Roadtrip Day 24: My first time meeting folks from a riding community [Thu Apr 1, 2021]

The bike finally got ready, but with a caveat :).

I was up by 7 AM. I was not really looking forward to the day but had decided to be at Manu bhai’s place early enough so that I can take the call if I am continuing my ride, or taking a break & going back to Bangalore (read my previous post for details).

I had not been doing my morning meditation for some days now. Today was no exception. I was ready by 9:30 AM & Anand, my friend with whom I am staying, dropped me at Manu bhai’s place by 10. To my surprise, the bike was ready at that time. I was pleasantly surprised but somehow my demeanor did not show the same. Deep down, I was fairly negative, thinking there must be some catch. The smoke had disappeared. I checked oil level & it was fine. I also opened the spark plug & requested Manu bhai to clean it up, which he promtly did. I was thinking that Manu bhai will ask for more money, but he hadn’t (so far), which kept my suspicion on. Anyway, I decided to take it for a ride & it looked all fine, except one very feeble ‘kat kat’ sound which the chain was making. I told Manu bhai folks about it & they figured the chain is loose, which they quickly tightened. The noise did not go away but then I just decided to get it fixed elsewhere.

The next thing was to do ride till Gondal. Nilu dada had called me to inquire about the bike status & I told him that I will be riding to Gondal next. At around 11 AM, I got a call from Bhavik bhai. He is part of Rajkot riding community & told me that he is expecting me. He also mentioned about Paresh bhai in Gondal who is an expert mechanic. I thought it would actually be a good idea to get 2nd opinion & decided to ride to Gondal. I promised Bhavik bhai that I would be in Gondal by 1 PM.

I had also got a call from Ashish Dhingre, who is also part of Rajkot riding community. Ashish inquired about the Ladakh carrier & I told him that it is available off the shelf & is pretty cheap. Ashish intends to do Ladakh circuit, thanked me for the advice & we decided to meet each other in the evening get together that Nilu dada had been planning.

I was soon riding towards Gondal. Bhavik bhai had suggested putting some grease on the chain to reduce the noise but my efforts to find an auto garage on the way, did not yield any result. To be honest, I did not make any serious attempt about it. Since the piston had changed & the block was new, I had to ride the bike at speed not greater than 40 kmph. Keeping an eye on the speedometer & the map made me forgo view of the path/surroundings. But I guess it being highway & immense day heat, reduced my FOMO (fear of missing out) significantly :).

Bhavik bhai called me when I was 20 kms away from Gondal & told me a spot to meet him. Bhavik bhai was there on his own bullet. Bhavik bhai had maintained his bullet pretty immaculately - not in a jazzy but in a functional way. He was also dressed up fairly casually, which is not how most bikers/riders are dressed up usually. He came across as a no frills rider to me to whom the path & the bike matters the most, nothing else :).

Bhavik bhai soon took me to Paresh bhai’s garage. Paresh bhai is the one to whom the Momai garage guy had called when I had narrated them the (false) story about getting my bike engine’s done at Gondal. Paresh bhai remembered the story & I quickly corrected it for him. He took a test ride & said it is all fine. At that moment, I asked him if he feel the crank is all fine & he did say that crank does not feel like the usual heavy crank. Bhavik bhai called Manu bhai through my phone & squarely asked him about the crank & Manu bhai admitted that he has put the medium heavy crank. Bhavik bhai was furious & soon Bhavik & Paresh bhai were discussing strategy around how to teach Manu bhai a lesson while I silently tried deciphering as much Gujarati as I can, trying to understand their plan. I guess they concluded that the work done was for 6-7k (I paid 5k) but the heavy crank is much more expensive at around 11k. So basically, I was conned :).

Bhavik bhai said that post/prior to biker group meeting we would go meet Manu bhai. Very quickly, the scene from hindi movie Josh, with the Eagle gang folks lead by SRK, flashed my mind. Soon we were riding towards a locally famous khaman shop where I clicked below pic.

We started to ride back at around 2:30 PM . It would have been painful for Bhavik bhai to ride alongside me at 40 kmph but he did so without making any fuss :). At some point I did request him to go ahead but he refused.

We parted ways as soon as we are about to enter Rajkot as Bhavik bhai had to meet someone. We decided to meet again in the evening biker gang get together. I came back to Anand’s place. Bhavik bhai had mentioned about clay bottle that he uses during ride to keep water cool & I soon googled to figure out that ‘Mitti cool’ brand is from around Rajkot only & also located a shop around 5km from place which sells Mitti cool exclusive stuff.

I bought this bottle from Mitti Cool in the fond memories of Old Monk or for that case lack of any liquor. Thanks to Gujarat being a dry state :).

It was 7 PM & I decided to quickly make a dash to buy the bottle & then land at the get together by 7:30. It only became evident later that I had under-estimated Rajkot traffic grossly.

The shop was on the eastern side of Rajkot & while on my way back, I did not honor Google map’s suggested route & took the shortest length route, only to get stuck in clogged streets & busy market. I reached the get together only by 8 PM where I was greeted by 10 odd folks. As a true guest of honor, I was (ashamed) to be the last guy to reach the venue. After having a short intro & cup of tea, I was asked to talk about my ride - why I am doing it, how I started etc. I guess I gave a reasonably long speech because I did notice folks having their own mini conversation midway so I decided to end it quickly & take questions. Not many questions came in but people talked about their own experience. There is a person (I dont remember the name) who with 25 folks did ride from Rajkot - South - North - Rajkot in shortest possible time & made it to Limca book of records. There is a young guy who did solo from Rajkot to Manali & then did Ladakh circuit with 6 other bikers.

I clicked a few pics with the folks & around 8:30 PM we dispered as Rajkot had night curfew from 9 PM.

The plan for tomorrow is to start for Patan early. I changed my destination from Palanpur to Patan as Patan is nearer (since I would be riding at 40+ kmph, I would not be able to cover larger distances). Thanks to Raja Agarwal bhai from Ahmedabad who gave me the suggestion as the road to Patan would also NOT be a major road & hence I would enjoy my ride more compared to the Palanpur route which would have dense traffic.

Plan for tomorrow is to getup & leave early, latest by 6:30, to Patan, which is around 265 kms from Rajkot. Over & out for today.