Lonavala/Amby valley :- First XBHP ride with sportbikers {16/05/2010}

I had been back from Ankleshwar a few weeks ago from my audit visit & I was tracking online an upcoming event organized by few sportsbikers on 16^th may 2010. It was later turned into a xbhp official ride & members from Mumbai/pune gang started to join in with their confirmations. I decided to join it too & posted my confirmation. Got my denim jacket, gloves, elbow/knee guards just a day before the ride. Kailash was also supposed to join us but he could not buy all the required gear so he opted out. Finally the meeting point was decided as BKC at 06.00 hrs. I was supposed to meet Adil at agripada who rode a Honda CBR600RR & ride together till BKC. Got up in morning at 4, washed my bike, polished it & then went to bath. Kailash called me & said his group of P220’s was riding to malshej ghat, so he wanted to accompany us till BKC. We met near my house & set off to BKC. Couldn’t meet Adil as he already left & hence I, Kailash & Maddy went straight to BKC & found almost a dozen bikers already there. Saw a Hayabusa for the 1^st time in flesh..

Some of the pics clicked at BKC by me.

My humble bike on extreme left in the end 

Adil's Hanspree Honda CBR 600 RR

Myself, along with the Pro's

Ram bhai with his brand new Suzuki Hayabusa

Yamaha MT-01 - The real monster

The Honda bros

My baby FZ

Interacted with few of the fellow riders & then we all left for our next checkpoint i.e panvel. It was amazing to ride along such a huge fleet of bikers. Met Rachit, Ketan etc at panvel & then we all took off straight to lonavla. It was amazing to ride along the NH-4 at high speeds with the sportsbikes zooming past us occasionally. I was enjoying the morning chill & amazing views all the way. Had amazing time cornering at khandala ghat. Some pics just before entering the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

Mumbai-Pune expressway.. Bikes allowed from this point :)

Reached the famous RamKrishna restaurant @ lonavala by 8.00 am. The parking lot of R.K was full of bikes. Pune bikers joined us there & all of us had a small breakfast session. Few pics of the gorgeous machines.

About 40 bikes parked here

Honda CBR1000 RR on the right

Dats Me :)

My baby parked among its brothers

 It was my 1^st visit to lonavala so I explored a bit around the main road before we all were set to leave for amby valley. I was from the last batch of bikes to leave the R.K parking lot & soon we entered the Amby valley circuit. It was breathtaking views all the way along with smooth amazing corners to encounter along. Rode along Ram’s hayabusa for quiet a long & then zoomed past ahead to join the riders ahead. Finally after almost an hour, we all reached a place where the other bikes from our group were parked & photo shoots began there.

 

Me again, with the white beauty & its owner.

People started to leave back in small groups & eventually I, Kailash & Maddy left too. Kailash & maddy zoomed pass me to join the sportsbikes ahead while I decided to take it slow this time & click pics of the views on the way.

Soon I was riding solo & clicking pics en route while other riders were passing by me in quick succession. Finally I decided to speed up & catch up with our group & within a few minutes of riding fast, I Noticed around 10-15 bikes from our group parked almost in the middle of the road & Maddy pointing out to me & asking me to pull over. I slowed down & parked my bike & enquired what was it all about & maddy told me there has been an accident. A rider on Honda CBR 600 RR skidded & crashed.

 Luckily no much harm to the bike as well as the rider but he was in quiet a lot of pain. Thankfully he was fully geared which took the toll of the accident. I helped them out with the medical kit provided by Yamaha which was in my bike. Finally most of us left the scene in some time since crowd was gathering up & the road was blocked. We all decided to meet at R.K for lunch. Reached R.K by 12 pm & ordered some food. The rider who had crashed arrived in some time as a pillion on Rishabh’s FZ while Goldie took over his crashed Honda CBR I guess.

Our helmets on the lunch table

 Post lunch, 1 more hayabusa joined us & then we all were on the road again to reach Mumbai. I had to hurry back home since I had to attend a cousin’s engagement early evening so I decided to bid goodbye to other riders & rip back to Mumbai alone. Turns out that few others were interested in ripping back to Mumbai too so we were four bikers leading in the return journey towards Mumbai. Rode constantly at speeds above 110k & crossed 120 occasionally. There were 2 P220’s & a R15 in our group so occasionally they rode ahead of me due to their superior top speeds but I was not left far behind the group. Soon the guy on his black hayabusa joined our speed run & he added a whole lot of fun. We were all riding at speeds of 110+ when the Hayabusa overtook us from the rightmost lane at speed of 200+ I guess & I felt such a strong sense of being blown away by the sound of his exhaust pipes. I was on my top speed but felt like riding on 1^st gear when the hayabusa took over at such a high speeds. Soon I noticed the hayabusa  slowing down at a distance & we all overtook him in few minutes. Then he overtook us all again after some time & That’s wen I realized he was jus deliberately letting us overtake the hayabusa. This happened a few times & then the hayabusa guy left once we reached panvel.

A combined pic of our leading group along with the hayabusa clicked by me when 1 of our bikes was refuelling in the petrol pump.

 I had a small encounter on JNPT road when I was riding in the outermost lane at 100+ speed behind a P220 of our group when I noticed him slowing down but didn’t notice that the reason he was slowing down was because a small goods carrier truck was going to take a U-turn suddenly  in middle of the road without any indicators. The P220 braked hard & stopped right behind the truck on the left side with inches to spare but that was not the case with me. I had very less time to react & had to slow down from 110+ to 0 within less then 100 feet of the distance. I knew it wasn’t possible  so instead of braking too hard & stop I decided to change the lane & get past them all the while slowing down my speed. Grabbed my disc breaks hard, but careful enough to not lock the front wheel & steer myself in the second lane & avoid both the P220 & the truck. I brushed the left side of P220 at speeds of about 30-40 kmph but managed to steer clear away from the truck & then I came to a safe halt about 50 feet away from the scene. I started checking my bike for any damages but thankfully none to be found, meanwhile the P220 guy rode to me to check if I was fine & I asked the same to him. Something, maybe my side mirror or handle bar brushed his left hand gloves & his fingers were a bit in pain I guess. I apologized & he said it was the truck driver’s fault to stop suddenly so he had to break hard to Stop his P220 & it was great I didn’t crash straight into him but steered away in the other lane. The R15rider  riding behind both of us saw the entire scene & came to us & told me I got saved coz I went in the 2^nd lane while breaking hard. I didn’t feel anything but the R15 guy confirmed my rear wheel was marginally doing a stop pie due to hard front braking. Whatever it was, I felt lucky to be safe & so we all resumed our journey back soon. We reached BKC by 2.30 pm thanks to the traffic. I called up Kailash to find out where they were & he told me they just reached Panvel. It was gonna take them at least an hour to reach BKC so we all decided to leave instead. I test rode the R15 for 1^st time for about a km & just loved it. Reached home by 3.30 pm & straightaway went to bed. What a wonderful & fast ride it was. Looking forward to many such rides with the beautiful machines in future.