Riders On the Storm!! part 3

Hanging by a wire.. that's what it was, while coming from Chandigarh to Delhi... 4 o'clock early morning.. all prepared for the 257 km bike ride.. all geared up, petrol tank filled, tires checked, air pressure optimum..all the routine oil n lubrication tests.. and I'm off.. hardly 5 km away.. n whamm... i hear a noise below, i press down on the break peddle.. and i fiddle with the gear lever to lower down a few gears.. only problem is, i cant feel the gear peddle under my foot.. finally i stop and see whats wrong, and what i see is the gear lever dangling down from the bike! The bike still in top gear, smack in the center of the road.. i start the bike and manage to get it going in 5th gear and reach the edge of the road. Further inspection reveals that one of the two main bolts which kept the gear system clamped to the chassis had given way... now what do i do, at around 4:20 in the morning... its not even dawn yet! forget about a mechanic or something. and to make matters worst, i have to reach college to get my registration done. OK, so i finally extract a wire of sorts from somewhere and put it in place of the bolt, twisting it several times and securing the gear peddle to the chassis. its a temporary setup and it might give way any moment.

Tentatively i get started again, by this time its 5:05 and its almost day, after a few kms i get the hang of the new gingerly secured gear system and confidently ride on towards my destination, not even stopping on any of the petrol pumps on the way to get the thing fixed.




The weather was perfect!! Overcast and no rain.. the road was smooth, the highway was as usual sparse.. overtaking cars, trucks n others.. headphones blaring.. i was enjoying the moment.. reaching speeds of about 110-120 kmph, on an average the pointer hovered between the 90-100kmph mark.. stopping once on the way, a 15 min break and off again!!
if u take out the stoppage n make shift repair time it took me 4:15 mins!! and it was exhilarating!! exciting, enduring, adventurous and satisfying!!