Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A long hiatus,and back.


I agree.3 posts in 9 months is not called as regular blogging.I agree I have been very lazy to update this thing. Have I lost the drive?the interest?the purpose? Not really.But hey things happen, things change, don't they? Starting afresh, I see today is a very bright and sunny day.So there you all rise and shine.If someone of you still have my blog bookmarked down there,please click on it,I am alive if not exactly kicking asses :).
To begin with, my bike is here in Hyderabad finally.Brought her here in June via VRL transports in a truck as there is no direct train service from my town to Hyderabad.Courier was also ruled out due to astronomical charges.Only options left were 1.Transport and 2.Load it in Volvo bus' storage compartment as suggested by some.
I tried option number 2 first.It was only after lots of efforts and a ugly scratch on tank, that I realized this was wrong option indeed.
P200 simply refused to go in to loading bay of Volvo semi sleeper.Extra height of the bike being the culprit.My heart sank when I saw the way they were cramming my bike in.But the coolies were confident - "Pulsar jaati hai saab" they said.
But this Pulsar did not.Next they deflated the tires. Still it refused to go beyond tank portion.And then it happened - the tank's upper part scraped against the sill of that compartment, removing about an inch of Teflon coat and some color, I closed my eyes.
I remember my dad told them to pull out the bike and went to cancel the bike's ticket.(Yes, you will need to buy a ticket for one seat if you,ever, plan to transport your bike this dreadful way.)
So, finally before the bike got crumpled,totaled it was out on the road.Dad took it to a cyclewallah and filled in air and rode it back home.He said I will now send it through some transport service. This happened in April.After that something or other kept him busy and it was not until the mid June that bike reached here safely.
In the meantime, previous post gathered a lot of attention and many people mailed me with their questions and doubts.
The first and foremost being "dude where are the pics?I can see some empty boxes only or is it just me? ".
No its not just you.
And answer to this question is "I have no clue". I remember posting some pics over there for sure.But they are not showing now.
Second most asked question(which is actually the most asked question.ever.)"Are you serious about the mileage thing? Mine never returns above 34kmpl".
well I am in a fix.Its not that I lied. In answer to this highly spirited question I would say "ummm yeah..i mean no.why yes".Or did you buy your bike on particularly bad day?Not actually.
This particular post can be found here.
I would like to let you know some insider knowledge after all this time. Yes, the bike did return 48kmpl.But it was 4-lane newly laid highway.Wind totally standstill.(standstill?).Not much traffic.Me at perfect peace with whale lot of time.Tires inflated more than enough.And cycle parts nicely oiled.
So I did what generally doesn't happen.I rode at constant 65kmph almost all of the time.
I don't think any one of you does this regularly.In fact I doubt some of you have never known to ride it sanely.
So,I would let you know on more thing. 34-38 Kmpl is perfectly alright a mileage for this machine in normal riding situation.If you are getting anything above it, you are truly a good rider.
Now something about my own bike.The bike seems to be suffering from electrical phobia of some kind.First it was the starter relay,then the regulator and now the ignition coil that failed for no reason at all. Finding this ignition coil turned out to be a tough job. I could not get it in any service stations authorized by Bajaj. Thankfully at the same time I had to go to Pune. To my surprise both the Pro-Biking service stations did not have it.On the last day of my stay in Pune, I managed to procure a older,used one coil somehow from a friend.
This seriously makes me wonder.Is this part (called HT coil in their speak) so rare,that I couldn't get it in land of Bajaj itself?

Guess I have exhausted the words now, writing is surely not an easy job. Will keep all of you informed on whatever happened and happens in this great city.I am loving it already.
Keep writing,keep riding!

17 comments:

  1. you really have a good slang of writting.i never knew you can write soooo good.keep it up buddy.
    and have fun on ur bike which u love the most.

    happy writting.

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  2. You really have slang for writting I never knew you you are soooo good at writting.and enjoy ur bike which u loved the most with new beautiful city.

    happy writting.

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  3. Hunnnnn .... at last you wrote something on your blog. Now write regularly i am the one who checks ur blog regularly so keep bloging :)

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  4. hi,

    I have been reading your posts for quite a while now.

    Reg. fuel efficiency, just before the fifth servicing, my motorcycle rode 38.5 kmpl (only city riding).

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  5. Hey, read your blog for the fist time. I had done a long ride(long as in 1100 KMs, reasonably long for a first time rider). It was to Chail-Kufri-Kasauli from Delhi. My bike did 1100 KM's on 25 L of fuel. That comes to more than ~42KMPL on hills. I am pretty happy with my milage, but I feel thats more so because i never go above 65KPH.

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  6. Hi Harish,
    1100 kms is fairly long and enough to put you in tourer category :).
    42kmpl is excellent considering, hill roads take a lot of toll on engine besides high revs are a necessity on such roads.

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  7. hi buddy(I dont know ur name)
    Am planning another ride to Kaza(uttaranchal). Thats almost twice the distance(~2000 Kms). Thats the second one for me. Hope my bike does as good as it did last time. Also considering that I just had my 5th servicing, am hoping for sure my wish comes true. But I feel its more to do with the company in which you ride. Got a friend who initiated me into riding. He already has more that 45000 KMs under his belt in his 6 years old Bullet. What say :).

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  8. call me amol :)
    2000kms is lots of distance. And its always good to have someone for the company on the long rides.

    Make sure, you carry essential spares like headlight bulbs, spark plugs, puncture repair kits and extra tools than the regular tool kit. Also don't forget to carry engine oil and chain lubrication.
    Besides always make a point that its touring and not racing :).
    here's wishing you all the best. Ride safe.

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  9. hey Amol,
    Thanks for the wishes. Will make sure to follow ur advise. And yeah I second ur opinion about touring and not racing. thats why we are planning a 10 days trip. Someone once said that the journey is more important than the destination. But whats the point of only a journey if you cant enjoy the destination. :)
    Cheers

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  10. I agree :)
    Make sure you carry all the papers(original) even if you are not crossing state boundaries.
    And of course a good camera and extra batteries!

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  11. Will make sure to do that. Last tour, I did not realize that I had expired my Pollution certificate. Checked that when I was already half way through. Was scared throughout the journey about checking and all. But luckily nothing wrong happened. This time will make sure all papers are in order. Thats what I advose my peers too.
    Cheers:)

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  12. i m planning to travel a distance of nearly 500 KM on Pulsar 220 bike.....so I want to know dat is dis possible to travel dis distance in a single day........

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  13. I m planning to travel a distance of 500 Km in a sigle day so is dis possible on pulsar 220 bike

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  14. I m planning to travel a distance of 500 Km in a sigle day so is dis possible on pulsar 220 bike

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  15. doing 500 KMs in a day on a pulsar 220 is definately possible. I hav read blogs of a people who have done much more quite comfortably. but do remember that everything depends on the road condition and condition of the road and most importantly on your confidence. you believe you can do 500 KM's then you will be for sure able to do it. though the max I have done in a day is close to 400 KM's when I went till kufri. But that was cause we were stuck in rain for more than an hour enroute and roads were not that good.

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  16. 220 can easily take up 500kms in a day. The question is can you take up? :)
    If you are a first timer, go for shorter rides then take on long rides. Also it will be better if you are in a group rather than in solo.

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