My first Ton.

I learnt to ride by accident. No, I did not find myself astride a bike after a night of drunken revelry or anything, my brother had a small sporting accident. Languishing in his bedroom, his dear ride was languishing in the garage. Making rueful headlights at my car which was (and still is) my pride and beauty. How it would almost misfire on hearing me start my car and ride away.

Finally, one day, my brother singularly attuned to his mechanical side, asked me to get on his bike and start it. He was a little worried about the neglect of a month on the bike's battery. With a bigger brother's stern instructions to just start the bike and idle it for a while, how could I not take it out for a spin.

I had learnt to ride when I was a small kid on my uncle's KB100. But that was about a decade ago, when I was just 15. But, as they say, it is not something that you easily forget. Pretty soon I got the hang of it and was pottering about inside my building compound and parking lot at a top speed on ten km/hr. The main issue I had was that, my brother's bike was a P180, 5 speed with one up and four down gear shift. A huge difference from a KB100 all down format if you ask me. So for now, I had to make do with two gears only, first and neutral. Neat. Parked the bike and looked at the engine closely. Hero Hondas have their gear shifts mounted on the tank where it is usually visible. Bajaj, on the other hand believe that a label should be over the implement. So, the pattern is over the gear shift at the bottom of the bike. Success. Proud of my sherlockian actions, the next day I took it out to try the other four gears too!

Kicked the engine over, engaged first and.. dumped the clutch. Hmm.. interesting results I must say. I never knew that the sky could look so different when viewed over two round pods housing the speedo and tacho.. esp. when the tacho was doing numbers like 9k and redlined. Grabbing the brakes was not really helping me, till I grabbed the clutch again. Immediately the tacho came down and so did the front wheel. Waited to get my breath back and looked up to find my mom mouthing a silent scream from the seventh floor balcony. I had done 10 m on just one wheel and that too without a helmet. Not something that endears you to moms who just have had one son down and out with a broken leg. Ma ki mamta does have definite limits apparently. Sheepishly, I killed the engine and wheeled the bike to the garage. Straight to the temple and praying for success at this endeavor, I decided then and there a couple of things. Never to underestimate your ride and never to ride without protective gear.

Day Three. A visit to the local training school. Got my learners license. Got home, took my brothers helmet. Took the bike out and slowly started it. With the magical piece of paper in my back pocket, my skills seemed to have improved. I finally discovered the realm of second and third gears.

Cut to next week, I was getting pretty good on this thing and was pretty decent at low speeds, so time to take the show on the road. One of the great things about my locality is that it has one great incline that is a dead end. After 10 p.m. traffic is almost non-existent. But, I was patient. I waited till all of 11.30 and then took it out. Like a nice little boy, looked left and right and then away I went. First, second, third, fourth and then... fifth!! I was in motorbiking nirvana. Then suddenly a stationary cab (they usually park here for the night) turned in on the road and I was out of tarmac too fast for my comfort. Hit both the brakes and got ready to fall. Dint happen though. The bike stopped in time and pretty much easily. Thank god for discs.

As you can now imagine, I was pretty much hooked on two wheels. Got around all the time, every where on it. My mom was also pretty happy with the state of affairs, because her grocery hating second son, now would always offer to shop for her.

Got my license endorsed for two wheelers. To celebrate, went to the bike shop and bought the best helmet I could see for myself. A full face AGV. Plain visor and lots of reflective tape at strategic places to help blind and drunk drivers identify bike rider at night. Slowly I was discovering the nuances of the bike. It's clunky gear shift, the weight of the clutch and the service part of it.

A puncture and three services later, the bike was in as good a condition as I could get it on my limited budget. A new rear tyre, a new battery (the old one just could not take the month of neglect and died. To be fair, it was more than three years old as it is.) and boy did it go.

It accelerates real good and touches 80km/hr (my normal riding speed now) pretty much on time. Actually, the bike feels so good nowadays, that I get by with the clutchless gear changes almost all the time.

Soon, I felt that the day had come to crack the cherry. Had been riding for half a year and still hadn't cracked the ton on my speedo yet. One fine sunday morning, got up at six and took it out. It was a brilliant day. Cool and breezy with the sun just rising. Took it to the western express highway and let it rip. Man what a symphony! While I do agree that Pulsars are not the best sounding bikes around, any engine revving its way to the redline sounds absolutely great. Especially if you are hanging on to the handle bars with an insane grin on your face.

Went right through the gears without the clutch, finding the sweet spot to upshift all the time. It was one of the few rides you get in your life time, where everything goes just right. Each time I would shift up, the bike would respond with a gentle surge and add another 30k to the speedo. By, the time I could think of looking at the speedo, the needle was struggling against the 110km/hr mark. Immediately let the throttle go and cruised down to a more normal 60. Man, was it bliss. I had started out from nepeansea road and was almost upto the domestic airport before I knew it.

Now am hooked. I use the bike to commute to work. Riding at a sedate speed of thirty most of the times. I am very careful of the gear shifts. Depressing the clutch fully before each shift. I watch my mileages too. Not revving the bike over much and keeping it in its power band with each shift. But, come night, when the city sleeps. I take to the road. Marine drive at night is a drive which should not be missed. Even at Sixty, with the cross winds and the bumps it's an interesting ride, but at ninety or so, it absolutely rocks.

It's been a great journey so far. I am currently looking at making my bike better and myself a safer rider. I am also looking for a second bike, a Jawa / Yezdi road king for a friend. So if any of you have any rides out there, please do let me know.