Mangaluru: Some motorcycle riders live to ride, and one person who lives up to this is Kaustubh Thengodkar from Pune. A Sales Manager with a multinational company, he quit his job after 12 years, so that he could take the 1-month leave that he wanted, a much needed break from his hectic schedule. And this means to relax and take a detox? To do a 3,509 kms round trip all the way down South to Kanyakumari and back!
9th February, 2016 came and he was off towards Hyderabad, that was his first stop on this long haul! We may say – what’s new in this, when there are so many riders who criss cross the country on their long trips? Well, how about doing it on a 1974 model 250 cc Jawa, that is as pristine as the day that it left the Ideal Jawa factory at Mysore?
After Hyderabad, Kaustubh did a non-stop stretch to Bengaluru, where he halted for a couple of days and then on towards Munnar in time for the Spice Trail ’16, an annual meet of all the Jawa and Yezdi clubs in Kerala. After that it was the destination that he had been dreaming off for a long time – Kanyakumari!! Climbing back up via the Western Coastal route, his next stop was Kochi and then Mangaluru, where members of the Mangalore Jawa & Yezdi Motorcycle Club were glad to host him for the night.
On Friday morning, he will be riding down to Goa to take part in the India Bike Week or IBW, as it is fondly known as, by all hard core riders. He will be catching up with his club mates and friends, who are Guest Speakers, like Deepak Kamath – who in 1994, with his co-rider, 42,038 km over the 6 continents in an expedition called “The Yezdi Castrol Continental Ride” & Rishad Bhumgara, fondly known as The 2-stroke Traveller because of his expeditions on his 1985 Yezdi Cl II, the latest of which in September 2015, decided to ride it out, 9,500 Kms from Mumbai to Myanmar!
The Common factor out here? Yes, the versatile and tough little motorcycle that may no longer be in production here in India, but can still give fierce competition to all the new generation bikes out there.