. You could say I took the red pill of biking today.
I realized I haven't been riding bikes all these years, they are make believe toys, just like a kid in the garden posing on a ride that he's astride a real horse.

Shame then, to the Indian Biking Scene. Respect though, to those who know how to handle these big bikes which incite fear, make you respect them, make you think twice before twisting the throttle wide, make you recall your lessons of physics and reinforce your fear of god.

And to think some nuts turbocharge machines, twice the size of this and ride them to the fullest.

I think I've seen everything.

Cheers.

Manas.

P.S.- My Vivas were first, and they went GREAT! (All I cold think of was the bike)

Heat Vision and Jack

2006-09-22T22:40:00.000+05:30

Hey guys, since I've been watching a lot of movies lately, especially frat pack movies, I stumbled across this - Heat Vision and Jack. It's a totally silly, typical Jack Black/Ben Stiller comedy/sci-fi television show. The thing is though, that only the pilot episode was ever shot and and the show was never picked up by FOX networks.

So why is it on this blog? Well the show is about Heat Vision (voice by Owen Wilson), who was Jack Austin's (played by Jack Black) room-mate but got fused into a motorcycle, when Ron Silver- a man from NASA out to get Jack Black, shoots him with an experimental ray gun. Ron Silver is after Jack Black because Jack black was an astronaut whose spaceship travelled too close to the sun and resulted in the expansion of his brain, making him as much as three times smarter than the wisest man on earth. This was only when the sun shone, at night, he'd be only human. Ron silver wants to get Jack's brain.

It's a cult classic indie episode, with great silly (sic) quotes about motorcycles. Spoof of Knight Rider, Northstar, X-Files and almost all sci-fi flicks. If you like indie movies, the frat pack, or motorcycles, give this a shot. It's certainly not the most critically acclaimed, but it's Directed by Ben Stiller. And it's funny.

Here's some screen captures :

With quotes like:

"Heat Vision: He pushed me over.
The Sheriff: He got away?
Heat Vision: Listen, lady, he pushed me over."

"Jack Austin: You learn to accept things when you're on the run... if fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle."

Go watch it!

Bajaj Rocks

2006-09-18T13:45:00.000+05:30

This post is nothing but a tribute to the greatest bike maker in India. And it's a wholly Indian effort too. Bajaj. Ever since Rahul Bajaj stepped down and Rajiv Bajaj took over, Bajaj has been churning out some of the best bikes ever! They have been redefining the rules of biking industry ever since they launched the Kawasaki Bajaj Eliminator way back in 2000.

The pulsars are something the Indian biker can truly be proud of. Ever since they've been launched, they've been making waves. Every single iteration of the pulsar has given bikers a chance to rejoice, a reason to jump up and down in joy. When the first pulsar 150 and 180 duo was launched, it wasn't just the hottest thing on two wheels, it also was the fastest. In a market which Hero Honda could have built nicely by using Honda's expertise, they chose to bring out the same engine over and over again. Charging and over-charging, like Shylock, the greedy Merchant of Venice. They were exploiting the bikers, throwing crap at us, and charging truckloads for minor upgrades. Then came Bajaj. They created havoc in the little dream that HH were having. Hero Honda launched the karizma to save themselves but it was overpriced, underpowered, a good bike overall, but not at all justifying it's price tag. Not to mention the pathetic after sales support.

Bajaj launched the upgraded 15o and 180 dtsi, which looked awesome, went faster, and generally made everything around them look old. The karizma and the cbz, their respective competitors from Hero Honda remained unchanged. Rather they increased their prices!

A year later Bajaj upgrades the Pulsars once again with alloy wheels, gas shocks and what not as standard. For no extra cost. And then again a year later upgrades the 180 to a scintillating All-Black version of the bike. The Karizma remains unchanged.

Now, the Pulsars have yet again redefined the Indian biking scene by introducing the pulsars with not just 220cc fuel injected version, but providing the following as standard on the newest iteration of the 180 :

- Digital Speedometer and a huge tachometer!
- Famed worldwide LED tail lights.
- Amazing aggressive front end.
- Glowing switchgear.
- Self-Cancelling Indicators.

And other minor but significant details!

Bajaj rocks. They have been introducing new features with every launch and all of them have been standard. Not " pay per feature" crap like Hero Honda. And their prices have been more than reasonable, not to mention the beautiful performance and optimum fuel efficiency.

Bajaj is the only Indian manufacturer which can be compared to International Bike makers. They have introduced the international format of upgrading the same model every year. Now we can proudly refer to different iterations of the pulsars as an 03 pulsar, an 05 pulsar etc and not be talking about just the year of purchase.

They have been offering amazing features for no extra price in not just their flagship products but also their entry level models. No wonder they're leading in all the segments.

Their spares are cheap, easily available and service isn't any worse than the other companies. Unlike HH where you are punished for buying a more expensive bike with ridiculously expensive and unavailable spare parts. I'm glad Bajaj is kicking Hero Honda's ass in each and every segment. HH deserves this. They are the reason for the stagnant Indian Biking scene, they are the reason for milking money out of desperate bikers. IT's time HH is put to rest. I sincerely hope Hero Honda goes bankrupt, not just like that, but pitifully, ruthlessly forced out of business. God I wait for the day.

All hail Bajaj.

The Sweetest Sound

2006-08-17T19:19:00.000+05:30

Here's a video from bikevids.com. It is a tank-cam video from one of the craziest bikes ever to exist.

The Legendary Kawasaki Zx-7R.

Known for the maximum power in it's class and sharper-than-a-switchblade handling, it was a perfect trackbike with a crazy crazy powerband and it was quoted on one of the reviews that "If you ran over a fly with the front wheel you'd know it", yeah, that kinda feedback.

Here's the video. It is 29.6MB and totally worth it.

Video Courtesy of BikePics.Com

http://video.bikepics.com/wmv-416-96/Soboth-ZX7R-TankCam-480sec.wmv

Just note the rpm needle past the 10k mark. He's not ripping it throughout but watch out for those short bursts.

Cheers!

Ride to Alibagh Video

2006-07-28T07:39:00.000+05:30

This was a trip between three friends who were sick of exams and real life as such. We took to Alibagh sometime in June. The pics are on their way. The vid is here. Please be patient as it loads.

Also it's my first attempt at video editing so please excuse. =)

Please do comment, compliments, brick-bats, suggestions all go into improving my next vid. =)

Check out the ride pics here.

Ride To Alibagh

2006-07-28T07:38:00.000+05:30

After a ride in April I hadn't had a ride in three months. The hiatus being filled by the exams. My other friends hadn't been to a ride since January! So the anticipation was strong and execution perfect.

Short ride to Alibagh, a 100kms one way seemed a perfect alternative. Nice cloudy skies (which made for tough photographic conditions) made it very pleasant to ride.

The roads were good and had greenery engulfing them. Basically a very feel good atmosphere.

Just perfect!

Here's some photos of the trip (they're not the best cos of the cloudy skies that pevailed that day):

The roads. Beautiful, with very little traffic.

As you approach Alibagh, the Greenery becomes denser.

All in all we loved every part of the trip, except the dirty, make that filthy, beach. Plus the people there are ready to fool you at the drop of a hat! Highly recommended to spend as little as possible once you're inside Alibagh.

Hence the saying " Alibagh se aaya huun kya? " ;)

Check out the video here.

Comments welcome.

Cheers!

Riding in the rain

2006-07-21T15:39:00.000+05:30

Monsoons - Greenery all around, cool climate, cleaner air, the mollifying breeze and the sun, obscured by clouds. Everyone's happy all around. Well, almost.

The non-chalance broken by swear-words from a muddy, filthy, dripping wet creature that will not bow down to nature, and keep true to the idiosyncracies of his species. For him, come hell or high water, two wheels will be the weapon of choice.

Yes, the biker. Non-conformist, unimpressionable, incorrigible and intrepid.

The monsoons add new levels of challenges for riders. You could be riding for decades, but you would still be totally new to riding in the wet. Unless, of course, you have the experience. Riding in the wet gives the laws of physics a new whip to crack at you. Each law of physics which bikers tend to defy in dry conditions, demands amplified respect and there's no defying them. What you could do though, is to understand them, and follow them thoroughly. Yeah, we all know rules are for fools, but trying to defy laws of physics in the wet isn't too smart now, is it?

You'd be surprised that when you do ride ethically in the wet, you're almost as fast as you ride in the dry. And the best part about it is, that when you've learnt to go fast in low-grip, low-light, cooler tyre temperatures, better control on the bike while trying not to hit those damned pot-holes, you're a better rider at the end of the monsoons. And then comes summer. With all its grip, confidence and the sunlit cheer (which adds 5 hp :D), you are more confident, faster, safer and most importantly, smoother.

I've ridden through four monsoons, two of them, considerably, this being the fourth. And through each monsoon, I've learnt better bike control, better braking, better balancing, better throttle inputs, smoother lines, and most importantly, better judgement. It's like a crash course in physics, minus the crashes if you're careful.

Let's take a look at some of the things I've been forced to learn by the shrew that Mother Nature is.

The splendor years.

- Zero electricals, brakes and power meant I had to use all the judgement I had and then some. I needed to ride assuming that the other vehicle did not and would not know of my presence, and then make my decisions. It's a hard job considering the road had it's own set of rules for me to follow. Unlike the infinte unmarked lines on a good road, the cratered roads offered a limited number of lines marked by muddy puddles.

- Braking was a tough job since the drum brakes offerred almost no stopping power, especially after being thrashed recklessly in the summer gone by. Solution was to engine brake. Innfact, brakes or no brakes, stopping on low-grip surfaces requires engine braking at all times. Heck, even motoGP riders use it, and their brakes are by no means weak! What it does is prevent the bike from transferring the weight to the front tyre, thus preventing it from the risk of locking and skidding. But care must be taken that the engine braking isn't too abrupt, and not downshifting a cog-too-many at once, else you'll end up losing out the rear end. A process much too common on the splendor.

- Accelerating through corners is not the greatest idea, unless you're well-aware of all the grip you have. To make use of maximum throttle while exiting a corner, try to get the bike upright as soon as possible, and then give it gas. Infact, keeping the bike in a straight line and upright gives you the maximum possible scope for braking and accelerating. To accelerate on the corners, the inputs have got to be a smooth as possible. This isn't too much of a problem on the 17bhp weed-whackers we're forced to call bikes.

- Going fast in the wet has just one key - smoothness. Be it straight line, cornering, traffic-carving or braking. If you're smooth, you're fast. Something track riders can't stress enough. This can be disobeyed in the dry without any dire consequences, but in the wet it's not an option. Unless you like to kiss the tarmac.

- The tyre does count in the amount of grip you get, but amongst medium grip and excellent grip tyres, medium grip are adequate if you can balance the bike without being carried away with the momentum while manouvering. Shifting the weight of the bike is the key. If you don't understand what this means, get hold of some offroad bike videos here. Keeping the bike balanced is the key, and more than the grip, the shifting of weight of the bike matters more.

The Karizma Year

This would be my first year of genuine wet riding on the Karizma. I did ride a bit in the wet last year, but that was not much.

- This bike is far more capable than the Splendor. Far superior brakes, that don't fade in the wet. Working electricals. Better power, meaning more control on the road and no more being bullied by four-wheelers or other pesky two-wheelers for that matter.

- Far better handling. Bigger tyres mean better grip. But negating this is a heavier weight to shift. Try 50% more. Yeah, at 150 Kgs, the Karizma is just a few Kgs short of the Enfield Bullet.

- On the upside, good low end torque (LET) means that the bike is easy to pull out of sticky situations, without being too abrupt with the power inputs.

- The stock tyres have a tendency to slip in partially wet conditions. But in full wet, the tyres are pretty good, as long as you're not trying to posh your chicken-strips further.

- The suspension is excellent and gives a nice cushion from the 'riding on a cheese-grater' effect. Watch out for big pot holes though, that alloy could bend, as did mine, or you could end up bottoming out the relatively soft front suspension, and having the number plate leave it's mark in the headlight.

All in all, the Karizma is a dream to ride on the wet roads. It provides better protection against mud thrown up by the vehicles in front, but redeems itself by spewing mud all over your feet. It is very, very stable, and braking is very progressive, which means, smooth braking is ensured by default, unless you go trigger happy.

More to follow soon. :)

Comments welcome.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Suzuki Big Bikes to Come to India

2006-06-30T08:09:00.000+05:30

Here we have ladies and gentlemen, what could probably change the face of Indian Biking forever.

Just read the sticker on the front fender.

It is just one simple pic. God knows if its for real. But it just seems genuine.

There are many things that make it seem so.

- It's definitely in India.
- Suzuki had mentioned this.
- The sticker is real and not a photochop.
- No one would mess with their superbike by sticking a sticker just for starting some rumour like this.
- The bike is brand new, with plastics still on, and the flyscreen not installed. No one would put a sticker on it, except the ruthless ARAI.

Now the things to get excited about are these-

- Nobody goes to ARAI just for fun. Companies go there when they have to launch the bike.
- It is no way going to be rejected or disapproved by ARAI.
- Even if they detune it, how much can you go down from 160bhp? 20?
- This is first blood. More companies to follow suit.
- Spawn a whole new generation of bikers that will make the current enthusiasts, the class of old school bikers.

I have been having this wierd feeling since sometime now. I've been giving my theories to tons of people but very few would take them. The time is right. This pic substantiates my theories to a large extent.

The Suzuki GSX-R series.

Hang on tight ladies and gentleman, this is goin to be a fast ride.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Karizma / CBZ/ Pulsar - Drag Bike?

2006-06-07T22:20:00.000+05:30

This was the bike that ran at the Mumbai Speed Run Kharghar 2006.

Set-up by Team Motokraft, ridden by M Muthukumar. It did posted the following quarter-mile result:

2 Muthu Kumar CBZ RACEBUILT 121.63 0.847 16.066 ( Position Name Vehicle Speed Reaction-time Elapsed-time)

Compare this to the stock CBZ quarter mile times as posted in Overdrive at 21.5 seconds . Ofcourse Overdrive tested this at Pune which is not at sea-level, but the correction is ignored here. The figures are approximate anyways.

Let's check out the visible modifications.

- Complete change of plastic parts and fairing. The fairing's been put on a diet. Not even a second round of sheet to form a closed shape. Just a single sheet bent to shape. Perfect. The tank seems familiar, but does look like it's been modified to include a smaller container. Perfect for the drag, where you dont want the excess fuel to increase the weight.

- We can see the VERY lowered seat, and the footpegs which have been pulled way back! The handlebars are lowered and the tank offers perfect accommodation for the rider to crouch down all the way. Notice that the seat has no padding at all, just one thin piece of cloth serving as the cushion (sic). Couple that with the extreme suspension, and you know why these bikes ain't road-legal.

- No chain cover, and the spoked wheels look like 16 inchers. Number of spokes are on the lower side too.

- No front disc brake either, only the basic stopping power provided by drums, saving up on a lot of weight.

- The tyres, single handedly probably affecting the performance the most. Such a thin tyre has got to make even a modest 12.2 bhp bike go a lot faster. Imagine doin that to a karizma. Infact, Team Motokraft have given similar treatment to a Karizma which did a time of 16.954s at the Bangalore run, (where the same CBZ did a 17.818s). The difference in times being a result of difference in altitudes. Now that is nothing short of mind-blowing for a 223cc single cylinder putting out only 17PS. The loss in unsprung weight brought about by the replacement of mag wheels and 18" tyres with those has got to be the most signifcant modification.

Ofcourse the rubber is sticky, but is good only for straight line exploits. In other words, no road use. Couple that with the drum brakes and the stopping power seriously becomes an issue.

- The exhaust is aftermarket devil (dunno, but it does look original titanium), and the bend pipe looks home-made.

- I wonder why they have painted it because that would increase the weight, but if the paint's been put on after removing the original paint, then it might actually be a lighter version.

Note that the above observations are not necessarily 100% accurate, but only to provide a basic insight into how to go about making your four stroke into a drag bike without really touching the engine. Although it's pretty obvious that the featured bikes already have some work goin into them.

Cheers!

Manas Karekar.

Google AdSense Simplified

2006-05-23T22:07:00.000+05:30

I hope to make this page a quick read-through for AdSense Beginners. I won't go into its basics because they're covered nicely by Google at the Adsense Help Center.

My aim here is to give out all the simple but effective tips to keep in mind while trying to use AdSense. All just so that you can extract the maximum benefit out of one of the best passive income schemes on the internet.

Cheers!

AdSense Secrets By Manas Karekar.

Secret One : Specialise!

The first secret to revenue through AdSense is specialization. As simple as it sounds, it's a concept missed out by almost all beginners.

AdSense earns you money when visitors to your web-site click on some ad. Beginners tend to think that having content catering to different types of audience will get more traffic to their web-site.

Although that is true, it means the visitors have only a specific topic of interest, while the rest of the web-site remains hugely irrelevant to them. And since Google AdSense only displays contextually relevant ads, it means that majority of the ads displayed are hugely irrelevant to the visitor.

Moreover, this implies that the visitor stays for a shorter time on your web page. Even though your site may contain large amounts of quality content, only a fraction of it will be relevant to the visitor, thus only holding his attention for a short time. And a short visit means less probability that the visitor notices the ads. Your site may have four types of topics, but a visitor may be interested in only one type of topic, thus in effect, only 25% of the content is relevant to him.

Cumulatively, having many short visits may sound very impressive in terms of numbers, but that doesn't translate to revenues. Whereas, fewer visits, but ones that matter, where the visitor takes time to read through the various sections, are fruitful as the visitor is more likely to notice the ads.

Having general content implies that the visitor is pretty likely to forget about your site as soon as he leaves. What do you care? Of course you care! You want him to re-visit your page don't you?! Add to that the possibility that the visitor could link to your website from his or her own blog or web-page. And search engines love pages that are referenced by a large number of web-sites. But that's not gonna happen is it? Not if he doesn't remember your web-site!

Here are some quick advantages of specialization:

-Visitor are interested in the content.
-The ads are relevant to the content, which is relevant to the visitor.
-More time spent exploring the web-site, implying more probability of noticing the advertisements.
-Visitors likely to visit again for reference, or updates.
-Visitor will link to it or recommend it to his friends/colleagues.

All of which leads to better Click-Through Rate (CTR) and better eCPM.

Try it out.

AdSense Secret Two : Content!

There is no substitute for hard work. If you want to be successful with Google AdSense, you have to remember one thing - Content Matters. There is no gain from MFA sites as far as long term earnings go. (MFA stands for Made For Advertising, or Made For AdSense). Visitors come and visitors go. If they know they have nothing to gain from your web-site, there is no reason for them to drop by again. Infact, while they're on your site, if they don't find a good reason to stay there in an unbelievably short span of time, off they are to some other page.

So what is Good Content? If you have a certain hobby, that is a good idea to write about. Like stamp collection, or perhaps, apple-polishing ;) . But it makes sense to choose a subject you are comfortable writing pages and pages of. Don't look at other successful sites and make your decision to have similar content. It's probably successful because they are writing what they are really good at.

If you don't think writing articles is for you then you have certain options. You can do a photo blog with short descriptions. Or you could hire a writer at the numerous sites available for doing so. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/ , http://www.getafreelancer.com/users/signup.php )

Don't ever think that you can substitute a lot of traffic for good content. Unique visitors don't take kindly to sites that do them no good and hence don't visit that site ever again.

To really make your site visited frequently, and more importantly, for a longer visit duration, build a site that has quality content. Make a site that counts and the visitors won't hesitate to book mark!

Happy Building!

More to follow. Your feedback welcome. :)

Manas Karekar.

2006 Super-sport Shoot-out Winners

2006-05-23T18:24:00.000+05:30

Going through my regular dose of information about the latest superbikes, having no access to such machines in my home country, this is what has been bugging me lately.

Motorcycle USA SuperSport Shootout 2006 Results

Somehow a triumph winning a Supersport shootout just doesn't cut it. Yeah, it's great, it's small fast and everything. But look at the pedigree it's classmates have. This is all a figment of my imagination, having ridden none of these bikes, so you could take a couple of pinches of salt before swallowing any of it.

Here's what I think should have been the order of rankings. All bench-reviewing ofcourse.

No.6

IMHO, the Triumph Daytona 675 should be the last one in this shootout.

No.5

Number 5 should have been the Ducati 749s.

No.4

Number 4 should have been The Yamaha YZF-R6. Other bench racers argue it is the best 600 cc bike- yes, maybe in the looks department.

No.3

This spot belongs to the Honda CBR 600 RR. Perfect streetbike for the not-too-extreme rider.

No.2

The Gixxer belongs in here. The GSX-R600 is bad. Not as bad-ass as MY winner of the bench shootout though.

..And the winner -

And here's this years Bench-Racer's Winner of the Super sport shootout 2006, the very same that won almost all shootouts last year - the unholy and the most perfect streetbike, the Kawasaki Zx-6R 636 Ninja!

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with rumours that green ones are the fastest.

All images courtesy motorcycle-usa.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

The 2007 Yamaha R1

2006-05-15T23:09:00.000+05:30

Just recently I posted an artists rendition for the Yamaha 2007 R1 floating around the net here. But now this image has been released as the Yamaha 2007 R1. Notice the strong resemblance to the YZR-M1 motoGP bike.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Yamaha to launch R1, R6 and 250cc bikes in India !

2006-05-14T03:40:00.000+05:30

Finally some relief to the biker's of India. After yearning for years together, and sufferring the endless supply of 100cc commuter bikes, India is finally getting the sweet dish.

Mumbai Mirror

Behold! The Almighty Yamaha R1, Yamaha R6 and other "exciting" Yamaha models. It is important to note that, Yamaha throughout it's association with India has churned out one performance bike after the other, trying but failing in the commuter segment. It seems they have decided to build upon their reputation of a performance bike manufacturer, rather than trying to please the masses.

Yamaha's reputation as a performance bike maker was cemented in India with the launch of the legendary RD350, and the performance bike for the college going kid, the RX100 . The ban on sales of 2-strokes finally signalled the demise of performance bikes, and Yamaha never seem to have recovered from that stage till recently, when the Fazer, a 125cc commuter has been doing good sales.

But the latest news will change all that. Yamaha known for their performance machines all over the world are finally bringing them to India.

The Yamaha R6 :

The Yamaha R1 :

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Petrol prices to increase by Rs. 9 !

2006-05-10T23:02:00.000+05:30

Yikes! The Petroleum ministry made a strong case to increase the price of petrol by Rs.9.33, diesel by Rs. 10.43, kerosene by Rs.17.16 per litre and LPG by Rs.114.45 per cylinder!!! This is to save the oilk companies from a fiscal 06-07 revenue loss of INR 75000 Crores!

The left leaders suggested the Excise Duty be halved and specific excise duty levied on other products.

That would make petrol, Rs. 60 per litre! I need a little less than 2 litres everyday. Guess that does it. No more college. :D

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Trip²

2006-05-10T21:45:00.000+05:30

Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.

There's a breed of humans who breathe this mantra. Their life revolves around a couple of moving parts held together by some metal, in touch with the ground through two patches of rubber smaller than the area of human feet.

Unsafe, uncomfortable, unstable, undermined, understated.
Unforgiving, uncompromising, unreal, undeterred, untouchable.

That's biking. It's a drug. One whiff of wind in your hair, bugs in your mouth and adrenaline as the fuel.

This comes in retrospect of the two trips I made to lonavla a month apart. The first one was On tuesday 9th November, the other one was day before yesterday, Dec 13th.

Superb roads, long fast sweepers, unbelievably tight corners, scary inclines, ridiculous 180 degree turns, constant 125kph straights. And you're just beginning to get the picture. That was the trip to Lonavala and Amby valley.

Seems we cant get enough of lonavla and Aamby valley. Went there last month. And now again yesterday. It was awesome. From panvel onwards till lonavla you have 120+kph roads, long sweepers etc. There's a small diversion to Karla, there's the Ekveera devi mandir there. You have to ride like 3-4 kms and you come across a small hill with very steep inclines. Its fun, I went up down that hill with all the bikes available and it was nice.

The bikes were: 2 black zmas, pulsar 180 v2.1 all black, p150v1 silver, fiat palio 1.2 maroon :D.

But the serious fun began after we went upto amby valley. You take a turn at lonavla (I think second right after entering lonavla from mumbai side). The roads are awesome, you start off with a few straights (one is in the vid below), and then it's like a dream. Fast sweeping corners, nice chicanes, crazy altitude rise/drop 180 degree turns, damn! Its a pity none of the guys wanted to get down there and take the vids. Or pics. I'm goin back there once again, and this time hopefully will get some vids. It's unlike any Indian road. I so wished I had a tank cam!!!

We were leaning like deeper, faster and braking harder and later than we ever have. then on the downhill climb me and my friend decided to cruise along as this Patrol of Amby valley warned us about two guys on two pulsars crashing at a place on the way where there was a truck parked. his legs had to be amputated. :o This friend of mine on the other guy's 180 and me on the zma cruised down slowly till he crossed his car which was being driven by the owner of the bike he was riding :D. He decided to show off a bit, and thats when we started ripping again. Our balls were frozen when my friend ran wide at the very same spot the Patrol guy had mentioned plus there was a lot of gravel at that spot. :eek: But it was a close shave and nothing more. At one steep downhill section me n him were being blocked by a splendour guy. He was taking the inside line at all turns and doing it pretty slow. So we rip past him and start overtaking each other at every corner! It was like last lap stuff by Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau (Yea Yea, I know :D :p ), but we did that for like 5-6 turns and FAST!

That was fun! Too many moments to put down. But any guy in two minds about heading to lonavala, head out there TODAY! And goto Amby valley, it's like 45kms round trip from lonavala.
But here's some moments.

Urchins always get excited to see bike groups!

Road at the beginning of the climb to Aamby Valley

Poseur posing :p

The DEADLY corner, leads to a downhill tight right hander. That's where the pulsar kids lost
it.

The heroes of the day.

Notice the '46' on helmet. Instant 5hp gain. :D

Friends fighting it out...

Until I decide to solve the matter one by one..

Nicely done up patrol car.

Something we wished we dint have to see. Wanted the day to last forever.

The car guys think they were fast. *Pffft* :D
We were doing same speeds without windshields and bucket seats. Almost all the time.

Here's a coupla more pics from the other set.:)

Like I was saying. Humbling, exhausting, rewarding, retrospecting, all-answering- Biking.

(12/13/2005)

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Bike trip to lonavala

2006-05-10T21:44:00.000+05:30

Hey, went out for a shortish trip to lonavala and back. Round trip came to about 210kms. The roads were superb. Short, long, steep, plain, slow, fast corners. Superb straights wehre you could keep the throttle nailed for kms together. No traffic, no bad roads. Only cool wind and nice cruising. Loved every bit of it. We had two Hero Honda Karizmas, and one Bajaj Pulsar 180 dts-i all black.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

(11/9/2005)

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Bajaj Pulsar 180 dtsi - Fear the Black

2006-05-10T21:30:00.000+05:30

The Bajaj Pulsar 180 dtsi has given a new lease of life to the 180cc sibling of the largest selling 150cc bike - the bajaj pulsar 150 dtsi.

Ever since the "Fear the Black" campaign by Bajaj, the Pulsar 180 has taken the sales charts with vigour unseen by the previous versions- the classic, the v1 and the v2 (this being the v2.1) of the 180cc big-brother.

The advantage has been two fold. The Pulsar 150 and the Pulsar 180, both sharing most parts except the engine displacement and the gearshift pattern etc, are leading people into buying the black treatment for their 150cc pulsars. Nice!

You get Black Alloys (as opposed to the standard Silver Alloys of the Pulsar 150), which are a perfect fit, for about 3.5 grand.

Engine can be powder coated, as can the exhaust.

Here's some pics of the real deal - The Pulsar 180 dtsi v2.1 All Black!

More Pulsar 180 All black pictures coming soon.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Google AdSense !

2006-05-10T20:53:00.000+05:30

I've been fiddling around a bit on blogger.com and I found this option AdSense, under the " Template " tab. What is striking is how easy it is to set it up and start working on it.

What is it?

AdSense is basically an Affiliate program. Google will display certain advertisements on your webpage. These advertisements display context-relevant advertisements such as "Bikes for rent", "Bike Insurance" etc, since I have written a bit about bikes on here.

These ads are placed by companies who pay Google under the Google AdWords Scheme. The companies are assured that their advertisements will be delivered only to their targetted audience. This is done by Google, by ascertaining the content of the web page it is displayed on, and showing relevant advertisements. For every click, a small value is added to the Web Master's account, while the company pays google for this click. In short, the company gets advertisements delivered to a more relevant audience, the web page owner gets a part of the action (although very small), and Google challenges Microsoft for world Domination ;) .

I was aware of this scheme earlier, but blogger.com had it tailor-made, so it was very easy to set it up. You don't need to have to pay anything, all you need is your very own web-page on the net, and a Google AdSense account. Now all you do is login to google, copy a certain code which can be generated there, and put it on your web site. That's it! After a while you need to enter your tax-information, so that google can send you a cheque (check) for the $$$ you've accumulated. Bewarned though, that generating traffic is not easy, and the amount paid by google is pretty low, so to get to any significant amount the traffic needs to be huge! The success stories on how people make 1 Million Dollars using Google AdSense are generally very rare and it is pretty difficult to generate traffic.

You can try out AdSense yourself, it's very easy, and it's free!!! There's no harm in trying.

All you need to do is this:

Get a blog or a web page . (Easiest way to start is to get a blog, at blogger.com)
Get an AdSense account.
After signing up, generate the code for ads, in three easy steps.
Place the code on your web page.
Voila! You are minting money.

Now all you have to do is try to increase your traffic!

There are many web sites offering such tips n tricks, which go " Earn 1 Million Dollars " , "Generate Traffic 101 " , " Tired of no traffic ?! ". Normally most of these are paid. But there's nothing you can't find for free that's on there.

Here's my Article which is still under construction.

Google Adsense Simplified

Here's some of them :

http://ezinearticles.com/?Ten-Tips-for-Generating-Traffic-To-Your-Website&id=13840

http://www.selfseo.com/traffic_building_articles.php

http://www.2createawebsite.com/traffic/index.html

http://www.mediarocket.com/traffic-building/29101.php

Oh and btw you can join in a forum for like minded individuals here!

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Hero Honda Karizma Review

2006-05-10T20:36:00.000+05:30

Here's my take on the Hero Honda Karizma :

- Overtaking is passive exercise.

- I've started to love red lights as, it bottles up the traffic while I'm comfortably cruising ahead on an empty road, nice nice pull.

- Brakes are original Nissin Twin Pot Calipers with TATA disc. They do justice to the brand. No amount of braking will skid the bike or get it to step outta line. Unlike the splendour where the front's were perennially worn out and a dab on the rear brakes got the tail sideways. Engine braking was the only resolve.

- I'm doing average speeds twice that of the splendour and yet I feel as if I'm goin half as fast.

-The bike is silent. You can only hear the wind and the chain.

- Pillion or no pillion, very little change in dynamics.

- Kinda short first gear. Pulling hard with a pillion will raise the front slightly.

- Awesome electricals. No more revving the eninge to get a brighter beam, thanks to the DC electricals. Loved the feature of the pass light where you can keep the dimmer and dipper on at the same time.

- Had a little unexpected trouble on steep mountain slopes (180 degree turns) at night with the headlight though. Fixed fairing is culprit.

-Too much poseur value.

-Too many plastic parts.

-Unbelievable handling. It reads your mind. After riding it pulsar feels very nervous and the spendour felt like a rattly old cycle.

- Ride is good, have tried two settings only yet, 2nd softest and 3rd softest.

-Pillion too high. Not a problem for me though.

-Fuel effi is a constant 30kpl.

-Chain needs some adjustment, I thinks its got extra slack.

-Service station guys know crap.

-Helmet lock coulda been a bit more elaborate as in something to support the hanging helmet.

-Lovely electric starter.

-Kick lever too high and needs cbz style footpeg to be folded before kick starting.

-Rear brake very little use unless combined wth the front brake. Feels mainly used to keep the bike in a straight line.

-Cheap switchgear on the left handside. Feels like off some econo-commuter.

- Superb superb ENKEI alloys.

-Number plate at a scary place, between a rock and a hard place.

- Din't like the loose wires inside the fairing.. looks very untidy.

- Pilot lights are WEAK, they serve their purpose but powerful pilot lights woulda been nice. Headlights coulda been a notch brighter too.

- Compared to the splendour, clutch travel is long and initially it took some adjusting to.

- Pillion rides are somewhat scary for an Indian motorcycle, what with the high perch.

- Black attracts a lot of dust.

- Black attracts a lot of attention.

- Trip meter electric, means no useless tampering by curious kids.

- Clock is a nice touch. More useful than you'd think.

- Small details like water escape at the fuel filler lid prevent rain water from entering the tank, which is a problem with other bikes having uncovered lids.

- Fuel pump is a bit irritating if the bike runs out of petrol and is refuelled. Air gaps . Dont ask how I found out.

After the first service, the bike is flying. It's just superb. It's become very silent. Chain noise has subsided. Engine just purrs.

I have been ripping her after the 500kms mark. Took it to 118kph last night and 124kph today. Although I am still planning to stick to the 60kph limit for 99% of the times. The bikes done some 650kms now. Some observations:

- The bike has torque. Loads of torque. 5th gear is so flexible, you can take it from 40 to 120kph easy.

- The bike pulls and pulls and pulls.

- There's no delay between 80-100 and 100-125, after which it crawls towards a higher speed I haven't tested yet. Ofcourse all these are speedo indicated but AFAI'm concerned, these are the speeds I'm doing.

- The brakes are unbelievable. You feel safe and enclosed at even 120+kph.

- 110kph speeds become routine too easily.

- Cagers respect you.

- Needed a louder horn, stock one not good at 100+kph.

- No vibrations whatsoever, even at 120kph, the engine just doesn't make any noise, sounds too unstressed, wonder what a sixth cog could've done.

- Distances are reduced.

- Commuter bikes pass you at 60kph, backwards.

- I haven't really tested out the brakes in a panic situation yet, but I do feel the progressive stop is better than the sudden wheel-lockups of pulsars/or any other. What matters is the bike should styop in the minimal distance without losing control/traction, which the zma does beautifully. Try panic stopping from a pulsar or any bike with a sharp biting disc and you just can't do the same distance. IT's a matter of getting used to.

- Nice pick up, very silent. Loud bike which doesn't make a lotta noise.

- Good electricals though I would've liked a bit more brighter beam..

- Knocking apparent if tried to pull out from 60kmph in 5th.

- Very very difficult to get the bike to step outta line on heavy braking. Unmatched by any other Indian bike.

- Suspension too soft, front number plate can touch the front fender anytime under heavy braking.

- Main stand touched speed breakers (high ones) with a 90kg pillion.

- Tail light interesting, could lead to someone crashing into it while admiring its beauty.

- Too much attention. puke Everyone wants to race.. I let them, nothing like passing a drag to see the irritant disappear on his own into the distance. Razz

- Nice touches like the water drain hole in the tank filler neck, glowing needles and digits.

- Needed an Engine Kill Switch, also a side stand indicator, cmon whatever happened to PREMIUM SPORTS?

- Needed a bit more power Very Happy

- Awesome electric starter. Hate the last sound after the engine's been killed.

- Kick too high. Same need to fold front footpeg to kick start as on the CBZ.

- Superb pass switch (new to the concept as a jump up from the splendour is a huge technological leap for me Very Happy ), which allows dipper and dimmer to be on at the same time. DC electricals imply very very powerful torch.

- Pillion slides on to me when braking moderately hard. Good in a way, bad most ways.

- Too paranoid to take it through traffic - rear mudguard projects at a crazy angle, silencer reminds me of the silencer to bike size ratio of zx12r, and the bulging (front) side indicators.

- No kick start through the gears. Only electric start through gears.

-The stock tires are not as bad as most people have formed an opinion of them.

-Amazing stability in the twisties. The bike has immense capabilities. You can take sweeping corners at 115+ kph with ease. Without breaking into a single drop of sweat.

Here's some pics of my Karizma.

http://dreamvortex.blogspot.com/2006/05/hero-honda-karizma.html

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Honda Shine

2006-05-10T20:06:00.000+05:30

Honda's second serving to India, is just what second servings at buffets normally are - smaller and slower than the first, and anything more and you'd puke!

Yes, The Honda Shine is just that. Smaller, slower and still further boring than the Honda Unicorn. It's perfectly proportioned, dare I say, better than the Honda Unicorn, minus the mono-shock, which didn't have too many fans in the first place. Honda claims 65kmpl, and going by the precedent that should be just the right real world average. It's just as smooth, more frugal, and does everything a commuter should. More than that, it does everything a Honda should. It's got a built to last feel, and a front disc brake is an option. Throw in clear lens side indicators and a black powder coated exhaust with chromed heat shield and you have a very happy Office-going uncle.

Somehow, the Shine just doesn't feel right for a college going teenager, in spite of the Honda reliability, it's boring, looks boring and that's that. Consider the Bajaj Discover 112 / 125. It's meant for the college going kid who can no longer bear to read the newspaper for fear of bumping into '$100 per barrel of oil' type news, and yet, keep his ego bloated.

Somehow, the Shine just isn't exciting enough, not from the World's Biggest Two Wheeler maker.

If the next Honda bike to be launched is not above 200cc, Honda will lose a fan.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Hero Honda Karizma Pics

2006-05-10T19:29:00.000+05:30

Here are some of the pictures of my Black Hero Honda Karizma.

More Karizma Pictures Coming Soon!

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

The itch grows..

2006-05-10T12:06:00.000+05:30

Jawhar via Manor - Perfect ride!

Well, last time I went to Amby Valley I felt that it couldn't get any better. Nothing could better the roads, none that were further than a weekened ride atleast. I went raving about how there was nothing close to those roads around Mumbai. Time for Humble Pie. :)

Starting off from Cine Planet Petrol Pump on Ghodbunder road at 7.55AM. Reached Hotel Fountain in 10 odd minutes. Quick stop for warm-up and then hit the NH-8 for WOT straights. Little traffic, no limits, except the chilly breeze that was numbing my head completely. Suddenly, crouching was not just for attaining top speed. It was necessary to ride. Upright for a second and the chills ran down my spine.

Reached Manor pretty fast, B'bay gang, you have to PLAN to ride here? :p Took a right from there. Right indeed, right to heaven. Tarred single lane, dangerous gravel formed thick inlines on the road. Run an inch wide and you were at the mercy of laws of friction. WOT riding in gear 5 not recommended. Unless you can, unless you dare. Varied beautiful scenery engulfed on either side, dominated by the simplicity of mother nature. It was really distracting, the scenery was so involving, and the curves so tight, it was as if Mother Nature had laid a trap to reclaim her creations. If you have seen an Isle Of Man TT video, you could borrow some visuals to picture the roads we were riding on. Riding full throttle at blind curves with unbelievable crests and troughs of the road. It can be quite scary. And then there was the odd ST bus hurling down at you at exaggrated angles and sparing just enough room for you to pass. Or did it?

Add an odd herd of cows (RaginBull really got excited when he passed these :D), subtract any traces of urbanisation, and sprinkle a hint of Dung on the roads. After stoppin at quite a few places and taking pics generously, we reached Jawhar at 11.30AM. Most time being spent on photo sessions. RaginB knew of this Sunset Resort, (that he claims is a bookmark in the BSMotoring team's travel guides). Hungry as hounds, RaginB and Akshay (non-xbhpain) were cursing me for having an Egg and Coffee in the morning. Their cursing stopped only after some amazing Chicken Afghani and Chicken Chill Dry was stuffed in their mouths. The service was too good to be real, the food too good to be cheap, yet it was. The seating was low and quite relaxing. After quite some rest, we went to sunset point which was just outside the gates of the resort. Some more photos later headed back, this time more lazily. Cruising at 70-80 we reached a point marked for a quick stop earlier. This point was unreal, it was a valley that appeared out of nowhere, and surreal at that.

Leaving the beautiful valley after confessing personal levels of altophobia, lazy cruising became the order of the day. The hungry ride uphill was contrasted by the satiated, downhill cruise. Throwing the bike side to side at 80kph, at 4-5k rpm, is a different sort of pleasure of nailing corners. The roads were beautiful. The sun bothered none, except for the recurring drought in the throat. Fixed by a cool half litre of frooty, apiece :p.

The roads were suddenly becoming straighter beyond recognition. No, this ain't what we took in the morning. There was far too much civilisation to be the roads we were supposed to take. It dawned upon us after reachin a certain village that we actually had taken the road to bhiwandi and bypassed manor completely. This road was good, WOT straights, WOT corners, and a good 15kms shorter than the ride through Manor. We were not disappointed for having taken the wrong road, until we reached Bhiwandi. The only and the really annoying fly in the ointment. Registered in the brain never to go anywhere close to anything related to Bhiwandi. Reached Thane at 5.20-ish.

A little cursing about the irritating end to the trip, but smiling over a great day otherwise, we decided to part ways from the starting point itself.

From Thane it took us 120kms to Jawhar via manor. Through bhiwandi it took us 105 kms.

Snippets:

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12r ..

2006-05-09T09:14:00.000+05:30

The Zx-12R Saga...

Here's the story of a hero. A hero who was killed before he could kill his enemy, by his own maker. But his own maker was under threat from an evil villian..The EU. Read on...

Those were the sweet days...The Zx11 was launched and SBKs would never be the same again. The Honda blackbird came, made buzz. Shortly soon came the hayabusa, and blew everything and everyone away. All this while Kawi camp were not sitting still. They were not happy. The dethroned Zx11 was yet to rise from the ashes.
Work had begun on the Project 320 bike from 1996.
Kawi kept mum. They unveiled nothing to the press.

Interview with Seiji Igawa, general manager of the marketing division of Kawasaki Heavy Industries
October 9, 1997
Q: Are you going to launch next year the ZX-12. A bike that's going to beat its competition regarding horsepower and weight?
A: It's possible. We're considering it. We're momentarily doing a lot of tests in Japan. But you say a 1200. It could be an 1100 as well of course. Because the ZZ-R 1100 needs a refreshment and refinement.

Interview with Seiji Igawa, general manager of the marketing division of Kawasaki Heavy Industries
October 1, 1998
Q: We'd expected the introduction of the ZX-12 by now. Where is it? Or have you been waiting for the introduction of the new Honda Blackbird and the Suzuki GSX 1300 R?
A: You say ZX-12, but maybe it is a ZX-13. We cannot introduce the bike at this moment. We're still testing. I don't want to say more.

At last, february 13 1999: the first drawings appeared on the Internet that looked like the ZX-12R we know now.

After 3 years of rumours and anticipation, Kawi unveils their baddest bike at bike shows- first one being at France.

The bike didn't just create a stir in the biker world. It did in the EU too.
One industry insider told MCN: "This is an extremely delicate issue. We have been told that if we continue to make bikes which are faster and faster, then something official will be done to stop it. "Both we and the car industry are being told that if we want to avoid clumsy and damaging legislation, we've got to take action ourselves and be seen to be acting responsibly.

Kawasaki has yet to release official power figures for the ZX-12R, but officials made their views clear as the bike was unveiled at the Paris Show last October. "French officials were on our stand discussing the ZX-12R and starting to get shirty," said Kawasaki UK boss Geoff Selvidge.

"Manufacturers are now trying to reach an agreement on performance, because they are concerned that if they don't do this European legislation will come down with a power restriction."

There were many many restrictions on Cars/Bikes and the end result was a Gentlemen's agreement between the company and the Govt to place a 186mph/300kph speedlimit on the bikes from 2001.
Kawi was already shot down before the introduction of the 12R. The 2000 model though un-restricted, was not what Kawi had planned. It did 190 real mph. Not bad. But kawi couldn't beat the 193mph unrestricted busa. Sad. The 12R was the first bike to be neutered amongst this new 186mph limit. The 2001 busa and 12R have a top-end limiter. But this did not stop the bikers world over from super-tuning the 12R and gaining for lost ground. Kawi failed to dethrone the busa "officially".

2001 saw no clear winner at the top. The 12R and busa were restricted to the same top speed stock. And a minor deficit in favour of the busa to the 0-100mph.

What the Ninja brought in was awesome technology. The aerodynamics were awesome. Winglets at the fairing, to aid the flow of air and keeping it away from the tank, it's super fairing provided awesome wind protection, the handling was nothing short of spectacular for the class of bikes this is from.
The chassis was nothing short of brilliant. The airbox was integrated in the unique frame. The dimensions were small, similar to the 9R. The bike was a marvel. (This is one of the main reasons why turbo-charging bike enthusiasts prefer busa, it's easier to work with that frame. The Ninja is tougher to work with..not impossible..tougher.)

So what happened to this warrior? EU and (speed)culture police killed off what would have been officially the fastest production bike. A victim of it's own (to-be) success? Not quite, the speed limits were long time in the news and this time it happened.

Does it make the busa the fastest production bike? Not really. The unrestricted stock busa was definitely the fastest bike then. But after restricting it, the busa has an equal. In fact in my opinion, more than equal. The Ninja's much more of a bike. Which actually looks good/handles like a bike (not a dragster) and still drags as fast as a busa.

And it's a kawi. There's something about green kawis..

OfCourse with the launch of The Kawasaki Zx14 or ZZR1400 as it is known in some markets, has signalled the end of this legendary behemoth. The Zx14 isn't half as good looking as the Zx-12r, but ofcourse, it is naturally faster than it, and comes with mdoern bits abound. But as they say, legends never die.

Sob.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

My first ride aboard a Superbike!

2006-05-09T08:40:00.000+05:30

Powerslave's first pillion ride aboard an SBK... (Originally Posted June 18, 2005)

Yeah, so pretty much a SuperVirgin(not girls..) till now, I finally get to ride atop this beautiful machine.

To make this interesting, I'm not gonna reveal which bike this was. But I'll drop subtle hints throughout my post, so that it makes you read thru all of it .

Here I go.
Well me n friends were returning home after playin at a club and just riding around. We came to this Cafe Coffee Day outlet near ma place (we were not plannin to go in, wanted icecream instead). I see this beautiful yellow n blue superbike parked outside the outlet. I park there immediately. I notice it has a Yoshi oval. A 180 rear and the bike on the whole is pretty big. I notice it is one of the later versions of the bike, before it underwent a major upgrade. He bought it for 5 lakhs.

I find my friend inside to whom I signal about the bike. He tells me it belongs to a friend of his who's standing right outside. He takes me out and introduces me to the owner. The owner was a very nice guy and on my friend's request, he agreed to take me round the block (I requested him to take the longer route!). He knew his stuff, was not a poseur, and he too loved the 12rs as much as I did, OVER the BUSA.

So I sit on the bike, the rear seat is kinda hard, and all my weight is on the tank. So this guy starts it up. Awesome bassy note (the yoshi), which was very very different from the factory's smooth stock sound. Into first and off we go, he wasn't giving it much but my mind was blown away! He did short runs to 70-80 in very small stretches of roads and what scared the living daylights outta me was the braking! And moreover the grip! He was braking hard and not a sigh or squeak or skid or nothing! Just plain old grip and what seemed like endless power through the brakes.

It handled very easily. He was flippin it from here to there almost as if he was riding an Indian Commuter (weight wise). The bike felt very light, was very small. But it could kick any litre-bike's a$$.

He told me the spares were pretty easy to get but the next bike he's buying is gonna give him some trouble with spares. The next bike btw happens to be a monster and I'm glad I'm friends with him.

And I must say, although I'm always on the other side anytime an SBK passes by and I'm gawking at it, this time it felt like heaven to have every single eye on the road on you while I was sitting on one. The poseur points come in as a package with SBKs... and there's no harm there. It was fun watching everyone stop in their pants from whatever they were doing and take notice.

All in all, he didn't take it to any open road so we didn't go beyond gear 2 (I think he was in 3rd somewhere to reduce the acceleration since we were in the city, but he didn't go beyond 6000-7000 rpm anytime. SO the REAL power was pretty much with the bike.. yet to be unleashed. Sadly it didn't happen.
In the short run we had, his bike heated up quite a bit.

All in all, I loved it! It was AWESOME! I dunno how it'll be to ride one! Here's one more sleepless night (or maybe more).

Any guesses which bike it could be?

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Spoiler:

It was a last batch (single headlight) Honda CBR 900RR Fireblade.

Whatever happened to the Honda RCV v5 Road bike ?

2006-05-08T20:19:00.000+05:30

This bike was in the news till last year. It was Honda's trump card. The RCV roadbike would have everything an enthusiast would dream of. A v5 engine pumping out ridiculous power, bodywork, swingarm, proportions just like the motoGP real McCoy. Wonder what happened to it?

MCN went as far as to create an artist's impression of it too:

A similar Yamaha R1 has been doing the rounds since last year, touted earlier as the 2006 R1, and now as the 2007 R1. Ofcourse, it's a slick job in the photoshop by some creative soul. That's not ignoring how beautifully it's been done.

Here's that picture :

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Go Goa...

2006-01-24T16:39:00.000+05:30

Not much to write except that we had loadsa fun and many pics haven't been uploaded. :D Went to goa from Jan 5th to Jan 9th.
Check out the links for more:

Album 1

Album 2

Cheers!

Manas Karekar.

Who's da mann?

2005-08-14T16:54:00.000+05:30

This guy wanted to learn how to do burn-outs and I tell him how simple it is. Another friend of mine is trying to capture the vids on cam, none of which have come properly due to night-mode.

So this car sneaks up behind us and parks by the road. The lights are on and we finally get to shoot a vid with proper light. The owner even comments "Superb lights, awesome vid cos of those."

This third guy exclaims, "That's a frikkin cop car!"
We hit it!!! I'm long gone with the owner of the bike and the other two guys on the Honda Activa (A gearless 100cc scooter) are struggling to get rid of the cops.

We take the straight road and turn around after a long loop around the neighbourhood, wondering where these guys went. To our surprise (and a VERY VERY FILMY scene like sholay's sidecar joining in after being separated), these guys come out a narrow bylane and join us right there as if it was all pre-planned! Some things like these are just priceless. It was superb fun to just note the synchronisation, the timing, and it was all spontaneous! Superb!

My life is always full of 'hatke' incidents. Never the normal ones, and the credit goes to my friends.

We call him Jhanupbhai. Me n my other friend are contemplating writing a book of the unbelievably interesting memoirs related to this guy. :D

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Comments:

You just saved ur arse and prevented a hole in ur wallet(the f**king fine you know),
some people will call this as stupidity
I and you would say , what is life without risks,
you have made my dream of jumping off a building with a bike, even more stronger,
play safe i.e. stay away from cops,
good to know you cleared ur kt's and stuff with good marks,
and anyway you people are BE's , and when pitted against BSC, the fucking KT's dont matter, right.
anyway , yeah the stuff u do is sure hatke,
but you wont believe this, on 15th aug i.e. today, we had fucking system software lecture,
and the damn college was locked , and the professor , took the lecture in the canteen, wierd,
hey he ordered samosas for us, i gulped 3 , we have to suck up to him, he has got shitload of contacts in the industry, good when we have no jobs, and nothin much,
trying to woo a bengali girl, i m not sure, but by wednesday, i'll know whether she already has a BF or not, the best part she is a poet like me, likes metallica(rare for a SYBMM girl), she has been to joe sats concert in calcutta, she is cool, i wish and also want you to wish she doesn't have a BF, if that is the case , i will make f**king efforts to break their relationship, bye for know, got to finish some editorials for my college campus newspaper, bye, keep rocking, and keep blogging,
i am listening to megadeth - cryptic writings it rocks

Published By Sankoobaba (http://sankoobaba.blogspot.com/) - August 15 8:59 PM

Moving on...

2005-07-14T03:13:00.000+05:30

..is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard! Yea, megadeth. but true nonetheless. Dad underwent an operation on monday. It was 100% successful. He was shifted to the General wards out of the ICU yesterday. He's recovering fast.

On the other side of my life, my Sem 3 KT results are out and I cleared 2 outta 3 subjects. I had EDC, Data Structures and Math 3. I got back math3. I had a week to study math3 but I dint quoting a simple and a lame reason "I got two more attempts."

Dunno what I was thinking but now I regret doin that. Well it wasn't completely my fault. The week available for me to study math 3 was right after Mech paper and Data Structure papers. So I was pretty sick of the whole tension thing, At that time it just felt OK to let math3 go. Now it just seems stupid. Yea, I left math 3 voluntarily. Damn! I got 26.

Now the main result is haunting me, math 2 !!! Expected around Jul 25th... I am just crossing my fingers.

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Comments:

Hey thank you for the support and sorry for not replying sooner. :)

Dad started eating day before yesterday, although he's eating only soft food. So that's SOME progress. :D We all clapped to that :D !

He cannot move his right hand yet. But I'm thinking he's gonna be just fine!
Published By unquestionable_prezence (http://spaces.msn.com/members/Cluster-1/) - July 27 8:11 PM

Good to hear that ur dad is recovering, where is he know, want to see how he his doing, you know we had met, if you dont mind that is,well i m not much of a biker, but i had an equally horrible accident, difference is that I was a bit lucky, as I had no helemt on. And you know what, a biker saved me, he was the one who came between me and the ST bus, or by now I would have been.. what else...ashes. I was riding my bicycle, on this wet road(the road was in bad shape), it happened so quickly, I slipped, and next moment with my bare hands, I was busy trying to stop the bikr's tyre from crushing me, forunately he stopped, I had managed to disfigure my bike, break my glasses, but when I saw the ST bus behind the biker, how I had been so close to getting crushed. I did have my fears, but overcame them, I know your case is different, but I think its just that what has to happen will happen, we have to do what we are supposed to do and what we want to do, everything else life/death is the stuff which we should not bother much about, bye ,
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame.....
Published By Sankoobaba (http://sankoobaba.blogspot.com/) - July 21 12:29 AM

To your comment on my blog:you are still attention seeking...how else would you have made up that story?hehe
Published By pagan109 (http://spaces.msn.com/members/pagan109/) - July 19 11:20 PM

Good to hear hes recovering... read bout the incident in XBHP.. Thank god he was atleast wearin a helmet!
Bye the way.. which college are u from?
I believe u must not be doing telecom engg. else u wont leave Maths3. Thats the simplest of all the 5 sems. Telecom ppl have an advantage in that... They have already studied complex fourier series, Maths3 is a piece of cake for them.
Published By Kapil - July 16 12:03 AM

Good to know that hes recovering soon. Hope that the nurses at Lok are doing their job well. They are rather moody. They were amazing when my mom was there. But crap when a friends mom was.

Published By Anuj (http://spaces.msn.com/members/foobarred/) - July 15 8:51 PM

@BTR: Thanks. :) I am waiting for this thing to be a distant memory soon.. just holding on till then.

@sri: Hey man! That list was just a tip of the iceberg, just put it here to give a general idea of my musical tastes.. and as you can see its varied.

I'm more of a "Good Music" lover rather than just "Music-with-distortion" lover. I love the softest bands like Bee-Gees to more extreme bands like Morbid Angel etc.

It's all got to do with touching you within (not in a perverted way :p )
Published By unquestionable_prezence (http://spaces.msn.com/members/Cluster-1/) - July 14 12:48 PM

dude, awesome music choice...personally, i would have put 'number of the beast' on your list..as for kill em all, NOTHING BETTER!
Published By srinath (http://spaces.msn.com/members/srisblog/) - July 14 1:30 AM
hey dude.... thanx fr visiting by n so many commets...
n sorry to hear abt ur dad's accident..... good to hear tht the operation was successful!!
max i cud convince my parents to let me ride a two wheeler was n damn 80cc scooty!!!! let tht thing rot n cars are wat i love now!!!
congrats fr ur first sem!! all the best fr maths2 and 4th sem.

as fr metallica, i never said they r bad.... they r grt.... an example!! n if u read properly, i said musical interests r a personal choice which each one is entitled to!!

my best wishes to ur dad....

P.S. n ur ques to ride or not to ride.... i wud say to ride(obviously aftr the family is convinced, which wud take some time)

Published By BeatTheRhythm (http://spaces.msn.com/members/silenteclipse/) - July 13 11:52 PM

More than one life has changed...

2005-07-10T04:16:00.000+05:30

There are three rules of biking.

* Everybody goes down.
* Everybody goes down.
* Everybody goes down.

Well, guess they did rear their ugly head once again. It wasn't me, it was my dad.

How it all happened.

He was heading out to some work at vashi at around 10.15 AM on Wednesday morning (6th July) on the splendour. It wasn't raining then but the roads were wet. He was wearing a open face helmet.

I'm sleeping at home as my vacations are on, and I'm woken up by two continuous phone calls. The voice at the other end of the phone was my dad's and he could hardly speak. He tells me he's met with an accident and that I come to so-and-so hospital. I rush there and to my shock he's covered in blood and his face is disfigured and he can hardly speak. No time to get emotional as mom was away at work and I had to act fast. The hospital was cr@p and I had to do a dozen formalities including taiking care of the pandu and the bike.

After an hour that seemed like a minute, my mom was thee and dad was trasnferred to another better hospital in an ambulance. Ofcourse my mom was in a state of shock and couldn't stop crying in disbelief. I rushed dad off to the hospital where he was immediately admitted to the ICCU. He was there for 2 days and yesterday he was shifted to a still better hospital closer to home.

Well on wednesday itself after shifting him to the better hospital, he was immediately subjected to CT Scan and 3d X-rays and it was found that his right shoulder socket has a fracture and his lower jaw has been shatteredand disjointed from the rest of the face. There is one other crack near the right cheek and loss os tissues in the nose and near the left eye (where he was operated for retina detachment few yrs back). His left eye was filled with blood.

He's to undergo a Major surgeory to the face and is resting in the ICCU till then.
Luckily his brain and neck and spinal cord are unaffected.

I asked him how he got hurt and he said the bike slipped (he's unsure whether the truck guy nudged him) and the truck - hold your horses- went over his head. There were tyre marks on his shirt to support this. As luck would have it, he wasn't wearing a full-mask helmet. On the other hand, if he wasn't wearing a helmet at all, GOD Forbid!

Apart from all the emotional trauma, physical damage and monetary strain this has inflicted on my family, one issue, undisputed by anyone in the family, except me, is that neither I, nor he (dad), ever ride a bike again.

I would understand this sentiment coming from mom who used to stress upon this fact having seen many accidents in her Office bus earlier. I myself had for a vrief while forgotten about all the biking in my life on the day the thing occured. Infact I can't even think of allowing dad to ride anything on two wheels again myself. I'm wondering if I'm having such strong emotions about my dad riding anymore bikes, how the hell am I ever gonna get me to ride a bike again?

I can't kill this part of me. I can't just convert myself to a car guy. Heck I never even bothered to learn to drive a car (and I'm 20).

I'm a biker. I haven't even tasted more than 100cc's of pleasure, leave alone the multiple cylinders and 3 digit bhp figures of Wonderland.

I must say I completely agree with everyone's opinion that bikes invite accidents more than cars, but does it mean if you're walking down the street and a car comes crashing into you, your safe? I mean, accidents happen. You may slip on the bathroom floor during a bath and hurt your back. Let's just say its destiny. You may say its a rainy day and tough for biking, so you stay back home and maybe your hand gets caught in a door. It's just destiny.

No way my family's ever buying that, but I'm just confused. Each and every rider on the road is at a risk of falling. My dad said the same. He had such an accidentonce in his life, from his rajdoot days, when he lost a quarter of his index finger of the right hand. But this is big. I dont think he'll be giving up on biking completely (lest I keep him in check), but the Splendour's goin for sure.

Touchwood, but I've never gone down. I never said I won't. The Laws of Biking apply to everyone. And I'm prepared for that fall. What happened was just a unfortunate but I can't deny myself the pleasures of biking. Yes, there's a lot to learn from this. Safety first- No matter what. But no way am I givin up on riding. I mean some would give up their lives for dancing, some for singing, some for crocodile hunting, I ride.

I'm sure the older members would agree to my parents perspective and I too am partially on this plane, but being a bikers forum, I know what the outcome is goin to be. My parents' worry is totally justified and am not planning to fight with them about this or anything... I'll give it a rest till atleast dad recovers. It's gonna be tough travelling to college and tougher to watch the two-wheel standing there, doing nothing.

Too many thoughts, too many perspectives, too many emotions, but just one question- To ride or not to ride?

Cheers,
Manas Karekar.

Comments

He byker7, he is indeed on a speedy recovery.. :) He can talk properly now (almost), just his right hand needs to be taken care of.. he's started eating soft food too:)..
Published By unquestionable_prezence (http://spaces.msn.com/members/Cluster-1/) - July 29 3:05 AM
The guys who write for harley-davidson have a few appropriate remarks that act as corollaries to the Law of Biking. Two have always struck me as remarkably apt.

"Live To Ride. ride To Live."

and

"Keep the rubber side down."

Hope your dad is back on the road soon.

Published By bykercynic (http://spaces.msn.com/members/byker7/) - July 29 1:45 AM

Yea, he's at lok hospital. And indeed he is very lucky.
About the question: to ride or not to ride. I am NOT givin biking up for hell's sake. I can run but I can't hide. It's just my passion. I know I can't go even a week without riding. But I've planned to lay low for some time. Down but not out.
Published By unquestionable_prezence (http://spaces.msn.com/members/Cluster-1/) - July 13 2:53 PM

Yea, he's at lok hospital. And indeed he is very lucky.
About the question: to ride or not to ride. I am NOT givin bike for hell's sake. I can run but I can't hide. It's just my passion. I know I can't go even a week without riding. But I've planned to lay low for some time. Down but not out.
Published By unquestionable_prezence (http://spaces.msn.com/members/Cluster-1/) - July 13 2:48 PM

Sorry to hear about your dad man. Shocking to say the least. Is he at Lok Hospital ? I think that you should really count your stars that hes relatively safe and has theres no damage to the spinal cord or the brain.

Regarding bike accidents, I know what you mean. This is precisely the reason why I never got to taste sub 1000 cc pleasure and grew up to be a car man(not that im complaining-driving is my passion). My family just wouldn't listen and never gave me a bike. My uncle used to be a biker and my grandad. And they have broken bones that i never even knew existed despite being good in bio. Not to talk about the countless other acquaintances that have gone through the same.

Anyway, take care of your dad and family. And if it helps, go read "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". A must read for every biker AND non biker.

Published By Anuj (http://spaces.msn.com/members/foobarred/) - July 11 8:42 PM