This story is about a short ride to Dhom Dam , 125 Kms from Pune. But this one was more of an experiment than a usual ride. So I will say a bit about the experiment before getting into the ride itself. Please be patient with me for that.
If you are in a hurry, jump to The Ride section below.
or checkout the video here>
The Plan
Plan was to take a bunch of inexperienced riders for a short ride to infuse road safety awareness and give basic training on photography during the course of the ride. Dhom Dam is only 125 Kms away and an easy beginner destination.
Targeted participation was just 5 as people usually won’t join at the last moment. 15 People shown interest in the ride and given a rough confirmation a week before the ride.
Minimum riding gear for the participants was a helmet.
About the Targeted Population
Participants are well educated with at least 12+4 years of education. Some of them consider wearing helmet is important. None of them have riding gears beyond helmet. All of them live in Pune, Maharashtra during this time.
Why this experiment?
Usually riders won’t be interested in having inexperienced, and non-rider class of people riding with them. However, I think as a rider I have a social responsibility as well. If I had not benefited from the riders community, I would have been riding with no safety measures if not dead already.
I was not one who borne with riders in family to teach me why I should wear riding gears.
Secondly in the area where I live, road users lack awareness to a very dangerous extent.
Sorry to say this but, I don’t see enough effort from the riders’ community (including me) to improve it either.
The briefing session before riding
The day before the ride, we all met to discuss what need to be done before the ride. Informed the group to gas up the bike, check air etc and make sure the bike is in top mechanical condition before the ride.
Then that happened. I asked everybody top carry DL, RC, PUC and valid Insurance. This was the defining moment. I have seen panic, dissatisfaction, expressionlessness etc on different faces. At first I couldn’t understand the reason. It was apparent soon that most of them present in the room didn’t have a valid insurance for their bike!
Once I was relieved from the shock, I tried to explain them why is it important to have insurance and why is it illegal and dangerous to ride a bike without that. I also said how we can buy insurance instantly online these days. To my surprise one of the replies I got was this :
“ I don’t wanna renew it as I don’t think its important” !!!
With such strong negative conviction, It was hard to convince the participants to buy an insurance.
Finally I requested all of them without valid license to not join the ride.
Briefing sessions before 5 years
5 years before I did a similar briefing to inexperienced riders. None of the participants had to back off due to lack of insurance. Most of them were students, overall responsive and energetic. One difference between these two briefing is that they were at different geographical areas within India. It can also be interpreted as, awareness is decreasing over the years among the youth. However this can't be confirmed unless the experiment is conducted in same city.
Learnings and Findings
· Road safety awareness is not proportional to education
· Highly educated individuals in some regions lack basic awareness
· Safety rule following is associated with fear enforcement than safety itself
· Making awareness among educated class can be challenging due to strong negative convictions
· Traffic rule enforcement need to be stricter and friendlier
· Society have a bigger impact on a citizen’s awareness and opinion on road safety. Different states in India have contrasting levels of awareness.
· Society and parents can create a negative opinion about every Safety rule. This can be dangerous and makes people resistant to positive changes.
The Ride
Dhom dam is constructed on Krishna river. It is the lifeline of Wai and Mahabaleshwar for irrigation and drinking water. Ride surrounding the Dhom lake is in excess of 20 Kms and a good experience.
Finally there was just 4 participants on two bikes. We met near Shell petrol pump near Warje and proceeded to Dhom dam by 6:15 AM. The bike suited for this ride was my P220. Since Sai Service failed to fix the brakes for the 3 times consecutively after changing front rotor, brake line, rear calliper etc, I had to ride the Street Triple. Second bike in the ride was a Karizma ZMR.
November is getting colder and misty. As the sun peaked through the greens, we made some progress on highway 4. If you were sleeping this morning, oh my fiend you missed something gorgeous.
Apart from the truck slow down blocks at the small ghat section, everything was smooth. Had breakfast at halfway and proceeded.
In the final stretch, the road is a bit rough and not “diablo supercorsa material”.
So be careful with track oriented rubber as you negotiate the loose gravel.
Ammu picked up this little guy when we took a stop.
Basics of photography are discussed and demonstrated for the photographers in making.
When ridden further we reached here:
Whenever green, blue and water comes together, there will be substantial beauty.
Riding around the Dhom lake will be an awesome experience in monsoon. So I will come back here alone for a solo ride to enjoy the nature at ‘my’ pace
Road is not great when you ride around the lake. so be prepared for that. If you have a stiff setup, easing the suspension a bit before the ride is recommended. Street Triple had little problem taking on these roads though.
Second rider clearly was lacking on riding gear as you can see here. but the bright side is that he had all documents and a helmet intact. This is an achievement for the targeted population!
Overall was a simple yet nice ride. We were back home by 2:00 PM. So this is a half day affair for people on tight time budget.
You should consider riding to ‘Dhom Dam’ if you have not already.
Thank you for reading!. Please checkout the short video here >