Sumanta riding ATV in Tripura

Just got news that Sumanta happily riding his RED ATV in Tripura. It was nice that he sent me the photographs taken in his camera while he was here to collect his dream machine. In the above photo, I am explaining the riding and maintenance techniques to Sumanta.

One ATV delivered

Yesterday evening Mr Sumanta Debbarma took a ATV and hopped into a train to Tripura. Yes Mr Sumanta living on other side of Bangla Desh came all the way to collect one ATV and I think this is farthest distance my ATV will go. I wish many happy days of ATV riding to him.

So there are two [BLUE and GREEN] complete ATVs with me and one Yellow machine that has some minor components missing. Interested people need not mail me regarding their availability as I will be posting update immediately after deliveries.

My blog gets plenty of hits from around the country. Many people send mail to enquire about availability and import guidance. I have no way to determine their seriousness, so cannot separate grain from chaff with email communication There are people who have approach me & create impression that they are hopping on plane on next day to parachute on my farm just to collect a ATV. One Mr Amaan from Mumbai just did that last week.

Having myself flown powered hang glider solo, aka microlight aircraft - and having a bad crash later on, I am not dazzled by their flying in plans. But I have to be courteous. My poor health makes this difficult. I keep my routine work pending to accommodate them. Suddenly communication gets cold and they don’t even inform me of changed circumstances.

Riding ATV mean you have to unlearn a crucial movement that we get used to during riding two wheelers. We should never lift our leg out of footrests. Even if we are going to be toppled, our legs should continue to be on footrest to avoid more injury. I was busy teaching all these fine points of riding and maintenance and so neglected taking photographs while he was with us.

Why I prefer cash & carry sale ?

I am a person of strong conviction and I want the people who buy ATV from me to be 100 % satisfied getting value for their money and not 95 %. That can happen only with pre delivery inspection and one to one talk. My hearing problem prevents long telephonic discussion. That is one of the main reason I want people to take delivery from my farm.

I am not a businessman. For two full years and till my faithful Blue ATV clocked more than 250 hours – I was not willing to sell the spare ATV to anybody as I wanted to be certain about the quality. Only after that I was ready to sell but by then initial euphoria had died down. I am not making too much effort to sell.

I keep getting mail from interested people in distant places. Negotiating the packing and forwarding ATVs is too much of burden for me right now. So I am giving this explanation here instead of individual replies.

Sending to a faraway person involves numerous tasks. First I have to get packing material and fabricate a box. Then have to pay VAT, maybe Rupees 5000 @ 12.5 % of 40 K at commercial tax office and get the receipt to facilitate smooth transport. Then I have to take it to lorry office for booking. All this will cost some money. With my rock-bottom price, I don't want to add expenses. Being partially handicapped, I cannot move around easily. All these work as well as expenses will be absent while giving on cash and carry basis.

Right now I have three surplus pieces and some visitors are expected soon to have a look. If there is a sale, it will certainly be mentioned here. The first machine to go out will be cheapest and I expect little more for latter pieces.

My farm location can be seen from following links : http://osm.org/go/yyYtmAM-- openstreet link & http://ow.ly/4LKBs leads to wikimapia

More info on surplus ATVs offered

I am getting numerous mail from faraway states regarding ATV. Some people are keen to have more than one piece. So here are more details on different ATVs.

BLUE – ONE - I have extensively used this both in farm and in seashore- Not for sale.

BLUE - TWO - only unpacked. Never poured fuel into fuel tank.

RED- Started once but have not used.  SOLD

GREEN - only unpacked. Never poured fuel into fuel tank

YELLOW - have removed carburetor and connecting hose. Can be made ready by getting components from market. Fuel never poured into the tank.

They will need 12 V 9 Ah battery worth 1200 INR. Otherwise should be ok. Any herohonda mechanic should be able to get it ready. Electric components like plug, CD units are same as herohonda.

I have so far not agreed to the offers that require packing and dispatch as I prefer cash and carry deal. They are CHEAP and good value for money.

Surplus ATV for SALE

I have three unused ATVs in my godown. I had to get five as my Chinese manufacturer, supplier at last moment said, minimum order quantity was five and I wanted one very urgently. The available colours are red, blue and green.

Right now I am not using ATV much due to further downturn in farm activities. My anti global warming beliefs also plays a role in this.

I am now moving around in a electric assist tricycle. My trike is unique that can accept energy inputs both from pedals and battery. You can see more on this in my blog. http://e-triking-india.blogspot.com/

So the ATVs are available for sale at my COST PRICE, on as is where is basis. Sorry  All SOLD   My place is 45 km from Mangalore which is in West Coast of India. http://ow.ly/4LKBs

ATVs are designed for offroad use with no differential. So they are not suitable for tarmac and are not registered by RTO.

This is very unique opportunity. Rush before they are sold out.

Importing goods into India.

Every week   I get letters   either  asking how much  I paid for ATV in China or  how much import duty was charged by Indian customs.

Many of these enquiries happens to be just for creating nuisance and nothing is going to be achieved by those people. Still I politely used to reply every one of them.

The total amount I paid as cost to ATV manufacturer in China and to Indian customs do not give whole picture. About sixty five percent have been spent under above two headings whereas one third money have been spent to facilitate the transfer. In earlier posting have made a list where you have to spend money.

Here is an example. As I mentioned earlier procedure involved for customs clearance of very small consignment and very big are basically same, the charges may appear to be expensive for small consignment. The agency charges for me was INR 6500 which will be same even for a small consignment.

So importing small consignment hoping to get it bit cheaper is very foolish thinking. We have to import the things if and only if the goods are not available locally or monopoly dealers quote exorbitant prices for that.

Second part of our Seashore trip

Our first seashore expedition was cut short by heavy rainfall and impending darkness. The incomplete part as I saw in wikimaps was very spectacular and on the same day I made up my mind to come back to complete the remaining distance.

Since the remaining portion was very small that can be covered in one hour or a little more, we started from Padubidri coast. We planned to start at three in the evening and visited relatives in the afternoon.

Rohit arrived at rendezvous point in time, accompanied by a TV team from Namma TV. It was bit unexpected by me and immediately we started unloading and got the ATV ready. Anil accompanied by Abhinav was the first team this time also. They were able to make it to Kaup quite fast as they were in familiar terrain.

There is a small stream amidst rocks near Kaup light house and we had to come bit inland to cross that stream. TV team captured some footage near Kaup lighthouse while I was impatient to continue so as to reach Malpe while there was still some light.

Sunil started riding after a while and he applied brakes while taking a turn and result was loose chain jumped the sprocket. I had not tightened the chain very much as sand getting settled on the interior of chain may make result in chain breakage. He was able to correct the problem and resume the journey. We were in mobile phone contact and was taking it easy.

The narrow strip of land between pangala river and sea makes the area very scenic. There is road and few coconut trees plus a house between the river and sea in this area. The famous mattu brinjal grows in place called Mattu around here. The sandy soil gives unique flavour to this brinjal and the rain in late November that cut short our trip did spoil the brinjal crop also.

We reached the endpoint around Six and had ample time to enjoy ATV rides in wide beach. Meanwhile Video team spoke with all of us and little Abhinav and Sunil did speak nicely in front of TV camera.