The Blue Avenger's Freedom

First Service
Got up early. Reached Bagga Link, Karol Bagh, Delhi just in time. My bike was second in the queue. The guy writing the slip was good. Checked up the vehicle. Asked me if there were any problems. Suggested I should go for saddle bags rather than the dickey (and I thought it looked cool).

So I told him about this weird sound and vibration I get occasionally when riding constant at 50 for some time. He revved the engine and promptly noted that the mounting bolts needed tightening. He said they get loose sometimes. That done, it took about 40 minutes for my bike to get serviced. In the mean time I checked up whether my temp RC had arrived. Apparently it had not. In fact, the Bagga chaps haven't even received the full payment for the bike from Bajaj finance. I have no idea how that works out. Anyway, I got a call today and the finance chap told me the temp RC copy was with him. And I'll get the rest by courier.
In all, it cost me Rs 300 and that was just for the oil change.

Wings
The Avy is a deceptive bike. It feels extremely comfortable to ride at 50. And it gives this very lazy attitude. I dont feel like ripping the engine. But I did try and was pleasantly surprised. Its very eager to get ahead. Sine the speed limit is now 75kmph till the next 750 km for me, I pushed the bike hard and am very happy with the 200cc mill.

That said, I still love the 50kmph feel. The vibrations and the sound haven't completely gone. They still come back occasionally and I need to remember to ask the service chap next time I go there.

Mileage
My heart skipped a beat when the Avy went into reserve for the first time after just 346km on 10 litres of petrol. An average of 34.6kmpl would be hell of a pinch on the pocket. However, the second time, I managed to go 436km on 10 litres. So am pretty pleased with how it's turning out. Its probable cos of the low constant speed I ride at most of the way.

The Red Pulsar
I tried riding my old Pulsar, just to make sure the engine doesn't rust off. Man! What a world of a difference. Just sitting on the bike felt awkward. Too high. And I kept putting my foot on the rear brake pedal. Riding was also markedly a different experience.

For one thing, I have to lean on the handlebar and my back is completely bent. Another thing is it just doesn't feel good to ride below 70kmph. Its as if the bike is under performing. That said, it was good to feel the racer position and to flick the bike between vehicles and accelerate off.

Carnauba Wax
bought this can of Formula 1 wax. www.formula1wax.com Cost me Rs180. Claims 12 month deep polish and protection and buffing out of scratches and haze. Need to try it out on the Pulsar and then on the Avy. I am not too happy with the teflon coat that the Bagga Link people did on my bike. I feel the dust scratches are too much on the tank.

The Blue Avenger's follies

The Blue Avenger meets the Coiled Venom
Saturday was not such a good day. Bought a cable lock for the helmet. The long thin one that can be twisted. This one was wrapped quite tight. As I opened it up, the thing suddenly uncoiled and the lock hit The Blue Avenger smack on the fuel tank. Left a small white mark. Can't say much for the paint job. It really didn't hit the tank that hard. While cataloging that dink, I found that the chrome was also scratched. In fact, it seems to scratch quite easily.

The Blue Avenger meets the Evil Tow Truck
I had parked The Blue Avenger in front of PNB, Nehru Place. Turns out, its a no parking zone cos when I came back it was missing. When I asked the security guard, he took a leisurely time chewing his paan and spit it out with contempt. Then he told me to go to the thana and check up there if the tow truck had taken it.


And it had. Took me hell of a time haggling with the tower to get the bike back. That too when I wasn't carrying the RC. I really need to get on Baja Finance's back to find out what's taking son ong.

The Blue Avenger rides again

Bagga, Link Road, Karol Bagh
Went to check if my bike papers had come in yet. No luck. Told me to check after ten days! On my way out, I saw that the Avys standing there had been cleaned up and were spic and span. Maybe the Bajaj people gave some feedback from my blog to them, or they just did it on their own.
Found out the time period for advance booking for servicing at ProBiking. 10 days!!! I should have booked it before I bought the bike.

Accessorize...
Got a dickey fit on to the Avenger. A blue Studds dickey.Pretty neat. It has a nice red reflector at the bottom corner. Unfortunately it was on the bottom left corner. That meant, for it to face backwards, I would have to fit it on the right side of the bike. Which meant attaching it to the silencer. I tried to figure out how to get it done with out the silence getting involved. Couldn't. So had it fit on the left side of the bike on the Saree guard. So the saree guard finally came to some use. Cost me Rs 650 + Rs 40 labour charges. Got it done from Karol Bagh, Ajmal Khan road market.

The red reflector faces forward, but overall, the effect is still good. The bike just looks bigger. Is bigger in fact, cos the dickey juts out quite a bit. Will have to keep that in mind while turning sharp corners, or in heavy traffic. Storage space is not all that great but adequate for what I need.

False Alarm
On my way back, took the link road from Karol Bagh to Dhaula Kuan. As I rounded a curve, I saw a scooter parked and a woman struggling with a guy. I passed to soon to make much sense of it. The Blue Avenger stopped and parked itself at the side. I got off and walked back. And as I came near, I realised they were a couple and just arguing or playing around. Still, to be certain, I approached the guy and in my best Haryanvi accent asked "Kya ho raha hai bhai?". He was a bit taken aback and inquired "Kya ho raha hai?". Not a very bright fellow. I turned to the lady and asked if she knew him. She nodded an affirmative and since she didn't seem under duress (more embarassed actually), I turned to the guy and told him that I thought there was something wrong going on and had come to check. Gave him a pat on the shoulder and walked to The Blue Avenger. It seemed to be winking in approval. Got home without incident. What was saddening about the whole affair was I saw a few men walk on past that couple and even turn around to see whats going on, but none of them stopped to make sure. Apparently the b*stards keep their sisters and daughters locked up at home and hence are not worried that something unfortunates could happen to one of their beloved. And as long as it is someone else's, it's just entertainment.

Adventures of the Blue Avenger

The Art of Neutral

The Blue Avenger is doing pretty well. I have mastered the art of finding neutral and now, am rarely caught fiddling with the gear shift at traffic lights or parking lot sentry gates.

This previously was a somewhat embarrassing experience because the parking lot security guards seem to frown upon frivolous people wasting their time while searching for their parking token. In my case, the search cant even begin until I find neutral or switch off the engine. Now the process is pretty slick, while I glide in front of the gate, stop, hand over the token with a satisfied smug and glide away in a lazy low rev mode.

The situation at traffic lights is also better. You look cool on the Avy until you stop at a traffic light. And since you know quite a few eyes are sizing you up (and they are! Honestly!), it feels stupid to play around with the gear lever while trying to remain as aloof as possible. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. Yes, the art must be mastered.

Kids just wanna have fun
Met a bunch of kids being driven in a Skoda. They seemed pretty impressed with the Blue Avenger. They were shouting and pointing as I rode beside them today. Apparently the driver didn't like the commotion too much and accelerated off. But not before one of the kids in the front seat leaned out of the window and waved bye-bye to me. Heh. Right out of a Bajaj ad. Kids ain't too bad I guess.

Met another kind of kid too. This one must have been in his twenties and was riding a Hero Honda Splendor with a pillion. I dunno if he was just messed up, or feeling inadequate as the two of them checked out the Blue Avenger (rush hour traffic, we were moving along at about 20 kmph, bumper to bumper). Suddenly he starts attempting wheelies! Yup! In bumper to bumper, with one car ahead and one behind, he would gun his engine and raise up the front wheel and brake and slam it down again. The pillion wasn't too thrilled from what I could hear. The Blue Avenger did not pay him any heed. It had more important matters to attend to.

Things I don't wanna see on the road
1. Truckers: They ruin the joy of riding. Couldn't care less about the black smoke belching out of their exhausts. And they pretty much assume that they own the road. Met one idiotic trucker with these huge black pipes jutting out the back. He didn't even put a red warning flag or cloth. I had no idea how far they were jutting out until I came dangerously close.

2. Black coloured vehicles: They are hard to see at night. Especially if there are no street lights. In fact, I dont understand why people go for the black look. It doesn't look great. It absorbs all the heat during summers. Shows dust and scratches very easily.
Taxis and cabs should be yellow. Not black. It just does not make sense.

3. Auto-rickshaws: They run in the middle lane at 40kmph. Regardless of whether its the Ring Road, the Highway, the Toll Road, the Express way, a flyover... They WILL be in the middle lane, and WILL try to overtake each other at the most inopportune moment.

4. Avengers: Yeah. Its no typo. I would prefer to have the only avenger on road. Else it just takes away the exclusivity factor. Saw three (!!!) Avengers today in Noida. Mental Note: Must avoid going to Noida.

Bajaj Avenger 200 DTSi - Ride Experience

First day to office on my new bike. The traffic is moderate. I was under the impression that flicking the Avy between cars would be difficult. Not so. Agreed, it's longer than the Pulsar, but if you got space, it's a pretty easy bike to maneuver.

City Ride
You can count on it to respond to the throttle. Not a sports bike acceleration, but enough to get out of tight spots. And pretty well anchored to the road. I like the overall stability I feel. I did stall the engine a couple of times, which I would attribute to my relative inexperience to the bike. But like I said, it picks up on the 3rd gear pretty easily.

The brakes are responsive although the rear one is somewhat weak. Could do with a little adjustment, plus the positioning is somewhat new to me. So I am not too used to it as of now. The disc brakes are neat. Very effective.
Oh yeah, before I forget. Heads DO turn!!!

Highway Ride
This is exactly what the Avy is for. Smoooth steady slick ride at 50-55 kmph. The handlebars vibrates mildly, barely enough to notice. And I like the feel. I did notice the mirrors vibrating and blurring the image which is a mild concern.
The engine is pretty smooth. Won't say that I like the sound. Doesn't sound like a cruiser (a nice Bullet thump would be awesome). From what I hear, Bajaj had to work under some strict norms, but I wonder how the Bullet gets away with it.

Country Ride
Not much to write about here. On a bumpy dirt road, you WILL feel the bumps. Don't expect a cushion ride. That said, it's still more comfortable than a Pulsar. In fact, the ride would have been smoother if the rear shocks were gas chamber ones like the Pulsar has.

Night Ride
The headlights are so damn bright. I have a tinted visor on my helmet and rarely ever use it at night. But with the high beam on, it's pretty easy to see thru it. On a stretch where there wer no lights, the high beam illuminated half the lanes on both sides pretty well.


The indicators are pretty swell. I love the bullet-nosed rear on them. And they are adequately bright. One gripe though. The indicators are pretty useless on the tank. I hardly ever see them. In fact, I would have to take my eyes off the road completely to look at them. The brake lights are bright as well. Didn't see them directly, but the illumination on the road behind me was proof enough.

Overall, I have enjoyed the first few rides. Just waiting to get the running-in complete. Not that I want to cross the 3-digit mark. Just to have the peace of mind.

Bajaj Avenger 200 DTSi - Awesome!

Finally got (one of) the bike of my dreams. A spanking new Long Beach Blue Avenger DTSi 200. And it rocks!



ProBiking
It all started about 3 weeks ago, when I passed by the ProBiking showroom (Vasant Vihar, Delhi). I decided to pop in and show my gf the Pulsar 220 and Avenger. The attendant promptly told me there were no test rides available. I am pretty sure they do have test rides cos I read it in some blogs. Guess he tagged me as a non-potential customer. EDIT: Just had a chat with VV ProBiking Showroom. Apparently they saw my blog (which I posted yesterday night :-O) and wanted to get some feedback. Test-rides are NOT available in Delhi because of the traffic situation, and cops. They are trying to come up with an interim solution though.


We walked into their dyno room and my gf (used to ride Bullets) went ahead and pushed the starter on the Avenger. Needless to say the attendant was taken aback, but punched the exhaust button after recomposing himself. GF definitely liked the bike. I was in any case in favour of the Avenger myelf (220 is great, but the Avy is still more exclusive).
Didn't really like the VV ProBiking showroom attendant's attitude at the time. But more on that later. EDIT: He was right when he told me test-rides are not available.

So the next week, I went to the Connaught Place ProBiking. The guys were much more helpful there and pretty much devoted all the time to explaining the features, caveats, finance options. Kudos to them cos once I understood the finance options, my decision was pretty much concrete. Tried the Avy on the dyno there. Was a totally useless experience.

The ProBiking Dyno Room

K. This is basically a sound proofed room with the 220 and the Avy on a dyno machine. The display is read out on a LCD monitor.

That's because you dont get any feel of how the bike reads on the real road. The readouts are something you would already know. And seeing 60kmph on the screen while gunning the bike and remaining absolutely stationary is just plain stupid. Maybe a moving scenery on an LCD in front would have been a good idea.

That said, it allowed me to test the gear box, and as expected, it was awful. Which is fine by me. I have a Pulsar 150 and have discovered the art of gear shifting over the past 3 years. Besides, these flaws are characteristics rather than defects. Ask any Bullet fan.
So I upped and decided to just go for it. Had to get it financed of course.

Finance
The CP showroom chaps told me to find out if banks were lending at lower ROI. Hah! HDFC chaps were offering a 9.99% loan, but the the moment they heard Avenger, it came up to 14%. Premium Bikes.
SBI was 14% (Personal Loan). Fixed.
PNB was 13.5%. Fixed.
Indian Bank was 13.5%. Fixed.
Dena Bank was 11.75% reducing. But only for exiting customers. When they found out that I wasn't they (rudely I might add) told me to open an account and then talk about loans.
The advantage with the nationalised banks were they didnt have any pre-payment penalties.
Bajaj Finance was 11.99% for 1 yr. Decided to go for it. I filled in the papers at the VV showroom cos it's closer to my office. Took them 10 days to verify that I existed, worked where I claimed, lived where I claimed and had little intention of eloping with the bike.
Finally (after many verification calls) they called my up and told me to get the downpayment and the docs.

VV ProBiking Showroom
This time around, the guys were pretty interested. Got all the paperwork done fast and sent me off to the Bagga Link (Karol Bagh, Delhi) to get the bike. This was a Friday evening. I just got stuck in the traffic and couldn't make it. One more day (AAARGHHH!). But to their credit, the VV guys really rushed thru the paperwork and made quite a few calls to get things rolling so that I could get the bike the same day. Another great thing was I insisted on selecting the piece from the warehouse myself. They were hesitant at first but then got the things done so I could go ahead and select it.

Bagga Link (Karol Bagh, Delhi)
Saturday 1.00PM
Met Ms Shilpa. Gave her the documents. She got them verified. Then took me to the warehouse (open space actually) where there were around 10 Avys lined up, neglected in the dust and grime. Four were blue. I took a good hour cataloging the minor defects (rust, side panel fitting, scratches, paint job, welding, lights, switchgear etc.) and finally selected my piece. Prayed over it. Asked God to bless it as He had done my previous bike (my Pulsar 150 never broke down once in the past 43000Km, and had only one punture till date, saved me from numerous accidents. It is a truly blessed bike).

One of the mechanics came and wheeled it away to the delivery area. Cleaned it. Polished it (Teflon coat - Rs500). Tightened a few loose nuts I pointed out. And had it ready in about an hour while the RTO and paperwork got done. The only blunder (and I hope it wont prove to be a costly one) is that I agreed to have a lube additive (Nano something - Rs225) put. It only occurred to me yesterday that the damn thing will probably ruin the running-in of the bike. Plan to get my oil changed as soon as possible. I took out a hundred bucks when he sent the bike for polishing and asked him if he'll be here still or was that the last thing he needed to do. Needless to say, the next half hour, my bike got "extra" special treatment. I did give him the 100 bucks at the end. He did a good job and listened to all my directions.

Long Beach Blue Avenger 200 DTSi
The first time I rode my bike, it took a bit of time to get used to the raked forks and handlebar. Almost rammed into a guy when taking it out of the center. So I revved up and went along the link road to get a basic feel of the bike. 15 minutes was all I needed to get settled. Decided to head back home and got stuck in traffic again. I HATE rush hour traffic. I was crawling at 20kmph for the next 40 mins. Once I had some space, I was able to take it up to 55kmph. am not supposed to go beyond that for the first 750km. But considering I've done the stupidity of adding the lube additive (curse those service center blokes), I intend to ride it hard for sometime.

Problems
1. Gearbox - It's a pain. Finding neutral is an art.
2. Ignition Lock - Stupid place to put it. Forward, under the tank. And I've already bruised my fingers taking the key out. EDIT: Also, now I have managed to slightly burn my hands while trying to fish around under the tank for the key after riding back home.
3. Handle lock - Separate from the ignition lock. I wish Bajaj had not followed the cruiser bike feel this far. It's just cumbersome. Or I'm too lazy. EDIT: Its also not very intuitive to lock. There seems to ab another artform involved in locking the handlebar.
4. Mirrors - Wont raise up enough for me to see the road completely behind me. I've had to tilt it diagonally to get a moderately better view. But I really need to lean back to see something worth while.
5. Parking - Its big. And it's long.
6. Tank Chrome - Minor gripe really. But every time you pass under a street light, it gets reflected into your face.

Perks
1. Heads WILL turn. In fact, there is a certain perverted pleasure in seeing a dude on a bike ride by, while his GF behind him checks my bike out. Hah!
2. Bright headlights. The high beam could petrify a deer. It's bright! As bright as a car with both headlights on.
3. Comfort. The initial 15km gave me a pain in the hips. But it's been great once I got used to the position. No pain. And when you get off the bike after a long ride, it doesn't feel as if you've been riding a thick pole (Pulsar seat are a bit too thin).
4. Heads WILL turn. Expect bikes, cars, tourists in buses, foreigners, autos, to slow down while passing you by. And dont drive fast. This babe is meant to be ridden slow, say 50kmph.
5. Power. The 200cc powerhouse is pretty eager to get ahead. I've not pushed it, but can't wait to once I'm thru 1500km. Picks up on 3rd gear effortlessly.
6. Cool dude look. Lean back and pull on the handle. You will feel awesome. Not like God, cos thats blasphemy. But you will feel like you own the road. And this is the only bike with which you can do that.

Been 2 days/130km now. I feel good. On an average, there are 60 Avys sold per month in Delhi. That may sound like a lot, but if you hear the Pulsar figures, you'll have to crank your mouth shut. Avenger is an exclusive bike. Joining the club is something I wont forget for a long time.

64bit and Virtualisation

I have two systems at my home which run on 64 bit AMD Athlon and until recently I had never considered them to be a great advantage over normal 32 bit systems. Indeed, they perform better in some tasks, but for my daily needs of web browsing, and some office tasks, I hardly take advantage of their true power.

Well, over the last week I have been toying with xvm VirtualBox by SUN. Just google it to know more, but in a nutshell, this little software allows you to run other Operating Systems inside another OS. So I have Win XP running on my Kubuntu based laptop, and Kubuntu inside my WinXP based laptop.
And I have to admit, things run flawlessly. The best part about the whole deal is the SUN provides this software free of cost (well, not completely, but one rarely bothers with the nuances of fine print) and open source (which of course is completely free).

Having experienced the power of being able to run two Operating systems on one machine got me thinking on the whole Vista (pun intended) of possibilities open to 64 bit users.
One major performance factor when running virtual machines is the amount of RAM you can dedicate to the VM. And a 32 bit system cannot go beyond 4GB (if my info is correct). So you would usually have to limit yourself to allowing 2 GB of RAM max to any one of your VMs. And running multiple VMs (why anyone would want to is an open question) is out of question.

Enter 64 bit processors. These can address 16 TB (TerraBytes) of RAM. Run a 3.2 Ghz Quad Core 64 bit system with 12 GB RAM, and you can run 4 independant VMs on the same machine. Why would the average joe need such a machine??? Simple. Home based virtual desktops.

I have a total of 3 systems at my home. 1 used by me. 1 by me Dad. 1 is pretty much offline for some time now. And them I have a couple of old prehistoric machines lying somewhere.
If I invested (whenever the time comes) on just one machine as described above, and use my old systems as thin cliens, I would have a top notch system my whole family could use independantly without interfering with each other.

So its evening time and my Dad has to complete his office work, Mom needs to check out a new recipe on the Net, I need to update my blog, we just use our pesonal systems, connect to the xvm Virtualbox and do our stuff.
And then sometime, I can have a recording session with my band. Each band member gets his own system to plugin to and we have a multi track live recording of our songs.

Point being, I forsee a future where none of my systems will be obsolete. And one powerful system takes care of all the needs.

Birthday!!!

My dad just (1.25 am) celebrated my BDay cos he couldnt be there on the 3rd. He's the sweetest dad ever. N mom is the sweetest mom ever :-D

Blogs!!!

Ok. Blogs have been a hell of a phenomenon on the web. I put up this blog when it was still a pretty new idea, but I had no idea that blogs would become a part of daily life on the Net. If you have a passion (music, computers, arts, movies etc), then there's a blog out there which pretty much details each and everything about it.

I have been pretty much ignoring my blog. And starting from tomorrow (or today) I shall be penning my thoughts to the public. And maybe sometime in the future, these blogs will become a legacy...

Here's to blogs... and the knowledge they behold for the future.