Almost everyone wants a bike and a mobile. Me… I want neither. For the price I pay in terms of my freedom is disproportionately larger. Thus I have to come to rely on the large number of my friends who do have bikes. The experience has been wide and varied but it is an experience I would trade for any other (maybe some …. ;)…)but most of my friends have bikes and me not having one, but because of frequent lifts and the very fact of not having a bike has caused me to acquire a rather substantial third person knowledge of bikes in general. Here is my evaluation of my experiences with them.

First to start off with, one I will NOT forget. ..Fly... The ride I hitched with him was as short as it was eventful. To describe it, it would be like getting shot out of cannon and onto a brick wall. Zero to eighty something and back to zero before I could say ohmygawwwwwdddd! ‘Twas my first experience on a pulsar and “welcome to the pulsar experience” which I managed to catch from him…I won’t forget. Add to that the incredibly under representative Speedo of the pulsar. I was thinking why ,it is barely at 9 o’ clock, then why the hell does it feel so blindingly fast the my eyes bought to my notice that what was at 9 o clock was not 30 k’s but in fact 60!!!.Despite all this he was a safe rider. Though fast, he didn’t take any risks. At least with me on board.

And of course though now back to four wheels, ->DUTTAN<- who for a short period of time had his hands on a piece of red pulsar which could turn many green. Extremely loud, excruciatingly fast and verry thirsty it would have reduced ->DUTTAN<-‘s real life ping but in retrospect it would have reduced ->DUTTAN<-‘s real life too :D. Having been a regular on it, it has won my respect; but not as a piece of point A to point B transport. To put it simply, he drives it like I play UT (he he).but he deserves credit for having mastered riding that beast coz not many people have! He drives aggressively. A lot of bikers speed for the sake of speeding. ->DUTTAN<- accelerates as if he was the only one of the lot having a sufficiently fast bike (which he unarguably does) and can’t wait to get out of a bunch of friggin 20kmph LOS3RS!

Me …I would rather go at 40-50…it is a habit acquired from my dad who would go at a steady 45 even if it was an RX 100 or a crux( both Yamahas….he’s a fan!). I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere! I’ve got friends haven’t I ?

Then comes Stryker. I’ve gotten only one lift from him and he is a fairly common type .The type exemplified by the Harley-Davidson motto “Live to ride & Ride to live “, Apparently once he went out to buy milk (on his bike of course) and came in one and a half hours (and an equivalent number of miles later).since, his quota of miles has been cut and his riding is like his net connection. Fast, lots of it (relatively), but still very much limited. My experience of him…well it was on the road near the Vanchiyoor Bridge, with the road parallel to the railway track. Having turned the corner, Stryker was greeted with the sight of a wide open road aided by a decline. I remember hearing “ aaah what a nice road” being said before the hard acceleration and rapid gear changes which I have come to associate with a phenomenon called DRAG ( no not as in drag queen (lol) but as in drag race ) I had to remind him that towards the end , he was running out of road. To which he slowed down(ME : PHEW!! ; STRYKER :too bad there wasn’t a train!!!) anyways around the corner, we’re greeted with a road that is as diminutive as the one preceding it was wide . And there is a car coming at us. He proceeds as if the car isn’t there .It is just like the iceberg hitting the titanic. The car moves verry close yet doesn’t hit I actually think the danger has passed when suddenly comes the realization (WATCH OUT!!!! SIDE MIRROR INCOMING!!) He does what can be best described as a dodge …..It is after all what comes naturally to him. He was last seen missing a turn when he was too busy racing with Sid. And calling back 15 minutes later asking where the hell he was and where he was supposed to be, and where everyone else had gone.

This brings us to Sid. What I’ve seen of Sid is more by hearsay “did you hear, Sid broke his arm” or Sid’s own home videos and legends of Sid’s mastery of a shogun which makes ->DUTTAN<-‘s pulsar look positively pristine. A ride which I hitched with him went off without a hitch with the possible exception of him leading Stryker astray (mentioned earlier)

…………..AND THE WINNER IS ………………..

…..poison a.k.a 47 a.k.a the butcher a.k.a AC a.k.a what all else! Dude if you had been reading on getting distressed about your not getting mentioned here here’s happy vindication. I understand the point of this post was not to choose a winner but once in a while I can’t but help feel like being a judge in a contest. Of all the people I’ve been hitching rides with his seems to be the most consistent, safe and involving. He won’t over speed unless we get out of his house 5 minutes late already ; and even then he is not aggressive .He is not perfect .I acknowledge facts like the problems he had with the elusive 3^rd to 4^th shift on DUTTAN’s machine. But, I‘d hitch a ride with him any day and I’ve hitched most of my rides with him anyway. I’ve known his machine ever since he acquired it and the RTO thrust upon him a KL01 AD reg (while he had been hoping for an AC ;) While this judgement might make me seem positively pedestrian, remember, I am just one lost lift away from being one :D
As an added footnote I guess due to the nature of the title I guess we’ll have to include frantic too. He doesn’t have a 2 wheeled ride but seems to be an ace with his m800. I’ve heard of some risky adventures of him in that car. But I wasn’t there and I can’t comment. But he does seem too smug in his knowledge of driving (having heard to no end about his views on driving) my experience of driving is based entirely on NFSU2 and that gives me zilch abilities to evaluate him. Would any among us... (Duttan?) Care to evaluate him?

To conclude I think I have been fair to everyone concerned and given an impartial evaluation. 47 being my best friend and neighbour is pure coincidence and has no bearing on my judgement. If you feel you have been left out or that my evaluation is wrong, Give me a ride today! (Or any time I might want one)