Motorbike Therapy

I was supposed to type in this post last week. Anyway, so here goes.

It had been some time having taken the bike out on a long ride. It was another typical day, wake up, unchain the bike and park it somewhere else, have breakfast then sit online to check emails and stuff at Facebook and then do some work on the thesis.

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I'm completely nuts when it comes to motoring, be it cars or bikes and everything associated with them. For many days, I've been thinking about doing some 'work' on my CG125. I browsed youtube.com and looked up for customized 125cc bikes to get some ideas. Most of the results were of the Brazilian Honda 125 Fan and the Yamaha YBR 125.

Two uploads caught my attention, a modified Honda by this guy called Glenio (if that's his name) and a lowered Yamaha YBR 125. These (respectively) can be viewed on these youtube links: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZv8qKyGRlo) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZ5E1Lkgu0) The work done on the Honda 125 was very cool but the transformation of the normal Yamaha YBR to a mean looking road hugging machine was pretty impressive. I doubt however if the Yam' dude would have ridden his bike around easily, with the potholes and speed humps on the roads - or maybe they have better roads in Brazil than the ones we have here.

After stumbling onto a video of the YZF 125R, a 125cc sport bike by Yamaha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohQz8lc4ZNY), I decided to get changed and get out on the road on my bike.

I started off, my destination - Pirsohawa. I didn't do a proper warm up which is quite essential at this time of the year. Instead I rode at a comfortable pace of 60km/hr all the way to the base of the Margallah Hills. I took a short cut via Lok Virsa and climbed onto the 7th Avenue that leads straight to the base. There's a police check post at the bottom where we always have to stop, but this time the policeman was busy talking to a driver he probably stopped for checking so I rode by him, saving myself the hassle of stopping, taking my helmet off and my documents out.

The next 12 minutes (yes I get to the top in 12 minutes flat!) were of pure pleasure. The sun had already set when I left home, it was cold. My tires had warmed up during the commute from my home to the bottom of the Hills. I made a trip to the Honda Service Center yesterday to get the bike tuned up and the chain tightened and oiled. With the perfectly warmed up engine the bike was ready to take some beating. The road is a 3kms two lane, two way, snaking all the way to the View Point (Daman-e-Koh) and further to 4.5km sthe top (Pirsohawa) full of zig-zag and hair-pin (my favourite) turns with a couple of 45 degree inclination climbs, something like the last drifting scene in the movie Tokyo Drift.

At the top, I found myself a nice table at the end with a great view of the city. They were playing songs from the Coke Studio compilations (http://www.cokestudio.com.pk/), perfect stuff for venue. I ordered a green tea and chilled out for a while. The cold breeze, the warm cup of tea in my hand and the mellow songs being played at the back - it all felt great, just perfect. I made a couple of calls to say hi to my folks and sent a few 'wish you were here' text messages to a couple of friends before leaving for my downward journey.

The downward journey is the best, super fun for the expert rider who can enjoy the twists and turns of the road. I've seen some bikes go down in neutral gear. This is very very dangerous because in neutral, there isn't any rear traction and the slightest hard braking can send you (and your bike) skidding off the road - the quickest way to get to the bottom of the hills(and out of this world). I usually stay in the second or third gears, the rear traction allows me to dive into the apex and then race out of the corners with confidence. I go the fastest after crossing the View Point. Once I reached the bottom, the same policeman was busy with another car - so I passed him again. I took the same route back home.

I was half frozen when I got back home. I changed, turned on the heater, switched on the PC and logged in to prepare this post. As I said earlier, I did a trip to Pirsohawa last week and was to publish the post back then but I didn't. So I decided to go back to the Hills again to recall the exact details of the trip - which I have now shared with you.

The trip to the Hills is quite entertaining - its a lovely place with a great view of the entire city from the top. But for a motorbike enthusiast like me, its also the best place to master my cornering skills, especially during the return journey where all the turns and corners come in so fast. The best time to go there is at night, preferably after 9pm since there is less traffic and therefore fewer random idiots driving in the wrong lane against the traffic. I remember that it used to take me around 20 minutes to reach the top when I was new to motorbiking. But with more frequent visits and more riding experience I've managed to cut down the timing to 12. The downward journey used to take around 10 minutes , but now it takes around 5.

I don't want to convey the wrong idea here - I don't ride rash, its precision I'm talking about. Its all about keeping the bike in the maximum torque range and cornering efficiently (with minimum braking & using rear traction) just like they do it in MotoGP.

The pictures I've attached are of the same trip done few months ago. I wish to do some 'tank cam' video shots of the trip - for that I'll have to invest in a good quality video camera. But till then these pics should do.

So is this a therapy of some sort? Yes indeed, this is Motorbike Therapy :)

G