I had lived in Sangli for good 20-22years of my life without a break, and yet I was totally unaware of this 12th century temple called Kopeshwar Temple in Khidrapur which, as it turns out, is an architectural beauty. So this time round, equipped with a convenient camera bag (which, by the way, makes it a breeze to swap lenses) and a light-weight monopod (since tripods are strictly not allowed in places maintained by ASI), Khidrapur was bound to happen.
And it had to be my bike which would take me there. It was almost couple of years since I had taken her to Sangli. The car, since its arrival, had dominated a lot of my long drives. The kind of adrenaline rush one gets while chasing and racing with other vehicles on a highway at speeds exceeding 150kmph, is only experienced to be believed. And recently I had almost written off my bike when it came to enjoying the thrill of high speed ride. I had noticed that the Apache engine tops at 125kmph; and 125kmph is also-ran when compared with what the Palio engine delivers.
But recently the highway traffic had increased a lot, and as a result the queues on toll-booths would extend to moon if left to themselves. I absolutely hate that kind of a time waste. You need a bike to skip past those sitting donuts. Besides, did I mention how my gadget-fetish had left me high and dry in terms of money? Spending on petrol had started to look like a cognizable offense with a crawling 4-digit bank-balance. So all in all, it had to be my Apache.
On the morning on 31-Dec-2011, I left exactly at 7:30am, touched highway at Chandani Chowk, and immediately realized the new helmet, which I had bought for this very ride, did an excellent job at cutting off the wind noise at higher speeds. The iPod made it even more pleasant, and with no elements interfering with my senses, I soon lost my sense of speed. The bike was racing with wind in no time.
The car had killed the high-speed thrill factor that I used to get on my bike couple year back. 120kmph was not happening any more. It was more of a dud which even failed to get registered whenever it happened. And with nothing much interesting to do, than to go full throttle, 3 hours look like a very long time. So I needed a new pastime for such long bike rides. Thus started cutting between two trucks/vehicles at high speed. And boy what a fabulous thing it turned out to be! On the NH4, and this is true on most of the highways around Pune, trucks and big vehicles slow you down while trying to overtake each other. And that slow-love-making between those big vehicles can get really, and I mean really really, frustrating when the road is 2-lane and there is no other way to escape, but to wait for one of them to climax. In
In comes the bike! There is always a gap between these parallel running vehicles, and a lot of drivers have their own insecurities while driving, which usually afford a gap/crack just big enough for a bike to pass through. I had seen a video on facebook few months ago, and was fascinated by this guy blasting his way through those tolerances between loooong trucks. I had to try it sometime.
The trick is to listen to your gut feeling before committing yourself to the crack, and take a guess at the tendencies of the trucks. God forbid one truck just wavers and closes the gap even by a bit, you are trapped there with those mammoth wheels on both sides of your ear whirring loudly enough to scare the guts out of even a hardened soul. One infinitesimally small/short brush of the bike on either sides is more than enough for you to say goodby to this beautiful world. And there is no chance one can come alive out of any such mishap. So it's frightfully risky and hence the adrenaline. Anyway, after you get a gut-feel that the trucks are going to take more time in parallel than it will take for you to zoom past through the crack, you lower your gear, revv in high RPM before taking the plunge, and then take revvs to the red line when you commit. Keep steady and keep revving at the red line (or at whatever RPM your bike's BHP peaks) till you come out.
The first time your do it and come out good, you know you have got addicted to a happening new thing. The joyous feeling after passing the traffic blocking trucks without having to apply brakes, and getting to continue in the same speed as if the road was empty, is so refreshing that soon you start finding such cracks and blazing your way past the heavy traffic without a care in the world. The slow vehicles, trucks, buses, cars, SUVs, whatever they are, all you see is the gap between them. If your gut says go, you go. Passing each of such pair of traffic-blocking trucks is like passing a traffic-island. There is no one in front, and you can go full-throttle for quite a long time.
Result? With the main factor, that slowed me down, sorted out, I started averaging at 100kmph on the same road where, couple years back, I had been averaging only 80kmph despite speed bursts (that would only get curtailed with slow moving trucks that time). And the abundance of long empty stretches of good quality highway, resulted in me breaching my previous best of 125kmph, with a new 129kmph on this 160cc bike.
Here are the stats for that Pune-Sangli ride on 31-Dec-2011 -
Left home (Vanaz corner, Kothrud): 7:30am sharp : 22396kms on odometer
New Katraj Tunnel: 7:45am
Khambataki Ghat: 8:30am
Top of Khambataki Ghat: 8:35am : 5mins straight!
Peth (bifurcation to Sangli from NH4): ~194kms: 9:33am: 2:03hrs!
Peth to Home in Sangli: 46kms : 49mins! Bad, under-construction two-way road - main culprit for this abysmal slow speed.
Home in Sangli: 10:22am : 22636.6kms on odo
Aggregates:
Room in Kothrud to Home in Sangli: 240.6kms: 7:30am to 10:22am: 2hrs 52mins
Mileage: Around 25kmpl. Quite reasonable considering the engine was revving in the 8k-9k RPMs band constantly.
Top speed: 129kmph! Fastest so far on this bike.
Being in Sangli at 10:30am in the morning, allowed me almost a full day at Khidrapur, starting later in the morning at around 11am. Ended up getting quite a few birds with a lifer and an action shot, alongwith some beautiful landscapes and the temple architecture.
Story of this Khidrapur visit, along with photos, in the next blog.
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