TOURING ON SUPERBIKES. PART III

Hello bikers of the world. This is an attempt at getting all kinds of elements together. This is to get bikers together. Elise, alias Bluemoon was coming to India and I decided to make the most of this opportunity to get these elements rolling into one movement. Bluemoon is a debutant biker, with barely 6 hours of formal training under her belt. I have over 250 000 kilometers of bikingdom behind me. She comes from one of the most developed nations with some of the best roads on this planet. I belong to a country that is a fledgling economy with less than 0.6% participation in global economy. And I had decided to take her to the highest and youngest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas on a very unusual vehicle, a legendary Superbike, the Yamaha R1. As pillion!

Getting here...

The destination as you guys now know was Narkanda, at 2750 meters, the time, the peak of winter, departure, the 2^nd of January, 2007. What a way to begin the New Year.

I will not waste my time or yours in describing the route from Delhi to Narkanda. Most of you know it, a lot many of you have done it. So I will stick to the basics, and talk about the essentials of the ride.

The checklist prepared by Vivek has become my Biblical reference now. There have been two important additions. I had procured Bagster Sport saddlebags. You can check that out on the Bagster site. And I also had procured a SHARK Prisma helmet.

We loaded the bike with the Bagster and left around 7 in the morning. Lots of things to say here. Riding with a debutant biker is not easy. Even more so if you have not done much pillion-riding with that person. Despite being on a Superbike, you cannot do the usual 150-200 kmph speeds. You have to remember that there is a pillion behind. You have to be responsible for that person’s safety and comfort. On open stretches, 120-140 is more likely to be your speed remembering at the same time that going too fast can cramp up your pillion which might turn out to be detrimental later in the day when she/he can get fatigued. More frequent and regular stops are essential to make headway in the long run. Again I stress on the importance of stretching your cervical, your shoulders and wrist every time you stop for anything.

Getting set...

A word on good helmets with anti-fog visors. Whatever I say about such a helmet will not suffice. I don’t know how many of you have experienced this kind of thing, but when we left Delhi, there was a mild fog. And it was pretty cold, somewhere in the 7°. And I was riding with my visor closed. And at no moment, I repeat, at NO MOMENT did the inside of my visor fog up. I am not saying that GP Ones and other Indian helmets are bad. They are fine as far as the safety features go. But talking about comfort, snugness of fit, antiglare and anti-fog properties, the imported helmets take the cake hands down. It was a startling revelation for me. Behind me Bluemoon was sitting and she was wearing a GP One that I had lent her. And I could not see her face at all with all the fog from her breathing.

Halfway between Delhi and Karnal, we stopped to unwind at a Punjabi Dhaba that proposed Gaajar ka halwa. Bluemoon had some, and she also had “Indian tea with milk and sugar”. So far so good, things were pretty smooth. Not too many problems. Both of us were adequately clothed. We continued till Kalka, stopping frequently to unwind, to stretch, to eat, to adjust, and simply to relax.

After Kalka, the ride is simply fantastic. For a biker. The climb begins, and so does the canyon scratching with the curves that are there at the disposal of the avid biker. At this time, I told Bluemoon to relax a bit from the crouched committed posture that she had been holding for the past 5 odd hours that can be quite taxing on the pillion. And I started conquering my demons.

For people who have followed my progress in biking, bending is not my strong point. I can’t bend a bike to save my life. A superbike was my first step to conquer this demon. I bend it easier than other bikes. Going to the hills and watching and trying to follow Vivek to Lansdowne were my second step. And now, I was climbing on Himachal hills, en route to Narkanda, with a pillion behind me, taking the curves and just loving it. Though I have a long long long way to go before going anywhere near guys like Nitin Gera, or Lovemax or Vivek. But important thing is I was having fun. Lots of it. And I bend left much better than to the right. My right leaning demons have eaten my brains out. Have to build it again some day. But I was not going to do it with a guest in the house, sitting pillion behind me with a 1000 feet drop on the sides!

Wearing on the sides!

We kept stopping frequently, taking pictures, stretching. Late in the afternoon, we crossed Shimla and it started getting frightfully cold after that. We were in a shadow area. I put on the windproof silk inner gloves to protect my fingers. This is absolutely essential for cold climes. I kept going since I wanted to reach Narkanda not too late. Before reaching Fagu, I started seeing some snow on the slopes, hills, to the sides of the road. It was pretty thrilling even though it was pretty old snow. I decided to slow down and stop to take pictures. I put my foot down to stop. And my foot slipped and I could not stop. Thankfully I had not completely stopped and was still rolling. I realized that I was on black ice.

That black ice was nearly invisible. It was a shiny thing on the road. I was rolling right on top of it. I held the throttle steady. I was going at 13kmph. And I did not change that and held it. This was my first time and I was pretty stiff and scared shitless. I approached a corner. All visions of bending the bike had disappeared from my repertoire. I just wanted to hold the line, the throttle and make it out of the corner without slipping over the edge. I held my breath too. And finally I made it. I continued rolling and gradually my confidence increased. But I was not trying any stunts. The fastest I did on the black ice was 17kmph. And for once, I was real glad that there was a pillion that added weight and made road gripping better. For about 10 odd kilometers around Kufri and Fagu, we faced this exciting black ice phenomenon. And every time I spotted it, I tried riding on parts of the road that did not have black ice, often in the middle and even a bit to the right of the road. Surprisingly, oncoming traffic did not mind and would move aside slowing down to let me pass without creating any fuss.

Negotiating black ice!

The last 20 kilometers to Narkanda we did in near total darkness, crossing two landslip areas. It was really cold, certainly several degrees below zero. We were adequately clothed and did not feel cold really. But my fingers on my left hand were beginning to give way. I was maintaining a steady speed with not much use of the clutch and the left hand fingers remaining idle for long periods of time had begun to freeze at the tips. By the time I reached hotel Hatu, HPTDC, my fingers were hurting really badly. We checked in and I ran to the room, got some HOT water and dipped my fingers in it.

DAY2. Lazy day, had late breakfast and went out. I was raring to ride. It was still very cold at nearly mid day, the temperatures were still below zero, showed –1° at one place, -2° at another. I took the road out of Narkanda, direction Hatu peak. On the way there was more black ice. I saw that the local PWD workers were putting dust on the black ice to make it less slippery.

Soon I came to the bifurcation to the narrow road leading up to Hatu. The climb is pretty steep. I have been there before with my Sienna. This time around I was on something else. The road is really beautiful, really narrow, and no black ice as it is perpetually exposed to the sun. At every U-turn I had to ask my pillion to get off since I was unable to negotiate the curve. I had to do it two attempts. The turning radius of my R1 is the same as that of my car!

Riding up to Hatu!

At slightly before the 2km mark, I could not go any further. It was all compressed ice. Riding on it would have been suicide for me. I parked and started walking on it. I fell and nearly broke my good-looking face. Bluemoon fell and broke her visor. Very cautiously we turned back digging in our heels at every step and avoiding the ice as much as possible. But even the heels would not dig in much.

At Hatu.

On the way back from Hatu. Could not make it all the way to Hatu peak with the R1. And I do not regret it!

Came back to the hotel and had a hot shower to warm my body.

Next day we went back to Shimla. I would not repeat our adventures on the way back. Leaving from Shimla to get back to Delhi was not an easy task either. When we left Shimla, early in the morning, my AirIntake Scoop temperature showed –1°. Next day the newspaper showed –2°. Anyway, it was terribly cold. And about three quarters of an hour later, I stopped, took off my gloves, my inner silk gloves, and held my frozen fingers against the warm clutch housing. There was liquour shop right there. They opened their shutter and I went in and warmed my fingers for a good 20 minutes on their heater. I was cold nowhere else, just my fingers.

Frozen waterfalls!

Important Notes:

1. The ride with a Superbike to more than 3000 meters on the indomitable Himalayas on black ice and other such things with a pillion is a unique experience. Do it sometime, you will know what I mean.
2. Till Shimla, on the way back, I was riding on a mix of 97 Octane, 91 Octane and Wynn Octane boosters, I will talk about this more in detail in the thread started by Bunny talking about “Superbikes for a Layman”. I had read links sent by Vivek, that higher the altitude, lesser the need for Octanes even for high compression ratio machines. I noticed as I climbed progressively beyond 1400-1500 meters (as indicated on the milestones), that the bike started behaving differently. The FI sensors were working certainly to effect these changes. And I could feel that there was a marked drop in power and a quantum jump in torque. Climbing and pulling on steep inclines was a piece of cake on 4^th 5^th or even 6^th gear at ANY speed. There was no knocking. Whereas in the plains, when I was on 91 octane petrol only, on the way back, I increased the dose of my Octane booster to avoid the pinging.

In all, a great ride. Fantastic experience of doing such a ride with a pillion. Its not easy. It’s a challenge of sorts. Of patience, endurance and responsibility. Ride on.

Text: Krishnendu Kes aka KEN.

Pix: Krishnendu Kes and Elise Levain aka Bluemoon.

The author at a railroad crossing!