Inddiethumpers 6th Anniversary

Inddiethumpers 6th Anniversary
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Inddiethumpers turned 6 this month, and this called for a party of biblical proportions.

The location was decided as Mahabaleshwar, and the dates as the 8th and 9th of December.
Everyone had expected a huge turnout, and the turnout, left everyone pleasantly surprised. 68 Inddiethumpers were to rock Mahabaleshwar, with the combined forces from our Roadshaker and Wanderlust brothers.

While doing a night shift at work, I got this email :

Hello Boys....
Sub: Weather Forecast
Meteor Department has just made a Forecast for tomorrow as follows:
There will be an earthquake at richter scale 10 and above in the
costal part of Maharashtra and some hilly areas of Mahableshwar and
Panchgani
Alert issued to villages in the vicinity of NH - 17 for staying away
from the Highway
Hurricane and Lightning might cause some damage to eyes and ears ....
in the interest of public safety, it is advised to wear protective
gears during this situation
The centre point for the Earthquake, so far detected, is at Vashi and
might go upto Mahableshwar travelling the NH 17
The predicted reason is 75 BULLETS WILL BE RIDING THRU VASHI-PANVEL-
KHOPOLI-PALI-NAGOTHANE-MAHAD-POLADPUR-MAHABLESHWAR-BHILLAR..
KYO KEE................................
INDDIETHUMPERS ARE CELEBRATING THEIR 6TH ANNIVERSARY AT MAHABLESHWAR
cheerz
KAKA

Man was he right!!

The rendezvous point was Vashi toll naka at 5:30am, the thumpers stayed true to their IST (Inddiethumpers standard time) and everyone had assembled and left by approximately 630am.

The route was Vashi to Mahabaleshwar via Panvel and Pali. The ride to Panvel was amazing, nice early morning breeze, almost empty roads. We left in batches so to avoid confusion.
The first batch reached Vashi, and while waiting for the other batches to arrive, Shyamal and I decided to raid Shree Dutta Snacks. After a couple of hot vada-pav’s we headed back to welcome the rest of the guys who had reached Panvel naka. Armed with a sutta, and a piping hot cup of chai, we caught up on old times, and planned for the times to come.

The sound of so many bullets ripping down the Panvel road towards Uncles Kitchen, Khopoli was amazing. It sounded like someone has set of a couple dozen of chain fed M-16 automatics! In the true Inddiethumpers fashion, we commanded everyone’s attention wherever we went. Especially with Akhtar, and Abbas’s fishtails, JP’s Goldie, and the numerous other louder-than-most silencers. A couple of falls had taken place, but no damages to rider, or machine.
The road from Panvel through Pali was filled with potholes, and we could all feel our bones chatter. At last I saw a clear patch of road, and let “The Sandman” rip, reached a good 90-100 in no time. A little further down the road, I see an ST, bang in front of me. And bang I did, and how. The bike was severely damaged, but still ride-able. With some help from SP, and the other brothers, soon had the bike in a ride-able condition. The chassis was warped, the T (fork plate) broken. The shockwaves from the impact travelled right to the end of the bike, and damage was visible even on the rear mudguard stays. Amazingly I was unhurt.

Road on, met up with the other batch, Informed Rajiv and Kaka of the crash, and of my well being, and proceeded on our way. Nikkhil being the darling of a soul that he is, went ahead and found a spare parts shop. Then called me up, and informed me of the availability of some handles we could try on the bike. This was a very welcome piece of news for me, as my handle was at an angle that could put a café racer to shame, and thus quite uncomfortable. Reached the shop, and found out that all he had was a hero Honda splendor handle. Well desperate times call for desperate measures, got it fitted and left ASAP. Also found out that the fork was broken.
The normal pattern ensued when I am tailing Nikkhil, we do an amazing pace. Caught up with the rest of the guys who had raided a dhaba, LUNCHTIME!!. Met up with the Roadshakers too, met Baljeet paaji after quite a while.
I was quite relieved to see the rest of the gang, and while I could see all smiling faces, busy chattering, I see Amit D, and SP, busy tinkering with Amit’s carb. Apparently it was overflowing. Nothing we couldn’t fix. I pulled out my amazing collection of spares, of everything ranging from yokes, to jets, to rectifiers. Quickly saw that all his carb needed was a cleanup. The carb was back on the bike in no time, working like a charm.
Annish’s bike had been bike-napped and was being test ridden by all the guys, there was literally a line ;) SP and Rasik really let her rip, while Anup preferred to cruise at 60-70.

I didn’t want to eat too much, as I wasn’t able to sleep for more than 48hours before the ride. Chugged down 2 glasses of Chaas, had a quick smoke, and off we were.
The ghat proved to be a more difficult task than I had expected. The broken fork made climbing the ghats really difficult. But alls well that ends well I guess. Reached Suman motels, was guided to JP to our rooms, and crashed! I decided to catch a little shut eye, while Sunil and Monish decided to go to the town to get some cigarettes and have a drink or two.
Woke up an hour later, feeling oh-so refreshed. The party was about to start.

Suman motels has a wonderful huge lobby which we used for our party. The garden outside was covered in what looked like a shower of Bullets. The pulsating music by none other than DJ Billu kept everyone on their feet. The spirits flowed, tobacco burned, conversations got more vivacious, the dancing got more frantic, the thumpers got hungrier. It was soon going to be time to let lose on the buffet. Except for one last blast of energy, the moment Anukaran and the rest of the guys from WanderlustMC rolled in.

Now the part was really going wild. 3 wild biker groups, sharing everything from smokes, to booze to conversations. This has to be the wildest party I have ever seen!!

A little while later the hungry thumpers sat to eat, and as usual this wasn’t a pretty site. Finally like lions who have had their fill of meat, we all flopped off to sleep one by one.
The morning came surprisingly soon, with Rajiv waking me up with the incentive of breakfast ;). Ambled out of my bed, lit up a smoke, and limped my way up to the hall. What a pleasant surprise, Satya had ridden after nightfall (braving an exam on Monday) and reached late last night. Fueled ourselves with some poha, omelets and bread, and then the customary walk around the bikes ensured.
My oh my, there was barely any place to walk! Sachin’s and Anton’s bikes got the most attention. Sachin has his raid bike with him, complete with stickering et al, and Anton had an LB engine that would kick the living daylights out of any-other.

Nikkhil, and I decided to leave in order to make it home in time for some prior commitments, Monish decided to join us. Bid our farewells and left by 11am.
We chose the nh4 via Wai, cause of better road conditions. Stopped at Sunny Da Dhaba, for a light lunch, which turned super heavy.
Reached home at around 430 pm

What a ride this was, riding with so many bullets, riding to such a monumental party, riding 450kms with a warped chassis and a broken fork!