What happens if you are given million dollars but not allowed to spend them? That’s the dilemma I faced last summer. My 1984 RD-350, fully restored with just 2 tests rides done, was just waiting to roar into the wild.
I know there are a lot RDians who keep the beast tied for weekends to show off. But me, I just want to unleash the beast and go wild with it - - All the Time!
It was June and rains were in. Most of the RD’s known for their troubles were sent back to their dens. Days past with me just adoring the new makeover and eyeing on the “Outlook Traveler: 52 weekends around Mumbai”.
The anxiety grew and my thoughts were not hidden from my like-minded friends. Sushil, who got his hands on a mint condition Yam RXZ 5-Speed and Ashish, who also wanted to try his luck on his 1989 CD-100 jumped in to plan out things (frankly, Ashish was far away to trust his CD-100 but I pushed him).
Surfing through the book “Outlook Traveler: 52 weekend around Mumbai”, we jumped to a well known destination - - Harihareshwar.
Ashish being my colleague spent a lot of time on planning with me. Surprisingly, we found few new members for the trip in my Office itself.
The plan was to hit NH17 from Mumbai, visit a predefined destination and come back. The plan felt somewhat dull . After several hours of discussion, we decided to take a route which would gift us with open roads, twisties and valleys.
We settled for a round-trip plan starting at the eve of 30th June and concluding at eve of 2nd June. The route was finalized starting from Mumbai to Harihareshwar via Lonavala - Mulshi – Tamhini – Nizampur – Mangaon and back to Mumbai via NH17.
Finally the day arrived and we all were set. We had bikes ranging from 100cc commuter bike to powerful 350cc RD. We had CD-100, Bajaj Discover (125cc), RXZ 5-Speed, 135cc RX 5-Speed, Honda Unicorn, Eliminator and the Mighty 350cc RD-350 waiting to be unleashed into wild.
After last minute briefing of the trip we headed towards Panvel. By the time we filled up gas and stopped for a bite it was past 7 pm. The evening grew dark with clouds pouring heavily. Visibility was poorl and all we could see from our helmet visor was blurred red taillight of vehicles ahead of us. We were already running behind schedule and rain contributed a lot to this.
We formed a convoy of 7 bikes and proceeded to our next stop -- Lonavala.
All I remember is following the bright taillights of the vehicles ahead of us, so dense was the rain. I loved to lead until everyone pushed me behind because the sweet blue smoke was making visibility even poorer.
We followed the convoy pattern till the base of Lonavla ghat after which everyone went WILD!! We finally reached the end of Lonavla ghat, took a break at the point where the old road meets expressway. It has become our customary break point for all the trips to Pune. After having dinner at a dhaba near Lonavala, it was time to hit the road again and we were cruising on the fine old Mumbai - Pune road.
Even though I had been riding on this road several times, the utter joy of doing the same at night, in heavy rains and with a convoy of 7 bikes was amazing. We rode like a pack of hunters on a trail taking on the twisties of the Superb Lavasa road. With the help of local guidance we finally made it to Golden resort at Mulshi, 30 minutes past midnight.
After a little chit-chat, it was time to hit bed and take some much needed rest (Since the day had started @ 5 am for all of us).
As expected we got up late, Hogged on to some tasty breakfast which included poha, onion bhajjis and omlette. We had heard a lot about Tamhini ghat, waterfalls, few good road sections and sparse traffic. We were looking forward to it.
We reached the top-most part of Tamhini to encounter inline formations of virgin waterfalls surrounded with green vegetation. The feeling of lush green hills, milky white water, fog and our bikes splattered with mud…what a moment it was!!! Even though we had digicams, none of us could capture what we could feel!!
It was simply a cloud Number 9 feeling to see RD350 with a backdrop of inline waterfalls. The best was to see the 3 Yam’s oldies (Rxz 5-speed, Rx135 5-speed and Rd350) standing together with pride.
As time and life moves ahead, we as well had to move after spending sometime in heaven. Difficulty level of Tamhini Ghat can be termed as novice, with hardly any difficult sections, but it’s still one of the best roads to hit out during rains!!(Though, I would rate Mumbai - Malshej Ghat the best!!).
The simplicity of village life which we often ignore has to be admired. It’s amazing how people lead such a life which would be like an adventure for city-sleeker’s like us. We stopped for chai-sutta break at the base of Tamhini before moving ahead.
The route to Mangaon had an old bridge, a site sure to attract us for a Photo-session. Moving forward we finally reached Mangaon and headed for Lunch.
It was mid-afternoon by the time we left Mangaon. With a roller coaster ride on several ghat sections we reached Harihareshwar. The road was bad and it took almost 2 hrs to reach Harihareshwar even though the distance was just 63 kms.
Our dream to camp on the beach evaporated soon. The Beach was washed out by heavy rains and high tide
We headed to the MTDC resort and booked ourselves 3 beach facing cottages. We dined at the shack like structure near the beach.
It has always been very satisfying to dine after a hard day of riding and to do that right on the shack next to beach is an amazing feeling.
Next day we got up @ 9am. had Omlette pav for Breakfast and that is when we hit upon the idea of saucing up the Omlette with RD 350!!
Next on the list was Harihareshwar temple. We spent some time in and around the temple. Back on the road it was the last day of our trip. Felt pretty bad! Yep we felt the same as the new YAMAHA ad, “may the weekend never end”. But all good things have an end so that we can cherish the sweet memories. It was an event free trip till now but no one expected what was in the store!!
RD 350 had performed very well till now as a tourer (except for few niggles which included water clogging on sparkplug cap resulting in misfire at Tamhini. Once the sparkplug caps were dried and few heavy revs set the beast back in action). Now was time for her to show her true character.
She was very low on fuel (someone @ MTDC stole the fuel) and the next gas station was 18Kms away. Even though towing was an option, I decided to test the trust which I shared with her. Just as we managed to reach the gas station, RD was all bottoms up!! On refueling we found that she barely had 0.3 to 0.5 liters of fuel. 30Kmpl on a RD 350? That must have been a joke!!! But yes miracles do happen
), and this made me sing praises about my sweetheart...once again she stood by me when I needed her the most.
The next in line was Ashish's bike to make things more interesting!! The 19 year old 100cc bike did really well on the trip, it was hard work for the smallish engine, but being a HONDA she was reliable as expected.
Bike’s ignition switch was loose and the keys could be removed in the ON position!! So after 2 hours of riding on the Ghats and when the refueling was needed for CD100, Ashish discovered that his key was no more on the switch. He assumed that he had just enough fuel to reach Mumbai and so he went ahead with Honda Slogan, “fill it, Shut it and forget it”. We had no options till Pen which was still more than 120Kms away. Luckily CD100 made it till Pen where we broke his fuel tank filler lock and refueled her.
We made it to Panvel at 4pm. Last 2 days passed by so quickly, it was the end of trip. What could have been a better way to conclude this amazing trip with tea and wada pav? It was time to shake hands, cheer ourselves and to make a promise to the hit the road soon…
__________________
The NomaD
I dont Ride Fast, I Fly Low