Searching for the God of Thunder..

The condo we live in offers pretty good views; and the builder has been smart enough to install glass panes that are robust to withstand typhoons - something that nature has been hurling with ferocity at Shanghai over years. The typhoon withstanding ability of the glass is also complemented with a pretty good insulation which keeps out the horrific wind screams, occasional shipping air horns from the Huangpu river as well as the revving of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Mclarens (my personal favorites) by enthusiastic drivers around.

I like it this way - the peaceful way. The way life should be : A man/ woman ought to be at peace, ready to pursue his/ her area of interest. Of course, the household chaos may drive you nuts; but as an option - I love the idea of living in a home which insulates external cacophony. 

Li'l Soshu: Rain rain go away

The glass does a good job - I see big ships bleating their air horns; I have witnessed relentless winds outside. However none of that is allowed to seep in and peace within our home is upheld.

However, there was one thrum that managed to wiggle through the insulation and creep into the home every morning. The thrum was powerful enough to cause minor vibrations in the glass as well!

Could it be Thor? Nah.. Avengers always spar aliens in US or western countries (barring that one off Wakanda battle). For some reason, none of the bigger issues like alien invasion, lost nuclear arsenal, demigods attack, etc. seem to affect Asia . 

Day after day, I tried to track the source by applying the science of logical deduction. 

Here are my findings:

• Ships: I see a 200k + tonnage ship bearing a Dutch flag - maybe it was bleating its air horn. Or its motor could have been too powerful. The next day there was no big ship or even li'l boats. The thrum was still there. So ships are not to blame.. 

• 
• Screeching winds? I have cycled back in screeching winds to enter our home with absolute peace. Windy day or not - that thrum comes in at 7:50 am. Nope, weather was even worse in the Fall & Winter evenings.

• Ghosts: Nope - I have heard that the way HK & Shanghai's real estate prices have moved; most of ghosts have migrated west to more affordable places in New York and Paris (Numbers courtesy: Statistica). 
  

The question plagued me for months - pushing me further towards insanity. More so because I somehow loved that modulated thrum and how it rose. The fact that I did not know what I loved sounded bizarre.

The answer struck me when I saw this green outrageous machine and loved the sound of it - The Mercedes Gullwing- AMG. If you are a motorhead - you would understand the art of correlation - about cornering with the same family of chassis, listening to the same family of engines revving, etc.. In my case, the latter was a sudden connect.

Sure enough, I darted the next morning - right at 7:50am. 

The thrum yes, an AMG engine - maybe, visuals - no.

Failure to identify.. However, I'll live for tomorrow.

The next day, clouds and winds played havoc. Though could not hear them inside. Then that thrum livened. I looked frantically.

Yes there it was!

Don’t see it?

Look again… Does that red square help?

Yet again.. Let me zoom it a bit for you..

And some more (the max my phone can zoom)

You see that pale golden dot - the one dwarfed by a Lexus van? That's the culprit: The Mercedes AMG G 63. a.k.a. the 'G-wagen'

Look at the pictures above again to get an idea of the distance. Bear in mind the insulation job of the apartment as well. And now think about it - how Mercedes and AMG manage to beat the ships, distance, winds and insulation to greet me!

So forget Thor. Yield to the thunder of that 4 L V8  spooling those Borg Warner twin-turbos.
The real God of Thunder is the AMG M-176 V8 engine on that 2 ton Mercedes beast.

The Shanghai automobile museum

The number of museums this city houses is simply spectacular. Even a determined traveler could spend years to cover the breadth and depth. The more astonishing aspect is the variety of tastes the city can cater to. I was hence very surprised to find this hidden treasure - which I believe is the city's attempt to catchup with the Deutsch and Japanese titans.

Parking at Shimao Weifang rd..

Shanghai treats you with the best of automotive world in a very natural and seemingly organic way. I Initially thought: You don’t need a museum for cars here; if you want to meet the stars, we could stand at any intersection ( LuJiaZui, Jingan, Huaihai, or elsewhere), or:  take the elevator to the basement of any residential parking (Proof from our apartment inset). I was keen to find out what a museum could do - in a city where perhaps the streets had more to offer.

So off I went, like Alice - tumbling down the rabbithole. 

Getting here: (a) Cab - ~50 mins from Lujiazui or (b) Metro line 11- Anting road station (some 50 minutes from the business district) + 2 min cab/ 10 minute walk.

Cadillac M (1907

The beginning.. Respect your CTS - it has a rich heritage indeed.

Toyota Corolla - Nothing to say. Just thinking about the journey. From this to the becoming the largest selling automobile of the planet. Our family had one: Minus the boredom, it was one of the most dependable things that served us.

If you thought only the Rolls Royce of today's age looks classy; think again... You could walk around admiring this ancient but regal creature for hours.

The original Land Rover. Think of a modern day Discovery - Now we know why it is necessary to evolve, yet respect your heritage.

When Mr. Bond needs to quickly make a dash for Martinis.. The Aston Martin

Breathe… Say a silent prayer - the way you do before thinking of your God.. Good.. Now you may worship the two legends: 

The revolutionaries: The Ford Model T and the VW Beetle in the background 

American Muscle is a tricky area for me.. Not sure if I hate them or love them, but regardless of my religious beliefs, I have to bow to those three letters: GTO (Pontiac)

And then we have the flagbearer of American muscle - the Ford Mustang : in its original glory. Serving the American dream from 1964.... 

Now the God of three letters - BMW. This piece deserves more respect as it is one of the earlier one of that genre 'M'.  Proud to note that my friend Varun and his family have entered that relationship with an X4 - M recently.

Datsun 240 Z: This started the lineage of Z s - I maintain a personal bias here - The naturally aspirated Nissan 350 Z is one of the most exciting cars I have driven (from archives)

As I was wandering through this magical place, a thought occurred to me. I computed the probability of a friend and you- my dear reader - of trying to own these pieces. For all I know, you could (a) take the billionaire route or (b) the thievery route. Just in case you are planning a heist on this place, and would be kind enough to spare a car from your loot for your dear friend - I ought to submit my preference in advance.

Zhege (this one).. No no. Not the one on the left. The Lamborghini Countach - was indeed one of the most aerodynamic and aesthetically daring design in the history of automobile. While it has the naturally aspirated mid engine V12 mated to a perfect transmission, the Italian durability of those times scare me. Not the one on the extreme right either- the Honda NSX gets too much limelight and class. 

So if you do agree to purloin one for me - it'd be the one in the middle - the 8th generation Nissan Skyline please. Front engine, rear wheel drive - and the design discreet enough to bely the menacing intent of that 2.6 L twin turbo motor. This belongs to the right decade - where automotive engineering was still more about mechanics than electronics.

Other tips:

- The top floor houses a kids area. Kids of all ages could easily spend an hour here.

- Cafe serves decent stuff inside the museum, and a McDonalds at the entrance. For a wider variety, hit the Jiating Hui life mall near Anting road

The Swedish sophistication

Sweden for me meant Ikea, H&M, Volvo (pre-Geely days), Saab Gripen. All signifying  simple designs with supremacy at sophistication. If you want clarity, please check out a simple desk from Ikea - and compare it with an expensive regal furniture in a swanky showroom in your town. The latter: with its over the top design would be expensive as it promises heavy teak to last a lifetime. But you realize you want to dump it when you have it, as it has little to offer on the ergonomics front and at home - doesn't look like the way it did in the catalogue. To understand my point better- drive a Volvo S-60 or fly a Saab Gripen.

So in my mind, it has been etched long ago:  Swedish = clean, simple and classy. One of the reasons why I coaxed Sona into considering a visit. 

To start with, the Swedish simplicity went into an overkill mode. We were silly enough to fly Ryan air, which did get us from Charleroi to Skavsta in one piece each, and then the Skavsta airport welcomed us with its bare bones. Clean, but very skeletal. The bus took around 1.5 hours to get us to Stockholm city center. Moral of the story - (a) Do check with experienced people before planning your trip, your best friend (google.com) cannot advise you on the 'experience' part (b) avoid being Scrooge.

Stockholm turned out to be the biggest surprise for us in Europe. While neither of us can pin point the touristy points (no highest peak, the ancient structures were not the ancient-est, no Paris/ Swiss hypes), the city has a character which triumphs and will always remain stamped in our minds. To make it more interesting, we stayed at the Mosebacke hostel - and that turned out to be an interesting experience as well. Right in the heart of the city, it helped us move around quickly.

The palace, the museums, you could pick anything. If we had the time, we would love do that for a couple of more days - landing in old town/ Gamla Stan in the evening, exploring the alleys, drifting into any of the shops/ buildings (museum or not, all of them have such a rich history - check out this simple pub; the basement was older than several countries) and finally bidding the evening  goodbye in the typical European way - in a pub.

 

One good spooky walking tour we suggest is: https://www.stockholmghostwalk.com/en/

Those words have a new meaning for us post Sweden: class and sophistication. Lets see if anything can dethrone Sweden's place there.

The Nobel prize venue

Netherlands: ingenuity and terror

Having sampled Swiss trains, driving and walking in Europe, Sona and I decided to explore the bus option. The journey involved crossing Belgium and getting to Amsterdam. We boarded the liner and enjoyed the sights as we traversed through Belgian landscape. After Antwerp, our bus meandered through the border town of Eindhoven, the birth place of the conglomerate called Phillips. 

The town got me thinking - the ingenuity of the little country. Small national icons that went on to reign supreme in the world (think Shell, Unilever, Phillips).  From use of pumps to drain water out of its cities to modern time leader in clean energy, the Dutch know how to lead on the innovation front.

We were woken out of our slumber by frantic activity and announcements in Dutch. Hurriedly, we picked up our belongings and got down the bus. As we were in the process of waking up, we figured that the place had little semblance to our intended destination - Amsterdam. Great snakes! We were at Utrecht!

Well, not much to write about the place; just that the largest cycle parking was visible (more on that phenomenon later); we spotted the station and purchased tickets for Amsterdam and reached by the evening.

Amsterdam - I can say I was not at all disappointed. My former image of a wannabe town marked with sleaze had to make way for a city with a rich history, freedom, indomitable spirit, creativity and its byproducts. 

In Amsterdam, though our recommendations range from the river tour, red light area, etc., we recommend that you explore as much as you can. We have a feeling that whatever museum, alley you walk into - you will not be disappointed.

Besides Amsterdam, the must visit place we recommend is Den Haag (The Hague). Its claim to fame is as host of the International Court of Justice and a major host of other UN offices.

The multilateral aspect aside, it has a beauty and spirit of its own. We made a beeline for the sea front where the winds from the North, having melted their share of ice from the Arctic met us with full ferocity.

But alas, our travel sojourns will make way for a more immediate problem that is plaguing our times. Ladies and gentlemen, I have to talk about terrorism and the Dutch connection.

Kindly note that terrorism has taken many names and faces. Some of them are: Al-qaida, Lashkar Taeba and Cycling.

The latter is the one whose origination and propagation may be attributed to Netherlands. Some statistics:

While you may be conned into an image of suave, environment friendly and healthy cyclists; deeper experience lifts this veil to identify the peril to your life that cyclists pose.

• These simple machines, at the hands of a well built European Meneer or Mejuffrouw can attain unimaginable speeds - posing grave danger to themselves and the innocent public in general
• 
  Picturize your careless Shubham walking around in search of the Heineken museum and poof - a cyclist just whisked by. A lazy turn to answer to Sona's voice just saved him from being knocked off
• He curls his arms by a couple of degrees and….. Swish….  A nano second's delay would have meant that his arm would have been ripped off by a speeding maniac
• Later in the evening - we saw a first - Drunken cyclists!! Later, there were high cyclists - connoisseurs of space cakes of Ams. While the police around the world does a good job to keep ineberiated motorists in check; I doubt if there is a law to protect us from such peril.
  

In Europe, I always drove with a dark cloud on my head. I was told that cyclists have the right to be reckless, but if I were to touch them in a car (even for no fault of my own), I had two options:

1. Escape and wait for the legal system to catch me eventually 

2. Get out of the car, burn my documents and head voluntarily to jail for a couple of decades

I am told that the end result is not very different in both the cases.

Note: With no other option in sight, the author has joined the movement and now cycles to work every day.

Dominar 400 - Answering the 'Why'

Bajaj Auto screws up electricals, makes sure its bikes have the worst gearboxes in the category, and has a horrid after-sales setup.

So I went ahead and bought another one.

Why?

Well, had a 10 year experience with a Pulsar-200 and was sure that machines coming out of Bajaj stables are adept to take up Indian roads; or lack of it. I’ve witnessed multiple cases of suspension failure across Hondas (no kidding, I have seen monoshocks snap), and in contrast hold my previous 10 year old Bajaj mile-muncher as a testament to ‘adapting to Indian conditions to survive’. Of course, you will figure out the real reason at the end of this.

So this time, I decided for go for the 400 CC they claimed to be a game changer.

For starters, the Good:

• The Engine: This boasts of a very smooth engine- certainly the best from Bajaj till date. Rev it hard, and it accelerates you pointedly. Close the throttle, it gets down to a subdued hum. Note: Accelerating and decelerating is an experience in itself, and as a very cautious and well thought through exception, I put it ahead of the Honda engines.
•  The light (& the front): Mein Gott!! What a looker this is.. Those fierce, unforgiving eyes- they have all  the world’s anger wrapped within- radiating it with those DRLs. Witnessing this machine approach is like … Is like. Its like. Like…: Rocky Balboa sparring with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background, or .. or Angry Vijay Deenanath Chauhan charging at you… with vengeance.
• High speed cruise-ability: A high speed cruiser indeed. This machine is absolutely at ease at 120 kmph and can stay there for a several hours without any complaint. When I say at ease- I mean the engine does not feel strained, and most importantly, you have confidence in stopping thanks to those huge discs and tires (upgrade from factory rubber recommended).

The Bad:

•        Suspension: Remember when I said that the Bajaj suspension is solid? Well, here’s the thing- they took my feedback too seriously and replaced metal in the struts with concrete (I think). The result is a ride quality that tries its best to throw you off its seat at lower speeds. Turning is not that comfortable and your arms and back may feel overwrought most of the time in the city.
•           Putting it all together/ Mating the engine and gearbox: Getting you all back from that utopian dream of great components: the solid body, etc. How can you screw it up? The answer is- putting it together. The engine is great, but riding at anything less than 50 at constant speeds is often riddled with shudders.
•           Looks: Besides the aggressive front, rear of the bike is more of a let-down.  For me, impressing ladies is not a priority. If it is for you, stay away from the Dominar.. 
•          After sales: Remember how our dear Kurt Cobain went out slamming a fan with his guitar, before getting on playing on at the concert?? I have a feeling Bajaj takes Nirvana very seriously and are trying to get there with the way they treat their customers/ product fans. Still in the first year of its life, my bike has to go begging to Bajaj service stations for hearing me out. I have had a few complaints, with regard to the low RPM shudders and softening the suspension, but Bajaj guys couldn’t care less. When I requested for a check to the ECU, they assured me that they have already washed the bike and that ought to fix the issue. 

Now coming to the point why I bought one. For this, bear with this little story:

One fine morning while you cruise easily on your side- you observe that the other side of the road is not that fortunate – an early morning traffic snarl it seems. You also spot that guy on the other side at distance, sans helmet on a Hero Honda Passion, with an open silencer, and a logo declaring his association to a notorious political party.

The joker has come to cognizance of his imminent fate – a possible delay of 2.50 minutes! ! He decides that a person of his importance cannot put up with this.. He has just vandalized a few properties, and now has to get somewhere quickly for his next assignment - to set few buses ablaze, or demolish some outspoken actress' home, maybe – urgently of course. Righteously, he comes on to the wrong side of the road and starts coming head on - bleating his shrill horn and zig zagging in style at the oncoming traffic head on, creating absolute havoc for other law abiding citizens.

‘Jai Maharshtra’ – the maniac’s saffron sticker proclaimed. Mind you: assembled in Pune, the Dominar checks the ‘son of soil’ theory as well and started changing its behavior.

While I was quietly meandering at 30 Kmph, the Dominar clearly did not like my calm. The Dominar decides to take the matter in its own hands and starts assuming control. Machine over man this time..

Magically, my left foot slips to commence some clicks to drop a few gears.. And then..

Gear 1..  The throttle is opened and the front wheel lifts up by a few degrees, while the rear tyre scavenges for grip on the tarmac- a few slips cite victory of torque over the friction. The clutch still in play, the engine revs with quite a distinct roar in the busy road and catches the attention of the entire street.

Clutch.. Gear 2 .

As the engine is mated to the transmission with some of the clutch in play, the rear tyre screams for grip, and the front tyre experiences a lift-off again. The throaty engine whips out the 35 NM torque and equal number of horses for the road..

Now that the Dominar has transformed into a rocket, we do have our maniac’s attention. You can see him watching you in confusion, slowing down a bit, and see fear building up in his eyes, as you determinedly barrel towards him.. Head on - collision course..  

Clutch

Gear 3: We are building the revs again. While the speedo determinedly builds up towards areas where the third digit would be needed soon, the engine has not yet got to its redline (the rev limiter kick in – in Dominar’s case). Noting that we have three more gears left, we keep accelerating. As a final war trumpet, we activate all the DRLs.

Our nitwit is visibly troubled now. His miniscule brain gets into overdrive, computing the probability of his survival after being rammed by a heavy machine, with a crazy look, angry lights, possessing that kind of momentum gained at that unmentionable speed.

Noting that the Dominar may be out to annihilate him, he sights the nearest opening in the road divider and darts to the stagnated traffic on his (correct) side of the road.

It’s job done, the Dominar switches off its lamps, engages the brakes and glides back into its moderate civilian speeds.

All this – from the downshifts, acceleration to braking back to normalcy: abating aggression with aggression, was concluded in less than 20 seconds.

Now lets address that earlier question: Why are we buying this? 

All that aggression.. Or countering aggression - You could do all this at Rs. 160,000 ex-showroom (non-ABS). For any other machine to have undertaken such a feat, you would need to shell out multipliers (BMW 310, KTM RC 390, Ninja?). The Bajaj propels Uncle Scrooge to that mid level sports bike category at a substantial discount.  Precisely why this fellow with a blue cover- 4 lion embossed passport bought this.

 

PS: Having said that, I plead all serious bikers not to waver from the RC 390, no matter what other bikes claim to do, or the discounts they offer. Regardless of whether you are highway king, stunt master, track racer, chain snatcher or a criminal on the run, the RC 390 triumphs for all your needs. Work harder, stop being a scrooge, beg or steal - and get the KTM..