My first long ride experience :)

I took thunderbird on 22 nd April 10, since the day I took this bike - I wanted to go on long ride :). I drove 200 km in first 3 days and there came shock 'I had to wait for first servicing for ~15 days', there was no other choice but to cancel the long ride plan :(
I got the first servicing done on 11 th this month. None of my friends were ready to travel on week days :(. I had to go to Nrusinhawadi for first long ride (it is temple of Shri Nrusinha Saraswati), finally after some thought  I decided to go alone.

I left home on 12 th May 6.30am, for safety I took one extra clutch cable with me.

I must mention here that NH4 is pleasure to ride. The road is mostly in very good condition. I think this was the first time for me to ride through tunnel - Katraj tunnel is 1.38 km long and I could not believe that 35W light which comes (by default) with thunderbird is hardly of any use there :(. I was worried about crossing Khambatki ghat, but actually when I reached there I did not notice when I entered Khambatki ghat section and when it was over (I mostly used 3rd and 4rth gear - rarely 2nd was required). View from Khambatki is really good :).

About 12.15pm I reached Sangli - finding hotel was not that difficult, Ratna International looked quite OK to me. Food was really superb and very cheap. Room rents are OK but rooms are not great. I took some rest and in evening I went to Nrusinhawadi, the road to Nrusinhawadi is again quite good - mostly it goes through farms. The parking boy gave me permission to park thunderbird in car parking :).

Next day I left for Nrusinhawadi (2nd visit) @ 4.25 am, reached there around 4.50am the kakad arti (early morning prayer) has just started. One suggestion : now there are good hotels in Nrusinhawadi (I did not know this earlier) - try to avoid Sangli hotels (if you want good service then try hotel Ambassador in Sangli).

I started back for Pune around 8am. Because of sunburns on hands, it was quite difficult for me to drive after Satara (11.30 am). There is hotel by name Mahendra executive in Satara - I tried all orders "Veg Biryani / Dosa / Curd rice" for every option waiter told me please try Idli sambar in our hotel. Finally without asking me he bought Idli sambar???. I left that place and started journey back to Pune. I forgot to remove goggles before entering Khambatki tunnel :D (@ 838 mtr) it was real adventure for me till I finished that tunnel :).

Thunderbird gave me unbelievable mileage of @55-60 kmpl on hiway :). I did not face any oil-leak problem in this 600 km ride. Now waiting for next ride.

I had done one Konkan ride with friends few years back (that was on Bajaj boxer) and one to Shirawal (on Bajaj Caliber), but riding on thunderbird is totally different joy altogether. I missed friends in this journey :(, next time it would be great experience if I get company of friends :).

Happy thumping :)

Before you cry for help!

Let it be office, let it be home or let it be some other place. Many times we ask for help without understanding actual problem. I am trying to write here some generic steps, which can be used before asking someone else for help. I do understand that sometimes it is unavoidable and better to get help from other person than trying out things yourself.

Asking following questions to yourself might help -
1. Have really understood your problem?
Many a times we do not understand the problem itself. Understanding the problem ourselves sometimes makes the problem simple to solve without anybody's help. For other person, it is much easier to help if you know what exactly you want.
If you ask others problems without understanding it - then be sure that you are going to waste your as well as your helper's time.
E.g. Few days back I was discussing one problem related to OpenGL on one of forums. It was regarding the unit of time measurement. The person who had asked this question did not understand that her problem was not related to OpenGL but was related to API provided by operating system. I had to ask her for source code to give proper suggestion.

2. Have you tried some simple experiments?
Many times it happens that your question is really difficult but, sometimes rather than getting solution to existing problem you can try out some simple experiments -
 a. Try using alternate solution for the problem.
      - e.g. If  your bike is not starting. You have tried kicking it hard 10-15 times. Now wait!! do check if all ignition switches are on. Do check for fuel supply. Check for spark plug. Dont waste your efforts by kicking harder and harder :)
      - This method is particularly useful for software developers as well. Many times they get stuck on some algorithm and they put all energy and many hours in fixing problem with this algorithm, where as sometimes simple solution is rethink over the algorithm - might be there is easy alternative :)
 b. Try to see if someone has already solved similar problem
      - Many a times we waste time on developing algorithm for the solution which already exists. In such cases it is useful to use 'grep/ find' command before getting into developing complex algorithms. it also helps you to find right person to ask for, and some idea about right questions to be asked :)
      - For problems like "how to make tea", you can use Google or some search engine before asking for help.

3. Are you prepared enough to ask question?
Now suppose all the above methods failed. You have no alternative but to get help from someone. You should do following checks before going to that person
  a. Exact description of problem (be specific)
     - You should be specific about "exactly what is your problem". Do not confuse the person by talking about wage problems.
      e.g. You might want to know how to install operating system on your machine. When asking this question you should be specific about - hardware of your machine, name of operating system, 32 bit or 64 bit ...
  b. Exactly what is your requirement 
     - I am not repeating 3a here :). 3a is about conveying what is exactly your problem. 3b is about clearly setting your expectations about the solution.
       e.g. If we take same example as 3a - you should be specific about whether you just want to know how to do this operating system installation or you want that person to install this system on your machine ...

Hope this is helpful (at least it will be helpful to me in future :) ). If you have any suggestion please comment. I will keep updating this post with suggestions.