22K on the Harley !!

Last week here was an office offsite (overnighter) at a resort near the airport, so I took the opportunity to ride to the offsite on my bike. The temptation being that I could go ride early the next morning. The downside of course was that I would have to ride back home at the end of the day across the city through peak hour commuter traffic. But well, one does these trade-offs to ride.

So, at approximately the crack of dawn, I was up and out. Google said the sun would rise at 6:28 a.m. So, I was off the blocks at 6, which I hoped would give me enough opportunity to click some good snaps with a spectacular sunrise. The previous week, the sky had been blood red at sunrise, was hoping for a repeat. But unfortunately, it was a tepid sunrise as far as colors are concerned. A very unspectacular affair.

I was riding north of the airport, my aim was to get to a palce called ‘Swathi Delicacy” which serves good filter coffee and the usual south Indian fare. Given that I had to be back at the resort for the 8:30 a.m start. I would just have enough time for a quick run to Swathi and then back. Leaving me about 30 mins to shower, change and be ‘corpo’ again.

The most interesting thing happened. The world had been reasonably bright and clear up to the point of the sunrise, I was around Devanhalli. As soon as the sun rose, the place totally changed character. It suddenly became foggy. Visibility which was really good up to that point dropped down to less than 25-30 meters. I was wearing my riding glasses, they have foam padding to not let any breeze in, they promptly fogged up, forcing me to remove them. The fog was also extremely wet, leaving my helmet visor wet and lowering my visibility further.

It was certainly not what I had expected. I was looking forward to a refreshing quick run to get an early morning dose of filter coffee . Instead I was crawling along a highway with no visibility and was soaking wet. I was hoping that the fog would roll off just as soon as it had come but no such luck. I rode along for a good 30 minutes at slow speed and wet to boot. I was also beginning to feel seriously cold by this point, shivering is the word.

So, packing up all the desire for coffee I had to turn back, else I would be late for the morning session as well. On the way back, I looked down at the Odo and wow, I was on 22K Kms.

It is a good milestone, 3 years on the bike. As you might know, I acquired the bike from a friend, it was 7K on the Odo when I got it and it is now 22K, I have added 15K in the time. Not a huge number I know, but then with a corporate and a family life both taking up bulk of the time it is a number to be happy about. It encompasses 2 rides to Goa, 1 each to Ooty, Chikmagalur, Mahabalipuram and numerous breakfast rides. Hoping to do more of these in the coming time.

It is also time for me to move on from the Superlow to a bigger bike. More on that in due course.

p.s. – the offsite was a lovely location, giving an opportunity for a few very nice pics.