Joy Dutta’s blog

Too many things happen in my life with sheer luck and/or irony. I had been in the quest for a bengali fellow biker, at least online, for the last one year without any hint of success. I have known a couple Indian bikers and met one of them a few days back on a weekend ride, but I was getting the idea that bengali bikers are non-existent, except me, too rebellious to remain a typical bengali.

Today, like a bolt from the blue, I heard from a guy, brought up in Delhi and Calcutta. And how did he get my email address ? A friend of mine at the university sent out my plans of the upcoming cross country ride for some mapping suggestions to some mailing list. And he picked my blog up from there. Amazing how human networks function.

The guy lives in NYC and rides a Ducati Monster 900. Got to meet up soon for some bengali adda over a cuppa coffee. Can’t wait !

I decided I would just relax and leave the route for the sunday ride up to Daman. I assumed we would be back early afternoon and I would reach home by 10pm.

Assumptions. So laughable. Little did I know that the “planned” 550 mile weekend ride would be stretched to 820 miles over 3 days.

Day 2 of my trip started as a lazy sunday morning. I woke up early to catch with my everyday ritual - checking mail and some net surfing. Ordered a tire plug kit and a 12v air compressor for the upcoming trips.

Went to meet Sue of xv_cruisers yahoogroups forum so that she no longer treats me as just another online stranger. It was nice to meet an yahoo-messenger buddy in person too. Sat on her newly acquired V-Star 650. It is a nice bike, but somehow it seemed a lot smaller than my connie.

A quick breakfast later we (me on connie, daman and harmeet on daman’s Triumph Rocket-III, and Shweta on the Lincoln towncar) were on US-3 N cruising towards Lincoln, NH. The scenary was quite different than I am used to around long island. Unfortunately for me, the fall colors were already over in that part and I had no reason to stop for pictures. We rode non-stop along US-3 N, the I-93 N to arrive at Lincoln. Yummy lunch at mcdonalds. Daman and Harmeet was too cold at hands and feet so they got some hand and foot warmers. First time I saw how good they actually work. Kinda like magic, open the sealed packet to get the small sac out, and it just heats up. I later tried it in my gloves today morning on the homebound ride, and it worked beautifully.

We were already at the foothills of white mountains and the loon mountain ski range. Lot of ski shops around. Really made me want to ski sometime. I should have done it in the two winters I spent at the east coast.

We took the scenic mountain road kancamagus highway (112) from Lincoln. Hairpin bends and lot of twisties. I was a little scared to lean with the behemoth of the bike I was riding, 650 lb with gas. After two turns I was like being back to my royal enfield, curving the roads in the western ghats of south India. It was like going back in memory lane. Except for the cold, the salt spray on the asphalt and the frozen roadside springs, it was all much like the rides back home. We did quite a few photo sessions on the mountain roads. Went down to a stream too. Wished to raft someday. Oh well…

This was Daman’s last ride in this season and his bike was going to be stored at the dealer for the winter. A great bike that is huge but also handles well.

We were back to Daman’s place around 6pm. It was not just possible to ride home, another 260miles with that kind of drowsiness and cold. I am taking my time to get used to long rides here, so it will be a while before I can do 500 mile days without thinking twice.

Started at 6am today morning to reach home around 12:30pm, with stops for gas and food. The plugged tire held up the whole 42 psi of pressure all along the trip !!!

My heartfelt compliments to Daman and Shweta who had been a wonderful host. And Harmeet was nice to talk to and discuss about Photography.

A great first multi-day trip in the USA. More to follow.

Map: http://www.pbase.com/jdutta78/image/52588538
Pics: http://www.pbase.com/jdutta78/nashua19nov05

First multi-day motorcycle trip in the USA finally commenced today. And on my first sport tourer, the concours.

Preparations took quite a while yesternight, and as usual it was a difficult-to-sleep night like old times. An hour late than the scheduled start time, it was finally 8am when I took off. Had the rear tire plugged just the night before so I double checked it at the pump, 42psi without any loss overnight.

I will be rather brief about this write-up. A lot of rides will pile up eventually, so I better be brief

The ride was too good. A big bike like the concours is a totally different ball game than my small cruiser. Enjoyed every moment on the plush and comfortable saddle. Didn’t stop except for gas and food.

Didnt get to use the gps as the mount is not installed yet. The direction was pretty much straightforward so it was not a problem. Reached Daman’s place around 2pm. Didn’t feel tired at all after 260 miles on the odo.

A great evening watching LOTR “The Return of the King” at Daman’s impressive home theatre system. Digitally projected on the wall, it was a personal cinema-hall experience. Added to that, authentic Indian food including my favorite dahi-vada really spiced up the evening.

Forgot to mention Daman’s bike: Triumph Rocket3, the biggest cruiser in the market currently, a 2300cc monster engine sitting on a motorcycle frame. Hoping to sit on it tomorrow and compare to my connie.

Tomorrow’s plans are to ride on some twisties, along the kankamagus highway, which is Rt-112 after going a while up along 93 from Nashua, NH. Should be a good one. Am sure it will bring back memories of the rides in western ghats of south India.

so far so good… more later…

The anticipation for the coming weekend ride is running high. I have planned to visit my friend Daman for more times than I care to remember. Then I just stopped planning ahead to visit him, except yesterday when I told him I would like to visit him today. He had plans, so I postponed it to Saturday, tomorrow. It is a beautiful ride to Nashua, NH, 250 miles one way. Also it would be my first multi-day ride in the USA.

And then it had to happen. Damn Murphy’s laws, they seem to be happening to me all the time.

The day went well today and in the evening I felt the rear tire of my connie is feeling a little soft so I went to check the pressure. When the digital meter indicated the existing pressure was 25psi when I just inflated it two days back to 42, my internal alarm started ringing very loudly. Put the bike on center stand after a massive effort (the effort rises exponentially with falling tire pressure !!!) and started rotating the rear tire. The horror came the moment a shiny, small head of a nail showed up. A chill went down my spine. At 5:30pm, the Kawasaki dealer was closed and I didnt know about any tire shop who would do it. The weekend ride was probably off, but more importantly if the tire failed, I coudnt move this behemoth beast an inch !!! A Royal Enfield would feel like a bicycle compared to this, I was convinced by then.

Wise sense told me that this bike came with 18psi of pressure, so the nail must have been there when the bike arrived. And since I could ride for two days, I could probably manage just to ride to the nearest tire shop or maybe the dealer tomorrow morning. Started riding at 30, trying to be cool and think about the tire shops nearby. Lost my way going to the village gas station, but their workshop was closed by then. Got direction to another gas station. Luck turned to be in favor of me now. Got the tire plugged and saw the size of the nail - TWO goddamned inches !!!

Thanked the mechanic profusely for the help. The $10 spent on this is worth every penny of it, now that I know how to plug a tire !!!

Before this tire incident today, I accidentally opened up the fork spring cover and found out how to put a better spring and oil myself.

A lot of learning in one day and I am loving the bike more and more with every passing day.

The forum at concours.org just rocks. I have been following this for the last 2 weeks, and with close to 40 posts today I realised what a wonderful decision I made buying the concours. I never rode one before I finally got one, used, and shipped from 480 miles away !!! I had that kind of trust and confidence on this bike.

The wealth of accumulated wisdom on every possible aspects of this fine piece of “dated” touring machine is something to be proud of, being an owner. Very few in-production bikes today can claim this kind of status.

I can define happiness now.

Last 2 weeks seemed like an eternity. Have gone through euphoria, anticipation, excitement and even frustration during this period. Frantic exchange of emails with the seller almost everyday, and having the heart sinking at the news of occasional delays of the truck has finally come to an end.

The shipper, Smartco express (www.shipyourbike.com) did a very good job of delivering the bike OH to NY via FL in two weeks, which is above industry average, despite two breakdowns. Great job Mike, I will recommend your service to my friends.

I love this machine. It is huge. More than half as wide as an Accord sedan. And heavy ! It has enough storage space for a 2-week vacation for two persons, comfortably. I just needed this sort of utility for my kind of travel. Being able to carry essentials and not worry about tying bags with bungee cords. Two glove boxes. A dashboard like a car. Two tripmeters !!!

I had my plates ready since last week. Put them on and took it for a spin, stopping at the gas station first to pump up the tires. After my v-twin honda cruiser, this felt smooth, silent and devilishly powerful. I am loving it.

Added some accessories (farkles) today itself. Rear tip over bars, fork brace and Murph grips. A few others remain for the coming days. New tires are due too.

Time to begin the real trips…

Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/jdutta78/connie

Did myself a favor and bought two must-read motorcycling books by David L. Hough:

1. Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well
2. More Proficient Motorcycling : Mastering the Ride

This was long overdue since last year when I got my Honda, and most of the folks on the motorcycle forums advised me to start with these two.

Before my Concours “SilverHorse” arrives in the weekend, I got to brush up my skills and enjoy a little motion physics. This is a long wait for me and time must fly fast.

In the Kawasaki Concours motorcycle forum at yahoogroups, some guy wrote he was retiring from riding after a small crash. Along with others, I also wrote how easy it is to quit after facing a little pain and that he should seriously give his decision a second thought. In the evening I got a single-sentence mail from a stranger, commending me on my note to the crashed guy. Our subsequent mails went like this:

Now imagine. Just because I love to ride motorcycles to far-off places I am making friends all over the USA now. A stranger offering a place to stay, not new to me. I already have open doors from online friends from Texas and New Hampshire.

The instant bonding, the never failing camaraderie between motorcyclist souls just plain amazes me. Doubtlessly a big part of the addiction in the two-wheeled passion.