The Story of Recovery

Howdy Folks,

had I been an avid blogger (or at least a regular one), this post would have appeared in January this year, when I was bedridden, after injuring my knee. This happened during my vacation, and I was traveling to Calcutta with my family. Ever since I have been on a long hiatus from motorcycling. I usually don't discuss health, wealth, and personal life online. However, I felt obliged to mention this experience in my (web) diary here, as it has had more impact on my riding for the last few months, than on any other part of my day-to-day life. Basically, I happen to injure the ligament in my knee, which though was not so bad to stop me from walking around, but restricted my range and agility quite a bit for all this while. Most physios suggested a restrictive lifestyle to suit the injury, which made me switch physios to my mindset about how to live my life. Remember 'don't stop until you find what you looking for'. And not long before one of my friends referred me to a physio who is experienced and had worked with athletes (i.e. the kind of people, for whom sitting at home is not an option!), who was one to say, that I can get back to my riding with required exercises. It took me roughly one month to get rid of the metal knee braces (yeah ticked that off my done-that list. lol) and two months to get back to normal day-to-day things like driving my car, walking for long hours, climbing stairs, and other similar stuff involving legs. Here is a tip for anyone who has faced or facing any health/fitness-related challenges which affected your confidence for the right reasons. Well, you can achieve any level of strength and conditioning, provided you first believe so in your mind. Rest all just follow. Again, always listen to your body, so as not to stress it beyond what it can take (not what you think it can take). Hope that makes sense. And yes, do give yourself some time, especially if you are my kind, who is always up to something, you would benefit the most from such a (much-needed) break. Honestly, I never thought I needed a break, but trust me, it helped me in many different ways. As I look back, here are a few things I did during these past few months when I was off the saddle:

• Cooking: Started cooking (after years!) some simple (yet healthy) meals at home for a change
• Reading: Caught up with some books, I had parked on the shelf for a while
• Driving: Drove quite a lot during these last few months to many faraway places with friends, in the comfort of a car :)
• Programming: Worked a bit on one of the areas of my interest; mobile apps
• Finances: Wrapped up some long pending stuff with my finance/investments which I was dodging, because I was busy 

Yeah, so the benefits really outweighed my possible complaints about not being able to ride my bike. I am really happy looking back at the things I faced and learned. Now pushing myself to the next level of things. Getting back to jogging and gymming is next on my agenda and am currently building myself up for it. Not sure how much time it will take though, but am perfectly fine taking it slow, as long as am improving. Wish me luck.

A few days after the injury and this is as far as I can fold my right knee.

A day after the injury. Here the swelling has actually reduced a bit.

@ Victoria Memorial Hall, this was the only trouser that could hide the knee bandage inside.

After the initial scolding about my love for motorcycling, mom was happy to have me around the house with her:) Being at home wasn't so bad after all.

At Bhubaneswar airport after a restful (*pun intended) vacation, leaving for Bangalore.

Now starting this year, other than my career and personal life, I was supposed to work on planning my next motorcycle tour. However, that got a bit sidelined due to the course of events I explained just now. As am working on myself now, all the possibilities are coming right back. Currently am chasing up the Bangalore RTO folks to issue my new registration number for Karnataka. They have a few things to iron out on my bike and of course some touring mods (I will discuss this in another upcoming post). Not to mention that finances have to be worked out, as there are many commitments at home, which is how it's always has been and always gonna be!! :)


Hope this post inspires you to overcome your personal challenges, both stronger and better in every possible way.



Ride Safe & Ride Far,

Sid

Happiness as I know it :)

" In the spur of the moment, I feel perfect being on the saddle, rolling the throttle a wee bit more, leaning onto the corners, feeling the butterflies in the stomach, sipping in the beautiful sight and sound of nature and from the deepest part of my heart thanking God, for having lived this moment. Being grateful for being blessed with good health, wealth (to be able to afford to do what I do), and most importantly, consciousness to acknowledge and appreciate this experience. What more could I ask for?!!...nothing really. I do feel pity for people who go through the same experiences and yet, later it is recalled as a mere commotion when they end up comparing their journey with someone else's,... maybe with someone on a more expensive motorcycle, or with someone who rolls more luxuriously or someone who had better company or someone who rolls in a larger group, etc. Basically, such people miss the point of life itself. It is not defined in a book (well, I wish it were) what will actually make you happy and content, so you must know this....something that made you smile like a kid is possibly what makes you happy. That is it! It could be something simple like rolling your old bicycle down a known lane with an old friend, or it could be cruising in a drop-top on the highway, or, like (in my case,) being on the saddle and a long road ahead with no sense of time. The rest is immaterial. Yet we (of course, even I) sometimes fall for the unimportant variables of the happiness formula,...which brand, how much power, which route, etc, and decide to let go of the whole experience altogether. Was it really worth those bits?! Well...I don't think so. So why not give this thought a chance: "just be happy with what you have, go as far as you can currently afford to go and with whoever is with you"! Trust me...you will be a happy biker, I promise you that. How do I know this, cause I live with this philosophy:) "

Keep Rolling and Don't forget to smile n wave when our paths cross,

Sid

Happy Diwali 2012 to All Bikers:)

Hi Folks,

Officially Diwali was celebrated yesterday, but hearing the Booms, Bangs and Dhooooms outside my building in Bangalore I can't tell for sure that it has gotten over for all yet:D Anyways belated Happy Diwali and hope all of you had a great time with family and friends.

I had an invitation for Dinner and chose to take my shining Enfield out for a short spin on the Diwali night:)

[Note: Nothing adventurous here, the distance travelled is roughly 500 meters and had to go through a wide main road. Otherwise I personally wouldn't recommend anyone riding a bike in India on a Diwali night, considering the fireworks happening on the streets.]

Photo Courtesy: www.motorcycle-usa.com

Best Wishes,

Sid

My Meeting with 'Zen of Royal Enfields'

Hi,

After a long time I am feeling relatively free from my usual work clutter and hence bit in a mood to write. So this post is gonna be a wordy one. To make it interesting for you all, I will tell it in the form of a story. Don't yawn as yet, you would like it. You can grab a cup of coffee/tea or horlicks, whatever suits your style of reading. Well then here it goes..

The story starts in one of the corporate office buildings located in the city of Bristol, south-west England. There was this guy, who was on a call for quite sometime. Such calls are pretty common considering the type of job he had, which required him to interact with his team back in India on a daily basis. But this time it was different. This time it sounded more like an aggressive sales negotiation, where in there was lot of pitching happening from the guy's side to sell an idea to the person on other side. Well the item under discussion was the (then expected) Hyosung GT250R and the person the idea being attempted to be sold was my dad:) Now it doesn't take a genius to know who must be attempting the sale;)

Well  It's obvious no parents (especially in India) would prefer their kids to be riding a sports-bike, that too when the concepts and the need for such a thing (A Sports Bike) is still un-explainable (by us) to majority of population (a.k.a parents) in the country. Before you jump to conclusion, that whether the sale was made that day, lemme tell ya...Sid never lost a negotiation. ever! (ahem well except for the gazillion exceptions when the conversation went else where. Lollzzz) Well, coming back to the story, I was considering my return to India and I was looking forward to getting a bike for my touring as well as day to day commute to office (I enjoy this thoroughly).

[Flashback: Till couple of years back I was pretty obstinate and dad  used to resist every idea of mine, especially when it has to do with motorcycles. Due to obvious reasons of course. But during my last ride (check my older posts on this blog) finally dad realised that I am no more wanna-be-rossi types on the road and rather have become a matured and sensible rider, with an immense passion for motorcycle touring. I consider this as a  great breakthrough in my life.]

So I was checking for bikes about to be launched in India and if any of those catch my fancy and more importantly suit my purpose (i.e. of touring in India). To give you an idea of what kind of a buyer I am, let me tell you this, if a bike is having too much sales, no matter how great a deal it is, chances are that I may give it a pass. Herd attitude ain't my thing. No offence to anyone as I say this. I like customisation, I like uniqueness in a product I don't give a damn about any trend! So I was scanning the web reading reviews and was closing in, on few (rather very few) bikes and GT250R topping that list. But my conscience pricked me when I thought of the places that I have already been to and how much this fully covered sports oriented bike can take me. Think of off-roading, think of riding on sand, think of river crossing (yep have done all these and know that if you really are a wanderer you gotta experience 'em all!), etc. So the only reason I was sharing my thoughts (that sales pitch described earlier) with dad was to know his opinion. But as he heard the term *sports* he started changing the topic and my obstinate nature kicked-in and I started defending 'sports genre' itself. After calming down a bit, dad told that he is planning to change his ride as well. I didn't know this, so this update just caught me off guard a bit and I started listening calmly. He was thinking about it for a while, as he has decided to move to a lighter vehicle for health reasons and I completely understand that. So he may sell off the Enfield Electra 5s that he has. Now this was a shock for me, as I loved that bike so very much. It had that classic cast iron mill which now we can't get our hands on through any showrooms. Again if dad has used a bike during it's run-in period I could bet the whole world that it is one of the best maintained machines (I was never so appreciative of this skill of dad, till I owned a bike myself). So I suggested dad 'lets keep that bike in our garage' and you go for a non-geared one as you may like. I will ride that whenever I come home. He said no it's not a good idea, if it has to be kept in a good condition it must be ridden regularly, else it's better off at someone else's parking lot. No way! I had done few trips on that and I just love the way it used to feel. I knew it was my call now, wait and buy a new bike (GT was out of question at this moment, as I was sure that won't be able to go places that I wish to go) or bring the Bullet from home. Finally I decided to bring this beast with me, when I return. This time dad won, and I was happy having to keep dad's bullet:) Such losses are sweetest when the other party is close to your heart and you end up with goodies:D

Deep down I knew I wanted to own a Bullet, but my last experience of test riding the Classic 500, was what, was making me look away from Enfields. To tell you about my test ride experience in brief C5 was powerful indeed and it went from 0-60 in say 3-4 secs. Considering the fact that it's not designed not meant to be a sports bike, you can imagine the power that it has. BUT..it didn't feel like an enfield. Not to me at least. So instead of booking the bike I came back home confused  or rather bit upset that I will not get to buy an Enfield which always had caught my fancy as a kid as well as when I was riding other bikes. But after this perception that I built about the new breed of Bullets, I just parked the thought of buying one, at least not a new one.

If you are passionate about motorcycling like me, I need not tell you how we (gearheads) build our lifestyle around our interest. I used to have a CBZ (original 2002 model) and it had subtle hint towards being a street fighter. But now I was  going to have a retro bike (Enfield, what else!) in hand, so I had to redo the thinking of the possibility of customisation and what clothes and accessories will go with it, etc etc. You know what I mean. After this initial rush of adrenaline, something interesting came to my mind. Let me tell you, it was another childhood dream of mine. I always dreamed of maintaining my bike, but not sure why during my 6 years ownership of the CBZ, I really never got my hands dirty. Initial years it was Castrol Bike Zone and later it was at Fyaz's Garage. Both these parties did such an excellent job at maintaining it that I never really felt inclined to check it myself. But now there was a huge opportunity as Bullet is kinda old school and if you are a geek (like I have been), the moment you see it you know it's calling you to pick up the tools. But it's been years since I last did anything on a bike, other than riding and wiping it with a cloth. So I just put this idea of tinkering with the Bullet aside and continued with my work as usual. But as my days of return to India came closer I started looking for somebody who is good with Enfield and who can help me maintain it myself. I prefer riding alone or in smaller groups and knowing how to fix the bike scores real high on my book. Again I have come across the usual breed of Mechanics who know nothing about motorcycles other than hammering it, sharing some stupid a$$ logic which has no base and robbing you off your money stating technical faults in the bike which never existed. Well if you have owned a bike, you surely know what I am talking about here. For more visual idea of what I am talking about click here :D So I was very clear on the kinda person I was looking for. After few sleepless nights and non-stop web surfing I came across this video:

I knew there was something about this guy, may be it's his honesty which is evident in the video, his simplicity, his educational qualification or his passion for Bullets, that told me, that I gotta meet this guy once I am in Bangalore. With this thought I started focusing my search more on this guy and came across his site:

http://www.nandanmotors.com/

It was a long time since I learned something new and this page just woke up that kid in me who used to be all fired up about something interesting, something exciting, something he is going do with his new toy. I read up the whole site in two days:P But as fate had it could only get 50% of the details, as rest all were so technical (yes, so much so that even I couldn't grasp it in one read!) that I had to park that reading work until I meet this scientist and see his lab. Without delay I shot a mail to him asking if he still conducts the programs mentioned in the site. I was a bit sceptical, as the site layout was archaic and I was doubtful if the contents are up to date. Days went by and there was no reply, which made me to assume that the site is indeed old and the people and places described can now be called fictional with no relation to anything living or otherwise. Lollz I had few travel plans up my sleeve so I got busy and I  forgot about this whole thing. I came back to India, joined work in Bangalore and got the Bullet along and got busy with office. A month went by, one day I just saw that un-responded mail in my sent items and as I was in India, I though of trying out the mobile number on the site. Sigh...as my luck had it, no one picked up. So I parked the whole things and started looking for another such mechanic who can help me. After two days, I was in an Hotel for an event and I got a call, well it was ghost. As the name displayed on my BB screen was 'B R Gurunandan'. With surprise and bit of skepticism I picked the call and there was this familiar voice I had heard in that video. After a round of formal introduction we sort of hit it off. The call went on for one hour and we spoke about Royal Enfield motorcycles. You can tell when like minded people meet. Well it was one of such events. He told me that he is waiting for a set of such interested people to start a batch and would let me know when it happens. May in a month or two. I was in no hurry, as my work was pretty demanding those days and I needed some time to come out of it. So that call got over after some time and I went back to my work all happy and waiting for that date when a batch will start. Well I got that mail on October 25, asking details of the make and model of my Bullet and also on the location for the meet. The first meet was planned on 4th of November on a Sunday, which I attended. Best part of this whole experience was meeting Mr Gurunandan (or 'Nandan' as we call him now). I found him quite knowledgeable and an amazing person. His enthusiasm and eagerness to share (as well as to learn from others) is highly infectious. We met at his residence (shown in the video) and got to see his collection of Bullets kept in the hall. I got to meet many other Royal Enfield owners who share the same passion for motorcycling as well as for Bullets. It was a day well spent. I have decided to share  my learnings and experience on every session (possibly) with Mr Gurunandan here in this blog for all my biker buddies to learn from and enjoy.

Thank you for your time and patience to go through this story, I really admire your patience:) and more than that your interest in Motorcycling/Bullets that made you visit the blog. Keep coming for updates on our future Bulleteer's meet at Mr Gurunandan's residence.

[Sketch courtesy: Himalayan outlaw - The Royal Enfield Custom Project of Nepal ]

PS:

So by now you must have understood that this story tells about how I met 'Zen' and the future posts of this series will talk about the 'The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. Which co-incidentally turned out to be one of the favourite books of Nandan.

Until next time..

You keep rolling,

Sid