and what timing - the next drag is announced, and it is the big one. organized by autocar and sponsored mainly by speed, it promised to be one helluva event. i still remember the excitement of those days, the thrill and sense of anticipation. we waste no time in rushing the bike to rons place, for a pipe transplantation.

ron conducts some priliminary examination of the bike and we notice that there is a small base leak after all.

anyway forget it, the stock pipes are off and they go to a corner in the dungeon. (dungeon is the official name for rons basement) two gleaming pipes appear in front of us, chromed. they are a straight fit and we dont take much time plugging them in. some fiddling with the exhaust bolts and the job is done and the bike fires up in no time. i take a ride and the powerband is really vicious now; where the fluttering started earlier, now the powerband kicks in with a good snap. so things are looking good and its time for a stage2 testing session.

the bike now looked something like this.

well the pic being fuzzy is not really a deliberate attempt to hide the pipe design. but closeups of the pipes not being put up is indeed a deliberate attempt in that direction :D

to be frank the pic is from a slightly later stage. as you can see, the bars have been changed to lower ones, the seat is custom.

early morning adventures once more. same place same time, but this time the the games different, cos we are on pipes. we reach outer ring road, and first i have a long run to get a feel of the top end. easily reaches to something around 146kmph, with some more in reserve.

then tom takes over and goes for a quarter mile run. the bike seems to splutter just a bit, something seems wrong somewhere, but still he posts something like 133 or so at the quarter. definitely better, but tom reports a flutter as well as something vague, some irritation.

we notice that the bolt which fixes the pipe to the frame - the one near the rear foot rest - has come loose quick. and that too much vibrations get transferred to the pipe. so lesson 1 dude - use good bolts to fasten the pipe onto the frame, and use good, really good, rubber washers there.

next run happens, but doesnt work out. the bike just sputters and dies. and worse, doesnt start again. we try out best, to no avail. luckily we have come on two bikes and we use the other one to leg-push her back home, fearing the worst. we both bear in mind that while there is compression, yet there is a mechanical clatter while kicking the lever.

despite the bad mood and an ominous sign of an engine breakdown, the memory of an effortless 146 remained.

so a frantic call to ron and he assures us that its most probably an electrical issue. we are not that convinced but he asks us to check the magneto first. im still fixated on the idea of something haven terribly gone wrong inside the barrells or the crank, but anyway orders are orders so i sit down and remove the magneto cover.

hell the moment i remove the cover, the goddamned magnet just falls off the shaft and i catch it before it hits the ground. shit, its as simple as that - the bolt fixing the magneto onto the crankshaft had come loose, and so no spark, and so yes ron was right. so here is your lesson 2 dude, use a good quality bolt, say original TVS bolt, with a good springwasher to fix the magneto onto the shaft. never ever ignore this. if you do, and still if you get away with it, then it just means that the damn bike aint making power enough.

ok after a rather brief stage 2, and having learnt two lessons, we then move to stage 3.