Sunday, 15th of June 2003
I wake up to the alarm. Everyone else is asleep. Drop back off. Its just a snooze.
Vibhu : Duh ? I had to go around waking people up. And , chitti babu is almost ready by the time I get up…. And you say Everyone is asleep. As I remember, you did not even open your eyes !
Up and ready to go. Sharath is being very gracious ("you go ahead and use the loo, I'll wait), which might have had something to do with not wanting to get out of a very nice warm bed.
Vibhu : More like "Up, and getting ready to go!"
We finally leave. Ashok, Sanjay and gr have already left earlier. 
The odo is at 630km. 
The Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai bikes leave together. We take the road to gthe Hubli-Dharwad bypass (NH4). The last time we took this road, it was dark and we missed the scenery.
We get to the bypass, where the sign says "Bangalore 424km, Pune 421km". Looks like Dharwad was a very fair choice for a meeting. 
The road is straight, broad and empty. It's a beautiful morning, and we're on our way. I can nearly smell the daisies.
9:39: Stop for breakfast at a small stop just a little outside of Dharwad. 698km.
Butt break at Ranebennur. 760km.
There's this nice little shack near the road, we stop there. I'm getting tired, so have decided to not have any more smokes. I've given Sharath and Divyan strict instructions not to let me bum one off them, and regrettably they comply every time.
I am riding a bit slower than the rest of the group and Sharath (the drag) was egging me on in the last stretch. Thanks to him, we both hit 110km/h on one of the clear stretches.
Stop for a butt break. I'm feeling sleepy. 808km
I'm getting one of my sleepy minds. One of the pitfalls of having regular meetings in office just before lunchtime.
Vibhu : I remember sharath zomming past everyone and signaling for a stop. Shashvat is sleeping on the bike he says !
Butt break. 858km. Middle of nowhere. We ride off the road and enjoy the scenery. 
We're at the crest of a hill/plateau. Below us is a low valley, and we can see the town of Chitradurga. Beyond Chitradurga we can see more hills. And windmills.
We have water and push.
Hotel Vaibhav, Chitradurga.
200km from home. 861km on odo.
Stop of lunch again. Good food. Get an earful from Vibhu about not being serious about the trip ("this is not a picnic"). His sermon on not partying before a long ride would have made more sense to me if he wasn't a teetotaler :)
Leaving after lunch. This time I make sure that I'm the only one tipping the guard who took care of our bikes.
Butt break. 928km.
Noticed two interesting habits of our fellow riders.
Divyan likes to overtake a truck at 90km/h when there's another one coming in the opposite lane. Considering that there is only one lane in each direction, its pretty hair raising. After one such incident, I ride up to him and caution him.
Divyan: I don't like to do that. It was a miscalculation from my side about the speed and pulling power of a P150. Nowadays I do a lot of practice.
Raj, Balaji and Chitti overtake trucks/buses in the slipstream of a car. Not a bad practice in itself, but then they somehow end up on the left of the car as it starts coming into its own lane (the left one), thereby nearly driving one of them off the road. And "off the road" in this case means the construction area for the Golden Quadilateral highway project.
Kamat Siri. 948km.
The last 6km till this point were on the completed section of the GQ. 4 lanes of pristine asphalt.
We rip.
And its Vibhu in the lead, no no, its Balaji who's ahead of Vibhu, with Chitti and Raj just behind. Shashvat is making good ground and he's hit 110, coming up from behind Vibhu to pip him, but Balaji is still ahead. Hey, what's that silver streak?!! Its Sharath, zipping past everyone, which is pretty good considering he's got the Eliminator tyre on his bike. Now the three leads are close together, gaining, gaining, wait, there's some traffic up ahead. And Vibhu slips past them, past the traffic and hits the finish line.
Balaji: this last rip was horribly good and absolutely astounding!! A personal best, touched the 118km/hr mark.
Vibhu : Damn ! my bike is slow. Balaji, Shashvat pass me. Sharath whizzes past me. My bike does not go above 105 …darn. However, while everone is concentrating on being in the lead, I am looking ahead at the traffic and already planned the exit route… and as the brake lights come on, I am past them, into the traffic and out of it. Not bad eh ? ;-) I think I overtook both shashvat and balaji, but am not sure whether sharath was ahead of me or not.
Balaji: with the momentum from the ripping going strong, well… I overshoot Kamat by half a km, then make it back with Sharath who is quick to the … shall I say 'rescue'.
1022km. Its getting dark. My headlight bulb has gone kaput. Chitti puts in one of the spares he's carrying. Total cost of spares on this trip for me? Rs. 18.00.
We wait till it gets dark (dusk isn't good to ride in) and then set off.
Now we face a problem. Throughout the trip, we could keep track of the group by the headlights in the mirrors, since no one else was riding with lights in the daytime. But now at night, the only thing we see in our mirrors are lights and lights and lights. It gets difficult to keep together.
Vibhu : Another reason for me not going riding at night.
I'm following Sharath (or rather, his taillights) in front of me, who's going at high usual high speeds. Some 20km later, I realize that its not Sharath, its just some other Pulsar, and now I'm separated from the group.
I start calling people on the mobile and see Chitti and Balaji pass by. By the time I can get on my bike again and chase them, they're gone.
I'm somewhere near Yashwantpur, following the full moon and the traffic, when I come across raj. I call up Sharath and Vibhu. Finally, get through. They didn't pick up their phones last time because they didn't realize they were ringing inside their jackets. We co-ordinate and meet up.
Raj : 07.45 pm, reach outskirts of Bangalore, lose Balray and Chitti again in the mad traffic, were supposed to be escorted by them way back home. Meanwhile establish link with Shashvat, Sharath and Vibhu. They guide me to MG Road, from where I find my way back to my sister's place.
Vibhu knows the way home from here, Raj doesn't. We move on. Sharath breaks off from us, close to home. We wave goodbye.
We part ways with Raj at M. G. Road. Looking at the neon lights makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm home.
At sometime around 20:30, the trip ends for Vibhu and me, at Airport Road (where we both live).
The odo says 1060km.
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