This Saturday, a couple of us BHPians, me and
sunilch took off for a loosely coupled ride to Lavasa. I say loosely coupled because we were not together throughout the ride. Both of us rode at our own pace. I broke for pictures for long periods and caught up with Sunil down the road. On the way back, he had to return earlier as he had an appointment at Pune. But, we had big touch points during the ride when we met, compared notes, and generally discussed our lives. Overall, it was quite a nice outing.
The ride itself was quickly put together over Whatsapp. No major planning was done. Here are the essential notes -
About routes, destination and logistics - - If anyone wants a simple ride with an extended ghat experience, then Lavasa is a nice ride for all of us Bombay guys. We get to hit ghat roads about six times over onward and return journey - ghats at Khopoli-Lonavla, Lonavla-Pune, and Lavasa; all done twice. The whole ride can be done in a day and it offers good ROI for the time invested.
- If you need to eat breakfast, then Lonavla is the only big stop. No decent and hygienic places after Lonavla for a long time unless one chooses to go well into a town like Pune.
- Roads in MH are absolute crap. Long stretches of road are worthy of 15 kmph or less. Still longer stretches rank between 40 and 50 kmph. During our ride, average riding speed was well below 45 kmph all through. While I lust for a big motorcycle, I would shed tears of blood if an 8 or 9 lac motorcycle of mine was subjected to the abuse that these roads threw up on Saturday.
About packing and luggage - - Getting a tail rack fabricated and then getting a top-open tail pack were the best decisions I made as a rider. I carried everything and had almost every contingency covered. No problems. Most of all, I didn't have to unhook bungees and work my way through a complicated untethering process every time I needed to access water or my power bank or any other item.
- A sling bag with a supplemental cross buckle anchor (for say a camera in this case) functions much better than a backpack does in keeping CG centered and the bag stable. Seriously, I did not even feel the bag on my back or on my shoulders. With a backpack, my entire back would feel hot and burdened; while my shoulder blades would ache after a few hours. Incidentally, I never bought this bag as a riding accessory. I simply wanted an easy way to store and access my DSLR while around my family. I was actually quite worried about taking the camera on the ride. As it turns out, the bag worked wonderfully and I really enjoyed having my camera around. The bag can be found here. Please note that I have no affiliation with the bag brand or with the seller. Just passing on information based on my own experience.
- Packing two or three packs of paper soap is a life saver literally. They helped us on two occasions on this ride. One can never be too hygienic.
About music and playlists - - I don't have a fancy bluetooth set like Sena on my helmet. I just used regular BT earphones that I quashed my helmet over, and they worked well. I heard the music and I heard all the vehicles around me. No problem. I do plan on getting a BT comm system as my ear lobes felt painful during and after the ride. But first, I have to get a better fitting one helmet; this one is simply not cutting it anymore.
- Talking about music selection, big ballads with stirring hi pitch notes work superbly on wide open roads. English or Hindi or any language for that matter; the enjoyment factor goes up at least a notch or two. For those interested, Raja - Malaysia is a killer combo on those ghats (only some of you will get this and that's OK).
About riding - - Sort of like a Karan Johar movie, engine braking can be mildly awesome if harnessed properly. The key is to use the foot pegs and push oneself back in the seat at the time of downshifting to save the groin from getting hammered by the fuel tank.
- Note: This crotch-battering effect is more pronounced in machines with a sit-in, scooped out, saddle like that of the Dominar. On sit-on style seats, one is more likely to slide right onto that tank as the front end dives during sudden downshifts.
- On those lines, once one learns to use the foot pegs to good effect, all sorts of possibilities open up. Several problem areas such as posterior fatigue, the effect of horrid road surfaces and big speed breakers, and even reduced visibility to some extent, can be mitigated to varying degrees by standing up on those pegs.
- Controlling the weight of the bike at dead stop is a perennial challenge. For the second time in 2 years, I dropped the bike in slow motion after one of the bungees hooked my leg guards and reduced my ability to counter the bike's weight when we were stopped to buy the entry tickets for Lavasa.
- During light drizzles, the easiest way to clear the water droplets from helmet visor is to turn sideways for a split second; the wind does the job for you in a snap. No need to take hands off the handlebar.
About my motorcycle -
My last ride was to Lonavla on March 2nd. Almost 7 months had passed with no bike usage. And yet, on Saturday, I simply cranked the engine, swung my legs over the seat and got going. No chain lubing, no oil change, no filter cleaning, no nothing. Not even a simple wipe down. At best, once in a couple of weeks, on my way back from work, I may have cranked the engine and left it running for 5 or 10 minutes before shutting it off. The bike has certainly not moved from its parking spot since early March.
In my opinion, the Dominar is that high performance and low maintenance beast that we all yearn for. Fast riding, rough riding, no riding, good roads, bad roads and no roads - this bike does it all. I am hoping; no I am praying actually, that Bajaj takes that Duke 790's engine, de-tunes it and plonks it into a bigger Dominar. I am so buying that bike.
About myself - - I am simply not a morning person. I kept Sunil waiting for almost 30 minutes. He was annoyed and actually quite angry even. All I could do was apologize. Sorry Sunil.
- I fret a lot before embarking on a ride. But, once bike-borne, all concerns fade away and I am able to relax. Despite only 4 hours of sleep, I was awake and fresh for a full 20 hrs. That's the power of good weather I guess. In hot and sweltering conditions, I am pretty sure that I would have fatigued a lot sooner and a lot easier.
About life -
Finally, there really is nothing like a motorcycle ride to soothe the soul.
About real estate and investments (off-topic) -
I thanked the good Lord that I didn't have the money to invest in Lavasa when it was being marketed as sheer paradise. The Lavasa that we saw was nothing short of a ghost town. I simply cannot imagine the financial losses of those who had sunk their hard-earned cash into this flight of fancy.
Now, enough with the talking. Let us look at some pictures.
Enroute to Lavasa. 
Although it looked like a cliched prop from a 90s movie, that bullock cart added a nice touch. 
Lavasa - Bird's eye view from the road. Pic by Sunil 
Down by the lake at the center of town. You can see the extent of incomplete construction. Pic by Sunil 
At the promenade. There were very few people there that day. It looks like a nice place to eat a packed picnic lunch. The restaurants there did not inspire any confidence. Pic by Sunil. 
Taking a break. Two Dominars. 
Valley view. Brilliant pic by Sunil. 
This is the only spot that I found where I could park my bike to get an unobstructed view. It can be dangerous to have small children along as the drop is quite steep there. But, it did make for a nice picture. 
Could not resist a view from the edge. 
As I was getting ready to leave, the weather suddenly changed. So, i had to get out all the rain covers and was feeling hassled. But, in the end, I think that this is the best picture of the lot. 
Awesome lake picture. Taken by Sunil. 
Another nice picture from Sunil. 
Down by another lake before exiting the area. 
This picture is purely to illustrate the position of that sling bag. Notice how low it hangs; that frees up all the space above to ventilate. Incidentally, I was trying to gnash the stems of my glasses into the side of my temples. This helmet is just ghastly tight.
Cheers
1st October 2019, 21:03
(11)
Thanks
