The ultimate biker dream, ride in a large group with friends you know you can trust and with whom every turn in the road brings new joy , where getting to the destination is only a secondary objective… that’s what this ride turned out to be…

A day long ride of about 350 kms, with a great turnout by the Y boys. Plus support from the friendly Bulleteers of the Bombay Ace gang.

The actual ride started from Panvel for me where the few of us who had stayed overnight met up with the rest of the guys at the “wada pau” place, at around 10 am. The weather was great and the great bunch of bikers started off towards a not so distant Wadkhal Naka with great enthusiasm. There was of course the usual naughty bike, this time it was Chandru’s Jawa which had a flat tyre. I as usual was towards the back of the flock taking pictures and basically enjoying the road. The bike performed beautifully and there was no strain either on the engine or on my mind.

I over took the Bulleteers with Aseem by my side, they seemed to be having a problem with one of their bikes, which I later learnt was a broken drive chain. We made good time to Wadkhal Naka and spent a good time there as well waiting for the Chandru and the Bulleteers. When Chandru and the gang came riding by, however there was absolutely no time wasted by any one as everyone saddled up and just let go.

The next time I saw the guys was at Kolad, outside Uncle Rodney’s house, where the NH-7 is I guess at its narrowest point and where the Y club always ends up making a mess of the traffic. After a brief halt here, we pushed on towards Tamhini which was a left a few kilometers down the highway. Here the real fun part of the ride started.

There was absolutely no traffic, the road was virgin and the scenery around was just breathtaking. Very early on the ride we could se the mountains in the distance. These were the mountains in which rested the beautiful Tamhini Ghats and then beyond them on the down slope would be Mulshi Lake and then Pune, the sister city of the good ‘ol Bombay. Soon the road started winding upon itself and the air started getting fresher and cooler as we made our way up the ghats. The bikes moved beautifully and I could hear the younger first time riders hooting and whistling as they got face to face with big time biking. The road was so good that most of us would have just continued riding if we had not been stopped at the top by KT at this cute shanty of a restaurant where we had a sumptuous lunch of Chicken curry and rice Bhakris.

We started from the top at around 4 o clock hoping to make it down and into Bombay before dark…but another bike broke a accelerator cable on the down slope and ate up almost an hour of the evening, but the matter was soon sorted out and we were back on our way to join with the main highway back to Bombay. The ride home was fast and a long row of headlights made its way snaking through the weird light of the post monsoon dusk. After a final meet up at the Panvel Naka, it was time to disperse and make a beeline for home.

Long ride, good food and great co-riders……fultooo majaaaaa.

(Click on the title of this entry for pictures)

-- Mandar