MTM - IBW - 2014
While I write this down, every cell in my body is tired, my eyes are blood red and my fingers are grease dirty. But my mind fresh as a fuckin Daisy. Why? Well to start with I happened to meet many fellow motorcycle travellers who share the same passion and excitement as mine.
All this happened around Goa, Yes IBW 2014. Motorcycle Travellers meet also know as MTM was part of IBW this year and brought in the mind blowing and inspiring personalities.
I started my ride around 12:00 in the night as usual, this helps me avoid traffic and cover good distance. Firefly can be furious at times and heatup like a furnace, night kinda keeps my legs from being fried. After riding for days and miles on highway (600 kms but felt that long) I ended up missing out the turn and ended up closer to belgaum. Was pissed about my navigation skills and decided to cool it off with some lime soda. spoke to one of those localites and I was promised a wonderful ride ahead. He said i will be riding through Amboli ghat and i have 109 kms of mind blowing roads. I was thrilled. Refilled my hydration pack, suited booted and I was on my way. fellow riders, YOU SHOULD DO THIS ROUTE SOMEDAY. Its just fresh as it can get. The zig zag signs were many and kept me locked to the tank all way through. twisties and turns and narrow roads with scenic views all around. the 600 kms of highway was out of picture and I was a new man. :)
Entered goa and was welcomed by one of the super bikers, He was riding his honda 1000R and was followed by friends who shipped there bikes and were driving down. I was late and had no time to waste and as these guys were sure about the route I followed them and ended up at the other side of the city, Thank you shakthiman! :D. As soon as i figured we were lost, I had to stop them say tata ok bye and turn back.Thanks to goa that petrol prices are low. (55 rs, can you believe that? uncle full tank and two litres for take away, jaldi.)
Reached the venue around 2 and was greeted with bikers revving there engine out to make an arse out of themselves. I have no idea why they do that! a million Harleys(couple of hundred) and a million bikers(not sure the count), place was packed and every one all excited and high, thanks to the beers and greens being available easy and cheap. There were all possible bikes available this time, seems like the feedbacks from the last year worked out very well, Though Harley's had separate Parking other bikes it wasn't like a covered parking or something major.
After having some heated arguments with the people at the counter, met our man Santosh kumar, he brought the MTM dream alive and brought together the crowd who ride, not because they can, but because they want to and it meant life for them. settled down, understood what was happening, manned the stall for a while, took a walk and kept the camera back in the bag. I dint see or hear anything that really excited me.I was saving up all my energy and attention for something bigger and better. Yes the talks planned by MTM for later part of the day. It was like a proper thalli for my mind, Heavy and Soothing. Fellow riders owned the stage and the little crowd that chose to step in. While the crowd was handful,we figured good things come in small packages. Yes very true, with a million bikers around, many few choose to dream the ride. Very few would want to push away from that easy life and ride out for days and months if not for years. It isn't an easy thing, very tough to start with, but as it goes you become a better man. I know that. :)
Riders who shared there experience,
Ted Simon who travelled the world twice, Once in 1970 on his triumph, riding solo for 4 years and covering about 63000 miles through 45 countries. If that doesn't push you off your chairs and make you go ride, What else does?
More here - http://jupiterstravellers.org/
Bharadwaj Dayala - The only Indian to have travelled around the world on a Indian made bike. That too a 225 cc Karizma. Well took us one step closer to the dream of world travelling. He shared his experiences and struggles of getting the required approvals and passports with the Indian passport.His never say die spirit helped him live his dream and tell us the tale. He is off on a new trip in under 100 days and have many plans around it.
More here - http://www.bikingtheworld.blogspot.in/
Eliza Massey - 57 Year old Wonder woman who has more energy than any of us, She did her first presentation and was nervous, but once on stage there was no stopping. She went on sharing her ride stories and kept us all excited and wanting for more. she has been riding solo for the last 15 months and is currently in India. She rides a GS 650 and rides it like a pro.More here - http://elizajmassey.blogspot.in/
Dan Popescu - Road of bones rider. He had many experiences to share. riding the road of bones in chilling cold and with some mechanical problems. He did complete the ride and had a million photos to share. Very down to earth and very approachable. His sense of humour was just amazing.
More here - https://www.facebook.com/dan.popescu.9212?fref=ts
Nick Sanders - Na I dont wanna write much about him, if you dont know him well forget it and move on. ;)More here - http://www.nicksanders.com/2011/blog.html
Jay Kanaaiyan -He has been part of MTM from day one and has been an inspiration for all of us. He rode down from US covering 64,138 through 33 countries spreading joy with his smile and secret chicken curry.
More here - http://www.jamminglobal.com/
Pankaj Thrivedi - A very humble man, Showcased his documentary that he took in north east.
With many miles under his belt, he tells stories with pictures and documentaries.
More here - http://www.hornokplz.tv/about_me.html
I guess travelling has this secret sauce that makes you all high all time. I have had a bit of it myself :)
After two days of events, talks, fun, beers and some small rides, It was time to head back to slavery, sit in front of the laptop and warm the chair, until dreaming about riding out on that big road trip. Anyways, the ride to Goa was solo, but with the new found rider friends we decided to ride back via dandeli and stop over at one of the farms put some beers and leave the very next day, sharp at 6 am. :D. We rode down to Ponda and took the road that leads to mother of all twisties and turns, Yes roads via Dandeli is just amazing. though you have trucks and cars trying to run you over it still excites you. After entering Karnataka we took the detour and rode following our navigator Santosh. He took us through knee scrapping twisties. Firefly had fried her valves and i have been feeding her more oil. People following me got the slightly polluted version of Dandeli, and now i know why everyone was keen on overtaking me :D, few of the boys where riding big engines and were not afraid of sending them. Best of the lot was Manoj on his Electra Glide. While most of the Harley guys took the short way out of Goa ( few the highways and many on trucks,containers), Manoj rode through all possible roads, we were treated with clean top of the line roads to bloody stand on your bike and pray not to fall kinda roads. He kept his cool and road it best. Ajay had a ear to grin and we figured, he used his tyre to the best and touched both edges,He took a pic to freeze that moment. He was riding a R1 and had tough time with bad roads, but managed it like a pro.
Day continued with some Rum and some Beers followed by a heavy dinner and we called it a night and slept till 8 am, well every one had there alarms for 5-5:30 am but religiously snoozed it and slept. Few kms later we stopped over for some break fast and had to keep the bikes away from the crowd, but for the luck we had, it happened to be right in front of a college and we had more crowd than expected. finished breakfast and hit the highway via hubli, I had to say tata to all the boys as highway is not my cup of coffee and Mine would be the slowest bike of all, With the valve issues and over heating and all that I had to take longer breaks, feed in more oil and ride out. Our boys Rajesh, Nakul and Rishad had displayed there bikes at IBW and were driving back, met up with them and after some heavy lunch off we were for the final stop at Bangalore.
Though i was disappointed with the fact that many missed out on the opportunity to meet with the veterans, I was glad I could get a helmet signed by all the biggies. to top it all off I mnaged to get Ted Simon, Jay and Bharadwaj to sign the firefly too, Sexy aint it?
Around the dream come true thing, Our Rajesh had a ear to ear grin as he
got his helmet signed by Ted Simon and had a chit chat around dreams,
Rajesh please enlighten us on that. :)
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sarath.shenoy/media_set?set=a.10152132831510673.1073741835.691660672&type=1
OK so until the next ride let me go warm my chair, corporate slavery awaits! Ride safe Ride long!
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