First ride - 340KM!

This blog is about my first long ride experience in my new Meteor 350. It was a week back when I received the bike. In the first 6 days’ time I had completed 150 km of running. It was only for office related work. I had been looking forward to go on a ride since some days. How much distance it is to start with was a question to me. I live along the western lines of Mumbai. Since it was the last day of the year, I was expecting traffic in the Mumbai-Pune highway. Recently, I also caught up many news related to traffic in that belt. I decided to take a different route as in picture below. 

Okay. I was not very confident how much I would be able to ride. I had several checks with me. I was completely aware of the idea that bike is new & I should not drive it more than 60kmph of speed. Also, during the bike purchase I had not taken some accessories like leg guard and sump guard which now I understand are very important safeguards. Two other things are hand gloves and a full helmet that covers the jaw portion as well, are equally important. I was given a half helmet that only covers my head. I didnot think much during that time. Throughout the whole way I had to cover my face by a handkerchief and wear my glasses to safeguard from dust and the incoming air gushing on the face. 3-4 times it so happened that a bigger particle hit my face near my eyes.

Apart from these items, I should also install a mobile stand on the handle of my bike. I observed that to check the directions I had to stop many times and I was also craving to leave the handle and check the mobile on a running bike. It's not so cool, right? I will take care of this.

I started from my home at 5:50 AM. It was late as per my scheduled plan. But then, it was okay! As per my internet reads, I let the bike engine to run on the main stand for a while before hitting the road. The meteor was shining as I bathed it the previous day. This was a solo trip. Twice I had taken the same road that I was going to travel but to a partial distance. I was planning to go to religious city of Trimbakeshwar that lies near the Nashik city. I was not sure If I would complete this. I did not much planned the route and I was also less aware of the road conditions on the way. It was a 170km one way trip from my resident. It was still dark. The roads were emptier but this is the part of golden quadrilateral highway and it had its usual traffic on.

Winter is not a phenomenon in Mumbai due to the warm sea that lies at its edge. Still, I wore a jacket above my t-shirt and a wind-sheeter over it. I was feeling little cold. I was also wearing the shoes. Yeah, as of now I have not invested on the riding gears much. First I stopped at a distance of 15 km from my starting point. It was casual and I stretched for a minute. I also clicked few pictures. I was feeling mixed and confused. Far away for the city, the towers start to disappear. I carried on.

There is something that I need to learn for the riding posture. It was more so for the return journey than the forward one that I was not able to ride more than 15-20 km in one go. Maybe I became too tired from the journey that my body was needing some stretching and some rest. Potholes and speed breakers were the major concerns. They were giving the unexpected jerk to the back bone. I also felt few cracklings on my neck. When riding, I was also tending to get lost on thoughts. By the time I had completed 100 km, I was feeling little bored and I wanted to do something else than riding. I waited few minutes at a tea stall and tried to chat with the people there. Well, I also carried a novel with me. I thought that I would be reading it somewhere on the way. I had completely forgotten about it on the whole way. At some point, I also listened to some music to change my mind.

Ride became slower as I was closer to the destination. I felt enjoying the scenery and it was peaceful too. I was craving to take a bath at a river that I avoided, although I did take on my return journey! Trust me, it helped a lot.

I reached my destination at 11:30AM. So, I completed it in 5.5 hours. I was back turned by 2PM and I reached my home at 9 PM! I could not do the darshan as it was very crowded and I had to drive back. Return journey was uncomfortable. I was feeling tired. I stopped at a random place and parked my bike. I slept for some minutes. I was dilemmic if I should stop at a lodge, and take on the ride next day. I anyway continued. I was taking several random breaks. I stretched on every stop I was taking. I was also desperate to end the ride and reach home faster. Thus, I over-speeded to 80kmph several times. I was also doing little rough driving, like not taking greater attention at the potholes and accelerating. But I stopped that and became attentive again. I also realized that the headlight is not enough to drive safely at night. I felt that it is better to ride in the daylight than at darker hours.

I reached home accomplished and with several learnings. It was almost 340 km that I rode in a day. It was a great experience and on the ODO meter my bike had crossed the first service distance limit of 500km! Yay!

Laalman