Sunday, February 27, 2011

WTF: Changing tires on the move - all the way from Saudi!

People from this part of the world are known for their crazy antics. They are also known to drive their big SUVs on two wheels but what in the world is this?

Words can do justice to what you end up thinking once you see this video..


Honda VFR1200F and CBR1000RR : Mumbai to Delhi ride - Day 2



While riding to Ahmedabad on day1, it had started drizzling lightly. My last ride on a Superbike on this route (on the Hayabusa) came back to my mind - that time too, rain gods hadnt been kind of me!


By morning, the roads outside the hotel were all wet! We still had over 900km to go to Delhi and reluctantly, we were back on the road. The 245km stretch to Udaipur has its own set of long sweeeping curves. The roads however were wet which meant we had to force ourselves to ride 'slowly' at speeds between 105-110km/h only. At these speeds, a twist of the throttle was all it would take to spin the rear wheel madly!
Passing the 'Line'

We stopped for a few pictures whenever the drizzle stopped but eventually before we got to Udaipur, we were shivering to the core. Wind blast on high speeds (when you wet) is bad, very bad! We almost ended up taking a night in Udaipur itself but that would have been a shame for us...
Photo-shoots at the Chittorgarh turn-off





So we contined to Chittorgarh and within a few km had to take shelter in a road side restaurant. The cold was simply too much. A few cups of tea, spicy and hot meals and we decided to ride to Chittorgarh for the night. We had no option but to ride on. The bikes in the meantime, though dirty, were proving to be our companion - they adjusted well, sipping a litre for every 20km. Though the roads were wet, they instilled confidence in us and made us eat the miles slowly but steadily.



370km were all we did that day. It took us around 8 hours for the same - blame this on long and numerous breaks to fight the cold. The bikes wore a mucky look outside in the parking and all our luggage was wet to the bone. What next we asked ourselves...

Our clothes scattered all over the room in Chittorgarh!


Day3's log coming up : the last battle to New Delhi

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Honda VFR1200F and CBR1000RR : Mumbai to Delhi ride - Day 1


Riding a full blown motorcycle is one thing. Riding it for over 1400km through congestion, rains, cold and single lane stretches is another.
India is known as the land of commuter motorcycles. Eight out of ten motorcycles on the roads are from the 100-125cc category. Superbike manufacturers have starting showing interest in the Indian market but slowly but steadily, lucky individuals can now catch a glimpse of these in big cities. But, are these only meant for the occasional ride or can they take on long distances as well?

Our aim was simple - pick up two of the best models in the history of Honda and take for a ride - a long one. The bikes were the iconic VFR1200F and the sexy CBR1000RR. The route was a 1450km ride from Mumbai to the capital of India, New Delhi.

Blame it on hitting the bed late, but we managed to get out of Mumbai's mess by 11am. Ahmedabad was roughly 500km and in all probability, it seemed to be our night stop.

Even though we were just an hour and half into the ride, roads like these greeted us once in a while

The first 100-150km out of Mumbai are average. Diversions and lotsa traffic means our average speeds were low. However, past the cut off to Silvassa, things improved.

A restaurant looks on - somewhere on the highway where we stopped for a quick bite

The VFR1200F which till now felt heavy and lazy suddenly seemed to come in its own. Superb is an understatement for this machine. The CBR1000RR surprisingly was uber comfortable for Bobby Roy Chowdhury, the man also responsible for these pictures.


It took us around 10 hours to cover 520km to Ahmedabad including numerous breaks for photography. Enjoy these photographs from Day 1

Day 2 of the ride coming up...


Also read:
Honda VFR1200F ridden and experienced