Mid-Night ride to Malshej

Midnight Ride? But why midnight you could also go for biking in day and have more fun. That was the advice I got from home. But it was hard to make them understand that it was not only fun, there is lot excitement involves in it. But it was of no use to make them understand that what does an excitement means to a biker especially when they go out for a Midnight Ride.


Well, Our Mid Night ride started from Eternitiy Mall, Thane on 5thJ. It was me and AK (Akhilesh) waiting for other bikers at Eternity Mall and slowly we started hearing the thumps, Kamal on his Bullet entered the parking area. I was meeting him for the first time and so with many others. It was pleasure to see RoadStar back after our earlier ride (Rajmachi-off road) and so was meeting Avijit. In another few minutes many more joined us and it was good too see the number of bikers turned out. It was for sure we all are gonna have lots of fun and loads of excitement. of April, 2008 at 22:30 hrs. But like always it was 22:30 hrs IST (Indian Stretchable Time) so no one to blame.

After filling up some gallons of petrol in couple of bikes, we headed towards our first stop which was at Kalyan junction. The excitement started from here when we realized that many of our bikers crossed signal and went straight for couple of KMs. Later they joined us back and we again started back on our Mid-Night ride, but the second blow came very soon after we crossed Bhivandi/Kalyan (I’m not sure, which town was it). Prasad tyre was flat and he along with Nilesh stopped to get it fixed. Rest of the bikers (18-20 bikes) started exploring roads in midnight with full of excitement and JOSH!


Kamal was our lead, so every body followed him while keeping the same pace. Although many of us were tempting to accelerate more but we maintained the tips shared at the beginning of ride (60-70 KM/HR). Riding in no moon night can not be explained, one needs to experience it on its own. WOW! I could still feel the excitement.

After an hour of riding we stopped at “Dhaba” to wait for some bikers who were left behind as they took wrong diversion. We ordered few teas and some thing to eat which was very much required and recharged us. Within sometime rest of the bikers joined us and we started heading towards so much awaited “Ghats”.

Man! you need to have guts to ride those Ghats in pitch black night and especially when you are trying to prove yourself on those high speed bikes. Many of the turns had fun, few were thrilling and some deadly and I mean it, they were DEADLY!

We reached Hanuman ghat around 2 AM and parked ourselves to get some rest. We were also expecting few more bikers join us at Hanuman Ghat. Around 3 AM we heard a thumping sound of roaring devil from a long distance, it does not take any of us to guess that who could he be? It was Rohit and his bike who were riding up to join all of us along with Gauresh. A few of bikers has to leave early due to there personal commitments on next day, so they had to leave early. After wishing them a safe ride back home we indulge into other stuff. Hussain offered us to have coffee and took out his campaign gear - stove and a cup. The sip of a coffee knocked us and taken away all sleepiness we were feeling around that time. The coffee had just water in it, no sugar no milk.
Well, we enjoyed that and shared jokes and had laughter moments. Many of us were trying to capture moments in there camera in dark night. We could just put the point the camera in a direction and the rest flash did the job.

Around 6:30 AM we left that place and headed towards a Resort which was situated near by to have something to eat. I heard later, that Ashok, Rohit and few more had a narrow escape with truck coming from opposite direction. But the luck was with them and everybody reached safely to that resort.

Once we reached there, everybody was exhausted, hungry and sleepy head. But Prasad came forward and took charge of everything. He went to everybody and noted down what they would like to have in breakfast and placed the order. He made sure that everyone had his breakfast, tea/coffee and at last he offered himself to have his breakfast. Hats off to him and I think he should be crowned as “Biker of the Mid Night Ride” for all his effort and concern towards all bikers.

Meantime many of riders wanted to ride further for another 30 KM to reach another point, I guess it was shivneri (Sorry, if missing out the name). But every body wanted to reach home and enjoy the “Gudi Padwa” festival with there family members. So we all decided to go back. Every geared up for the return journey which was as excited as we drove up on hill. This time it was driving down, which was equally full of fun, excitement and thrill. We drove non-stop for 1-1.5 hrs and waited at a petrol pump near Kalyan for rest of the bikers to join us. But looks like we were fast and after waited for another 20-30 minutes we decided to go on as everybody was in hurry to reach home. Rohit, Prasanna, myself, Vikrant along with few more bikers (sorry for missing out there name) we break off and headed towards our home.

The Mid-Night ride ended around Mid-Day of 6th of April 08.