One Ride, One spirit - 2013

Pre-Ride Briefing. Photo Courtesy : Vinay BR

One Ride, an event started by Royal Enfield in 2011. Their mission was simple. They asked all RE owners to take their bike out and go on a ride on the first Sunday of every April. This is where Royal Indians Enfield Owners Club comes in. The thought of going for a ride is great, but where? with who? and how to handle breakdowns?? That's why, we as a club, sent out invites to as many Royal Enfield Owners as we could asking them to ride to Tonnure Kere with us. Finally, on 7th April, 2013, at 6am, there were 120 bullets standing in front of ISKCON, raging to go. Many riders were new, while few were club members gone absconding. It was great fun to meet people after such a long time, and made me proud to be part of such a buzzing club!!


Due to the massive number of bikes, we had to have a briefing, where we explained the rules, hand signals and riding etiquette. Also, the 3 leads, 5 runners and 4 sweeps were introduced to all the riders. A camera crew had been arranged by Sudeep at his own cost. He wanted to capture all the bikes as dictated by his passion and love for them. Along with him, quite a few more enthusiastic club members had got equipment to capture this grand ride.

Flag Off. Photo Courtesy : Anil Reddy

Getting all the bikers on the bike, and getting them moving was itself a time consuming task. Once everyone was on the bike, and behind the ride captain, we seemed to have almost blocked the entire road. It was a beautiful sight. Breakdowns were highly expected and the sweeps, runners and leads had mentally prepared for a long day. As luck would have it, our first breakdown occurred at almost the same point as the breakdown we had on the way to goa. GoGo had got a new tank placed on his bike, and without a petrol filter, the carb had got blocked. We diagnosed the bike from all angles, trying to figure out the problem when Harish, who you would remember from my Kanyakumari ride, quickly took apart the carb and tried to clean it. His attempts were in vain, as the bike refused to move. Having no choice, we parked his bike at a nearby fuel bunk, and I gladly donated my bull for him and his pillion. Having been so generous, I went ahead and stole Sidd's bike and rode it almost the whole trip *evil grin*.

While we had been trying to fix the bike, a bike ahead had got punctured. The bikers around luckily had the tools to fix it, and didn't waste any time waiting for the sweeps. Already an hour behind schedule, the captain had taken the call to ride ahead leaving a few experienced riders behind to wait for us. We soon caught up with them, had some quick breakfast and got onto our bikes to play catch up.

Tonnure Kere

Bullets Galore!!

The rest of the way was smooth sailing. Due to the massive number of bikes, the sweeps (that's me) can take up to even half an hour to arrive after the lead has reached. Tonnure kere is a big lake, which seems to be mostly untouched by human destruction. The water is clean and cool and great for a swim. We spent close to an hour in this beautiful place. Naked bull was true to his nature, half naked, jumping in and out of the water.

From here, we headed back to the hassan highway to have lunch. Lunch took almost 2.5 hours. The manager must have thanked his stars, while the cooks would have cursed us. Feeding a 130 + people is not an easy task, but somehow everyone's stomach was filled.

We rode back towards Bangalore after the heavy lunch, with just a stop in between. During this stop, a new weight loss technique was discovered, as you can see in the pic.

VG undergoing weight loss therapy.
Photo Courtesy : Sreekanta Datta

One Ride Memento

Finally we reached our end point around 5.30, where Rod Rohith surprised us all, with a memento he had made for this occassion.

Watch the video below, and you'll get a feel of the awesomeness that is RIEOC.