My First Steed

Before talking about the travels that I was lucky enough to do, its always good to start with an introduction about my companion of all those travels....Its none other than my bike, which was there with me throughout these mesmerizing part of your life...I was never a blogger even though I read a lot of travelogues myself..I do like Alankar Misra's blog "Leh Diaries", one of my favourites. Lately I thought its always good to leave some digital footprints when you leave the world, so that the next generations can always go through these blogs & uncover the beautiful places that existed once in our Earth. Only God knows how many of these places will still exist in extreme future owing to urbanisation, global greenhouse effects etc. Lets start with a quote:

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
~Saint Augustine

Buying a bike with your own hard earn money is always a dream for all boyz. I too had the same right from the time I started learning the basics on my uncle's bike, Yamaha-RX100, when I was in 7th standard. I remember my first day in the school of riding where I wheeled the bike unknowingly & had a bad bruise. That didn't stop me though. Then I started riding my dad's Caliber. Those were the first series of Caliber from Bajaj & I was really fascinated by the big petrol tank design. It was something different design in everyone's eyes. Then later my dad changed it to Caliber 115 aka the Hoodibaba. I still feel the Hoodibaba speedo-console design was one of the best of all times. Even current crops cant stand with that. Anyway that was the bike where I hit 100 after some real struggle even though couldn't hang on it for more than 2 seconds owing to high wind resistance. Years passed by...My initial job was in a small company where  my salary was just 7000+ bucks. This was back in 2008. With that amount surviving in Bangalore was the toughest part. My one & only one brother, Sunil who is more like a friend than a brother helped me through that period...The dream to buy one bike for myself was not to be seen anywhere near...Then in 2010 I got a chance to work in SONY, which was the turning point of my life...As the SONY tag says make.believe which means anything you imagine or dream, you can make real...Similarily, it was time to make my dream of buying a bike a reality...I started looking for the best ones which suit my style available in the market...It was at that time, my friend Andrew bought an RTR- Fuel injection and came to show me. I took a ride on that bike & immediately it passed a telepathic signal that "This is what, is meant for you"...Now it was time to save some bucks...By the time I had enough money, TVS had stopped the RTR-FI version & came up with RTR-180 & RTR-160-Hyperedge...Now I was doubtfull which one to go for??..During the course of time I had made friendship with a dealership engineer (named Praveen) from TVS & he had suggested me to buy the bike from Balakrishna TVS(Attibele) which was nearby TVS factory...Me & my brother went to the dealer for a test-ride...The RTR-180 was always an options but finally I zeroed in on RTR-Hyperedge as the new design was really good & also fits my budget. I opted for rear disc model(color: black). We gave the booking amount of 5000 & went on a weekend to get the bike. Paid the full amount of 75000/-+ bucks, again thanks to my brother for providing the financial help...And then after all this hardship of waiting finally I got my hands on my first prestigious asset on Dec 3rd 2010...

My Bike:

 Myself with my Steed:

After finishing the formalities, we thought we will visit the TVS factory as it is just 5~6km from that showroom.

In front of the factory:

My brother:

Now after 2 years of running the bike, it is still as good as it is when it comes to performance part..
It has never let me down...
I call it the Dark knight....

I added blue LED's inside the air scoop..It looks better than before..

Now that's my current top speed recorded. I clocked this during Kolli Hills Trip on the Krishnagiri-Salem NH road.

 Now that I have introduced my companion for all these trips, lets get on with each destination or chapters of the world as mentioned by the quotes of Saint Augustine.......