The short scenic 60mile ride today along the back roads were not possible as effortlessly as we did it, without the gps. One can carry maps, but not of arbitrary levels of detail that is so much of a necessity if one needs to explore a place. Two small yet beautiful harbors could be found just looking at my position close to the blue regions on the gps. simply wonderful to travel this way. Not only navigation, when we (Me and Deepak) felt hungry, the gps showed the chinese take out few hundred feet away ! I am now hooked to gps navigation now.

We mainly took 25a west from stony brook and went as far as Huntington, with a number of detours, including the mill dam, covering the boat-laced Northport harbor.

Photos: Northport Harbour (May 05)

An impromptu plan works for me most of the time. My friend Deepak, ex-member of Hyderabad enfield bullet club, was all yes the moment I suggested a short ride to some beach. The “short” ride eventually became a ride to montauk, the east most point of long island, 80 miles from home.

I mounted my garmin eTrex Vista C gps in the normal map mode so I can see the map around my position. The map scrolled as I moved and it was just fantastic to see my position in real time with the town names and roads around me.

This was Deepak’s first ride in the USA, so I made sure he was comfortable. A couple stops along the way, including a lunch stop at McDonalds charged us up. The weather was just great, a sunny day with occasional clouds and a light breeze made the ride much more comfortable than my solo ride back in November last year in freezing temperatures.

We stopped by the hampton bays, crossed a bridge over the sea for a brief stop at the beach of a narrow island, then back on 27 east after a little ride along the country road 80. I usually mix fast highways with slow country roads for a good balanced ride, and today with the gps I realized how important it is for any enthusiastic traveler, if not only for a motorcyclist.

A couple of overlook points en route to montauk had us stopped by its amazing view of the sea from an altitude of 1000 feet. I always enjoy the steep roads and a little bit of twisties around that part, and today was no exception.

The montauk parking lot charges $6 but only till 4pm. We reached there around 6, so we happily took the opportunity for some pictures. Deepak test rode my bike and was absolutely thrilled. I had exactly the same feeling when test riding it on a fine saturday morning before buying it last november.

We took detour to Sag harbor on the return way, and visited the beautiful Noyack bay. Again some amazing back roads till the relatively boring 27 west. I never had to stop or become confused even without much signs on which road I was travelling, the gps always assured me I was in the right direction.

A great ride for a half day. Below are the trip data from the gps:
Trip odometer: 181 miles.
Max speed: 77.6 mph
Moving time: 4hr 12min
Moving avg: 42.9 mph

Photos: Montauk ride – 1 May 05

Had plans for a longer ride but this weekend was busy with projects and errands. After yesterday’s rain and gloomy weather, it was a lot of sun today and was hard for both myself and Bret to just sit at home.

Bret suggested a visit to Heckscher state park, a place for clicking some good ride pictures as well. A short 20 mile ride, but a superb place to unwind and just to stare at the sea. Located on the south shore of Long Island, it is place for picnic and camping. Saw first time how a campground looks like, and visualized that on the upcoming long rides I would put up a tent in a place just like this.

Upon return we stopped by the campus parking lot to test each other’s bikes out. Test rode Bret’s CBR600 and it just shocked me with its power and pickup. Never had any idea of what those sportbikes are and I knew it only today. I could not go beyond third gear and could not even imagine what a hayabusa would be like. I still love my cruiser, and Bret liked it too.

Snaps: Heckscher state park ride – 24 Apr 05

The original plan was to drop vaibhav as far west of long island as possible, satisfying both my urge of riding on the beautiful 25A-west and making him travel less by train. as usual, for me, any plan that is not really impromptu, fails. vaibhav was too uncomfortable with the thought of facing cold winds despite today’s noon temparature of 19 degrees C. dropped him at the rail station early afternoon.

As soon as I got home, a campus biker friend Bret messaged me and asked if we could ride a little today. A quick glance at the map later we both decided a short 50 mile roundtrip over 25A-west with a detour to Eatons neck beach will be a good start for joint rides. We gave just 10 minutes of time to each other to meet at a campus location. No way this ride could fail, I knew it by then.

It was nice to see Bret’s red Honda CBR600 pull up beside me, a bike I always admired for its 100+ horse power coming out of the 600cc inline 4-cylinder monster of an engine. Mine despite being the same size, delivers only 40bhp, a nice way to keep the insurace as an insignificant nothing.

So my first ride in the USA with another biker took off. This should be the start of an active campus biker club, given we can manage a couple decent rides. I always thought that sportbikes and cruisers were like oil and water and that there cant be a ride with a mix up of them, but I was proved wrong in as little distance as 20 miles. We didnt even have to decide who would be the sweep and lead, it just happened automatically. Quite pleasing to be able see a bike in front or in the mirror to check up.

A lot of bikes on road today. Loud harley riders in half helmets and t-shirts doing speed stunts away to glory. And they could be heard a hundreds of feets away. I grinned and kept riding on.

Eatons neck beach is one of the nicest beaches I had been to. A narrow winding roads climbed up and then down to almost at the water level. A place to return to many more times, especially around sunset.

The CBR600 is an awesome bike. But less ideal for touring. I convinced Bret to look for a sport tourer like a ST1100, but he likes the VFR750. Whatever it is, we just need to do more trips, and long ones with a tent and sleeping bags. There are campgrounds everywhere and it is easy to avoid motel expenses when travelling on a budget and for the real taste of a motorcycle tour. Those days seems to be nearing, as we shall see.

The day has finally come. Ironically, without much of a plan, if any. With a broken heart dreaming how the weekend would have been spent on 1000 miles of interstates and interior roads in some far off place, I found Vaibhav to be free after friday night. I insisted to come down to my place on friday night itself lest the “plan” becomes a bit long term, increasing expectations as well as the chance of screwing up.

Vaibhav took the first train in the morning from his place to Stony Brook. Looking at the warm weather, I could not at all ignore the possibility of a small ride, given that Vaibhav has accustomed to the comfort of cages in so many days on anything but a saddle.

Surprise ! Despite the overtight pillion helmet, he gave a grin – the green signal for a good enough ride for the rest of the day. Given sundown at 8pm we had pretty much time to make it to the upper east-most point of long island – the Orient Point.

A long queue of weekend cagers slowed us down beyond any kind of tolerance. We both were starving and planned to eat at a roadside mac at typical touring style, but the sight of a chinese buffet lunch restaurant could not keep me on the road with that traffic.

After filling our stomachs well despite the worries of nature’s call it was good to find the traffic speed had improved, and after a couple agonizing miles, we were finally able to do the speed limit for that road. Around 40-50 mph, but much better than bumper to bumper.

Stopped at a motorcycle dealer en route where Vaibhav could lust over the shiny cruisers and deadly sportbikes, including a hayabusa. I wish I could capture the grin of the shop manager when I introduced Vaibhav as the founder of our bangalore biker group.

Soon we were cruising through the real long island, with wineries on both sides of the road preparing for the coming season. Acres of land had been tilled and looked like those picture-book farms. The whistle of the wind and the growl of the engine suddenly reminded us – RTMC, the bangalore bullet club founded by Vaibhav on september 2001, was doing its first official US-chapter ride ! It had to start someday, with at least two members riding together, and it happened today. The first official RTMC ride was to Nandi Hills, 60 kms from Bangalore. The first official RTMC-USA ride was to Orient Point, 60 miles from Stony Brook ! Coincidence ?

It was simply a beautiful short ride. At the Orient point state park, we just relaxed and spent time with our nikons. On the way back, we enjoyed an all-american ambience sipping coffee at a small restaurant overlooking the sea, watching the sunset, while the american families enjoyed their dinner.

Coming to the routes, we took 25 east all the way to our destination. I deliberately took the unknown route 48 on the way back, but it turned out to be amazing for doing some photography which I plan to do later on, possibly around fall. After sundown, I took a detour to 495 for gas and covered a lengthier way home. Well, thats the way bikers choose their route – the more the merrier. The 60 mile destination finally ended up as a 150 mile roundtrip…

Still trying to brainwash Vaibhav to get his own bike as soon as possible…
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Snaps: Orient point (LI) ride – 16 Apr 05
Map: http://www.pbase.com/jdutta78/image/42163354

More than 6 hours of brainwork finally rewarded me with a motorcycling page on my personal domain with my attitude towards this unique way of life. I have started writing a very fundamental article to put down in words, why I ride and why I never get tired of it. “Why I Ride” – can be found as a link in the following page:

http://www.joydutta.com/motorcycling

http://joydutta.com/blog/interests/