Captain's Home-coming

WELL DONE SKIPPER - SIR !!!
It was saturday the 28th of July 2007 and we had decided to welcome Captain Nandu Chitnis and his better half Medini back from their Ladakh adventure. The occasion was grand enough tog et together for a small party and venue was right next to their residence. I guess after having traversed such a along distance we could do them this bit by not making then travel much.




Contrary to popular belief Captain Chitnis did not take rest after the grueling journey and on friday after getting his new steed the Pulsar 220 DTSFi he was off on it on Saturday morning at about 4ish. Riding practically all over Pune's desolate roads and trying to get a hang of streetbiking. Our man is all set to graduate from cruising to scraping. We could soon see him breaking the mutha ghat twisties records in no time. Good going Sir !! Hats off to you. I thought at least aap ek hafta to aaraam karenge !!


Anyways, after listening to him how could i resist a short ride myself and so of i took on the lazy saturday afternoon towards one of my favorite haunts near pune - Lavassa City - What awesome roads. What terrain. We left our place after 4ish and after filling up at the Shell petrol pump near paud rode off from pinrangut into Mutha ghats and then into lavassa city. As soon as we left our place we got hit by rains, lashing us and drenching us. I have named my Gladiator " Storm Chaser" but looks like this one is always being chased by storms. I felt so damn bad that despite having carried a camera all along i couldnt stop at even one single place to take any interesting photographs.

Lavassa at the top was having ZERO visibility. There was mist all over and because we were drenched to the bone we were feeling the cold even more. The run down from lavassa was equally fabulous. Couple of places i achieved triple digit speeds despite the roads being wet. One thing i noticed was that even wet roads have significant amount of traction if they are thoroughly wet. Its just the slightly wet roads that look dicey. Once the rains have lashed at the roads all grime and oil deposits gets washed off and you could ride through an inch deep water at high speeds without aquaplaning.


Catch Pics of the Ride here


We had a quick but way too late lunch at Bavdhan Chaupati a nice eating joint at Chandni chowk on the outskirts of Pune. The ride back home was a little boring through city traffic but we had to hurry up as we were getting late for Captain' felicitation. After a quick halt at home we reached Captain's party a alittle late. Actually about 30 minutes late but then it was OK as they were also just settling down.

What followed was a heavy dose of Biking discussion with a few knick knacks of life and adventure also thrown in. The 2 ladies sitting there patiently endured all our biking talk and i guess had some stuff among themselves to talk about. We gifted a small memento to Captain for his adventure. This was a small metal sculpture of a motorcycle. He definitely was thrilled to see this especially now that he is moving away from cruisers for the time. Post dinner we took short test rides on Captain's new ride the Pulsar 220 DTSFi. Its definitely a great bike.Awesome presence, good wheelbase and solid feel. The engine sounded real throaty and grunted with every blip of the throttle. Looks like finally India has come into the league of proper S-Biking. At least this bike sounded like one.

A couple of snapshots later we moved off to our respective homes tired but really refreshed after the celebrations. I am sure we look forward to having more such occasions as more and more of us get Leh'd.


Catch Pics of the party here


Till we meet again..Keep Riding....