Vindya and I had discussed about the new TwinSpark Thunderbird on Friday and made up a tentative plan to go for a test drive on Saturday. It wasn't before 1.30 PM on Saturday afternoon that I was able to call him up and check what he was up to. After an exchange of couple of calls, we decided to meet up at Dhone Automobiles on Market Yard road.
The bike looks more or less the same except around the engine area due to the fact that it now has integrated gearbox and clutch and has two spark plugs. This seems to have pushed up the power output by a couple of BHPS, churning around 20 now. I took a test ride and felt the diff in power and pick-up from stand-still immediately. But once on higher speeds it was the same feeling I get with my good ol' red bird except, of course the exhaust note, which is louder on my bull thanks to the modified "Shaqueel" silencer. Vindya was apprehensive about trying it out himself but he did and sort of liked it.
It was 2.30 PM by the time we were through with the test drives. We planned to go shop for a TT bat and went to my place to park my Activa and started off on Vindy's CBZ. Now Vindy, over last couple of years, has had been talking about his numerous trips to Kaanif-naath and how he went there whenever he was bored and stuff like that. I had my boyhood memories of Kaanif-naath as well. Basically one can see the tip of Kaanif-naath from the terrace of my old building. I had heard of all sorts of superstitions about the small rectangular entrance to the temple where only "good" people could enter through it and sinners would get stuck.
So as we were driving down to the ATM to withdraw some cash, I made a passing comment to Vindy about wanting to go to Kaanif-naath someday. His immediate response was "Chal!!". As none of us had anything lined up we decided to go!!! At the ATM, we found out that the machine was not working. I had some 100 bucks and loose change on me and Vindy was not better off either. Although fuel indicator was showing half-full, we decided to fill up a 100 Rs worth of petrol, leaving me cash-less.
With Vindy at the handle bars, off we went, from Market Yard road to Kondhawa road. The traffic started thinning out as we progressed towards Bop-deo Ghaat. The only issue was the stone mines just before the ghaat. The dirt they were spewing was pathetic. We crossed those mines and started tackling the curves of ghaat road. After our karwar trip last December, this was the first time I was out on the open roads on a two-wheeler. And it really felt good, "back home where I belong" so to speak.
Though there were no rains, the mountains were green, the temperature nice and cool, and the scenery fantastic. Took a halt at one of the hairpin turns where Vindya showed me a path to the tip of a cliff. Nice place if you want solitude he said. On we went and my immediate feeling was this was a pukka bike road. You could do the drive in a car of course, but it's better on a bike. ;-)
There was a bad patch on the road for couple of KMs but over all it was good road going through small hamlets with laziness in movements usually associated with the rural life. The last stretch which actually takes you to the temple was a steep one and had to be negotiated with in first and second gear. On the top we went in to the temple for Darshan, then Vindy acting as a tourist guide showed me around, and we were back to where we had parked the bike. Vindy had mentioned about a hotel where we get good Misal-pav so we went there and after a good spicy misal-pav, some tea and some stories by Vindya about a French girl eating that Misal we started our journey back.
It was pretty much the same good feeling except that I was at the driver's seat now, which made it even better :-) After an hour of nice drive we were at my place at around 5.45 PM. From here we went our separate ways. For me it was like doing what I always there in back of my mind which never materialized till now. It really was a good-nice-short trip which I enjoyed a lot and made a mental note of doing it again on my bird with my wife.
The bike looks more or less the same except around the engine area due to the fact that it now has integrated gearbox and clutch and has two spark plugs. This seems to have pushed up the power output by a couple of BHPS, churning around 20 now. I took a test ride and felt the diff in power and pick-up from stand-still immediately. But once on higher speeds it was the same feeling I get with my good ol' red bird except, of course the exhaust note, which is louder on my bull thanks to the modified "Shaqueel" silencer. Vindya was apprehensive about trying it out himself but he did and sort of liked it.
It was 2.30 PM by the time we were through with the test drives. We planned to go shop for a TT bat and went to my place to park my Activa and started off on Vindy's CBZ. Now Vindy, over last couple of years, has had been talking about his numerous trips to Kaanif-naath and how he went there whenever he was bored and stuff like that. I had my boyhood memories of Kaanif-naath as well. Basically one can see the tip of Kaanif-naath from the terrace of my old building. I had heard of all sorts of superstitions about the small rectangular entrance to the temple where only "good" people could enter through it and sinners would get stuck.
So as we were driving down to the ATM to withdraw some cash, I made a passing comment to Vindy about wanting to go to Kaanif-naath someday. His immediate response was "Chal!!". As none of us had anything lined up we decided to go!!! At the ATM, we found out that the machine was not working. I had some 100 bucks and loose change on me and Vindy was not better off either. Although fuel indicator was showing half-full, we decided to fill up a 100 Rs worth of petrol, leaving me cash-less.
With Vindy at the handle bars, off we went, from Market Yard road to Kondhawa road. The traffic started thinning out as we progressed towards Bop-deo Ghaat. The only issue was the stone mines just before the ghaat. The dirt they were spewing was pathetic. We crossed those mines and started tackling the curves of ghaat road. After our karwar trip last December, this was the first time I was out on the open roads on a two-wheeler. And it really felt good, "back home where I belong" so to speak.
Though there were no rains, the mountains were green, the temperature nice and cool, and the scenery fantastic. Took a halt at one of the hairpin turns where Vindya showed me a path to the tip of a cliff. Nice place if you want solitude he said. On we went and my immediate feeling was this was a pukka bike road. You could do the drive in a car of course, but it's better on a bike. ;-)
There was a bad patch on the road for couple of KMs but over all it was good road going through small hamlets with laziness in movements usually associated with the rural life. The last stretch which actually takes you to the temple was a steep one and had to be negotiated with in first and second gear. On the top we went in to the temple for Darshan, then Vindy acting as a tourist guide showed me around, and we were back to where we had parked the bike. Vindy had mentioned about a hotel where we get good Misal-pav so we went there and after a good spicy misal-pav, some tea and some stories by Vindya about a French girl eating that Misal we started our journey back.
It was pretty much the same good feeling except that I was at the driver's seat now, which made it even better :-) After an hour of nice drive we were at my place at around 5.45 PM. From here we went our separate ways. For me it was like doing what I always there in back of my mind which never materialized till now. It really was a good-nice-short trip which I enjoyed a lot and made a mental note of doing it again on my bird with my wife.
