Friday, 13th of June, 2003.
The alarm rings. My weary eyes blink open as I scramble for the sideboard. I need to switch off the alarm before it wakes up my wife or daughter. The clock on the wall says 4:30, and its dark outside. I put the alarm on snooze, turn on the geyser and drop off again.
Divyan: You called up me too. Had prepared most of the things by that time. Was sipping black coffee.
Balaji: Finally the dawn break; there was excitement in the air (for this was my first long ride with the group). Called Sanjay and Viper. All 3 met at Woodys, JP Nagar. I and Viper fill in fuel, mine a good 10 ltrs. A brief pit stop at Citibank and we head to ISKON to join the group.
Sanjay R: Get up by 5am and am ready waiting for Balaji to call (Balaji, Viper and me were supposed to catch up with Ashok at his place then move on to the meeting point of ISKCON temple). But no sign of Balaji or his call till 6.00am (BST - Balaji Standard Time).
Raj: 04.15 am: Wake up from bed, pack up my bags and gear up for the trip ahead. 05.30 am, Balray arrives to escort me to ISKON temple, meet up with Sanjay fill up petrol 7.82l at the HP bunk.
I'm finally awake. I call Vibhu. We decide that I'll move on (we have to meet Sharath and Divyan at M. G. Road by 5:45) and he'll catch up.
Leaving home. I'm fresh with a hot shower and cold shave. The sky is dark and cloudy, but I'm not worried. It's dark because sunrise hasn't happened. And the clouds are the nice kind.
In the parking downstairs, I turn on my bike. It idles away, warming up as I wear my jacket and gloves and strap my bag on the pillion seat. Strong green bungee cords hold everything in place.
I swing a leg over the seat, nudge the bike off the stand, snap into first and ride off. The roads are still not empty but I still do double the speeds I would normally be able to do on my office run :)
On the way, am joined by Vibhu. He zips past me, left arm waving a hello. Good morning? Damn right it is.
Divyan: By the time Shashvat reached we have finished one fag (cigeratte) each. Comment at time "Good- all have helmets , jackets and gloves".
MG Road. Sharath and Divyan are waiting for us. Preliminary pleasantries out of the way, we ride off, making for the ISKON Temple. Vibhu leads the way since he's the only one who knows it. I take the tail (drag). Divyan sort of lags behind the other two and I move up to him to tell him to speed up a little. Later I suggest that he should try to keep up with the rider in front of him. Turns out he takes this advice very seriously :)
We arrive at the ISKON Temple, north Bangalore. Ashok, Venkat & Chitti Babu are already there. Balaji, Sanjay and Raj (Viper) join us soon enough. All the bikes are parked lined up on the kerb for group photographs.
Balaji: " What, .. Shyams…..don't tell me…. !!"
Just as we're about to leave, Venkat tells us that he'll be dropping out. His wife isn't well. It's a big blow to us, since we were looking forward to spending more time with him. The guys from other cities would be even more disappointed. We joke with him about taking his bike with us, and he very coolly says that he'll take an auto (taxi) back home. Turns out he's serious. Chitti was anyways going to ride pillion, so we aren't a biker short. Sanjay gets the dibs on Venkat's bike and for the rest of the trip rides the black Kawasaki Eliminator. Sanjay's red P180 is ridden by Chitti Babu.
Sanjay R: Yippee, I get to ride the Eliminator. But on the sadder side of it we really missed Venkat on the trip.
We do a pre-ride briefing: Ashok will take the lead, Vibhu will be the drag. We are to ride in staggered formation, and no one is to fall behind the drag or overtake the lead. We will all ride with our headlights on, so that we are more visible to the oncoming traffic and to each other in the rear view mirrors. The rule is that you slow down if you can't see a headlight in your rear view mirror. Speeds will be 70-80km/h and the first stop will be for breakfast. Vibhu resets his trip meter.
We all ride off. We ride gingerly in the beginning, not sure of the next person's riding style. But this is definitely a sight to see - 9 riders in a group. Our helmets, jackets and gloves let the casual observer know that we're serious about biking.
Divyan: To me it looked like I was playing the game "Road-Rash", minus the kicks, cops and whips.
Dobaspet, 47km. Ashok sees the signboard for a Kamat restaurant at a petrol station. He signals (with his hands for our benefit and with the indicators for the rest of the traffic) and we turn-in in formation. Once again, the bikes are parked in formation. I handle the breakfast orders (masala-dosa-idli-vada-tea-coffee). I also take Rs. 500.00 from everyone and will handle the finances from now.
While we have coffee, two well dressed men walk up to us and ask us if we're on an "expedition" of some sort. No, we aren't. Well then, are you from Bajaj Auto, they ask us. No, we're not. We're just a group of people who enjoy riding our bikes, we tell them.
They both hand out their cards. They're from Yamaha Motorcycles and they want customers like us. We talk bikes for a while, but we both have to move soon.
We leave by 8:40.
Sanjay R: Vibhu tells me that I am slowing the whole group, so he asks me to ride second behind the lead Ashok. But after sometime he cribs about the lead group being very fast (just like the Oxy-Moron thingy).
Sira. We see another Kamat restaurant at a petrol pump. We ride in. We are 111km from the ISKON temple and its 33°C according to the thermometer in Vibhu's phone.
All of us order some cool drink or the other, mostly nimbu-pani.
Divyan: And tea.
The road has been fine so far. We've been riding on NH4, which is a part of the golden quadrilateral project. The entire stretch is being widened to 4 lanes, so the existing highway gets a little narrower than usual, with construction on one side. We're usually hiding behind trucks going at about 70, till the oncoming lane is clear. Then we zip past the truck, one bike at a time.
Divyan: Here I had some tough time. Not familiar in this type of overtaking. P180s were zipping past ok. But not my 150.
We keep getting separated into two groups, one far ahead, and the other stuck behind some convoy of trucks or the other. While talking about it, we realized that the break always takes place immediately behind Sharath - he had removed the rear view mirrors from his bike and forgot to put them back on before the trip.
Vibhu : and the way I got sharath to remember was to mime a slap! Looking very scared, he asked "what da !(or was it the?!)" , and I then pointed out the rearview mirrors missing.
Ashok informs us that immediately after Sira, the road becomes good for about 6km, where NH4 has four lanes. When we actually hit that section, its even better than anticipated. Smooth blacktop, clear shoulders. We all rip on this section, most of us hitting 110km/h.
145km. Somewhere on NH4. We stop our bikes on the side of the road, to give a call to gr. He's somewhere near Kurnool.
160km. Stopped for the scenery and Vibhu's helmet. 
A screw had fallen off (this lead to several jokes at Vibhu's expense) somewhere along the way and Vibhu's visor was hanging loose from one side. Chitti and Vibhu worked on it, eventually using a screw from my silencer's heat shield and a lot of red electrical tape. When we set off again, it looked like a lot of blood on one side of the helmet. Very ominous.
Vibhu : It seemed that I was coming to pieces literally ! First the helmets screw fell off , then the TPFC fairing on my cbz later the same day. Thankfully it stopped before the whole bike came apart
Chitradurga - 194km.
Along the way, the scenery just got better and better. The road was along the lip of a ridge. Low rolling hills as far as the eye can see with fields on either side of the road in gentle valleys. The downside was the crosswinds. Evidently the crosswinds were well known, because on both sides of us, there were windmills, serenely flipping away in the distance. Just before we got into Chitradurga, we rode through a pass between two hills and saw one of the windmills up close - it was a huge thing, the rotor blades themselves must have been 4 storeys high.
Divyan: Crosswinds. At one point of time saw that all the others are were riding at an 80 degree angle to the road. I really go wondered how that can happen. Finally when looked down, even I could not see my wheel touching the road from right side. Cool, this is the way things are.
Vibhu : Having ridden as drag for most of the trip, I was feeling like letting go, and go a bit fast. The idea was that I would just go ahead for sometime, and then wait for the others to catch up. However, Ashok and Sharath had different ideas. As soon as I reached Ashok, he thinks that he is not the lead anymore of the group, but the point for a race and races off. Seconds later sharath, supposedly the drag, goes past me all hunched over his bike. And the race began. Accelerate, overtake, brake… over and over again. Boy, did we have a blast or what ? TIP : crouching over the tank actually helps to reduce the weaving effect induced by the crosswinds.
Balaji: xwinds, phenomenal experience, especially the momentary feel of being sucked in and blown out while overtaking a truck was truly amazing.
We crossed the Chitradurga bypass and slowed down, looking for lunch. We stop at a place, but its only vegetarian. We move on.
Divyan: Vegetarian = grazing grass for me.
We find Hotel Vaibhav. Airconditioned, non-vegetarian, Chinese-Continental-Andhra-Punjabi. We park our bikes outside. There is a guard there who assures us that our bikes and our luggage will be safe. Till now, we've always parked our bikes within plain view, so never needed to take our luggage off. But here we don't have the option. Hunger finally wins when the hotel manager assures us that the guard will take care. We leave the bikes and our luggage outside and pile into the restaurant. The food is good, with butter chicken, naans and malai kofta. Ashok orders some fried fish. The fish is fantastic. This is a feat that Ashok repeats later in the trip too.
Balaji: After the famishing ride, butter roti and dal never tasted better !!!
Burp!
We have covered 198km. 200km more to go. We come out and our bikes and luggage are fine. I tip the guard for all of us (later I found out that almost everyone had tipped the guard anyways, which explained the big smile on his face).
Divyan: Now he must be having faith in the 'Guard'ian Angel
Ashok and Sanjay split up from us. They are going to meet gr at Hospet and ride the remaining way with him.
Sanjay R: Balaji chickened out at the last moment (But seriously this was his first long ride so Ashok and me will not hold it against him.)
We push. Its decided that Vibhu will now be the lead and Sharath will be the drag. The reason for putting Sharath in drag (no pun intended) is twofold: He doesn't have rear view mirrors, so he can't keep an eye on riders behind him; better to put all the riders in front of him. The other advantage is that Sharath enjoys his ripping. So if anyone has to stop, Sharath can rip ahead, catch up with Vibhu and stop him.
Vibhu : Being drag has another big advantage. Seeing a bike with the headlights on (a norm in our rides), bystanders feel very very responsible all of a sudden, and tell us that our headlights are on by flashing their hands. Irritating for the lead, who first nods, then gives up trying to educate the masses. By the time the drag comes to the helpful samartians, they have given up and are just plain bewildered by the sight of bikes riding with lights on during the day !
I see a nice large petrol station coming up, so I blast the horn, flash my lights, turn on my blinkers and turn in. Vibhu, Chitti, BR are ahead and don't turn in. Sharath goes to get them, ripping away. 251km. About another 150km to go, by the map.
Vibhu: actually there were lots and lots and lots of stops on the way ….
Butt stop. We call these stops butt stops because that's the main reason we stop, to get some circulation going in our buns. The Pulsar definitely needs better seats.
Vibhu: More a case of you hardening the butts than changing to better seats. Used as we are to the comforts of the drawing room sofas, we envision that our bikes should also have that kind of comforts! After traveling as much as I had done in the last few days, the butt pains seemed to be a part of the past.
Shashvat: Easy for you to say, since the CBZ has a wider seat than the Pulsar.
We turn off the road onto the ground leveled for the 4-laning of the highway. Great scenery, great breeze. 285km. 
Most of us have run out of water. We have some ORS stuff (oral re-hydration salts) since. Leave in 10 minutes by the watch.
Divyan: I had another type of ORS. Only Chitti seemed to like that.
Stop for fuel for Vibhu. The Pulsars don't need any :) In the distance I can see the western ghats, dark monsoon clouds and the rain (from a distance, rain looks like a very thin white curtain. You can make out the vertical edges very clearly). Show it to the guys and instantly see 4 pairs of eyebrows frowning.
The rain has started. We all stop immediately by the side of the road and wear our rain gear. I'm already wearing my waterproof jacket, and I put on my waterproof trousers on top of my cargo pants. The others do the same. Sharath also covers his bag with polythene bags.
Vibhu : we put on our rain gear, and the rain stops. Happens every time !
364km. We stop at a petrol pump to clean my visor (on the way back, we stop at the same pump again).
It is now dusk and we've covered 403km. We reach the edge of Hubli, at a Y-junction. On the left is the Hubli-Dharwad bypass. Straight on is Hubli city. We ask the traffic cops there for directions. They say that its possible to get to Dharwad from both roads (you have to turn off the bypass road to get to Dharwad) and the distance by both routes is the same. The bypass road looks very inviting, but we decide to go through Hubli since the directions we have for the hotel are for travelers coming via Hubli.
We decide to wait till it gets properly dark. It's much easier to ride in the darkness compared to riding at dusk. We also notice that Viper's headlight has fused. Chitti takes out a spare bulb from his magic bag and fixes it. Turns out that Viper's halogen had given out because of the heat, having ridden with the headlight on for the last 12 hours. My bulb is the same but its still working (it eventually gives out on the way back). Take some group photographs.
I speak to Doc and Navendu on the phone. My first words to Doc are a very un-list-like "What the F*** are you doing on NH-17!!!". They're still some distance away from Goa. We know they're going to be late. Very late.
We leave and head into Hubli.
Hubli is like any small town in India, with traffic to match. We stop several times in Hubli to ask the way. Reach Dharwad and ask for the way again. The hotel is on the main road and is easy to find.
We finally walk into the hotel. Nice rooms. We have three rooms, each with three beds. Nice clean white sheets, warm blankets.
We meet Mr. Pai, a friend of Ashok's. He's known at the hotel and got us the reservations.
We have to arrange for the grup. The hotel has only veggie food, so the plan is to get some non-veg from outside and order the rest from the hotel.
By the time I get back from getting the grub (with Mr. Pai, Balaji and Viper) Ashok, Sanjay and gr have arrived. I finally get to meet gr. He looks a lot different than he writes :). We all decide to have some food in the hotel restaurant to keep us alive, even though we want to wait for the Mumbai-Pune crowd. We know that Doc, Nav and Sanjay are going to be late, and we're going to drop dead if we don't eat. So we eat a little. Order more for upstairs to give company to the tandoori chickens, curries and kebabs and Vodka. Now to wait for the other three.
They're still not here. Well, they aren't going to be here for a while.
Saturday, 14th of June, 2003
We finally start drinking and eating. The arrangement is perfect for this - the rooms are on the top floor and we have a large terrace all to ourselves. The hotel management have set up comfortable chairs and low tables for us out here. The food and drinks (Vodka, a crate of cold drinks) are arranged. Gr, Viper, Doc, SanjayR, Divyan, Ashok and I are still up, checking out the Vodka, tandoori chicken, kebabs etc. etc. and waiting for Doc, Nav and SanjayP.
We share war stories, enjoy the cool evening breeze and the view.
Still not here. We decide to sleep and look for them in the morning. Gr and I plan to wake up at 4:30 (first light) and go looking for the three guys.
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