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My new old bike

So the inevitable's finally occured. I've got myself a Royal Enfield - a classic Bullet Standard 350. Well....technically I haven't entirely got possession yet as the papers are with the mechanic, but short of him closing shop and running off somewhere, I can safely say the bike's mine, mine....all Miiiinne!!! Thanks to my colleague Robin, who's a bike/racing enthusiast and his neighbour Darren who's also passionate about Bullets for their help in ferrying me around the city looking at prospective candidates, riding the bikes and giving me their expert opinions while I stood by and gawked. On the flip side...if I find the bike is not to my satisfaction....I know who to kill!! Ok, now that the mand atory vote of thanks (read boring stuff) is over, onto more exciting details. As mentioned earlier, this is a Standard 350, 1996 model, complete with the classic thumping sound, right side gears, contact points ignition with ammeter, decomp lever etc. Not one of the ne...

Trip to Savandurga

Planning for this trip happened immediately after the previous trip to Muthaya Maduvu. Met Nimish the same evening, and while plying him with the details, found out he was very interested in doing this sort of thing as well. I'd always wanted to go on another ride to Savandurga, after the fun we'd had on the first trip, so suggested it and he was game. Decided to make it next Saturday, 14th Jan 2006, as I had a rare Saturday off for Sankranti. Landed up outside Koshy's at 9am. Decided to fuel the bike while waiting for Nimish. While at the petrol bunk, noticed a Royal Enfield zooming past, thump-thumping away to glory. Resolved for the 100th time to get me one of those, no matter what. By the way, not sure which model it was. Looked like a Thunderbird but was bigger...and noisier, as well. Anyways, drooled all over my li'l Splendor and filled it up (with fuel, not my drool). We started out after a great breakfast of bacon omelette and ham and egg sandwiches. P.S : Perso...

Muthyala Maduvu - Pearl Valley

It had been a while since our last outing, and I was itching to get out of the city for a while, probably go off on a small road trip. So when my colleague Venu approached me asking if we could organize something, jumped at the idea. My first idea was to go rafting, but was unable to find something that didn't involve a 2-day trip atleast ( travails of a a 6-day working week! ). We'd practically settled on going to Tipu's Summer Palace, approx 60km away, when Venu heard of this place called Muthyala Maduvu, 40km from Bangalore, a sort of tourist spot with woods and a waterfall. Planned to meet up at 8.30am Sunday, 8th Jan, so in true Indian style, left home at 8.30 and reached Venu's place by 9.00. Turned out none of the guys were ready yet, with most of them watching TV, and a couple of them fussing over a huge bowl of lime rice. Turned out they had news there was no food available at the place, so decided to take adequate precautions. 5 of us finally left, after break...