Till Mar 2020, city
life was frustrating – there were traffic jams everywhere you go. Arterial roads
like Mount road would get choked with moving vehicles of various hues. Those travelling
by train will have to plan, as the
bridge near the old Jail complex would get choked and would take an hour
or so to cover 1 km distance. Life has changed – in April there were no
vehicles on road – now, with lockdown 4 – one could see lot more vehicles but
since the roads are perceived to be empty, people are driving faster ! – mad mentality. In Beach road especially in the mornings,
people would drive mad causing road accidents and some deaths too. Why are we not disciplined ? – people behave
rather differently when Police is nto around !
understand that in foreign countries there are great roads and special
roads in which people can drive faster – not on roads which commons use. There are autobahns special motorway
connecting some cities.
When I grew up –
there were only few who owned vehicles.
There were Lamby, Vijay, Bajaj scooters and an odd Bullet, couple of
Jawa (Yezdi later) and some Rajdoot bikes.
Mid-1980s changed the bike scenario with Ind-Suzuki, Kawasaki Bajaj,
Yamaha, Hero Honda 100 cc bikes – I bought Bajaj Chetak for 16200 in 1990 and
Hero Honda SS100 for 38200 in 1997. Imagined
driving a Ducati ! ever
Ducati Multistrada 1260 is
the most powerful Multistrada yet. While the full-fledged adventure tourer is
being offered in international markets in a total of four versions namely
standard, Multistrada 1260 S, Multistrada D-air and Pikes peak, India gets only
the former two. The bike gets the same 1262cc, L-twin Testastretta engine that
powers the XDiavel. The Ducati Multistrada 1260 has features like wheelie
control, cornering ABS, coloured TFT instrument cluster and a lot more. Ducati
Multistrada 1260 S can be yours at a
price of Rs.18 lakhs +
Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A.
is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati,
headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is owned by German automotive
manufacturer Audi through its Italian subsidiary Lamborghini, which is in turn
owned by the Volkswagen Group. In 1926
Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno
Cavalieri Ducati founded Società Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati in Bologna
to produce vacuum tubes, condensers and other radio components. In 1935 they
had become successful enough to enable construction of a new factory in the
Borgo Panigale area of the city. Production was maintained during World War II,
despite the Ducati factory being a repeated target of Allied bombing.
Meanwhile, at the small
Turinese firm SIATA (Societa Italiana per Applicazioni Tecniche
Auto-Aviatorie), Aldo Farinelli began developing a small pushrod engine for
mounting on bicycles. Barely a month after the official liberation of Italy in
1944, SIATA announced its intention to sell this engine, called the
"Cucciolo" (Italian for "puppy," in reference to the
distinctive exhaust sound) to the public. The first Cucciolos were available
alone, to be mounted on standard bicycles, by the buyer; however, businessmen
soon bought the little engines in quantity, and offered complete
motorized-bicycle units for sale. In 1950, after more than 200,000 Cucciolos
had been sold, in collaboration with SIATA, the Ducati firm finally offered its
own Cucciolo-based motorcycle. This first Ducati motorcycle was a 48 cc bike.
By Yesterdays Antique
Motorcycles en Classic Motorcycle Archive, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2952266
Power bikes could mean
accidents too and there is news that Germany's Prince Otto of Hesse, 55, died
crashing his Ducati into autobahn barrier weeks after posing for a photo on the
motorbike. The 55-year-old is thought to
have swerved after overtaking another vehicle.
He was a descendent of a royal
dynasty with links to Prussia and British royals. MailOnline reports that Prince Otto of Hesse
died in the early hours of Sunday after swerving on his €20,000 motorbike and
crashing into the guar. The 55-year-old,
a businessman who owned several McDonald's franchises in southern Germany, died at the scene, according to Bild.
Prince Otto of Hesse, a
member of a German royal dynasty which
dates back to the 17th century. The cause of the accident is not yet clear, but
the motorbike is thought to have started swerving after overtaking another
vehicle at high speed. 'For reasons not yet known, the rider lost control of
his vehicle, started to swerve and crashed into the guard rail,' a police
report says. There is no indication that
the prince was blinded by the sun or affected by the weather on what was a dry
Sunday morning. A police spokesman told
regional publication TZ that the accident could have been caused by excessive
speed. In 2010, the prince was given seven points on his licence and handed a
nine-month driving ban after speeding in a car in Munich. However, he escaped
criminal charges after paying a €3,600 fine, according to reports at the time.
Otto was a member of the house
of Hesse-Philippsthal, a dynasty which dates back to the 17th century. The
family is connected to Frederick William III of Prussia, a significant German
ruler during the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent Congress of Vienna. Germany was
once home to a bewildering landscape of small states and ruling families,
meaning there are many royal titles still in existence today. Geneaologists
believe Otto was a distant member of Britain's royal line of succession because
of the centuries-long connections between Europe's historic royal
families. Otto married Carla Blickhäuser
in Las Vegas in 1998, leading to a 19-year marriage before the couple divorced
in 2017, according to German media. Otto was known as a car and motorcycle
enthusiast who would arrange regular gatherings of scientists and others, for
example at a hotel in Munich.
The 55-year-old had posted
a smiling picture of himself on his Ducati as recently as April 12, just weeks
before his death. According to German
media, Otto was also the franchise owner of four McDonald's restaurants in
Ingolstadt.
Accidents are always sad !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
20.5.2020.
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