23 replies to this topic

[arn]

I'd had enough of being cooped up in Mumbai.

Home to workplace. Workplace to home. Repeat. Decided to spend 31st on the bike. Till the last moment, I was not sure as to which direction I would be taking. Igatpuri return via Manor? NH17, return via Karad?

Manor to Mumbai = 60km construction zone.. The other route meant traveling through rush hour Pune + Lonavla full of the holidaying public.

Finally, at the last minute, this (courtesy Parimal) was the casting vote as it were. Available just off the NH17, which is more bike friendly (more corners!) anyways.

https://lh4.googleus...Custom%2529.jpg

Getting out of Mumbai by 8:15, I stopped at Panvel for breakfast, and then it was pretty slow going for the next two hours as there was a convoy of trailers transporting solid steel 2' diameter rods, and these trucks were traveling at 30 kph. Each of them had bottled up almost 20 -30 vehicles behind them as overtaking on that single lane road is never easy. Finally, near Poladpur traffic thinned out and I stopped to take a few snaps



The first small halt












There are some great twisties here, no real high speeds possible, but all the cornering fun you could want. You just have to keep your eyes open as this is a single lane road and a lot of traffic. This bike was made for roads like this. Just before the mountain section, a Cl 500 pulled up behind me 2 up, clearly intent on keeping slower bikes behind him. I let him pass and stayed with him as he weaved in and out of traffic, when the road finally opened up. It's very easy to make out when a bullet rider gives his machine full throttle. He was in my mirrors for a full 45s after that......

I'd intended to reach Hotel Leela about 12:30, but the heavy traffic meant that I reached only at 2:00pm. The hotel has cleverly concealed the signboard so you see this.





Then as you overshoot and snap your head back, you see this






Anyways, I finally parked there and filled up





No food snaps, sorry. If you want to see them, go here:http://motoroids.com...ad-pune-mumbai/


Food done, I decided to go back the way I came.  I would skip the boring dual carriageway, rush hour Pune, and moron filled Lonavla. As a bonus, I'd again get the gorgeous twisties, and breathtaking scenery.


Kumbharli ghat











Past Chiplun












It was nice and cloudy





All the same, the scenery was the icing on the cake. The real fun was doing this to the tyre






Traffic was much lighter on the road, making it much more enjoyable, and for some time I sat on the tail of a Skoda Octavia which was being driven fast and well. The bumpiness in the road prevented him from crossing 120kph, so there was no problem keeping up. I would probably have ridden a bit slower on my own, but hey, a fast rabbit clearing the road and giving you advance warning of the road ahead is always welcome. As the twisties started, though, he slowed down waved me on. Apart from that, though, there was another amusing scene where a Xylo decided  that he was going to overtake me and an Audi Q5 that I was behind (all of us were stuck behind a truck). As we cleared the truck, the Xylo puled out and honked at us, telling us to get out of he way. Both of us hit the gas and shot away from him, and he began to recede, still in the overtaking lane.... well, we DID get out of he way

Traffic started to pick up as I approached Mumbai. Finally, after 30 minutes of battling rush hour traffic I was back home at 8:00

[AMG]

Last Ride Of The Year

and

The First Travelogue of the next Year.

[rahul_rn]

NIce ride doc, can you plz map the route on gmaps..??

[arn]

It's almost the same as Parimal's, the difference being that mine ends about a third the way down Kumbharli ghat, before I turned around.
If you want, I can give you a file that will open in Google earth (you can zoom in )

[rahul_rn]

Nope doc not needed.. Man a need a break, feeling to hit these roads asap, but unfortunately no break in sight...

[spinz]

Very well ride, and I'm very happy with the look on the tires. Where's the Side Fairing?

[arn]

The side fairing is in jail, safely locked up. I'm redesignng the entire fairing and for that everything needs to be taken off while testing the fit/position, and I'd rather just have to deal with 10 fasteners holding the headlight related stuff together, rather than removing and replacing EVERYTHING which is a royal PITA.

Besides, who needs it in the city, where my bike spends 95% of the time (though not distance!).

[Ricci]

Wow, Doc ! I am feeling inspired to buy a CBR250R now and just ride off somewhere. Same color too, always loved shades of gray esp metallic - silver, titanium , anthracite grays, so guess which color mine would be

Are you running stock headlamps or change bulb or HIDed ? If I do get the Ceeber, I'll at least put in Osram Nighbreaker or Philips Xtreme Power if not HID. Is adjusting the beam throw and switching bulbs easy (DIY ) ?
What sort of tank range do you get from full to low-fuel warning light coming on ?

[rahul_rn]

^^^
come on ricci atleast a new colour for your new bike..

[arn]

Silver looks cool, also shows up dirt the least

The headlamp on this bike has a serious design fault. The high beam filament should be at the focal spot such that  the reflector can throw it most efficiently for a distance, and give optimum spread. The low beam filament, OTOH should be slightly ahead such that the pattern is broad. Unfortunately, the focal spot of this reflector is at the location of the low beam filament, and the high beam filament is behind that. The resultant  dipped beam is very sharp - at the expense of the high beam which has little focus and lights up the ground 5 feet from the bike as well as the guy sitting on his first floor balcony.

I changed the stock bulb to a 100/90 Halonix (more as a stop gap arrangement than anything else, as I plan to fit a HID with a projector later in the new fairing), but there was no change in he high beam pattern. It did not illuminate as it should have and was great for lighting up bus and truck drivers. As with everything, there is a fix.


I ground off the flange on the bulb and repositioned it (the flange) about 5 mm posteriorly (closer to the wiring harness) so that the body of the bulb moved in front, and stuck it with epoxy adhesive (araldite). Now that the high beam filament is about where it should be, the beam is acceptable for running at reasonable speed at night. This is not a very easy fix, you need tools. Had the filament been wrongly positioned in the opposite direction, it would have been a very simple fix - a spacer, but it is not.


Just putting in a better bulb without doing this will result in the same shitty beam, just a bit more irritating to oncoming traffic. Please check your beam pattern if you are planning to put in a different bulb - if you cannot change the position of the flange, you will NOT get a decent beam, regardless of what you put in, HID or halogen.

Very frankly, I've never checked how much distance it goes before the last bar starts to flash. The last bar, I think, begins to flash while there is at least 3.5 litres in the tank (I've run almost 50km unintentionally with the light blinking because all pumps were shut, and when I filled up it it took barely over 10 litres).

That said, the bike gives fabulous economy. This trip started with 4 bars, ended with 4 (there will be an error of perhaps a litre or so?) and I filled up 1000 bucks of fuel. I covered 559 km (GPS). At 70 bucks a litre lets say it was 15 litres of fuel. 37kpl (at any rate  better than 35), at best possibly 40 while blowing all other traffic into the weeds is miserly to the point of being frightening, that too without the aerodynamics of  the fairings. I was riding as fast as the road allowed. Nothing overtook me. The return from Kumbharli  to home took less than 5 hrs, and that includes at least 4 short photo breaks and rush hour traffic approaching and in Mumbai.

[parimal1981]

Lovely trip there doc. This is my favourite road hence any pics posted of scenary around are worth enjoying. I suspect food stop was not upto the mark hence no words on the same. My disclaimer is already active I think

Regards
Parimal

[arn]

The fish was so so, but the prawns were awesome, as was the sol kadi
I think you missed the last one

[nav75]

Having passed that area a few times, time for a halt for food next time. That next time should happen as soon as I am able to ride a bike.

What's the name of the fish dish?
Will I get similar quality if I tell them, I want the same dishes that the two "silver super bike" riders had?

[arn]

Surmai and Kolambi fry + sol Kadi. I'll send you the waypoint co ordinates if you need them

[spinz]

The weather in Punjab and ur ride details are killing me. I wanna ride too...come-on Spring start sooon