[booboo]

Came across this 'pouring out of emotions' from a wonderful guy while searching for rd350 on google, 'must share stuff', drool bikers,drool.
Link: http://motorbreathing.tripod.com/begin.html

This place is into bikes - deep. So lets just wonder what is this big deal abt bikes; What makes a certian class of population go mad abt machines on two wheels?

Answer is simple yet complex; There is a certian reality associated with a bike.

Now what is a car. A car is a bunch of hyper-practical survival thoughts in solid form - Going from point A to point B is the most dangerous thing in this world; It is the most tiring thing; Getting wet in rain can prove fatal; Vibrations can damage your spine; Wind will ruin your face and hair and may transform you into an grotesque ugly-face overnight; You are getting old, energy is not to be wasted; Money should be spend only on big objects like land houses and machines with a roof and more wheels; The smoke on the road blacks your lungs within two days and you die of cancer on the third; Every driver on the road is a lunatic with the sole aim of killing you as soon as possible; For maximum constructive effort in office you should move your body as little as possible on your way from sweet home to that seat in your cubicle...The list is bloody endless.

Just disassemble any component thought of a car and you find it sitting on a broad base of over-bloated practicality.

Now look at a car and inside it. The focussed effort is to make every a bit a person unaware that he is in a car. The person should not feel a single vibration; He should not feel the wind; He should not hear a single drop of sound from the outside world. He should not feel that he is travelling. If he brakes he should no feel the decceleration; If he stamps on the gas, he should not feel the acceleration. Fool the buffoon behind the wheel; Stuff him into a coccoon which masks all laws of physics and just glides from point A to B. Let his mind worry abt every existing problem in his wretched life without any element of the voyage disturbing him; On top of that let the gear box be automatic. Fit in a power steering; Only the fingers should move. And in the end, to top it all - build in an auto drive.

Think about it more, deep. What is the single most important point that makes a car so 'appealing' to that major population chunk? Its not just that it has four wheels; Its not just that you hold the steering in your hand; Not just that it has a stereo; But simple - that single point is the roof over the buffoon. Yes its natural; The day man built houses, it was inevitable that he will one day build houses that move. In other words a car is a confirmation of the buffoons existence in this world; a confirmation of its safety. A car hides the real world and builds a much much much more safer small-world around the buffoon. In which he is the king; In which no laws creep in. Except his own. Its his own alarm clock; Which rings to tell him that he has his own world now, where he is safe; So its time, go make a family.

Now sit on a bike. Fit in snugly, grip the handlebars and you have become part of the machine. Bring the beast to life; and its nothin like the purring on a car - its as if something is awakening inside you. Something deep, and you vibrate along with the machine. And the blood begins to move faster. Each time you leave off the clutch and roll off, you are acutely aware of the engine moving up the torque band; you are aware of the carb slides lifting; you are aware of the carb tuning; you strain to notice a slight hiccup as the pilot jets hand over duty to the mains; The air intakes sing beneath you; The hand goes into action, and the throttle opens up; The rpms build and build and explode into the powerband, the torque peak; The rear wheel tries its best to break loose - you taste the feeling of a sudden rear slide which hooks on back and the bikes catapults ahead and shoots the horizon through your visor. Never a dull moment; Never do you fool yourself; You are out there doing the real thing; Its so real that you can lean down and touch that tarmac whizzing down past your toe at 100kmphr. There is no black box around you. The thrill lies in the the simple fact that the world you are in is real; The big bad one.

A bike is a blunt reminder that you are alone in this world, ultimately. Its for those who can accept this fact and savour and enjoy it. Its for those who love walking in the rain. Its for those who live young. It yells at you about freedom. Reminds you that you are nothin;

It reminds you that you have no missions to complete.

Now at the end of all this, You have a few options. To put it simply, you can Just escape - I offer you the route. Go here and clear off the mess which this page put in you.

Else stay on. Now what do i have to do with bikes. Nothin much; Just love em. Anyway i have a Suzuki Shogun and a Yamaha RD350. The shogun is a pet which i love and adore; it was my first love in fact.
The RD350 is a big brute which Im still in awe off.

RD still keeps teaching me lessons.
Sometime i wonder how this began, how i got on two wheels.

The journey into the world of bikes is fun. There is a time when you dont know xxxx abt bikes; You dont even care abt the color of those two wheelers that whizz past you.

But then once you start getting pulled in, you start noticing more and more.

From pure looks to the size of the rear tyre to the color of the petrol tank to the max reading of the speedo, the observation factors start piling up.

Soon you begin to be aware of the top speeds for different bikes; You begin to develop an unnatural memory when it comes to whats the top speed of a bike and what its maximum speedo read is..
Now its just a matter of time before you latch on to one central concept - BHP.

So its just bhp and topspeed and their relationship for some time and you are comfortably ignorant abt anything else than the all-important bhp; But its not long before you begin to see things that bhp cant explain on its own - So welcome to Torque.

So armed with Bhp and Torque, you move on; Very soon to pick up the importance of rpm - What torque at Which rpm. Still you see strange things around you; Things which your "Vast" knowledge abt bhp, torque, and rpm fall short of explaining; You wonder whats wrong with the Enfield Bullet; The fact abt long stroke and short stroke engines begin to dawn upon you; Your awareness extends to make room for crank and conrods.

Soon its the opening to the world of serious biking; With it dawns the realization that there is more to learn than can ever be done.

Ok since we talked abt learning, check out Dan's Site sometime. Its a wonderful place to begin. Not that its just beginners stuff; There is a lot of info out there.

And yes there is a limit to what you can pick up through reading; Or rather the usefulness of what you pick up through reading is limited. It boils down to experience, seeing stuff work and getting them not to work and then fixing them and getting your hand dirty.

You can buy 100cc or 150cc mopeds from the showroom and ride them all their life and yet learn no xxxx abt bikes and motors. When it comes to learning, there is no substitute for a fussy, demanding bike with awesome unexplored potential like an RD. I remember the time when i had no clue where the spark came from; Now im aware of the ignition system and know at least enough to worry about the ignition timing.

The key points are the fussiness of the bike and the unexplored potential. The fussiness ensures the need to learn and the potential provides the drive. A stable bike with lots of potential wont work; And worse is a fussy bike with zero potential.

Wish i could talk abt Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintanence. But dont know anything abt the book. Not that i didnt read it - rather didnt understand anything. But i can talk abt Zen and the Art of promotions.

[sinhead]

nice write up man. I have a LT & have ridden a friend's shogun extensively in schooldays. Have been in love with both these bikes.
motorbreathing - came across this when i was hunting for info on RDs.. a must read.

I can relate to "the journey into the world of bikes" part .. .. its funny that for a long time nothing else mattered apart from bhp & torque..

You have nicely put in words the bike Riding experience.. feel like going out & giving my Rd a hug!!

[ku69rd]

Nice Stuff, but may i know what you trying to convey in this thread? Are you planning to put in a diary sorta stuff?
Do post the Shogun & RD in your garage with some good snaps

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Nice Stuff, but may i know what you trying to convey in this thread? Are you planning to put in a diary sorta stuff?
Do post the Shogun & RD in your garage with some good snaps

I think the OP just shared a post he came across in WWW. I am under the impression that the OP is not the author of this post, but feel free to correct me

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

I think the OP just shared a post he came across in WWW. I am under the impression that the OP is not the author of this post, but feel free to correct me

Oh ho ho...got it mixed, skipped on the link :(
you are right he is not the author

[booboo]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Nice Stuff, but may i know what you trying to convey in this thread? Are you planning to put in a diary sorta stuff?
Do post the Shogun & RD in your garage with some good snaps

the guy was just expressing his love for bikes and rd350 in particular - found the same on the net and felt was worth sharing out here

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by booboo

the guy was just expressing his love for bikes and rd350 in particular - found the same on the net and felt was worth sharing out here

It is a good read - I think if I pen down my love to RE one day, it may come close to something like this

[ku69rd]

Probably there is a need to have a separate section for maintaining a Diary? Would love to input my thoughts as well if there would be a section created?
Are the Mods listening

[ashis89]

How about a thread where all bike owners would share their ownerships in thorough detail?
Is there any such thread already going on? I couldn't find one.

[iron]

Very well written by whoever has written it.
I can relate to some of the stuff written
I dont own an RD but i do own a Std350 & Zma-R.

[booboo]

after endless links and googling managed to find out the guy who penned this touching stuff down - he's nishant jaiswal, man wherever you are - take care!
you sure do have a lot of people going bonkers over their bikes - thanks to the lovely memories ignited by your words. sending him a mail and invite to visit team-bhp,

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by booboo

after endless links and googling managed to find out the guy who penned this touching stuff down - he's nishant jaiswal, man wherever you are - take care!
you sure do have a lot of people going bonkers over their bikes - thanks to the lovely memories ignited by your words. sending him a mail and invite to visit team-bhp,

You are absolutely wrong my dear friend, this blog belongs to a very close friend of mine and his name is NOT nishanth.

Read on the true story http://motorbreathing.tripod.com/drag1.html

[booboo]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

You are absolutely wrong my dear friend, this blog belongs to a very close friend of mine and his name is NOT nishanth.

Read on the true story http://motorbreathing.tripod.com/drag1.html

jaggu, came across this link which finally led me to this page Nishant's - India - Yamaha RD350 Related Links - Download manuals & Owners Hand Book. since the true author is known now , i guess i presumed wrongly (presumed the author from his above link assuming him to be the same). at sea we say never make 'assumptions on the basis of scanty information' - so therein, i am guilty as charged

please do let your freind on my behalf that his words were touching and a reflection of what many bikers feel truly - he's talented man,

thanks for the clarification

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by booboo

please do let your freind on my behalf that his words were touching and a reflection of what many bikers feel truly - he's talented man,

thanks for the clarification

Yup he indeed is a very talented man both with words and his passion for the 2 wheeled variety.

[jalva]

Excellent writeup, just two issues:
- There is not much wrong with the bullet. At least not from the learning and potential perspective. Bullets have taught more Indians the art of motorcycle maintenance and tinkering for optimization than probably any other bike. Long stroke is a choice, not a fault.
- As far as learning about machines is concerned, cars also do it quite well

The rest, especially the part about bikes being in the "real" world, is beautiful and inspirational