At last Yamaha Launches the R1

Ashish posted that the Dainik Jagaran (hindi newspaper) has an article about Yamaha launching the R1 in india. If you are conversant with hindi, the link is below :
* Dainik Jagaran - R1

The english translation by yours truly ... leaving out the parts about the 125cc bikes is as follows :

Safai, 21 dec : Yamaha motors india pvt ltd has a deal with the
yamaha motor company. According to that, the international models of
yamaha bikes will now be available in India. This information was
given by the MD Sales CS Bakshi.

At the safai fair he said that these models are powerful, high
capacity and have a sport look. They were also shown in the film
Dhoom. In the fair, he said that the all black 125cc gladiator was
much liked. The cost is 51000, but with 10,000 discount it is
available for 41,640. ....

side bar has the following info :
Yamaha has launced a bike - model R1 - for 12L rupees. It weighs
190kgs, and max speed is 400kms (vibhu : 400 ???). CS bakshi said they
are showcasing the bike to make people aware of the international
models (umm yeah. we dont know what the bikes are).

The actual link for the R1 website :

• R1
  

My advice : Dont get your hopes up. Dainik Jagaran is not really known for news which you can rely on.

CBZ Xtreme

Click for Entire Gallery

The CBZ Xtreme has been launched and here are the first pics from one of our members.

Delhi Meet

We are planning a small meet of the people in and around Delhi soon. If you are intersted do drop a line at bikenomads or herohondacbz or bajajpulsar yahoo groups.

Ride to office!! don commute

A small wish of mine came true 4 months back, when my office got shifted and the distance from home was 15 KMs instead of 3. Yeah now i could have a small ride daily where i can rip the streets. now i get to go in 5th gear. could see 80-90-100 on the speedo every day. Its a rush zipping between and past vehicles. n the signal lights, get a chance to stay right at the front and the signal goes off and i take off leaving mear mortals miles behind.(err... me mortal too). I often see people gettin impatient at signal lights are about to go off and save extra seconds going ahead a few inches and reving before the greeen. me think how fast are they gonna go any way. but once its green before they know am off their rador. Some times to spice up the ride some gye will come along for street racing. win most loose some(may be i don run into my types e'day ;) ). but when the gye cuts ma way and drives recklessly to win, dats when i giveup and let him have the cup!!!.

The best thing i feel for the office being far from home is, no matter how much the work at office i get to enjoy at least one hour a day ripping between. Especially like in these days where last 3 weekends were wasted in office and was deprived of highway blasts. Today was an awsome ride to office. At one strech i got to do 3 continues left and right manuvers at 85+ zipping and leaning between vehicles. kinda like trinity drives the ducati in matrix 2.(but i was in same direction of the traffic lol) oooh waat a rush, screamed out of ma helmet just after. All ready for another 12 hr day at office. pretty aware of risks expecially since ma crash last month. But its fun once on bike i go vrooooom. wat do i wish for now? let the office get shifted afar summore :D.

Hornets : Down to 1

Well, the Hornets group is down to 1 it seems.

Last evening I went to the place and was there from 8:00pm tp 8:30pm . Just me and my bike. I guess after the initial euphoria about having a Karizma club in Pune, the monsoons have washed away the spirit.

Since I am moving out of Pune now, it will be up to the remaining Hornets to revive the club.

Life at 100kmph

Its slow.

Darn slow man.

Specially if one has gone at twice the speed, and tasted the thrill of it. The wind hammering against you. You clutching on for fear of being blown away by the wind force. Exhilerating at the experience of it. Sneaking glances at the speedo to see your speed - and jerking back the eyes to the road to realize you missed an entire stretch of the road. Speed... nothing can thrill you more.

But 100kmph is safe on indian roads.

The people are not used to the speed with which a person can travel. Most people here ride at 40kmph and they just have no idea of how fast a person can go when travelling at 100+ kmph. I usually do all my riding with the bike's headlights on. They see the light from a distance and start to cross the road - thinking I am far far away. But at 100kmph I am travelling at 1.6km per minuter. So, the bike they see so far off is on them without noticing it.

I used to get all frustrated at these blokes. That was untill I saw the expression in the eye of an old man , inches from which I had stopped my bike - horns blaring. It was one of utter bafflement. How did this bloke on the shiny yellow bike come so close so fast was the expression in his eye.

Enlightenment came to me that instance. I have faith in my abilities. I can go fast - the bike does 135kmph. I can brake fast. But the junta does not know how fast I can come. They don't move out because they don't know how fast a bike can move.

People ( usually non riders) tell me I should buy an imported bike for my touring. I will be going faster ! Cover more distances. But I don't think that a bike that fast would be good for touring - people will just not get out of the way.

Yes, I will get a fast bike someday for that adrenaline rush. But for my touring, the bike I have suffices. Its not too expensive. Its from a company which has work shops in all parts of India in case something breaks on one of my trips. Its fast enough so that I can overtake most traffic on the roads ( except for the mercs). It handles well at low speeds of 20kmph also which I need to get round the broken roads and the cattle infested crowds of rural india.

I think that this bike is good enough , but I wish it was faster. I wish people understood the need that I feel. The need for speed. And get themselves off from the road when they see the bikes approaching. I wish... :)

150 Celebrations !

The Yahoogroup is now 150 member strong. The 150th member is Asad.

Started on May 13, 2002 by Moonie, this group has been growing in leaps and bounds of late. Originally only for the CBZ riders, expanded to the ZMA riders, and now encompasses all the speed lunatics in India.

On the 150th count being up, I thought it would just be fitting to allocate some blog space for this group. This the blog space for all the group people. Managed by Diablo ( me ) , anyone can add their blogs here. Lets make this blog grow as fast as we ride !