“Hey, do you happen to know this guy called Akshay
Tendulkar?” one of my friends asked me. I nodded my head and said “yeah, big
guy right? I met him years ago; actually I took him around on my old vespa.”
Then my friend proceeded to tell me that Akshay is a part of a bike crazy group
called GEARS and since my craziness matched theirs, I would fit right in. For
me, that was good news. Nobody around me shared my enthusiasm for motorcycles,
I needed like-minded people.
So I found Akshay on Facebook and asked if I could be a part
of GEARS. He said yes, and I did a small dance. Once I was officially welcomed
into the group I was amazed to find that they had a small event lined up. A
cornering session. I did a bigger dance this time. Cornering (as I understood) was
fun - not that I knew much about it. While commuting, if you go around a corner
faster than the senior citizen on a sunny you think you are boss, at least I
thought I was. Well, all that was about to change.
Now for a brief idea about how these cornering sessions
work. This whole session happens in the dead of the night, at about 12:30am.
The location is always secret and the session is never held at a particular
place more than once. New guys are met at a pre designated meeting point and
told to dismount. We are made to sit pillion behind the Admins and taken to the
location blindfolded. Our bikes are already there by the time we reach- I
really don’t know how, because we do not see anybody other than the Admins when
we meet. Once at the location, we (me and fellow noobs) hear bike exhausts
going off so close that we actually shiver. Sometimes there is the unmistakable
sound of footpeg against tarmac and you wonder what monsters are being ridden
by what kind of maniacs. This is just familiarization.
Then, one of the Admins, begins the initiation. First-
mental strength test and thorough vetting of history and antecedents. Aaron
asked me all sorts of scary questions, apparently to test mental fortitude. He
was quite nice about it though and sometimes asks weird questions like: Do I
like extra cheese on my McDonalds burger or Whether I like strawberries. All
this seemed quite weird as I had expected bike related questions and questions
about riding. Then he suddenly produced photographs of botched up corners on my
everyday commute and asked explanations for each. Once that was over, he handed
the rookie (me) over to Akshay Tendulkar.
Akshay Tendulkar is big. How big? Well look at his pictures
on Facebook with the BMW K1600GT. So the first time I saw him in the dim light
of his pulsar I felt like I should hide. Hide somewhere deep in the bowels of
Aarons ninja and wrap its fairing tightly around me. But, that was not to
happen. Akshay makes sure one is physically fit for the rigors of cornering. He
made me do push-ups and sit-ups. I don’t know how many as I lost count after 4.
I fell unconscious, twice, during my jogging session around the secret
cornering facility but finally I managed to scrape through Akshays tests.
Thankfully the third Admin, Carlton was out of station. If he had his own set
of tests I am sure I would never have made it. So, now, I was ready for the
actual cornering. Akshays precise words were. “If after all this you can stand
up on your own legs, you may take your own bike and learn to corner at your own
risk. The corners are treacherous and if you make one mistake, you fall down
the cliff. It is almost like Pikes Peak he laughed.”
Ok the last three paragraphs are utter and complete
bullshit. The secret cornering location is off the Panjim- Margao highway in
the Verna industrial estate. Here the roads are smooth and wide, and traffic
sparse. A perfect place to learn, unlearn, make mistakes and finally perfect
the art of cornering. The first session I attended was at 3pm. It was bright
and sunny, Akshay was already there. He had reached there before anybody else
had and was scouting the corners for oil or debris. He wanted to make it as
safe as possible he said. We chatted for a while, since we had met after a long
time. We waited around, for people to arrive but the turn out wasn’t much this
time. Just five or six guys, all trying their hand (well wheels) at cornering.
So Akshay began with explaining the basics, cornering lines, the turn in, the
apex, the exit and the brake and throttle control. After that he got me to get
on the bike with the main stand on and practice body positioning and movement.
He taught knee and arm positioning, and general conduct on the bike.
My mind was reeling. I never knew that so much conscious
thought went into it. I only knew that you leaned, you hit the apex and you
shot out of the corner as fast as you could manage. Well that was what watching
BBC’s Top Gear all the time had taught me. So once I got a hang of the whole
thing when stationary, Akshay told me to try and practice all that when riding
the bike. I was told to take it easy, keep the speed at a very manageable
figure and to perfect bike and body position first. It was easier said than
done. Try as I might I could not manage to get my body parts to synchronize in
anyway. If I got my knee locked in right, my elbows were all wrong. If I got my
elbows and knees under control, my head was positioned wrong. If I got the head
position right almost everything else was off. And when I did manage to get all
the parts to be in the right position, my slightest movement destabilized the
bike. But, thankfully, the stretch of road selected for this purpose was
perfect. The corner was neither too gentle nor too steep. It was smooth, wide
and allowed one to practice multiple lines. It was a perfect left hander for
all of us to learn our skills.
The first few (12) runs were frustrating. But after a while,
things got a little easier. The trick was to repeat every single movement till
it became second nature, till you subconsciously managed to move correctly
while your mind concentrated on only the line. My body parts, which until now
were like sparring MLAs in a parliamentary session, slowly began falling in
line. They were now like kids at a mass PT session. They all wanted to get it
right, but in their (over)enthusiasm one or the other member always messed it
up. But anyway, I was improving. The ultimate goal was to get them all to be
like a squad of Surya Kiran pilots, perfectly synchronized and incredibly
efficient. But, that would have to wait till I got practice, lots and lots of
practice.
There were two or three other guys with me, repeatedly
attacking corners and getting better all the time. But it was obvious who was
at the bottom of the class. Yours truly, the newbie had a lot of work to do. I
had not even started proper cornering. I was still getting a feel for it. And
the feel was nice. It was better than nice, it felt great. It felt so good that
at the point when the sun began going down, Akshay had to use his size and
might too peel me from my bike and say, “next time, next time baba, puro ata”
roughly translated “next time, next time bro, you have had enough for a day.”
So I reluctantly gave up.
After that we sat around and chatted for a while. We
discussed the mistakes we made and the probable solutions. This was the best
bit about the session. Everybody observed everybody else. So one got enough
feedback and suggestions to keep getting better. Nobody at any point spoke
about or wanted to be the fastest. This was never about speed, it was always
about control and precision. As time passed, the conversation slowly steered
from corners to curves (a logical progression I would say) and from leaning in,
to well, leaning all the way in. Akshay called it a day when talks about
hitting apexes (or is it apices) went on to touching bases.
I had had an awesome day, and on the way back home, I have
to admit, my mind was preoccupied with curves and touching bases. So I’m sure
my cornering sucked and really wouldn’t have made Akshay proud. But for that,
there was always next time.
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