Hornbill Festival in Nagaland

#DadaInHornbill@10
#Endpiece #LessonsLearnt

As I return home after completing 3247 km in 9 days post Hornbill Festival in Nagaland and close the series of DadaInHornbill, I recall that every journey brings with it some lessons and experiences, some of which I am trying to share with all in the following parts :-

1. Lessons in Life.
2. Experience with Royal Enfield Himalayan.
3. Tips for Young Travellers on Motorcycle.

#LessonsInLife
1. #RespectOurselves – Our Nation is a conglomeration of great culture and diversity. We need to travel, see, learn, imbibe and respect ourselves first. Tolerance and celebration of differences is the way ahead.
2. #MeTime – In our daily struggle to be a good professional, husband, friend, father, son, socialite, it is important for each of us to separate some quality personal time for only ourselves, where you can pursue not what you are expected to do, but what you genuinely love doing.
3. #Humility – As I travel and see more, I am filled with a sense of wonder, humility, respect and insignificance of ego. It does surprise me when I see young riders write #Conquered and #BornToRule after doing a motorcycle travel. I wonder what exactly have they done other than facing themselves in the raw; leave aside the enemy.
4. #InnerPeace – Why was Po theu hungry Panda chosen as the Dragon Warrior and not Tigress, Mantiss, Monkey or even Shifu ?? Because in true simplicity, true wonder, true humility, true involvement can one find Inner Peace … There can’t be any pretention to the self.

#ExperienceWithHimalayan.
1. #ZeroMaintenance – In the entire journey, I did NO maintenance, no chain cleaning, no chain lubrication, no tyre pressure checking … absolutely nothing. Just filled petrol, fired the engine and rode. She is truly a Fill and Forget motorcycle.
2. #Offroading – I have put her through challenging offroad conditions, both wet and dry and she truly lives to her name; built for all roads, built for no roads.
3. #Power – Not that she is underpowered, but I would have loved to REH to be a 600 cc machine to give an awesome sense of control.
4. #GroundClearence – I would personally want 2 inches of more GC without significant change in height. But then I understand, that makes her full motocross and less tourer.
5. #Handlebar – I would personally want the handlebar to be approx 2.5 inch higher with an inward tilt for more relaxed shoulders. I could do about 500 km per day now, with a modified handlebar, it’ll be easy for me to do 700 km … even at a reduced average speed because of the change in posture.
6. #Seats – I find the seats not very good and will soon start some major work wrt shaping and gel embedding of the seats. Even a temporary acupressure seat cover will not be a bad idea I think.
7. #Sound – I didn’t face any sound issue but was determined to ignore all kitkit, kirkir, kuikui etc sound as long as she moved. A good helmet helps.
8. #Sidestand – The side stand is bad and needs to be worked upon.
9. #NoExtraLight – I rode extensively at night including mountains, forests and highways with irritating amount of traffic. I did not feel the need of any extra light.
10. #Carrier – It is difficult to pack and load Himalayan with odd stuff like Mil standard sleeping bag and tents keeping mounting dismounting for rider and pillion easy. There is need for a better rear carrier besides the saddlestay and engine guard.

#TipsForYoungRiders.
1. #50kmPerHour – Plan for not more than 50 km per hour in Eastern India roads, if you achieve anything more, that’s bonus.
2. #Flexible – Be flexible with your plans, do not be destination driven and be open to change plans.
3. #Safety – Be conscious of safety 24×7 … its easy to be killed anytime on the Indian road, be a defensive rider, never ever remove your safety gear.
4. #EnjoyTheRide – Travelling on a motorcycle is not about mile crunching or high speed only. Enjoy the ride, be one with nature, enjoy the different places and culture. Be a traveller.

Thank you guys for being with me with the entire series of DADAINHORNBILL.
See you on the roads again, soon.