Mistakes...

When do mistakes happen? Either when you are unaware of something or when you are overconfident that you overlook things. And when you realize that you did a mistake, what is the best thing to do? Learn a lesson and move on.
I have been riding for quite some years and after lot of kilometers of riding, i want to share two stupid mistake i did recently - the mistakes which happened as a result of sheer carelessness and overlooking of trivial facts.

Some months back, me and my friend Vikcs decided to take a breather from the hectic city life, and decided to camp out in the wilderness. Vicks was carrying the tent, sleeping bag and lot of stuff, and i was carrying knickknacks, camera and lot of other stuff. Among all these, the main stuff was water - I took two big bottles of water - around 4ltr, and without much though, I strapped the two big bottles on to Jeevs sari guard with the help of a pair of bungee chord, and I was feeling pretty smug about the carrying solution i found out.
We set out from Bangalore by 2 and on an intersection, a Tata safari guy cut the lane, and to avoid him, i braked hard. And boy, Jeevs did a dance there, and i was like 'what the hell'. I thought my rear break got locked and didn’t give it much thought at that time. Soon we found us on the highway, and we both where happily zipping at triple digit speeds. I was leading and took a wide turn at about 110kmph to found that my side of the road is blocked by a traffic barricade. The road is wide enough and under usual circumstances, a barricade like this is not at all a problem. But not that day. as i braked and tried to change my direction, i felt the rear going loose and jeevs was behaving liek hez strapped with a skateboard instead of the zappers ( Next day after the ride, I got him new Michelins instead of Zapper) .
Somehow, I managed to bring him back to the course, and then i stopped to check the rear for any wear and tear. after a through checking, i was going to start the bike and then suddenly it dawned on me - the reason of fishtailing - the culprit was the two big water bottles strapped so low - the shifting mass of water and the position of the off set weight was affecting the center of gravity. and stupid me - didn’t even think about it before smugly strapping it on.

The second incident happed before first, but it was more foolish than the first incident.

My everyday commute to office is about 15 km one day, and one stretch of it is inner ring road (IRR) from Domlur to Koramangala. Now, those who know the section will agree to me that it is a very inviting road to ride if there is no traffic. One day i was really early, and the road was almost deserted. When you enter the IRR after the Domlur flyover, you get the first turn - a lovely left hander which is followed by a wide right hand turn. After the turn, the road is straight for almost a kilometer and then you get a beautiful right hand turn and some more straight road.
On that day, when after leaving the first right hander, i saw the empty road, soon Jeevs was doing triple digit speeds.
Before I entered the last corner, an idea struck me - why don’t I try my hand at drifting Jeevs. I applied my rear break, locked the back tyre and produced a nice drift - I was happily drifting along the curve at about 80-90 kmph and suddenly the car in front of the braked hard. There was practically nothing much to do - it is stupid to break when you take a curve, insane if you are leaning, and here, I was drifting away to glory and the guy in front of me is slowing down.
I shifted down a couple of cogs, made my bike straight and squeezed past between the Ford ikon and the side wall of the road even before the ikon guy realized what is happening. Man, that was scary, and if something would have happened, it was because of my stupidity. That was the last stunt I did on a road.

Always check your basics. And don’t get comfortable – no one is invincible. Practice makes you perfect, but perfection doesn’t guarantee invincibleness. Don’t get yourself fooled by the thought that you are an expert and nothing will go wrong. Something will go wrong at some place, and it may be too late to realize it. Always have your feet in ground. – Lessons learned from my mistakes.