Cruise Control

Yup! That’s what it was, 120 km from Bombay to Lonavla via the national highway, flirting with a stretch of the expressway and onto the breathtaking view afforded by the Ghat section. The first ride with the bikers from Global Tele Limited on Sunday, the 9th of Oct. 2005 organised by Royal Enfield was awesome to say the least. The chance of actually heading out of town on a Royal Enfield was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. Apparently so were the other 5 guys who were given a bullet each for the ride.

All set

Lets start out from the beginning though. Assembling at Vashi Station, it was the first interaction for majority of the 12 guys signed up from GTL. Add to this a spirited Red Bull Crew and the Royal Enfield support staff, inclusive of an ambulance and a trained mechanic, and we had a noticeable gang waiting to take on the inviting path that lay ahead. 0830 hrs and “We’re truly headed out”.

Voices

The excitement of saddling and taming the beast that is the Bullet just needs to be experienced first hand, penning down words to describe the thoughts in my head just doesn’t do justice to the whole experience. You’d have to go back to the very first time on a bicycle as an adolescent to compare the feeling; it’s a paradigm shift as far as motorcycling is concerned. Biking to me would never remain the same, till I lay my hands on another bullet that is.

Skill test

1130 hrs and we had reached our planned destination after scheduled rejuvenating stops where we helped ourselves to cans of liquid energy branded Red Bull. Not satisfied a few of the guys went ahead exploring and finally after the rest of us caught up with them, we found ourselves outside the gates of the Amby Valley estate. It was now time to put to test the riding skills of all the braggers in the group with some challenging biking competitions. 3 very innovative games later, Manraj was declared the unofficial biking king, no surprises here; Punjabis and Bullets are made for each other.

Back

After gulping down more energy, we progressed towards the town for lunch. After everyone ate to their hearts content we decided to head back lest be enveloped in the heavy traffic returning from a weekend trip, much like us. 6 pm and we touched Panvel where one of the Royal Enfield bikes was dropped off at their dealership. We finally dispersed from Vashi at around 7 pm, with the hope that the next trip be an overnighter.