It all started because of our external oral exam which was scheduled a day prior to the IIFT exam.
IIFT was on 22nd and the external could well have stretched upto 2-3pm. And the only train to Nagpur that day was at 11pm which ,if on time, would have dropped me Nagpur at 7am. I did not want to travel all night and head away straight to exam hall without taking bath and performing more important chores! Other option was to take Navjeevan Express till Wardha and thereon take a bus to Nagpur. But with Indian railways the phrase 'if on time' is unavoidable and I din't want to risk it. And to add to it the rickety ST buses. Ewwwwww! No! I 'll not say that travelling on bike was my last option. In fact I Had it right in front of all the options. When it comes to reaching somewhere on time its me I rely on me the most!
Preparation
RIDER
As far as mile munching is concerned I always knew I had it in me to go long. But still 440 odd kms solo on a bike which barely qualifies as one does raise questions. Everyone just everyone will say things which will negatively influence your spirits. Last couple of days I tried to keep away from those elements.
I took few small rides in dark to get the feel of cold and check the effectiveness of bike's new headlight. I felt good enough to last for 2-3 hours continuous riding.
Pranav, my room partner, was to accompany me but he moved out at the last moment. That meant I had to ride all along alone. I took positives out of it that bike will be lighter and I will be able to clock quicker times, have safer overtakings,neutral handling , total autonomy and also a bit reduction in expenditure. On the day of departure I was very relaxed and even more confident.
BIKE
Let me tell you the 'Kawasaki Bajaj 4S Champion with R.A.C.E technology' is not the best thing you can have under your pot on a long ride.
* it does not have enough power.(7bhp only)
* pretty low top speed(85kph claimed,but it goes till 95kph almost every time you want it to. and it even clocked 103kph downhill)
* poor accelaration. It takes ages to gain speed. You wring the throttle,sleep and wake up to see that it still is trying to reach the desired speed.
* light weight. it bumps a lot even on medium size undulations.
* dynamics is pretty bad. You have to be very careful while taking turns or overtaking
*worst part is the braking. front brake is as good as show piece and the rear locks very easily under hard braking.
*electricals are very bad. You never know when your bikes headlight will go down fighting dark.
* seat is too soft for long rides. Your bums and back are going to be the biggest victims.
GOOD PARTS ARE ALSO THERE
*When 4S is being talked about first thing which comes to mind is its fuel efficiency and this bike is very fuel efficient. I had my bike pinned to 70kph on the 4lane and it ran staggering 73 kms in one litre.if one sticks to 50kph it easily can give in excess of 85kpl. Overall on my 1500km trip it gave 61.47kpl.
*Dunlop Zebra tyres-These stick very well to the surface and you can lean the bike on turns pretty surely(compared to a stock 4s)
*reliable engine- it houses a very reliable powerplant. I have taken it to Aurangabad twice and Nashik and Gadh once and not once has she failed me. I have subjected it to some harsh treatment like keeping it up an at 80kph for hours end but it has come good. The engine does not overheat provided you feed it with a good quality engine oil.(in my case it was Castrol power one)
but yeah one thing my bike,ditto me, doesn't like moving out in rain a lot. Sometimes it just refuses to move in rain for reasons unknown to me and my mechanic.
*Long seat-the seat is good enough to seat 3 in relative comfort. and on this trip it was a boon for me and my bag. Even after strapping the bag on rear seat I had 2-3 seating postures to choose from.
21st November
As already stated it was the day for my last oral exam. Our group had contacted the HOD for scheduling our exam at the earliest.But still it could not get over before11:45am. I had predicted my departure to be at 12noon so it was almost on right track. All my preparations were over by 12:20pm and I was ready to move. There were three people to wave me good bye, Pranav, Manjeet and Diwakar,not a bad start for my touring career!
BYE! BYE! JALGAON
Half an hour behind the schedule was not something I was worried about so I took a relaxed approach. Jalgaon to Bhusaval, which many a times I have done in under 30mins took more than 45 thanks to my amateurishness with strapping the bag. It kept sagging to the left every 10-12kms as if even it did not want to come along. It was irritating but I continued checking every now and then. Traffic was dense and so the progress remained slow. Bhusaval gone by I turned music on and tried catching up on time just a little bit. There were two college bunker couples on two bikes heading in the same direction. Some 5-10kms on they took a left on a deserted road. Honestly, I was damn jealous. All I had with me was this silly bag.
Some tough work in the sun but still I was running late. I reached Nandura 40mins late than planned. It should ideally have been my first stop but poor strapping ate out on my time.Called back Jalgaon to notify of my safety and moved on. It was already 3 something and all I had covered was a meagre 115kms. Sun had moved from top to back of my head and I had less than three hours of daylight left. I set a target of another 150-160km till the dusk. Roads weren't that good but still I could easily maintain 60-65kph. Reached Akola well before dark and got brakes tightened up. Last 75-80kms I had rode with bag on my shoulders. The mechanic there strapped it so well that I dint even need to look back even for once till Nagpur. He told it will take 6-7 hours to reach Nagpur that meant I could reach not before midnight.
At the onset of dark I had reached Amravati. Now I was more or less on time. So took a break atop bypass overbridge to cover me up with more layers of fabric. So now it was vest,body touch half t-shirt,full sleeve t-shirt,full sleeve sweater and finally rain suit which doubles up as wind cheater. This was more than sufficient to beat the chill. Took water, released some, embarrassingly it found its way on the road under the bridge and am really sorry for the cyclist who looked up in amazement for the source of liquid dripping in the rather dry weather..
Twilight was almost nearing end and pitch darkness followed. Roads somewhat smoothened up and maintaining 65-70kph was a stroll in park. Thanks to my bikes new headlamp assembly, I was getting some respect from the oncoming traffic and visibility even opposing the vehicles operating high beam wasn't a problem. All I had to cover up in dark was 150 odd kilometers. Amravati onwards the traffic was intriguing and road nice and smooth. By this time my bums had smelled some conspiracy and started revolting. Gathering some courage from their neighbors even my back joined them. All I had to do to keep them away lockout was to stand on footpegs every 10-20 mins. The agitation settled down as they were too tired by now to even protest. Now the road opened up into a four laner at Talegaon. The cold was bearable and bike had warmed up nicely to cover up some precious time. The next 70kms were covered up in no more than 1 hour. The bike hovering between 75-95kph during the period. Bike chewed up a Pulsar doing 80kph effortlessly. The honeymoon was not to stay for ever and nearing Nagpur road condition got very poor, full of unmarked diversions and as if that wasn't tough enough, it came sprayed with craters of all shapes. sizes and depths. One such crater launched me towards the more famous craters (on moon). We were airborne for a second and a half, good thing being we were still straight. I loved the experience. The last 35-40kms to Nagpur is really challenging. It took around an hour to complete the last leg.
9:20 and I was in front of Eternity mall. It felt awesome to have completed the journey without any glitches. Honey came there in 20mins,good enough time to inform everybody of my well being. Reached my home to be for next one week. Got to bed and even having eaten only two bananas and one orange whole day, dozed off in less than a min. One of the most satisfying sleep had me all in her arms. Now who envies those college bunkers????
Not me!
Preparation
RIDER
As far as mile munching is concerned I always knew I had it in me to go long. But still 440 odd kms solo on a bike which barely qualifies as one does raise questions. Everyone just everyone will say things which will negatively influence your spirits. Last couple of days I tried to keep away from those elements.
I took few small rides in dark to get the feel of cold and check the effectiveness of bike's new headlight. I felt good enough to last for 2-3 hours continuous riding.
Pranav, my room partner, was to accompany me but he moved out at the last moment. That meant I had to ride all along alone. I took positives out of it that bike will be lighter and I will be able to clock quicker times, have safer overtakings,neutral handling , total autonomy and also a bit reduction in expenditure. On the day of departure I was very relaxed and even more confident.
BIKE
Let me tell you the 'Kawasaki Bajaj 4S Champion with R.A.C.E technology' is not the best thing you can have under your pot on a long ride.
* it does not have enough power.(7bhp only)
* pretty low top speed(85kph claimed,but it goes till 95kph almost every time you want it to. and it even clocked 103kph downhill)
* poor accelaration. It takes ages to gain speed. You wring the throttle,sleep and wake up to see that it still is trying to reach the desired speed.
* light weight. it bumps a lot even on medium size undulations.
* dynamics is pretty bad. You have to be very careful while taking turns or overtaking
*worst part is the braking. front brake is as good as show piece and the rear locks very easily under hard braking.
*electricals are very bad. You never know when your bikes headlight will go down fighting dark.
* seat is too soft for long rides. Your bums and back are going to be the biggest victims.
GOOD PARTS ARE ALSO THERE
*When 4S is being talked about first thing which comes to mind is its fuel efficiency and this bike is very fuel efficient. I had my bike pinned to 70kph on the 4lane and it ran staggering 73 kms in one litre.if one sticks to 50kph it easily can give in excess of 85kpl. Overall on my 1500km trip it gave 61.47kpl.
*Dunlop Zebra tyres-These stick very well to the surface and you can lean the bike on turns pretty surely(compared to a stock 4s)
*reliable engine- it houses a very reliable powerplant. I have taken it to Aurangabad twice and Nashik and Gadh once and not once has she failed me. I have subjected it to some harsh treatment like keeping it up an at 80kph for hours end but it has come good. The engine does not overheat provided you feed it with a good quality engine oil.(in my case it was Castrol power one)
but yeah one thing my bike,ditto me, doesn't like moving out in rain a lot. Sometimes it just refuses to move in rain for reasons unknown to me and my mechanic.
*Long seat-the seat is good enough to seat 3 in relative comfort. and on this trip it was a boon for me and my bag. Even after strapping the bag on rear seat I had 2-3 seating postures to choose from.
21st November
As already stated it was the day for my last oral exam. Our group had contacted the HOD for scheduling our exam at the earliest.But still it could not get over before11:45am. I had predicted my departure to be at 12noon so it was almost on right track. All my preparations were over by 12:20pm and I was ready to move. There were three people to wave me good bye, Pranav, Manjeet and Diwakar,not a bad start for my touring career!
BYE! BYE! JALGAON
Half an hour behind the schedule was not something I was worried about so I took a relaxed approach. Jalgaon to Bhusaval, which many a times I have done in under 30mins took more than 45 thanks to my amateurishness with strapping the bag. It kept sagging to the left every 10-12kms as if even it did not want to come along. It was irritating but I continued checking every now and then. Traffic was dense and so the progress remained slow. Bhusaval gone by I turned music on and tried catching up on time just a little bit. There were two college bunker couples on two bikes heading in the same direction. Some 5-10kms on they took a left on a deserted road. Honestly, I was damn jealous. All I had with me was this silly bag.
Some tough work in the sun but still I was running late. I reached Nandura 40mins late than planned. It should ideally have been my first stop but poor strapping ate out on my time.Called back Jalgaon to notify of my safety and moved on. It was already 3 something and all I had covered was a meagre 115kms. Sun had moved from top to back of my head and I had less than three hours of daylight left. I set a target of another 150-160km till the dusk. Roads weren't that good but still I could easily maintain 60-65kph. Reached Akola well before dark and got brakes tightened up. Last 75-80kms I had rode with bag on my shoulders. The mechanic there strapped it so well that I dint even need to look back even for once till Nagpur. He told it will take 6-7 hours to reach Nagpur that meant I could reach not before midnight.
At the onset of dark I had reached Amravati. Now I was more or less on time. So took a break atop bypass overbridge to cover me up with more layers of fabric. So now it was vest,body touch half t-shirt,full sleeve t-shirt,full sleeve sweater and finally rain suit which doubles up as wind cheater. This was more than sufficient to beat the chill. Took water, released some, embarrassingly it found its way on the road under the bridge and am really sorry for the cyclist who looked up in amazement for the source of liquid dripping in the rather dry weather..
Twilight was almost nearing end and pitch darkness followed. Roads somewhat smoothened up and maintaining 65-70kph was a stroll in park. Thanks to my bikes new headlamp assembly, I was getting some respect from the oncoming traffic and visibility even opposing the vehicles operating high beam wasn't a problem. All I had to cover up in dark was 150 odd kilometers. Amravati onwards the traffic was intriguing and road nice and smooth. By this time my bums had smelled some conspiracy and started revolting. Gathering some courage from their neighbors even my back joined them. All I had to do to keep them away lockout was to stand on footpegs every 10-20 mins. The agitation settled down as they were too tired by now to even protest. Now the road opened up into a four laner at Talegaon. The cold was bearable and bike had warmed up nicely to cover up some precious time. The next 70kms were covered up in no more than 1 hour. The bike hovering between 75-95kph during the period. Bike chewed up a Pulsar doing 80kph effortlessly. The honeymoon was not to stay for ever and nearing Nagpur road condition got very poor, full of unmarked diversions and as if that wasn't tough enough, it came sprayed with craters of all shapes. sizes and depths. One such crater launched me towards the more famous craters (on moon). We were airborne for a second and a half, good thing being we were still straight. I loved the experience. The last 35-40kms to Nagpur is really challenging. It took around an hour to complete the last leg.
9:20 and I was in front of Eternity mall. It felt awesome to have completed the journey without any glitches. Honey came there in 20mins,good enough time to inform everybody of my well being. Reached my home to be for next one week. Got to bed and even having eaten only two bananas and one orange whole day, dozed off in less than a min. One of the most satisfying sleep had me all in her arms. Now who envies those college bunkers????
Not me!
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