Late Intro : I got Caged!

praful · 15th March 2010, 14:33

Hi Folks,

A bit late in here, been around the forum for about 200+ posts now. As this is predominantly a car forum, I thought I'd hold of my intro till I got my own set of 4 wheels. So here I am with my Silver Surfer.....

Late Intro : I got Caged!-24164_394583966281_657001281_5447587_899297_n.jpg

A little bit about myself and my ride, I was a car freak till the time I joined college. Bikes are(maybe were now!) the hottest thing for a guy in college. So slowly and steadily, the Car freak inside me died and was replaced with a Biker dude. Its been about 7 years since that time and have had some really wonderful biking moments like this...

A few horribly wrong moments with the twists and turns of life changes one's perspective by a total 180°. Cutting that part short, I decided its about time I got back to my original passion on 4 wheels, but a limiting finance department and huge requirement list meant only car would be fitting all my requirements like a square peg in a square hole. The FIAT Palio...

After a bit of initial soul searching of my 'tight' budget is going be and what is the stuff I'm looking from car, I did not need to look further than the Palio. Finally managed to clinch a good deal from a fellow TBhpian neoonwheels when he put up his baby for sale. Everything just started falling into place after that, one by one every obstacle would be overcome and finally the deal was settled. Only problem was that the car was in Pune and I lived in Bangalore. So my father took the delivery of the car and did the necessary paper work to get things moving. It was just this last Saturday that I got hands on my Italian stallion for the first time and have been in love ever since.

Its a 2005 Fiat Palio 1.2 NV Sport and had clocked 20K kms on the odo.

There is a lot of things that I need to learn from a lot of you here, and I need a lot of polishing to my driving skills too. Even though I got my license about 7 years back when I turned of legal age, my driving around has been pretty limited to rare drives inside the city in my dad's car when I'm visiting my folks or an occasional drive in a friends car. Have been clocking more miles on two wheelers in the past few year. So I am pretty much a noob when it comes to cars.

- I changed the stock bulbs to Narva 85W Lo beam and 100W Hi beam myself, need to get a dual headlamp relay fixed asap.
- Next in line is a ICE upgrade, the 5 year old ICE is crying for a replacement.
- Stock tyres still have a lot of life in them with just 20K kms done on them, but will be changing over to the Yoko A Drives pre-monsoons.
- Have driven a 1.2 with the KnN stock replacement filter and there was a definite improvement in the LET, wonder now to go for just the stock replacement filter or to for the entire works with a CAI.
- Plan on keeping it as close to stock as possible with just a few minor tweaks here and there.

Yesterday, I drove it down from Mumbai to Bangalore. Took us about 17 hours with breaks. The highway poise and handling is just too good, and that's why I've named it Silver Surfer....

And this my story from a Biker to a Cager
(Well Almost! The biker in me is not giving up just yet)

kri$hna · 15th March 2010, 15:06

Note from Mod : Strictly no SMS / Slang language, or dotty posts, on this forum. Please read our rules

Welcome to the "Caged Nirvana" Praful !!

Nice pics there... u want me to help u wid the GPS log of the trip ?

Also tell the details of the trip buddy.. top speed, avg.. etc etc

MX6 · 15th March 2010, 16:27

Welcome CNP. Impressive reading about your interests and accomplishments! Seeing a TN reg bike in himalayas is not what one gets to see normally!

A 5 year palio looking like almost brand new. No wonder it's previous owner was also a t-bhpian! Congrats on your new acquisition

@ Krishna. Got a question about the gps logs. I bought meself a garmin 265wt. Will be ordering the india maps from either satnav or mmi. But how does one get the trip logs? Is there any kind of s/w to be installed on my laptop for that?
I'm a noob when it comes to navigation devices.

kri$hna · 15th March 2010, 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6

@ Krishna. Got a question about the gps logs. I bought meself a garmin 265wt. Will be ordering the india maps from either satnav or mmi. But how does one get the trip logs? Is there any kind of s/w to be installed on my laptop for that?
I'm a noob when it comes to navigation devices.

I no good in navigation device as well !! I hav an Android mobile (HTC Hero) with GPS.. and have loaded that with an application that can latch on to max satellites and track/plot the maps. It gives up details like distance, avg speed, top speed etc.. which most of the GPS apps usually offer.

I think u dont need any such app on Garmin, coz it would usually come default with this. Map is usually required for navigation/ to understand ur position. Thats my understanding.. my fone was not meant to be a standalone GPS, but garmin is made to be exactly that

so it wud do all this as a functionality, dont worry

praful · 15th March 2010, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by kri$hna

Welcome to the "Caged Nirvana" Praful !!

Nice pics there... u want me to help u wid the GPS log of the trip ?

Also tell the details of the trip buddy.. top speed, avg.. etc etc

Thanks for the welcome. And more importantly Thanks for introducing me to your Palio. Without that I would have never got the Punto for my Parent nor would I have picked up the Palio for myself.

Regarding ur exploits of topspeed,etc....all I will say Drive Safe!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6

Welcome CNP. Impressive reading about your interests and accomplishments! Seeing a TN reg bike in himalayas is not what one gets to see normally!

A 5 year palio looking like almost brand new. No wonder it's previous owner was also a t-bhpian! Congrats on your new acquisition

@ Krishna. Got a question about the gps logs. I bought meself a garmin 265wt. Will be ordering the india maps from either satnav or mmi. But how does one get the trip logs? Is there any kind of s/w to be installed on my laptop for that?
I'm a noob when it comes to navigation devices.

Thanks MX-6! The TN bike has seen a lot more places, but I think this is the wrong forum to discuss about that.

Krishna was my co-driver while driving down from the Mumbai. We were making GPS trails from our phones and not using a stand alone GPS device.

krish3 · 15th March 2010, 17:02

A belated WELCOME Praful!! Congrats on buying the Palio.

When are we going for a drive on it?

phamilyman · 15th March 2010, 17:24

welcome dahling. Congrats again like I wished online

praful · 16th March 2010, 09:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by krish3

A belated WELCOME Praful!! Congrats on buying the Palio.

When are we going for a drive on it?

Thanks buddy!

After 1.5 Crdi Rocket, you will find this to be a bullock cart!

Quote:

Originally Posted by phamilyman

welcome dahling. Congrats again like I wished online

Thanks Tao Sir!

jkdas · 16th March 2010, 11:08

Thats a big post! Have been seeing your posts for a very long time now and hence thought you were with us for ages

Nice shot of the bike.You need to update us about the bulb thing at Auto Lighting Thread.

praful · 16th March 2010, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkdas

Thats a big post! Have been seeing your posts for a very long time now and hence thought you were with us for ages

Nice shot of the bike.You need to update us about the bulb thing at Auto Lighting Thread.

Thank you Sir!

Technically been a member for almost 4 years now. But have been getting more regular on the forums only off late.

I got the before and after shots of the bulbs installation, will post them soon!

15th March 2010, 14:33	#1
praful Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Paris Posts: 1,020 Thanked: 611 Times View My Garage	Late Intro : I got Caged! Hi Folks, A bit late in here, been around the forum for about 200+ posts now. As this is predominantly a car forum, I thought I'd hold of my intro till I got my own set of 4 wheels. So here I am with my Silver Surfer..... A little bit about myself and my ride, I was a car freak till the time I joined college. Bikes are(maybe were now!) the hottest thing for a guy in college. So slowly and steadily, the Car freak inside me died and was replaced with a Biker dude. Its been about 7 years since that time and have had some really wonderful biking moments like this... A few horribly wrong moments with the twists and turns of life changes one's perspective by a total 180°. Cutting that part short, I decided its about time I got back to my original passion on 4 wheels, but a limiting finance department and huge requirement list meant only car would be fitting all my requirements like a square peg in a square hole. The FIAT Palio... After a bit of initial soul searching of my 'tight' budget is going be and what is the stuff I'm looking from car, I did not need to look further than the Palio. Finally managed to clinch a good deal from a fellow TBhpian neoonwheels when he put up his baby for sale. Everything just started falling into place after that, one by one every obstacle would be overcome and finally the deal was settled. Only problem was that the car was in Pune and I lived in Bangalore. So my father took the delivery of the car and did the necessary paper work to get things moving. It was just this last Saturday that I got hands on my Italian stallion for the first time and have been in love ever since. Its a 2005 Fiat Palio 1.2 NV Sport and had clocked 20K kms on the odo. There is a lot of things that I need to learn from a lot of you here, and I need a lot of polishing to my driving skills too. Even though I got my license about 7 years back when I turned of legal age, my driving around has been pretty limited to rare drives inside the city in my dad's car when I'm visiting my folks or an occasional drive in a friends car. Have been clocking more miles on two wheelers in the past few year. So I am pretty much a noob when it comes to cars. - I changed the stock bulbs to Narva 85W Lo beam and 100W Hi beam myself, need to get a dual headlamp relay fixed asap. - Next in line is a ICE upgrade, the 5 year old ICE is crying for a replacement. - Stock tyres still have a lot of life in them with just 20K kms done on them, but will be changing over to the Yoko A Drives pre-monsoons. - Have driven a 1.2 with the KnN stock replacement filter and there was a definite improvement in the LET, wonder now to go for just the stock replacement filter or to for the entire works with a CAI. - Plan on keeping it as close to stock as possible with just a few minor tweaks here and there. Yesterday, I drove it down from Mumbai to Bangalore. Took us about 17 hours with breaks. The highway poise and handling is just too good, and that's why I've named it Silver Surfer.... And this my story from a Biker to a Cager (Well Almost! The biker in me is not giving up just yet)
	() Thanks

15th March 2010, 15:06	#2
kri$hna BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bhagyanagarabad Posts: 229 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	Note from Mod : Strictly no SMS / Slang language, or dotty posts, on this forum. Please read our rules Welcome to the "Caged Nirvana" Praful !! Nice pics there... u want me to help u wid the GPS log of the trip ? Also tell the details of the trip buddy.. top speed, avg.. etc etc Last edited by GTO : 15th March 2010 at 22:58.
	() Thanks $Received Infraction$

15th March 2010, 16:27	#3
MX6 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands. Posts: 2,877 Thanked: 231 Times	Welcome CNP. Impressive reading about your interests and accomplishments! Seeing a TN reg bike in himalayas is not what one gets to see normally! A 5 year palio looking like almost brand new. No wonder it's previous owner was also a t-bhpian! Congrats on your new acquisition @ Krishna. Got a question about the gps logs. I bought meself a garmin 265wt. Will be ordering the india maps from either satnav or mmi. But how does one get the trip logs? Is there any kind of s/w to be installed on my laptop for that? I'm a noob when it comes to navigation devices.
	() Thanks

15th March 2010, 17:02	#6
krish3 BHPian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cochin/Bangalore Posts: 758 Thanked: 191 Times	A belated WELCOME Praful!! Congrats on buying the Palio. When are we going for a drive on it?
	() Thanks

15th March 2010, 17:24	#7
phamilyman Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 5,968 Thanked: 4,642 Times	welcome dahling. Congrats again like I wished online
	() Thanks

16th March 2010, 11:08	#9
jkdas Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Thiruvananthapu Posts: 9,687 Thanked: 1,492 Times View My Garage	Thats a big post! Have been seeing your posts for a very long time now and hence thought you were with us for ages Nice shot of the bike.You need to update us about the bulb thing at Auto Lighting Thread.
	() Thanks