Monday, September 3, 2007

My Motorcycle Diaries - An introduction

Nothing like Che Guevara here.

Simple reason: I didn't want to end up an equipment measurbator ( You know what word it is - Thanks to Ken Rockwell -http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm - Search for Bottom Level 1 here)

I bought a bullet not because I had a lakh of cash stashed in my bank account; but, because I love it, and because I want to ride it everywhere.

I had modest interest in knowing how these little beasts work; they had always been in my childhood dreams. I have been told that "only if you have cash to maintain a car, you dare buy a bullet and maintain it"; God, it is so true.

ooh... I said "little" beast. No flaming war here; Bullets are 350 cc, nothing like the Harley monsters.

You guys should watch the 'The Motorcycle Diaries' featuring Gael Garcia Bernal; a beautiful movie. Motorcycle is just a tool used by Che to 'see' South America; I thought, okay, let me buy the tool first, let me look at South India next, and 'see' it later. As you all know by now, I am lazy as hell, and would like to do things sequentially.

My motorcycle is a Royal Enfield Thunderbird, 346 cc displacement; cool bike, hot looks. I did a modest 24000 kms (15 K miles, you Liberians, Burmese and North Americans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Metric_system.png) in the first two years.

I rode my bike on plains mostly, to known towns/cities through unknown towns/cities. Villagers have hitch-hiked on my bike; I have met several interesting people, but nothing I remember or have documented :) I am lazy.

View my bike here, same color but more chrome:
http://www.royalenfield.com/Content/IN/images/downloads/wallpapers/tb_1024.jpg

I did not want to start a different blog under my name. I will label the motorcycle related posts appropriately so that you can search if you want to read them all. After all, why are these labels for?