Jaipur to Delhi on two wheels....

Okay so here is the  first real post for this blog....  although i  have many previous highway 

experience to share but i will start with this one as it is one of the latest .

Date : 13 Dec 2008

Task: Jaipur to Delhi 257 Km in less than 6 hours.

Machine used: 2008 Yamaha FZ 16 

The machine in spotlight here is a spanking new FLAMING ORANGE Yamaha FZ 16,with 256 km on Odo it was time to give this baby some highway miles to munch on.  As the engine was in running in period that mean throttle openings were restricted to half throttles and engine speeds were restricted to under 4500 RPM (with occasional exceptions). Yamaha recommends less than 4500 rpm operations for first 500 kms gradually increasing to 6000 rpm for next 500 kms. With all these running in restrictions imposed I set out with a target time of less than 6 hours. 

Winters in northern India are not suitable for early morning starts so i set out at 11.00 am and it was about 12 kms if city driving before i hit the highway , NH 8 in this case, on the way to highway some commuters threw few enquiring glances on the FZ  ,"whats the mileage", "what brand is it?"most of them were awestruck with sheer size of that rear rubber (140/60 R17).

Once on highway it was time to engage that 5th cog and do some laid back driving, travel bag strapped to pillion seat turned out to be a good back rest . With engine running at 4500 rpm  i did next 150 kms at mere 60 kph and this running in thing was getting to my nerves. with over 415 km on Odo i decided to break that 4500 rpm barrier and went for higher speeds and started doing speed around 70-80 kph bracket and i noticed as the miles were going by that  153 cc mill was getting smoother and smoother. NH 8 has always been a breeze to drive on , with occasional traffic jams in towns , in one of such jams i was crawling next to a BMW 325i driver and he popped the question "konsi bike hai??" i replied its a new baby from YAMAHA "FZ" he was quite impressed with styling. While both of us were curing traffic ahead of us , it struck to me and i asked the Beemer driver, with a big grin, "wanna race". He replied "i will pass". and there i was driving zig zag between the lanes and in 2-3 minutes i was through that notorious JAM and all the skodas hondas and BMWs for that matter were standing still honking at each other.  After that JAM it was time to make up for the lost time and more serious numbers started showing up on the speedo. Soon i was in manesar with bumper to bumper traffic situation doing just 50 kph.  it was only after i crossed gurgaon and on gurgaon delhi expressway i regained speed with numbers in range of 90 as my destination was Air force station in palam i worked out the route before hand using Google Maps and as a result not a single wrong turn to account for.

All in all FZs first highway endeavour was fun( limited by running in restrictions) theres more on how FZ performs after running in and first service. Keep checking this space for your virtual highway kicks...