Bike Links !

One of the most common questions that I get from people is ... on bikes. Inevitably I get emails on suggestions for bike sites. So, this blog is the one maha braham-astra blogpost which puts all the links in one place ! :-D

My Group
This obviously has to be the first link as this is a group I started with another friend of mine. Bikenomads is a generic bike group which caters to anyone who wants to ride. Check out the Hof and Wiki to understand our passion for biking. If you want to join, then join our yahoo group here.



Manufacturer Sites
These are the drool sites. The links here do not link to indian manufacturers cause they do not even give us the lowest of the low end bikes. A low end bike is normally a 250cc bike like the Ninja 250. Unfortunately, in india the manufacturers think that small bikes like the 150cc pulsar are the best.

Honda

The most revered name in biking. They have an entire range of sports and cruiser bikes. Their premium model includes the GoldWing - which comes with a music system!

Yamaha

Yamaha always gives an impression of speed. In India, they had launched the RD 350 and Rx100 which one always associated with speed. Rossi, my personal bike hero, now rides for Yamaha.

Aprilia

The bike manufacturer brings out some really sweet looking bikes. Did you know they also have a 2 stroke engine which is as clean as the 4 stroke engines?

Ducati

The Monster line of bikes really have a mean look.

Suzuki

Another Japanese bike manufacturer with the Hayabusa which you may have seen as John Abraham's bike in Dhoom. Did you know that the name Hayabusa means the peregrine falcon - the fastest bird on the planet ?

Kawasaki

The makers of the ZX14 Ninja , the most powerful factory bike which dethroned the Hayabusa as the fastest one around. In India Bajaj had a tie up with Kawasaki to make the initial bikes and the Eliminator.

BMW

Best known for its low bike maintainence and a unique horizontal engine. Their enduro bikes are the loved by many people, and the reliability means that people take them to some really inhospitable climates !

Harley Davidson

One of the earliest bike manufacturer is a cult bike. Did you know that you can customize your bikes ?

The following are some lesser known (to the general public) names of bikes :

• Benelli
  
• Triumph - Cruiser bikes to love.
• Moto Guzzi
• MV Augusta
• Cagiva
• KTM

Apparel

Most of the manufacturers provide their own line of bike apparel. Its serious stuff. Suppose you are cruising merrily at 100mph and crash ! These stuff saves you from serious injuries to the maximum possible. Here's a list of some of the other apparel manufacturers :
Jackets and other gear :

• Firtgear
• Alpine Star
• Fieldsheer

Helmets :

• Arai
• Shoei

For India


Coming back to the reality around us, heres a list of groups i know of :
Bike Groups :

• Bikenomads
• BajajPulsar
• HeroHonda CBZ/Karizma
• 60kph
• RD Dreams
• RTMC - Bangalore based
• BCM Touring - Bike Car Motorcycle touring

Blogs of note :

• Rearset - Anonymous guy writing about riding. Good stuff on this site.
• Indian2wheels - New!
• Biking the world - One indian. One bike. One world. The amazing blog of Bharadwaj Dayala who is biking around the world on a karizma. Check his blog out and leave a comment there - he will surely appreciate it.
  
  

Bike Stuff

• Cramster
• Steelbird - Helmet

Update:
I have got a lot of requests from viewers here to also list Indian Bike sites, specifically a lot of requests from the Bull owners ! The reason I have not put them up here, as my friend who had asked for information which has lead to this post wanted to know more about where I got my wallpapers from ! :-D

Further Adding more links here would probably make the list a bit too long. Again, I run into the problem of missing out some more bike sites and then those guys will be baying for my bloog ! So, what I have done is set up a list of Indian bikes on BN . You can access the link at:

• Indian Bike Manufacturers
  

Let me know if I have missed out on something yet again !

3D desktop anyone ?

Vista is going to be released. Some people are gung-ho about the Apple OS. But they still are the 2D desktops. What if your dekstop went 3D?

Check out the video below :

Life ?

Whats life ?

We all seem to fall for this question such a lot. I think everyone starts to search for the answer at sometime or the other. We feel sad, disenchanted, lost, alone. What is life ? I too don't have any answer. But when I ask the question to myself thoughts come to mind.. add to the list below :

• senseless
• boring
• loneliness
• escape
• thought
• smile
• worthless
• danger
• daring
• tough
• pleasure
• pain
• music
• ...

What do you think ?

Miniature Earth

What if the world was just 100 people ? What if you were those 100 people and lived together in a village . What would it be like ?

Check out this presentation. I have heard people harping about how bad the situation is around the world, or how we just crib about nothing. But this presentation really puts the message across. Forward the link to all your friends.

DRM ?

The new Vista comes out with DRM inbuilt, but is it such a good thing? Do you as a customer want DRM?

Oh wait , probably you don't even know what DRM is which is being forced down your throats by the record companies and other software companies ? Here's a short recap on DRM:

DRM : Digital Rights Management.

Its a new technology which the music companies want you to use so that you cannot copy thier content anywhere. Some content on the iPods, like purchased songs from iTunes library, are DRM protected. What this means is that you can only have the songs on your iPod. So, if you upgrade and want to try out something new like Zune, you will have to buy everything all over again. Sounds bad ? Well, this is what you are going to get in the near future.

Its kinda like I buy a cassette, which I put in one of my cassette players - you know some old BPL sanyo system. Then I go out and buy a state of the art Bose, and now I cannot play the casette there, cause the manufacturers think that if I am using the cassette which I used somewhere else, I am pirating. This scenario sucks!

The long answer can be found on Wikipidea.

If you still dont think that my reasoning is good enough why not to go for DRM, read the below article. It will explain, in a way much better than I can, as to why you should not use the DRM :

• Top 10 arguments against DRM
  

Top 100 innovations of 2006

Oh boy ... some people think of some amazing stuff ! Check out the link below :

• PopSci's best of What's New 2006
  

MotoGood !

As you know , I work for a company called Good Technology. Err... I mean to say I used to work for the company. The latest news is that Motorola has aquired our company.

What does it mean for me ? I dont know ! Its been the first time that I am in an environment of an aquisition, and I dont know what will be happening. Is it a good thing ? Will I make more money ? What will my role be in Motorola ? So many questions for which I dont have any answer. Whatever it may be, I bet its going to be an interesting time ahead.

News !

• Engadget : Motorola gets its push on, acquires Good Technology
• AP : Motorola buys good technology, maker of mobile computing software
• Wall Street Journal : Motorola buys wireless email firm
  

Care for your head

Someone on BN posted this link on Helmets. Awesome concept. Visit the guys site and leave a comment if you like it, I am sure he will like it !

mobile gmail

Google just launched a gmail download for your mobile phone. It works on a variety of phones as its a java app and only requires JVM. Don't know what a JVM is - no sweat. If you are having one of the recent Nokia phones - it will work just fine for you. The following screenshots are from a E61 phone . Oh yes - you also need a data connection like gprs for this to work.






The last screen shows how to turn of gmail from remembering your password. Usually you will not require it as the assumption is that only you will be using your mobile and will be signed in always. Unfortunately, I was using a borrowed phone as the Treo650 does not have a JVM and had to figure out how to make gmail forget my password.

All in all one nifty install and makes checking gmail all that much more easier.

Ads that make you go hmmm

Ok, late night. Nerd at work. Enuff warning given.

Actually this post is about slogans, but 'sloagans that make you go hmmm' did not sound as good as 'ads that make you go hmmm'. So, in interest of catchyness, the subject of this post and this post is not the same.

Coming back to the slogans - lots of companies have slogans. Even some non-companies have slogan like 'Just Ride!' from bikenomads. But some companies do really have great slogans, and somehow - at the back of my head, they are stuck - and even though i may never end up buying items from the company, the philosopy has become imbubed into me (hope these companies dont sue me now!). These slogans (which you can see in their ads also - so maybe the heading is not so off the mark) pop up whenever I do something. Its like they govern my actions. For instance :

Think Different - Apple
This is my favourite slogan. Think different. How is it I can do the same thing differently? How can I make my next visit home different ? Oh I will ride up to delhi ;-) . Or I think differently and take part in a fashion show in WIPRO !

Hippi Me !

Just do It - Nike
Thinking by itself won't accomplish much. That's where my next fav comes in. Just do It ! Riding up to delhi and back with 5000kms ? Just do it! Hippie costume ? Just do it. The thought has become an action and you just do whatever you have just thought before it gathers dust.

One Life. Live it ! - Camel
I think Camel is an indian brand of clothes. The first item i bought was a cargo pant with the slogan written on one of the numerous pockets. One Life. Live it. ( corollarys exists like one life - waste it, but I will not go into those right now).
One life - we just have that one. We can either make it great or keep repenting why we are living, and when we are to die repent why we are dying. I guess one of mans greatest achievement and the way he differes the most from animals is not that he thinks - but that he cribs. I have been in touch with a lot of animals (dad is in Indian Forest service so have interacted with quite a few intelligent animals), and I haven't as yet come across any animal which is cribbing about why he is alive. Well, back to the point - since we are not cats, and have only one life, its best to live it. We may make a hash of it - but if we are living it the way we want , at the end of the life, we cant really blame anyone else for our success or failures.

Reclaim your life - Safari
The safari dicor ads rock. The Wakakakaka ! just is awesome. And the slogan 'reclaim your life' just touches the raw nerve. Long work hours in bad offices, and then later back home hacking away on blogs... Get up man. Reclaim your life -- like go to goa or something !

There are lots of other ads which I like, some still make an impression on my young impressionable mind. But they are not something which I will discuss here.

What are the ads which hit you ? The ones which seem to govern your decisions ? The ones which stick to your mind like the scent of earth after the first rains ??

World Heritage sites in India

The UNESCO has a list of sites it deems as world heritage sites. These are the sites which hold a universal appeal to people from around the world. India has quite a few of these. To which places have you been to ? The ones in bold are the ones I have visited... the remaining are only a matter of time. Maybe have a bike ride to visit all the Heritage sites ! Now .. thats some thought!

• Agra Fort (1983)
• Ajanta Caves (1983)
• Ellora Caves (1983)
• Taj Mahal (1983)
• Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram (1984)
• Sun Temple, Konârak (1984)
• Kaziranga National Park (1985)
• Keoladeo National Park (1985)
• Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985)
• Churches and Convents of Goa (1986)
• Fatehpur Sikri (1986)
• Group of Monuments at Hampi (1986)
• Khajuraho Group of Monuments (1986)
• Elephanta Caves (1987)
• Great Living Chola Temples (1987, 2004) ¹²
• Group of Monuments at Pattadakal (1987)
• Sundarbans National Park (1987)
• Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks (1988, 2005)
• Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989)
• Humayun's Tomb, Delhi (1993)
• Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi (1993)
• Mountain Railways of India (1999, 2005) ¹³
• Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya (2002)
• Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka (2003)
• Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004)
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) (2004)

I've been to Humayuns Tomb, Qutab Minar and VT, but not inside. So, I am not marking them as the ones I have seen already.