I'm a native of South India.Raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka from when I was a child. Motorsports Engineer (Kingston University)
Wanted to become an artist when I was given the choice in school, but you know how it is with parents, the next thing i liked to arts was cars.
My first car was a 2001 Honda Civic Type RS (ES3 model, 1.7ltr 3 Stage Vtec) which was gifted by my father. I still have this car in the same condition as that day.
Have owned a
1995 Mini Tartan (JDM) and a
1999 Honda Accord
on my own terms later on.
in 2008, i had to make a hard choice in life, work in the UK or move to India (could not go back to Sri Lanka) I chose to move to Chennai and never look back, its the best thing that happened to me. I was introduced to a life of motorcycles. I for one have been a sucker for speed, but my time in India made me see a method and more sense to going fast. Guess it is here I learned the value of life. I started with a 100k clocked Honda Activa(cheap price), which was my only option as I did not know how to ride the gear bikes. 6 months through, the Activa was going to the scraps as I was being looted by mechs etc.(part of my learning curve) opted and got the early FZ model next, brand new. My friend had to drive it home.(haha, still didnt know to ride)
Upon this embarrassment, he chose to teach me. His explaining was perfect and I caught it in a few hours and was ready to hit the roads in two days. 1 month of riding around to work and playing menace with my new found skills, I had to take a break and moved out to CBE to work for a Maruti Service Centre (wanted to give it a try for a few months) after a month or so I got permission to have my bike in the residence of the time, Got the FZ down to CBE and from here is where I learned to RIDE. frequent trips to Ooty, Masinakudi,Kodi,Wayanad the range with some insane friends helped me a great extent with advice and guidelines. By this time i had got my hands on (
Karizma R 225
Machismo 500
R15
2007 Tbird 350
Pulsar 200 and 220
(friends were kind enough to lend these bikes for a max. of 1 month)
Moved back to Chennai less than a year later. Had it with Maruti service industry.
My best Friend Timmy
This guy i tell you, had a pretty nice yammie and he looked after it, he looked after it,man, he would never stop looking after it. Orange Stripes and Logo on a silver paint. Far from original, but was my first hand experience seeing someone take care of an old bike the way i do my cars. Learnt a lot from this guy, but could never ride the yammie like he did (at least then
The kind of jobs and social circle we was in, did not allow to meet people like Timmy and I.
We had even gone on trips to Delhi, Himachal, Kolkatta, and a whole host of beautiful places far far away from Chennai on the REs. I loved it. I had forgotten all about my cars, I didn't feel the same way again thrashing a car around.
A friend I made in my travels, Mithun (RIP) brought down his Suzuki Samurai (plastic/fibre front fender,fork boots, some weight loss, some power gain, things he had done himself and spent 4K outside for the 8K bike) from Kotagiri. I was busy finding meaning to life, so my professional life took a beating and could not keep up with expenses the FZ was giving me by then. At this point, I made a deal with Mithun, we swapped bikes. I would get a job and establish myself financially, until then he took care of the FZ and I took care of the Samurai (Sammy).
So i started the Sammy one day for an interview, my first proper ride alone in this bike, I had so many complaints to myself about this bike. Feels difficult. Different to the RX100, noisy etc.
don't remember much in between, but over the next few days i was riding it faster and faster, i loved the bike. I fell for it. Thrashed it all day all night. 4 Gears didn't help long rides, but there seemed to be no limits within the cities. The Sammy took this crazy car guy and turned him into a beast mode biker (haha) that is where I learnt 2 strokes are the easiest way to make a man smile. OH MY GOD!!
So i thought i had found godspeed on the Sammy.
UNTIL
Finally, getting to where I wanted to, it was on a friendly trip CBE that a kind friend, Mahesh brought this good looking old bike that he had secretly purchased and worked on. He had sold his old RE and got started on this. It was the RD350, army green with no stickers at all. Sat behind him for my first ride and i was mind blown. it was the GODFATHER! After convincing Mahesh, I got to ride the bike a small distance. Haha it was way more power than i could handle at the point. give me a NSX i can throw it around the corners, give me a Indica V2 i can still throw it around the corners, but the RD350 gave me GOALS!! BIKER GOALS!! I needed to grow up. I would kill myself in this bike otherwise and the idea was to ride and not die, kill the bike or kill anyone else.
Its been 5 years since that day, lots have happened since, moved back to Colombo due family reasons, first thing i did, started searching for RDs. Missed 3 bikes that were up for sale because all 3 owners decided to sell it to a friend. After 2 years of trying to convince an owner, he finally got down to letting go if his 350LC in mint condition but no papers. Pondered on that thought for long and didn't buy it in the end, did not want the bane of having the bike seized by officials. In this time in Colombo i have owned
80 Honda CM400 T
92 Yamaha TDR 250 (this one had a mind of its own)
95 YZ250 !!!!!!!
Yamaha SR500 (couldn't say the year it was around 82-84)
83 Suzuki Katana GSX 1100S
Some really really fine bikes and some insane bikes I have gotten the opportunity to own and ride only to prepare myself in the hopes that when I do finally get that RD350, I will be fit to keep it and pass it down.
The RD feeling is an RD feeling. It has been a part of me for a long time now, the NEED to have and love this bike has been a dream and one that has played a part in me chasing many others and making sense to life. ONE bike changed the way i live my life and deal with issues.
Many nights, sleepless. One such night I stumbled upon RDDreams. This is my little story of the many many stories out there. I have never been able to to share all of this apart from my friend Timmy and the love of my life (she wants an rx100 by the way.haha) for the lack of being in the scene or the inability to take part in rallies,events clubs etc.
Hoping to make some buddies while I am here.
Thank You for the patience
Pradeep