Your first ride

• Reply to the WhatsApp confirmation so we know your count and can share the meeting point and time.
• Read the ride code and skim the hand signals. That is the whole theory.
• Service your bike or at least run the pre-ride check — tyres, chain, brakes, lights, oil, fuel.
• Fuel up the night before. Turning up on reserve holds up nine other people.
• Charge your phone; save the lead rider's number and keep the WhatsApp thread pinned.

• Helmet — full-face or modular, ISI-marked, strap done up. No half-helmets.
• Riding jacket with armour at shoulders, elbows and back. A hoodie is not a jacket.
• Gloves — full-fingered, every ride, even the short ones.
• Legs — riding trousers or Kevlar-lined jeans. Shorts and track pants do not ride.
• Boots that cover the ankle. Sneakers are the most common gap and the most common injury.
• For the hills: a warm layer and a windproof; for the monsoon: a rain suit that actually works.

• Driving licence, bike registration (RC), valid insurance and PUC — originals or DigiLocker.
• A photo ID (Aadhaar / passport) for hill checkposts and hotel check-ins.
• Cash. UPI fails in the mountains far more than you expect; carry enough for fuel, food and a room.
• Fill in an emergency card and keep it in your jacket — blood group, allergies, two contacts.

We meet early — usually before sunrise for a longer ride — do a headcount, and run the briefing: the route, the fuel and food stops, today's lead and sweep, the pace, the marker system and the hand signals. It takes ten minutes and it is not optional.

Then we ride in the fixed order. Expect a stop roughly every 60–90 minutes — fuel, tea, or just to let everyone catch up and drink water. The pace will feel unhurried; that is deliberate. Near the end of the ride we stop and do the service action for the trip — a clean-up, a school drop — before heading home together.

Puncture, fall, fuel-starved, not feeling right, bike playing up — signal, pull off the road safely, and wait. The sweep will stop with you and the group will regroup at the next planned stop. Do not try to sort it alone and do not wave the group on and then chase it. That is the whole point of riding with a group.