At some point before the Himalayan journey, I felt ThunderDuck needed a facelift. Since I was not sure about how the bike would survive the trip, I put it off till after the trip. I have wanted to make a matte black motorcycle for a while. So, what eventually came off that idea is this Matte Black ThunderDuck.
What follows is a list of the treatments the parts got and pictures that I have picked out from my Instagram feed.
Picking this up from after the return from Kerala (on our Big 2013 ride), you may remember that the motorcycle had a terrible problem. One that caused it to not cross 3,000 RPM and had forced me to ride under that, while being fully loaded. It was the death of my 29mm CV Carb’s diaphragm, which meant I got a new carb. Which also meant, back road solo rides to test it. Testing with the Enfield Explorers chasing Anchetty which had been elusive to the group for more than one reason.
A video of Dirt Action magazine’s Adam Riemann riding the Hero Impulse in the Himalayas. Some videos and advertisements are made by manufacturers and directed by people who do not ride motorcycles. They fail to capture the essence of riding and appear like ridiculous comedies. And then, you have videos like these.
This day was all about riding across the rest of Gujarat, from Baroda to Dadra. Last night she had not let me head back to the largest dandiya in the world and I was miffed! But then, a good session of Counter Strike(?) with some of the local kids had been fun and a good stress reliever while Kavitha slept off. To each her (or his) own, I guess.
Continue reading The Big 2009 Ride: Day 9 – Baroda to Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Amongst the winning-est motorcycles on the drag circuit in India is this Yamaha RD 350 from DAM motors in Bangalore. The huge horde of trophies that Dirty Yellow (yup, that’s its name) has won over the years is a testament to the commitment behind it. Lets take a closer look at what makes this a terror when the lights go green.
