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Rode my BMW R 1300 GS from Mumbai to Panchgani to attend Tank Up event

10th February 2025, 11:22 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

It was an easygoing, cozy atmosphere where you could have some laughs, meet some like-minded riding folks, and enjoy some great food and coffee.

BHPian Axe77 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Ride to Tank Up Vol. 6

The Panchgani Edition

I was due to attend California Superbike School (CSS) from 31 Jan - 2nd Feb but some urgent work meetings meant I was locked in at office on both Thurs 30th (travel day to Chennai) and Friday 31st (the first day of school at CSS).

Had to cancel CSS at the very last minute but since my weekend was free, decided to use it to do a quick overnighter at Panchgani for Tank Up, along with my usual weekend riding group.

When: 1st and 2nd February
Where: Survey 46, Panchgani
The Architect: Vir Nakai
The Host: Adib Javanmardi and the good folks at Survey 46

Pictured below, hard at work to create the perfect weekender.

What is it: Well, in a nutshell, and straight from the horse's mouth .... it's this! For more details ... read on!

The build up: The Insta stories were coming in fast and thick in the days running up to the weekender.

The ride and the event

My riding group was a pretty large contingent on this one - about 20 - 22 odd bikes in total. We started out early, around 5.15 am dep from Palm Beach Road so as to be able to check in to the hotel early and make it to Tank Up by about noon. Once we got there, we had folks slowly troop in including popular or familiar faces around like Ashish RaoRane who was there to speak about offroad riding skills as well as perhaps share his Dakar experiences perhaps, Ouseph Chacko, the folks from LABS speaking on riding gear, Rynox which introduced its upcycled gear, etc. Miles on Canvas (Ganesh) was there showcasing his work - he uses paints & his motorcycle as a canvas to document his adventures. Given it had a lot of riders from Pune and Mumbai, I got a chance to see a lot of general familiar faces too from the wider riding community.

After a quick lunch, mostly from the grill and then some, we headed back to the hotel for some rest to return to the venue around 5 pm. Around late afternoon, there were some open informative sessions by the above folks but we happened to miss some of that. Overall, it was just a basic easygoing cozy atmosphere where you could have some laughs, meet some likeminded riding folks, enjoy some great food, coffee and of course the local strawberries to boot.

Legacy Ducati had also supported the event thanks to which we could see a bunch of gorgeous Ducatis strategically placed around the Survey 46 site, including the Multistrada, a couple of Desert X (including the new rally variant) and a few Scramblers. There was a small paragliding and paramotoring demo on as well and I've dropped a couple of videos showing these around. The venue makes for a really stunning evening in particular with a view of the valley and the setting sun.

Most of us had to make an early return to Mumbai so couldn't attend the second day of Tank Up. For Sunday, they had planned a scenic ride around for those up to it, Adib had planned some off road training at the Survey 46 site, and I think the more adventurous could sign up for some paragliding and paramotoring at Panchgani. We instead opted to do a short ride to a lakeside view point early AM and catch a quiet coffee watching the rising sun before we returned to the hotel for a quick brekker before we took off back for Mumbai around 9:15 am.

Nothing more to add really I'll let the pictures sum up the overall weekend. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a day / day and a half with great riding company, good conversations, fantastic food and of course the nicest venue. Survery 46 makes for some incredible views and I’d love to come and just stay here at some point in the villas they’re running above this space. The riding around on their track would be a happy bonus.

Early AM start on Saturday meant we were at our usual quick-chai halt at Lonavla as early as 6.15 am.

Sunrise somewhere beyond Lonavla. RayBan Meta coming to good use.

Easy long breakfast halt at Amruta - a good 20 odd kms after the Khed Shivapur toll.

Reached Ravine Hotel at about 10.45 am. Ravine is located right at the beginning of Panchgani and while the rooms are all right, they have absolutely lovely views of the valley.

Riding out to Survey 46.

The parking lot at Tank Up. No dearth of space here for bike parking.

Got to see these two beauties arriving on a pick up. One was a KTM...

… and the other is a gorgeous modified RE (the older GT 535).

Here’s another close up of the GT.

That’s Ashish RaoRane’s little spot with the folks who train with him.

He had these three gorgeous beauties parked in front. Don’t miss the beautiful custom imported Kove in the middle.

The main man and his grill!

Miles on Canvas …

… and the lovely art work on his bikes.

Rynox displaying its new upcycled product line

… complete with the team that creates it.

The figure of 8 area for training how to ride on camber.

I don’t think I’ve seen this many pick ups at any one place. At least 3 - 4 Hilux / Isuzus that I could see at the event locale as well as a couple at our hotel.

Getting dibs on the perfect parking spot for some sunset photography later.

Much cooler once the sun had gone down.

Next up were some paragliding and paramotoring displays - videos following below.

Some paragliding
And some paramotoring

Nothing like catching a setting sun over this beautiful valley. Can’t wait to be back here next weekend to spend the evening watching this from the villas right above.

Then there are endearing images like these. Two kids just going about their business on their little bikes. They were around the last time I was here too for the GMT training.