Praveen and his Scale Models...

Praveen Sathaye is one of the heartiest bikers I have known so far. And apart from riding motorcycles, we share another common passion too - scale models! However I'm no where close to the humongous amount of scale models that he has. So here are some (pun intended) words on my friend and his scale model collection!

Praveen with his motorcycle scale model collection

Praveen's tryst with scale models began when he received his first toy car at the age of 9. Since then he has been actively collecting scale models, cars, bikes, aeroplanes, commercial vehicle et al. Initially getting them as gifts and prizes for birthdays and other occasions as well as for performing well in school and later on using his hard earned pocket money to add to his collection. The collection activity got serious with time and with the advent of proper scale models of motorcycles into India. Ever since these models have been launched in India Praveen has been painstakingly putting together his collection hunting for these models all over the country, sometimes taking help of his friends and family to acquire some of them. The collection today has more than 125 Bikes ranging from old vintage Harley Davidsons to the latest state of the art big superbikes too.

What he has been able to put together is a collection that would draw gasps of envy from any avid biker and that's why he keeps it pretty closely guarded in his house. The collection is broadly categorised as per continents and eras. His largest collection however is of the Japanese motorcycles, coming from the big FOUR Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki. The beauties from the far east also include a vintage Yamaha TZ racer , the burly V-max, Roadstars, TDM 800, to the latest R 1, and the small Kawasaki 600 ninja all through the family of zx 7, zx9, zx 12 to the ZX 14 heavyweight. This also includes the Nicest Bike manufacturer with Honda contributing in the form of a Blackbird, 3 versions of the CBR 600, 2 versions of the CBR 1000 RR and couple of low slung Valkyrie cruisers.

He also has the big four Japanese dirt bikes in the traditional motocross colours, Yamaha with blue, Honda in red , Suzuki in Yellow and Kawasaki in it trademark Kawasaki green.

With the Japs taken care of how far would the hot Italians and Germans be. Europe has also produced legendary bikes and this collection has quite a significant chunk of the same. Starting from the Ducati series ranging from 748 to the 100s Multistrada, Ducati itself accounts for about 14 o his bikes. Not to forget Cagiva, MV Agusta, KTM,and the massive Munch. British bikes are present in the form of the legendary 1960's Triumph Bonneville and some of the modern speed triples and Daytonas. The German marque BMW also has significant presence in the collection in the form of the Paris Dakar winner GS series of dual purpose bikes as well as the Funduro and the legendary Cruiser R 1200.

The Ducatis

Last but not least, How would a bike collection be deemed complete if it doesnt have the BIG FAT Cruisers. Yes, there are Harleys and tons of them. Starting from the 1940's Panheads to the 2005 Screaming eagle flagship model Road king. The fully loaded and massive Ultra glide to the fast drag racing inspired V-Rod. he has immense admiration for the Milwaukee manufacturer and definitely does dream of perhaps riding one such beast in metal n chrome at least once in his lifetime.

The Cruisers

Does he play with them or simulate a biking environment? Definitely yes, till some time back. he remembers many an occasion embarrassingly when he has been caught moving the bike on the floor making revving sounds while his parents have just stood there wondering what may have gone wrong with their grown up boy, a management graduate and a responsible family man. Yes Praveen is married and his better half has been responsible for a huge amount of his collection too. Not only does she permit him from diverting some amount of his earnings into the model collection but sometimes even goes out and buys the same for him.

Police Bikes

The way he has procured some of his models is also as exceptional perhaps as his collection. he picked up a scale model of the India Chief as he saw it in a shopping window on his way for a business meeting and landed up late for the same. Of course when he explained the reason and showed glimpses of his collection to his client, things took a different turn altogether. he also picked up the model of the Bajaj M 80 at a village fair on the outskirts of Mumbai, pretty strange place for such a thing as a detailed and authentic scale model.

Not Just bikes he also has paid attention to scooters too, be it the vintage Vespa from the 1950's, starring in the Gregory Peck movie Roman Holiday to the Yamaha T Max or Honda Silver Wing large scooters. he also has managed to land himself a LML Vespa Select, which he picked up from some narrow alley in pune. Concept Bikes also form a part of his collection, be it some designer stuff from Arlen Ness or orange County choppers or simple the Dodge Tomahawk, the largest displacement motorcycle concept.Some of the model bikes also come along with their tiny designer helmets also, which are on display alongside the bike. This Collection however is by no means just a random selection of motorcycles. Every bike that makes it to his collection has a legendary value. Take for instance the BMW R 1200 from the James Bond Movies, or the Hayabusa and Suzuki Bandit from the Indian Blockbuster Dhoom.

Hyperbikes!

An ardent fan of motorcycling racing, he has his own Moto GP lineup.The Bikes lined up at the grid include the bikes of the likes of Valentino Rossi, Marco Melandri, Casy Stoner, Carlos Checa, Sete Gibernau, Dani Pedrosa et al.

A personal visit to his home is what would reveal the massive scale of the collection, as one only notices cars and bikes neatly arranged all over the house. “I’m running out of space now, so I have to keep some stuff in boxes,” he says. Although his collection is absolutely priceless, his favourite is a small wooden bike model gifted to him by his 7 year old niece, who too identifies her uncle with model bikes. This entire collection is carefully marked out, maintained through a detailed excel sheet containing particulars of each bike. The records contain such details such as the year of purchase, the model, the model maker, place of purchase and so on. “I can remember exactly where any particular bike is kept, and can locate it within minutes' states says Sathaye, a management professional Praveen who otherwise pursues a career in management with an with an e-learning company.

The Yamahas

Even as he is aiming to complete a 1000 scale models in the near future, what does Praveen have in mind afterwards. Does he plan to exhibit these collectibles. Well, his plan is to open a Motorcycling Hall Of Fame with inspiration from his late father, (who was himself an enthusiastic biker), where in all these models shall be displayed each with a one pager detailing their history and significant contribution to the world of motorcycling.He also has a collection of all motorcycle movies, whether it is the legendary Che Guerra in Motorcycle Diaries or the rebellious biker gangs in Biker Boys or Torque.
The proposed Hall of Fame shall also have a small theatre, alongside where car and bike related movies will be screened.

Why 'Rock On!!' is a must watch for bikers

Being a dyed-in-the-wool biker, all of you sometime, somewhere come across stories or movies or even incidents in your everyday life, where you can correlate them with your biking life. I’m no different and it happens to me a lot of times too. However, I somehow found the new bollywood flick, ‘Rock On’ to be one great story that a lot of bikers can correlate to.

The movie starts off with a rock band comprising of four members who have the spark and the zest of the early twenty-year olds. The four are passionate about ‘music’ and spend the better part of their time and money composing new tracks that portray their fervor. After a while they stumble upon a contest where their band, ‘Magik’ outperforms the competition to win a one-year contract with a music house and the chance to make their own music video. When this dream is about to be realized, the lead singer suddenly shoots up to fame and overshadows the rest of the groupies. As fate would have it, things start getting sour with ego clashes and self esteem coming into play. The band breaks apart and all the dreams of stardom are shattered. A decade later the members coincidently meet up again and decide to put to rest, all the unfortunate happenings that plagued them. The band comes back together and they plan to enter the same kinda competition that their band won a decade back. As liberty of cinema would portray, the band wins the competition again and their dream is realized – thus making for a happy end.

Now you may be thinking, that I will try and establish some kinda relation between rock music and biking. But no, I aint planning anything on those lines. The movie however has a much larger message for us bikers as well – if we decide to correlate that is. Just like the band members of Magik spent their early youth nurturing their passion, most of us bikers spend all our dough for the love of two wheels. From taking your girlfriend for a movie, to commuting everyday and from going for those weekend rides to being a part of some biker club – a bike becomes a part of our everyday life. Biking becomes such a big passion that we cant think of anything else. But a time finally comes when the college life ends and we are thrown into the world where making money becomes superlative. And just like the members of Magik, we too get on with materialistic needs and the passion is locked into the store room. For some it’s the job, for some its the differences between fellow bikers, for some it’s the lack of money and for some it’s the want of it. Whatever the reason, it’s the biker in you that suffers. You know down within, that you are making a compromise – living a life on terms dictated by your surroundings; forgetting the very basis of biking – freedom.

What the movie tells you though is that no matter what you choose to be your career or your way of life, there is always a way to keep your passion alive. As its rightly said, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. I agree, that earning your bread and butter and much more is an imperative need, but it is not so difficult to get into your gear and onto to the saddle of your bike. Spending time with your better half on the weekend is definitely necessary to keep the spark of our relation alive, but the relation will be complete only when you as a person will feel complete about yourself. It is important to meet up with friends and relatives whenever you find a holiday from your busy schedule. But biking is a passion which can be exploited whenever you find time – no matter what the clock shows, no matter what the weather man says. For all those fellow bikers who have drifted away from this passion, it’s my sincere request that you watch the movie; and I’m sure it will ignite the same ‘want’ to get back to your passion as what happened to the four band members in the movie. The passion that you nurtured throughout your youth still waits for you to come back. The bike that always stood by as your better half and your best friend will be elated to have you back on the saddle and controlling the leash. All that is expected of you, is to take control of your life, dictate your terms, forget about your work when you leave office and ride!

http://100octane.blogspot.com

Hi ppl,

For all of you who have been following my blog - I'm sorry!

I apologize for the lack of updates for all this while. But it should change now as a lot of things on my schedule have now fallen into place. However, all the automobile related content will now be posted on http://100octane.blogspot.com

This blog however, will still be active but will have all the other stuff that I'll write about. As for my first contribution to the 100 Octane blog, I'm posting a complete story of the R15 that I have experienced so far - from track and road use to the positives and negatives. So what are we waiting for? Head over to http://100octane.blogspot.com and update your bookmarks!

Regards and thanks

-
Rash
rohit.paradkar@gmail.com

FWD.o.t.D: Side Effects of the Tata Nano

click on the image to enlarge

F1: Force India: Fisichella happy with current form

Giancarlo Fisichella who is driving with the Force India team for 2008 recently expressed his vindication towards his current form. He was happy during the Bahrain GP that he was ahead of Nelson Piquet – the driver who replaced Fisi at Renault for 2008. Nelson himself has been struggling to come to terms with the Renault R28 and that reflects in his unsatisfactory performance in the season so far.

Force India on the other hand is overjoyed with the improvement that the team is making, considering their former iterations – Spyker, Midland and Jordan had struggled a lot without any fruits. The 12^th place finish for Fisi in both Bahrain and Malaysia after staring at the tail end of the grid on both the occasions highlights Fisi’s driving abilities further. His vast experience along with Force India’s urge to improve will definitely bring them good results in the future.

Chopper Tattoos

If custom choppers with tribal, abstract of air-brush art fascinate you and so do tattoos, this is one website you need to visit...

www.chopper-tattoos.com

FWD.o.t.D: LIVER & CHEESE

Three handsome male dogs are walking down the street when they see a beautiful, enticing, female Poodle.

The three male dogs fall all over themselves in an effort to be the one to reach her first, but end up arriving in front of her at the same time.
The males are speechless before her beauty, slobbering on themselves and hoping for just a glance from her in return.

Aware of her charms and her obvious effect on the three suitors, she decides to be kind and tells them, 'The first one who can use the words 'liver' and 'cheese' together in an imaginative, intelligent sentence can go out with me.'

The sturdy, muscular black Lab speaks up quickly and says, 'I love liver and cheese.'
'Oh, how childish,' said the Poodle. 'That shows no imagination or intelligence whatsoever.'

She turns to the tall, shiny Golden Retriever and says 'How well can you do?'
'Um. I HATE liver and cheese,' blurts the Golden Retriever.
'My, my,' said the Poodle. 'I guess it's hopeless. That's just as dumb as the Lab's sentence.'

She then turns to the last of the three dogs and says, 'How about you, little guy?'

The last of the three, tiny in stature but big in fame and finesse, is the Taco Bell Chihuahua.

He gives her a smile, a sly wink, turns to the Golden Retriever and the Lab and says....

'LIVER ALONE, CHEESE MINE'

FnF4 coming!

If you are a fan of ‘The Fast and the Furious’ series of movies, its time for you to rejoice as Universal Studios, who produced the earlier iterations of the movie are getting ready for the fourth installment. The movie will be titled ‘Fast and Furious’ (sans the ‘The’) and will mark the return of Dom Torretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker). The plot revolves around a common enemy that the two will fight against together. The movie is slated for a release in June next year.

Info on the earlier FnF series :

The Fast and the Furious:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0232500/

2 Fast 2 Furious:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322259/

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463985/

Going for a Japanese kill?

German giant BMW has been doing quite well with their motorcycles in recent times. Though they haven’t matched the Japanese in terms of styling or pricing or even sales figures, they have always been a making a name for themselves. This time however, the Germans have decided to take the battle to a new level. With the new prototype that BMW has displayed, the company has made its intentions clear. The entire package intends to go directly for the throat of the Japanese litres. Take notice people, the beast is called a BMW S 1000RR.

The proto in first glance looks quite impressive. The all carbonfibre body makes it look like a serious contender for the track – and the image below advocates the fact. The exhaust system on the prototype is made by Akrapovic. The brakes are designed by Brembo. The suspension system (along with the radical damper) comes from Ohlins. Making the bike even lighter are lightweight alloys from OZ. Last but not the least, the windshield (visor) is manufactured by the famous German company MRA. Lets wait and watch how the bikes takes shape for production..and most importantly how it performs against the fierce competition.

Empire Rising : Honda

Honda's market share is rising by the day. The phenomenal growth is heading Honda towards market dominance. Time for the market to take notice ?

At the end of the 2007 calendar year – a year of shrinking market share for individual automakers, Honda registered record sales yet again, not only in the U.S. but also in over 85% of the European countries. The highest sales gain came from the Civic and CR-V – highlighting the popularity of Honda’s new models. The Civic is one of Honda’s most successful models and is now a brand name in itself. Today the Civic has become the class leader in every market that it has entered. In 2007, Civic registered a whooping 41% sales gain in Europe. Even its 1.8-litre Indian counterpart is churning out equally good numbers after being voted the ‘Car of the Year’ when it was launched. The CR-V also registered some phenomenal sales in Europe with a 77% and 72% gain over last year for the petrol and diesel variants respectively. The CR-V, even after attracting a 130% import duty outsells everything else in its segment, which is a feat in a cost conscious market like India. Honda is now mulling producing the CR-V in India, and it’s sure to be a runaway success if it’s manufactured here with the famous i-CTDI (to be replaced with the i-DTEC soon). What makes the i-DTEC special is the fact that it’s been declared legal in all the 50 states in the U.S., unlike other diesel engines from even Mercedes-Benz and BMW. This should further boost sales for the company in the International market. If the engine comes to India, it will be Honda’s first diesel variant in the country.

A mention of Toyota is almost indispensable wherever the name Honda appears. Honda and Toyota are two words often associated with the term ‘boring vehicles’ (sarcasm intended). These automobiles are often termed so because their robust and reliable engines go on and on clocking kilometres upon kilometres without any hassle. They don’t give the owner a good enough reason to sell them and upgrade to something else. Hence, Honda and Toyota today have become the most preferred brands across the globe. Both these giants entered the international markets together during the early 1950s. Since then it has been more of a ‘tortoise and rabbit race’ with Toyota being in the lead with its faster development, thanks to its healthy cash reserves. Honda on the other hand has epitomized the fact that ‘the one who keeps moving is the one who goes places’. Though their track record has been overshadowed by Toyota’s fast development, they have been moving positively. Honda has always launched precisely what the customer and the market needs. Hence their brochure has a lesser number of models to showcase instead of having an unnecessarily big product line up that takes a huge toll on investments but doesn’t reflect with equally good individual sales – something Toyota is famous for. Honda has never stressed much on platform sharing either. They believe that platform sharing doesn’t make production cheaper, instead makes products look cheap. The result is an array of reliable and technologically advanced engines across models that different markets around the world demand. Since their entry into our sub-continent about a decade back, Honda’s reliability, quality and design have created benchmarks in our market – all at a competitive price. Further, Honda hasn’t kept the Indian market deprived of any world class technologies either. The fuel efficient yet powerful i-VTEC engines are now at the heart of every Honda available in the country. The soon to be introduced i-DTEC diesel engines will see even healthier sales gain worldwide. With such committed technical innovation, steady and productive development and the reliability to match, Honda sure seems to be heading for greater success. At this rate, it won’t be long before the ‘boring tortoise’ matches pace with the helpless rabbit.

JAGUAR - TATA - LAND ROVER

2008 will go down history books as one of the greatest buy-outs on the Indian automobile front. Over the past few months the financial news has looked quite similar to pages from some automobile magazine with the TATA-FORD deal blazing the headlines. Tata have been nominated favourites for the buy-out of two Ford-owned brands – Jaguar and Land Rover. However, the food for thought now remains, as to what will be the after effects of these acquisitions ? What does it mean for Tata and the Indian Market ? Read on…

Tata Motors is known for its expertise in the commercial segment with an array of trucks, buses and other load-bearing vehicles. It also holds the spot for the second largest medium and heavy bus manufacturer in the world. In 1991, they launched their first passenger vehicle – the Sierra, while the next notable indigenous effort that changed the face of Tata Motors came in 1998 with the Indica. The car became such a run away hit that its success story is now a subject of study in quite a few management schools across Asia. In between though, Tata got into a joint venture with Mercedes Benz and rolled out the E Class models in India. The company has always been a fast learner and is known to gather a lot of know-how from its technical collaborations till date. I reckon that the story won’t be different this time around either. With this buy-out, Tata will definitely have a knowledge boost for their current and future range of automobiles. The company has already tasted foreign waters with the City Rover, which has given Tata the knowledge of foreign markets, their requirements and behaviour. Along with this, Tata will also study as to what factors have affected sales for these two brands till now and will work towards rectifying them before giving these brands a make-over in the International market. From a financial point of view, Tata is the only Indian Automaker to be listed on NYSE. The news of the acquisition had a negative reaction on the stock market with Tata losing its value by close to 9 Rupees at the BSE and Ford losing value by about 15 cents at the NYSE. Sales in the U.S for Jaguar and Land Rover however had mixed reactions with a drop of 24 % and gain of 3.7% respectively for the two British icons. But steps in the right direction should see Tata’s graphs on an upwards scale with respect to sales.

The Land Rover will definitely feel like home to Tata considering the company’s affection for SUVs / MUVs. It’ll not only help Tata enhance their indigenous products from the similar segment, but will also lay a path for building a strong R&D and a stronger road-map for their vehicles in the Indian as well as the International markets. It won’t be long before Tata’s new lessons will reflect in the Sumo and/or even the 207DI. I’m speculating the Range Rover and its variants will come to India with the high end SUV segment gaining some momentum now. At the same time we can’t rule out the possibility of Land Rover’s CRDI engines and related technology filtering down to the smaller Tatas. Proper pricing for the Land Rovers should pit them directly against its former parent BMW’s SUVs on the higher end and current parent Ford’s Endeavour at the entry level, in the local market. Internationally, Land Rover still holds the pride to be one of the few true off-roaders amongst a gallery of soft-roaders. Tata has to make sure that Land Rover lives up to this pride in its future models as well, no matter how many gadgets its vehicles decide to adapt.

Jaguar however will need some serious inputs for the future models considering the ever increasing threat from the Germans. Ford’s financial woes had further weakened the cat’s ability to leap forward. Jaguar should benefit from Tata’s strong financial background as far as research and development is concerned. It still holds a shiny brand image though and a great fan following in Europe. Tata should capitalise on these facts and consider introducing this species of the cat to Indian waters as well. The company will have to face its German rivals here too. But with a sensible pricing and clever marketing and penetration, the Jaguar range could single-handedly hold a candle to the likes of the 5 series and the E-class. It wont be an easy task though as these cars have set up their base quite well, but then again, the battlefield for all these International brands in India is still fresh. The models we think will come to India are –

Though Tata will now own these two brands, getting them down to the country won’t be an easy task. The homologation, the import procedures, the price points for the vehicles and their marketing are hurdles that are imperative. But the primary objective of Tata in this case would be setting up a strong after-sales service, spares backup and customer care to be on par with their International rivals. Tata’s well knit dealer and service network however will work strongly in their favour. Only time will tell what Tata decides for these two brands and which models will come to India or if at all they will. But I can happily conclude that these acquisitions will significantly improve Tata’s technical know-how, their product range and its image as an automobile manufacturer in the global market.

I wish the following models to hit the Indian tarmac (and ground as well) –

Land Rover:

Range Rover -

The Turbocharged Diesel Engine and the Supercharged Petrol Engine options will make this SUV a serious challenger for the European competitors in India, like the X5, M-Class, Q7 and Cayenne. Going by the International pricing of this vehicle, it shouldn’t be hard for Tata to compete with the Germans on the price point too. If Tata can just about pull it off, it can even take on the Japanese competition – The Montero and the Prado.

Discovery –

The powerful Turbo-Diesel V6 and the rugged Land Rover build and styling can mean serious competition for the likes of the X3 and the 3 Lt. variant of the Q7.

Defender –

If Tata can manage to bring this vehicle down to the country and price it at a point lower than 20 lakhs, it can give the Endeavour, Pajero, Tuscon, X-Trail, and Honda’s new CR-V a run for their money.

Jaguar :

XJ -

This model in its 3 Lt. and 2.7 Lt. engine variants will compete with the Audi A6 and the Mercedes Benz E-Class.

XF -

With a variety of engines at its disposal, this car can be a serious contender against the performance crazy 5 series. Given its aggressive styling, it’s a sure seller.

XK -

This car, if priced well, has the ability to give the Mercedes Benz SLK and the Porsche Boxster a run for its money. This is one car that we would definitely like to see on the Indian tarmac.

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(ALL OTHER LOGOS/NAMES USED ARE TRADEMARKS AND/OR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE RESPECTIVE COMPANIES AND/OR ORGANIZATIONS)