In the month of December 2011, my close cousin Dipesh
Motivaras had bought a brand new Yamaha Fazer & since then he had been
learning to get used to his beast. I had assured him a decently extended ride
out of Mumbai city but never got time in the month of January but I agreed to
take him for a night ride to Lonavala in February just after a week of our
Lavasa ride. The plan was set & I invited Najju to join along & he
agreed without hesitance.
We were supposed to leave home at 12.00 am on
February 13th, 2011 but Dipesh had some problems at his home so
finally he left at 12.15 am after the plan almost got cancelled & I was almost
ready for bed. Dipesh met me below my building on his Fazer & I was shocked
to see him. He was wearing a normal roadside cap-type helmet & sandals even
though I knew he had a brand new Cross helmet & decent shoes back home. I
had informed him that it would be awfully cold
so wear all the protection that he could but he turned out for the ride
as if we were going for a ride to local market. I was a bit furious at him
& asked him to get back home & change the helmet/sandals but he was a
bit reluctant as he had hardly managed to get out of home & couldn’t sneak
into his house & get away without unanswerable questions from his parents. I
reminded him again how unbearably cold it will get past Panvel but He insisted
me everything will be fine & I had to give in to the situation out of no
choice.
We reached Najju’s place soon & picked him up. I had
decided to stay away from riding on this road trip as Dipesh had very less or
relatively NIL experience with bikes on highways, that too at night so I was
gonna accompany him as his pillion on his Fazer throughout the ride & guide
him with Do’s & Don’ts of highway riding (atleast guide him with whatever I
had learned so far). That meant Najju had my FZ all for himself & he seemed
decently happy with that thought. I passed over my FZ keys to Najju & moved
on to be pillion on Dipesh’s fazer. We let the ride begin by 12.40 am.
Najju had agreed to be by our tail & from our last ride
to Lavasa, I was confident that he could pull off the ride without any issues.
We reached Sion quite soon as a result of open roads. Dipesh’s fazer was still
in run-in period & he pulled it at speeds of 80-90 kmph on a few occasions &
I had to cut him back asking to reduce the speed. I could understand he was
nowhere at fault given the conditions i.e first ride on smooth open highways on
a brand new monster beneath your legs in a cold chilling night. But after a few
interferences for speed checks by me, he gladly understood it was for his bike’s
own good & then he never crossed 5-6 k of RPM throughout the ride.
We reached Panvel by 1.15 am & had some tea on our
regular spot. It was already freezing cold at panvel itself so I could just envision
what kopoli, khandala & Lonavala had in store for us. Dipesh wasn’t
accepting but I could see how badly he was regretting not wearing a pair of
shoes & full face helmet. I offered him my full face AGV helmet from hereon
& also my shoes as he was the one who was gonna face maximum strong cold
winds head on & experience the chill factor for the first time. He gladly
accepted the helmet & humbly denied for shoes. We started off the ride from
Panvel & as expected, the night indeed was bone chilling. I could feel
dipesh shivering while riding & I asked him to pull over & gave him my
denim jacket too. We continued ahead & it was my turn to feel the chill
with the absence of my warm cozy jacket. His half cap regular helmet which I was
wearing now was absolutely useless against cold winds & I saluted Dipesh for
riding with it till Panvel. The helmet did nothing to prevent cold winds from
entering my system through my ears & make my spine shiver like a diesel
engine. Thankfully my 2 full sleeved tshirts were guarding me from the cold as
much as they could.
We reached Khandala ghats in next hour & Dipesh had his
own share of issues that every newbie would face with changing gears while
negotiating the ghat but we made it atop without much trouble. I was mighty
impressed with Dipesh’s riding skills as he had learnt a lot of control on his
monster just in a month. He was fearless on overtake maneuvers & didn’t
panic a lot if situation seemed getting out of hands especially on high speed turns.
We had a little break on our usual point just before express
highway. It was gonna be a lot of traffic to face on the expressway so I took
over the Fazer for a while & we reached the Lonavala exit soon enough. It
was a standard road to Lion’s point & we reached there within the next half
an hour.
 |
| Just before Lion's point |
 |
| Dipesh & his Fazer |
 |
| The Riders |
 |
| & the Posers |
 |
| Gazing at the stars.. There were millions of them |
As expected on a Sunday night, Lion’s point was hustling with activity
& we parked our bikes as close to the edge as possible & settled in.
The atmosphere was darn chilly & fog was building up every now & then.
 |
| Life on the edge |
 |
| Sleepy Sleepy !! |
 |
| Dipesh - Trying hard to stay awake |
 |
| A recipe for disaster - Awaiting just a few feet away :) |
After spending some time sitting on the rocks at the edges
of lion’s point, we decided to mark the return journey soon. We were hungry so
we pulled in to one of the stalls out there at lion’s point & ordered some
hot Egg Bhurji paav. After having tasty bhurji at approximately 5.30 am in the
morning, we were on our way back to Mumbai. Dipesh was back in control of his
Fazer & he was meticulously relishing the ride particularly on corners. I
could see his need for speed specifically on blind corners but luckily he used
to get back to his senses after a pat on his back by me indicating him to slow
down. However, we had a nice eye opening & sleep dissipating incident on
one particular blind corner which was a bit tricky steep right turn. While entering
the corner, he was at higher speeds even then what I could have handled &
after almost going off the road, he slowed down at last second & corrected
his line getting us back on the road. That occasion was enough to scare the
shit out of both of us as we were in the turn at the speeds of well above70-75
kmph & if we had crashed, that would’ve meant nothing but a guaranteed disaster.
A lot of thoughts & words were desperate to come out of my mouth but I abstained
from doing so considering the boy kept his cool & got us out of the tricky
situation safe & sound. It was noteworthy that he didn’t panic brake or
give in to the steep turn which would’ve meant a definite crash.
As we continued ahead, the environment started to lighten up
with first rays of sun & it’s always beautiful to see a beautiful sunrise
right from the road. The transformation of a black dark night into a hazel
light morning is magical to me even though I’ve seen it almost a dozen times so
far, mostly on our night rides. Dipesh had really cooled off by then &
started enjoying the cruising part of motorbike riding rather that rash ripping
of the bike. We never had any more close calls on the way back home. We stopped
at a small tea stall just between Khopoli & Panvel to have a cup of hot
cutting chai (half a glass of tea) & the tea break was a much required one
for the sleepy eyes. Najju humbly offered me to stay pillion with Dipesh for a
while on his fazer & look after him while I could have a blast on my FZ
& I appreciated his gratitude but denied the irresistible offer. It was
approximately 6.45 am by then & we estimated to reach back home by 8.30 at
max.
The ride ahead was eventless & a casual one as we
reached Najju’s place just a shade ahead of 8.00 am. Najju had been wonderful
throughout the ride. It was his first solo bike trip for 200 long kms & he
kept his cool all throughout, never ripped the bike & always stayed on our
tail even though he could have considering Dipesh was awfully slow on ghats
& I was there to take care of Dipesh. I knew back then Najju can be the
best tail rider for our group rides as he’s got the most important virtue for
the same i.e patience. We bid him goodbye & reached our respective homes
before 8.30 am.
I went straight to bed & got up at 10.30 am as Percy
& I were supposed to have an appointment with our mechanic for some regular
bike servicing. We didn’t get much picture perfect opportunities on this ride
& neither was it the most eventful ride, it was just a simple ride meant
for welcoming my little brother to the world of touring & letting him taste
the open roads cutting through the picturesque natural beauty that surrounds Mumbai.
We never talked much about the ride later on but I’m sure both Dipesh &
Najju must’ve learned a lot of things from that ride. I learned something
important too. It’s really damn boring to be a pillion on a long bike ride
especially when you can ride your bike which was right behind you all the time.
J
Summary
Riders:
Dipesh , Najju & Myself (just for a few kms though)
Destination:
Lonavala, Lion's point
Major Highways:
Sion Panvel highway & old NH4.
Total Kms:
220 kms
Total Kms:
220 kms
Route:
Marine lines - Sion - Panvel - Khopoli - Khandala - Lonavala market - Lion's point & back via same route
Route map:
Expenses:
Fuel : 1000 bucks
Food: 250 bucks
Rating:
***
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