Lehtrar Road is making us work for this Sunday outing. There is dust, traffic, and work on the service road. I have spent practically my whole life around here, but familiarity does very little for the congestion.
The plan is simple enough: get to Rawalpindi, collect the luggage boxes for the new motorcycle, and come home. I have already been to a friend's wedding today. If I leave this errand for another day, a busy working week will probably turn it into next weekend's job.
Under me is a Lifan KPT 250, bought earlier this month. The top box, side boxes, and mounting frame are waiting at OW Motorsports in Chaklala Scheme 3. They have taken about two weeks to arrive. I haven't needed them urgently, but it will be good to have the complete bike at last.
For now, we just need to get through this stretch.
A left at the petrol station
The road clears enough to give me a little breathing room. We are coming into Chaklala Scheme 3, and I am trying to remember the turn for the showroom.
There is the petrol station. Left here. Yes, this is it.
Getting into the showroom takes a little negotiation. I ask for room to pass and make my way through the entrance. The ride can pause here while the boxes go on.
My experience with the showroom has been good; the late luggage is the only hiccup so far. With it fitted, the KPT finally has everything that came with the package. Nothing extra yet. There are already a few additions on my mind, but those can wait.
Time to find the way home.
My left foot still owns a Suzuki
I think this is the right road. Chaklala Scheme 3, Old Airport… yes, we will take a U-turn up ahead.
Actually, that other turn might have saved us the U-turn altogether. Something to remember next time.
The Old Airport underpass is ahead, and there is Ammar Roundabout. As the route starts to make sense, the motorcycle gives me something else to work on.
Wrong gear. Again.
After four or five years on a GS150, my left foot still expects a Suzuki. This six-speed gearbox needs a different habit, and mine has not caught up yet.
Before the GS, I had a Yamaha YBR 125G. We did a couple of tours together before I moved on to Pakistan's ultimate touring machine, the GS150. I still own it. Switching from the Yamaha took some adjustment too, and eventually I stopped thinking about the gears at all.
We will get there with this one. Apparently, we are going to practise quite a lot on the way home.
Getting acquainted
Seventy-three kilometres is hardly enough to know a motorcycle. It is enough to start collecting questions.
The seat is fine for a short outing. Three or four hundred kilometres might be a different conversation. I can put my feet down comfortably, and around town the bike feels good. The throttle responds nicely too, although I am taking it easy while the engine is still new.
The luggage is less convincing. I am used to the JDR top-box mount on the Suzuki, and this mounting plate doesn't give me quite the same confidence. I need to look at it properly in daylight before deciding what I think of it. For a tour, I am already leaning towards soft luggage rather than taking these side boxes everywhere.
Then there is the handlebar. I am leaning forward a little more than I would like. Add a cushion to the seat and I will be sitting higher still. Standing on the pegs is another thing to consider. A little extra bar height might help, but I need more time on the bike to work that out.
The cushion question takes me back to the GS150. My solution there was an inner tube from a wheelbarrow tyre.
I have never tried a gel or mesh cushion, so I cannot offer a grand comparison. I can say that the air in that little tube did a remarkably good job. Someone really should turn the idea into a proper product.
These are the sorts of things I like discovering through riding. A seat, a riding position, a mounting plate: they each become a little more interesting once you have to live with them.
A little time for this, too
Away from the bike, there is work, family, and the usual problem of finding time for everything. I am a software engineer, working remotely now. My little boy turned nine months old two days ago. There is a podcast I am trying to keep moving as well.
I may have started too many things at once.
But I want to make room for these rides. I have been riding and touring for six or seven years, and I already have memories scattered across old recordings with no real order to them. I want something I can return to years from now and follow from the beginning.
There are friends who want to start riding too. Which bike should they get? What do they need to take? Where can they go near Islamabad, and what will it cost? I would like to make those first trips a little easier for them. We can work through the questions as we go.
Today's outing is only an errand to Rawalpindi, but it is as good a place to begin as any.
One hundred and one
The odometer now reads 101 kilometres.
That seems to have happened rather quickly. Perhaps I really am covering more distance than I think. Perhaps the meter needs checking. A few familiar routes, with distances I know, should help settle that.
For a moment, I imagine following this bike all the way to a hundred thousand kilometres. Every service, every change, all those trips.
Then I catch myself. I might change bikes long before that. There is plenty to find out about this one first.
Ten thousand. Let's start there.
And there goes another wrong gear.
Back on Lehtrar Road
Home is close, but Lehtrar Road still needs my attention. I would appreciate it if the driver ahead could finish the conversation and let me pass.
Here, you spend a lot of time trying to work out what everyone else is about to do. Will that car turn left? Right? An indicator would be helpful, but I am not counting on one. I watch, leave room, and try to anticipate the next move.
I have already passed the worst stretch. Another U-turn and I am nearly there.
The boxes are fitted, and the KPT has its first hundred kilometres behind it. I still have a Suzuki habit in my left foot and a growing list of things to check. A proper tour will tell me much more.
For today, that is enough. Time to get home.
Ride notes
- Motorcycle: Lifan KPT 250
- Outing: A trip to OW Motorsports in Chaklala Scheme 3, Rawalpindi, to collect and fit the luggage boxes and mounting frame.
- Places mentioned along the way: Lehtrar Road, Chaklala Scheme 3, Old Airport Road, and Ammar Roundabout.
- At this stage: Early ownership impressions, with the motorcycle still in its break-in period.