Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Riding ATV in seashore




Riding ATV in seashore in a exhilarating experience. With less than 200 feet straight stretch at home, the long beach is a very inviting sight. Boys Anil and Sunil enjoyed it very much. They are able to practice various tricks which was facilitated by long stretch and soft sand.

Someshwara beach is about 50 km from my home. We had loaded ATV into Omni on the previous day and had started early. Finally we reached there at 0930 and quickly unloaded the ATV.

The sinking factor in sand meant constant high throttle that puts tremendous load on the engine. By the time one rider was back another was ready. We could give little time to cool off though it was in my mind. The refueling period was one time when we really switched off the engine.

The engine tuning by a good friend Mohan from kanthila helped a lot today. The running was very smooth with instant starting at first firing. The engine performed extremely well in spite of heavy use or abuse.

Riding in beach at higher speed meant the sand gets sprayed both on us and the machine. It is okay otherwise but I feel sand being dry abrasive material plays havoc on the transmission chain. Sunil took a sharp turn in his last lap and chain jumped the sprocket. The wear and tear in three and half hours session is just noticeable.

Momentum helps considerably in climbing uphill. Failure to climb inclines will induce rear wheels to start digging and within five seconds they will get half submerged. Putting power in opposite direction early will prevent getting submerged and sometimes had to lifted out.

Toppling over in sand means less chance of broken bones. So we could practice correct way of climbing hills by standing over foot pegs and shifting body weight forward. Boys were wearing bermuda shorts and riding without helmets most of the time. Wearing helmets and long pants are always advisable in safety consideration.

We were thinking of leaving at 1.20 PM being both hungry and tired. Then fuse was blown and we couldn’t pinpoint the problem spot quickly. Consulted local mechanic Isubu on the way back with ATV inside Van. I thought it was push button switch or starter solenoid but actually it turned out to be Fuse. This was first time the fuse letting me know its existence.



 








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