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I and Murtuza Poonawalla from Rubber Ripperz decidedthe date for saddle sore to be 15th June, 2011.We decided to leavePune at 2 am. It was 1 am and I went to murtuza’s place and oiled up my chainand we got geared up there. By 1.50 we reached RTO petrol pump and we metKevin, jagat and shailendra there who came to support us and be witnesses forthe start of the ride. We filled fuel and obtained the printed Fuel receiptswith proper date, time and location and we left from the pump at 2.35 am. Assoon as we reached the NH-4 highway we started doing 120 kmph constant and attimes reaching 130kmph on my Yamaha R15 and his Pulsar 220 DTSI.After ridingfor few hours in rains and heavy windblast we stopped at a Petrol pump atKolhapur at 5.00am. We tanked up our bikes and took rest for like 20 min, atenutrition bars and drank Gatorade that we had got from Pune. At 7.50 am I feltlike taking a dump and luckily we found a hotel at highway. We were there forabout 10 min and then we started ride again. Few hours later we noticed thatPulsar was leaking oil from the air box. Since I owned a Pulsar 220 earlier Irecognized the problem that it was leaking because the service center guyfilled excess oil in it. I told him not to worry and we started touring at120kmph.The road to Bangalore is awesome and I wished I had a superbike. I dida top speed of 149kmph and murtuza did 160kmph.I was shocked when he told me hedid 160 and I was left agape. Later it became windier and it was difficult to controlR15. It is so light that it was swaying and I was riding tilted at one side.Because of the windblast our bikes were giving average of like 25kmpl. It was9.05am when we stopped at the district Haveri to fill fuel. Subsequently, westopped at two more petrol pumps later to fill fuel. R15 took 3 and half tanksto reach to bengalaru. We reached Bengalaru at 1.30pm and stopped at a petrolpump which had Café Coffee Day and Mc Donald’s. Since the Petrol Pump did nothave printed receipts we ate at Mc Donald’s and obtained a receipt with time, dateand location. We left Bengalaru at 2.10pm and rode constantly. At 5.45pm weboth started worrying coz my R15 was flashing low fuel and murtuza’s bike hadonly 2 bars left. We could not find a petrol pump for about 40 kms. We foundone and it had a board written NO STOCK. We moved ahead going at 70kmph foundanother pump and we thought we would get fuel. When we approached a guy he saidNO STOCK. I asked him if there was any petrol pump ahead and he said it is 40kms from here. I was like shit we are doomed. But suddenly he said there is onemore on the other side of the road which is like 7kms ahead. We went to thatpump and luckily we got fuel. It was Haveri district and we again were hoggingon nutrition bars after writing the log. Suddenly it became cloudy and startedraining heavily. We left and rode in the rain with heavy windblast. Thewindblast was increasing as we moved ahead and at one point of time it becamedifficult to take normal corners on R15. Murtuza had HID’s fitted which were ofa great help it lit up the whole road and he was backing me with his lightssince the headlights of R15 is horrible. It was 10 pm and we stopped at kagalto fill fuel. We decided that it would be our last stop and we will continuetill Pune in one go. But the fatigue had started to kick in. Our back and neckhad started aching and my right wrist had so much of pain that I could notproperly give throttle so I was opening throttle with one finger on straightroads. Although we decided to go constant the fatigue was gaining on us andthus we stopped at the side of the road for like 10 min. We ate the bars andleft again for Pune. We were doing 120 constant and at some point we did 140. Onthe way we found a guy in Mercedes who was checking what speeds we were doing.We took our last stop when 96kms were left for a pee break
. We startedmoving after informing Kevin that we are reaching RTO in an hour. Suddenly at apatch it started raining so heavily that my crotch got wet even with the rainpants on. Finally we took a right at the old katraj ghat and I realized thiswould lead me to swargate and I did not proper way and neither did murtu so weturned back and went to Kothrud via Chadni Chowk. We were so tired that westarted ripping at Kothrud too. Once at RTO we filled fuel and obtained theprinted fuel receipt to document the end of the ride. We did the whole trip in22 hours 55 minutes and Kevin was waiting for us as the end witness. Once wereached home I slept like I was dead and directly woke up at 4pm today. Thiswas one hell of a ride and the best one that we’ve had ever.Arzin Dalal
