Hello fellow petrol heads ,
I'm NR Balaji from Chennai . I'm 23 and I work for Amazon.com . In case the thread title seems weird coming from a 23-year old let me explain . Please excuse the length of my opening post , I sincerely feel that if even one person can gain some thing from my experience it would be worth it .
I started out loving cars and being scared of bikes ( lost a couple of friends in bike accidents) . Learnt to drive at 18 in my 2005 Honda City GXi vehemently refusing to let my dad teach me to ride saying I will only drive . At 20 I saw a R-15 in person and fell in love with it. and started riding my dad's Unicorn to basketball practice just to get it .
Got it in September 2009 and spent a year and a half riding it . Got the bike Joel'ed in January 2011 ( Big bore kit , Replacement filter , FFE ) because the need for power was never satiated . By then the City was only used for drives with my girlfriend or family . Started working for Amazon in February 2011 and within 2 months of working wanted to own a bike with my own money .
Decided to get a cruiser as I already had a sporty bike and the CL500 caught my eye . Went for a test ride and enquired about the waiting period and was told it would be 7 months . I rode home dejected when I crossed the Bajaj Probiking Showroom and the Ninja 250R caught my eye ( hadn't considered it earlier as it would be out of my budget and I wasn't interested in another sport bike ) . The test ride convinced me that I need an upgrade even if it meant cutting down on other expenses . Rode home , convinced parents to come take a look and booked it the next week itself . Delivery was promised after a month and thus began the most agonizing month of my life .
Delivery was in May . Took delivery and rode off feeling like a king on my own chariot
.Then started the most amazing 2.5 months of my life . Split time between both my bikes riding to the office and some pre-office rides to Mahabs . Everything was in place professionally and personally . I saved up and got a pair of A-Star SP-1 gloves , dad said he'd gift me a Shoei RF-1100 on August 1st as his credit card limit had gotten over so I decided to wait . Had even asked for riding boots advice from our moderator
n_aditya on another forum in order to start gearing up for CSS in January 2012 . Little did I know that my life was about to change forever .
August 1st 2011 :
Set off to the office as usual at 7 30 on my Ninja. Entered the office at 7 45 . There's an elevated S slope just after the IN gate , I kept to the right as pedestrians walk on the left . There was a Tempo Traveller parked on the wrong side ( had taken a short cut) i.e. my right side which was obscured by a fountain 20-feet inside the gate . My bike skidded out from under me under panic braking on the wet slope ( it had rained the previous night ) at 30kmph. I fell to my left off the bike and my head bounced off the ground and I broke my neck ( C5 Vertebra burst fracture ) due to the whiplash. and I was paralysed from my neck down. The impact was great as I'm 6' 1" and my head bounced off the slope . My Volga helmet prevented any head injury but also was not adequate to save me . Don't remember anything else except being woken up after surgery the next day , was conscious and coherent even immediately after my crash ( amnesia due to shock ) .
The struggle :
Couldn't move even move my head for a month and am slowly recovering usage of my whole body. I was bed-ridden for three months and after extensive therapy for over a year I'm able to take care of myself. This is the kind of injury I would never even want my worst enemy to endure . I'm 75% back to normal ( full recovery not possible) . Can never ride again sadly but I'm back to driving my old car and should get a vRS by the year end .
My request to fellow bikers is to always ride with good gear because there are too many idiots out there . How you ride is more important than what you ride .
To the other members I would like to say please think about the fate of others before taking a short cut or driving on the wrong side . It might be life altering for others . Also try preventing others from doing the same . The mistake though on the van driver's part can't be completely his . I'm also to blame for not taking the necessary precautions despite being aware of what all I need to ride safely . Safety gear is like a biker's insurance . This could happen to anyone so its better to be safe than sorry .
Ride or drive safe brothers. I apologize once again for the length .
Regards ,
NR