Looking back at 2007

What a year it was!


I matured as a tourer this year, When i started out, i always used to wonder why most of the tourers like Ghat roads compared to the easy straight roads! I always felt that ghat roads were Pain in the ass! :P you have to concentrate so much in each turn and it's no fun bending the bike at each turn, watching out for oncoming traffic, taking the curve, lots of calculations going on in head etc. While the Straight roads (especially the NH4 types) with 4 lanes were bliss! full throttle, sit back and watch the world go by in highspeed!
I had to eat my own words, 2007 showed me the bliss of ghat roads and the fun in riding curvy roads, am no longer worried about getting the "chicken strips" on my tyres :P

Another problematic area was Night riding! Dang, that was hard, what fun is it when you have the truckers flashing all their 4 * 100w headlamps at you and you are temporarily blinded! I always used to ensure that i never end up riding in night in any of my rides. But this year, most of my rides ended with night riding! rather unintentionally! But i learnt a thing or two about riding in nights this year, can't say iam comfortable, but if iam forced to, then can manage pretty well. Thanks to the Headlamp upgrade from lousy 35w candlelight to 55/60w tubelight. More is never enough i guess, it's time to upgrade to HID i think :P

Looking back at 2007, i had a pretty good time riding with few very talented riders. I kicked off my first ride of 2007 with Sachin whom i had met in Xbhp's gtg. I had never imagined that i will find my ghat section guru in that gtg! Even though i had spent more than a week in Kerala during my Loong Kerala Ride at the fag end of 2006, i was not comfortable taking on the ghat sections/twisties. Then Sachin and me planned our ride to Waynad in kerala and with in one day, sachin taught me the technique to take on ghat sections and i started getting the hang of it, albiet the ride was cut short and i ventured towards belur and halebeedu, but i had got my first lesson in tackling ghats and i was sure that practice will make me more confident.

Practice session did come in May, during our Ride to mangalore to calicut and to bangalore This time we had more riders, i had the pleasure of riding with excellent riders like karthik ayyar and balaji, the fun we had in this ride was simply too much :P This ride made me laugh so much in those 4 days! all thanks to Santosh, the legendary iron butt pillion of balaji! This was my first ride with a large group where i was just out of the learner phase and thanks to sachin's guidance, again while returning for calicut to waynad, i could take up the learning lessons and i got a hang of taking on twisties.
Balaji and karthik ayyar got added to our permanent list of riders after this ride :P
Also, two large hearted Xbhpians Sujay and Zahin from mangalore became our very good friends, they really saved our ass in mangalore, when we were stranded with out getting a room to stay. Their large heartedness humbled us.

Then came the monsoon season, the dreaded season for me. Am yet to start to get the hang of riding in rains. Soon plans were afoot for a ride in october, We had a new rider this time, it was Professor Nanjundappa Nisarga of Christ college! Must say, this ride was one of the most memorable rides for me! Professor's down to earth attitude coupled with balaji's company made me enjoy the ride. Also, i cannot forget the two xbhpians who joined in for this ride, two guys whom i had never ridden with or known earlier, but they turned out to be the most decent riders i have ever come across! Venu and Chetan were excellent on road and off road too, they mingled very well among the group, Professor was the common bonding element i guess!:P
Also got introduced to balaji's pillion Nandeesh, who was santosh's replacement from earlier ride and he was no less in ticking our funny bones!
Jogfalls was misty, the foggy road through honnavar was unforgettable. The ride through back breaking Honnavar to Gokarna stretch was unforgettable! Gokarna's laid back atmosphere was a treat, also big time treat was booze sessions with fish side dishes and professor for company! I missed out on Yana, it was just too much for me, while balaji, venu and chetan went through the ordeal, on our part, prof, me and manas enjoyed the leisure ride back through scenic haveri route and then the rip fest from chitradurga.
Sachin was sorely missed in this ride, he couldn't make it due to office issues, but later, even he regretted for not joining us. No problem, there's always next time.

Ah, the month of october seemed to be raining rides :P
Just 2 weeks after i returned from Gokarna ride, i was to attend wedding of my close colleague all hopes of going with office people got ditched after all my colleagues pulled out of the proposed cage ride. Now it was back to my trusty zma, i was in two minds whether to do this solo ride or go by bus (Yikes!) Thats when my close friend Girish joined in. Now girish was no stranger to rides with me, after all i started my touring with him as pillion during my first loong ride This time though, i had my cramster saddlebags, so my pillion need not worry about being the cramster :P
Also this was to be Girish's last ride with me as a bachelor, he's getting hitched in April 2008. So, we set off towards shimoga and surprisingly, we covered lot of distance in shorttime including breaks.
The ride was a beauty, My 40K done Zma took the abuse, she managed to go through the punishment of hauling me and fully loaded saddle bags with 80kg pillion pretty well. My colleague's place which is 60kms from sagar was heavenly, we thoroughly enjoyed the stay there, soaking in nature, early morning life in a village etc. Attended the wedding, Came back riding through the night! NH4 at night was so sleepy! Thoroughly enjoyed this ride, after this ride, my respect for my trusty zma went up, Am truly amazed at this bike's capacity to endure punishment! Good going girl :)

The month of november was time for annual meet of Bikenomads
Plans were afoot in community about finalising a place for the annual meet this year, Last year's meet was in Goa
Voting was done and most favoured Hampi and Goa. So it was decided as hampi for this year.
Along with Sachin, i volunteered for managing the logistics. It was one heck a exercise! right from making google sheets of riders with their complete details to the number of rooms to be booked in hotel etc. The ride was memorable and all the excel sheets were worth the pain :P
Met members from mumbai/pune/hyd and it was gala time there. I was for the first time leading the pack of riders from bangalore, i had the pleasure of meeting and riding with few wonderful people like Aditya bhelke, Lovejoshi, Ashishchamoli, Gaurav and many more.

Apart from the above mentioned long rides, i also did few chota rides over weekends. Those were
Ride to bheemeshwari with bull gang of dada jsr, Kam and boodie

Kam's send off ride
Bangy guys rode up to say bye bye to kam bhai, who was shifting to Noida :(

Rangantitu ride
Memorable ride to rangantitu bird santuary, Met and rode with Venkatsir for the first time and had loads of discussions with him regarding biking scene in india.

Ride to Himavad Gopalswamy Betta
With sachin, it was a well deserved ride after a looong time indeed!

Ride to Gaganachukki and K kudi
Ride with old friends santoosh, pradeep and Renu. What a ride! Ride through forest area in K gudi was superb!

So overall, i had a gala time during this year, i hope 2008 too has many rides in store and places to see and ofcourse, lots of people to meet.

BikeNomads Hampi Meet

Pics of the meet: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/BikeNomadsHampiMeet

Finally Am starting to pour in to words about the hampi meet which happened exactly 1 week back.
It was an awesome ride to Hampi which saw 40 plus people and 30 plus bikes all riding down from various parts of india and meeting up in hampi.
This was the largest turn out compared to previous Bikenomads annual meets!

It was great to meet legends and members from other cities, email ids which were seen on group were given a face finally!

It all started some 2 weeks prior to the meet and with Vibhu asking for volunteers and coordinators for organising the meet. Since this was hampi and i had previously been there in March 2006 Meet i pitched in for organising things, along with fellow nomad Sachin whose native is Hospet (just 13 kms from hampi)
Then the planning started, city coordinators were appointed for pune, hyderabad, mumbai and bangalore. I was also the coordinator for bangalore. Cut off date was announced for confirming the hotel room booking. That in itself is a long story....

The google sheet started to become very active, with riders confirming, few dropping out, i made an offline excel sheet and started updating the status of riders.
We realised that this time we need to fit in all people in a single hotel, as only then people will have time to interact with each other. The only big hotel near hampi was KSTDC Mayurabhuvaneshwari Hotel in Kamalapur (3 kms from hampi)
Cutoff date for confirming for ride for assured accomodation was announced and till the nth moment, there were changes! Finally the list came up and I booked 11 rooms by calling up hotel, but i was skeptical as the hotel chaps needed advance amount for confirmed booking. Then sachin pitched in, he was in hospet for diwali, he drove down to hotel and rebooked the rooms also paid the advance.

Then the task of grouping Bangalore guys came, i again formed an email chain with ids of guys from bangalore who had confirmed. We were around 10, at the last moment Prabul dropped out as he was to go to USA. Then there were quite some additions/deletions. I was worried as the D day neared, This time neither sachin nor prabul were there to lead the pack and i had to lead. I have always been the sweep guy in all rides or somewhere in middle order, always comfortable following someone, but this time, i had to lead this totally new group of 10 bikes! So viola, there was a CCD meet arranged for collecting the hotel amount from bangy guys and i could finally put faces of the email ids of bangy people. After the interaction, i was confident that most of guys are sensible riders.
But i had never ridden with them, so i had to see how things would go.
Just 1 day prior to ride i came to know that the number of bikes will be 12
Number of people will be 16. That is 4 bikes with pillion out of which 2 would be couple. This was gonna be one heck of ride, i told myself this time i don't have any one to fall back on in case of any problems on the road as i was to lead the group, so i had to be prepared to handle any incidents or fuckups, as my usual ride partners were not riding with me in this ride. But with people like Adityabhelke, Lovejoshi, Gaurav, Chamolibhai and last but not least Renu, i reassured myself that this group doesn't have any juvenile riders and this is gonna be a safe ride.

I left my office early (for the first time before any ride!) as i had pulled in a double shift. Reached home comfortably by 6Pm. Packing things is a huge task for me, i first go through the list of things i need to carry, then categorise it, then pick and choose from the lot, then finally cram things in my cramster saddle bags. This was gonna be my first ride with my own proper camera! Thanks to sachin, i got his KodakZ650 Camera for a good buy from him. By the time i was done with the ordeal of packing, it was 10 Pm! I knew that i shouldn't be wasting time in morning and i should be on road in max half and hour after i wake up, so did my morning rituals at night itself :P and bathed and got ready and slept! sleep i did! like a log!

Day 1 : November 23rd 2007, Friday:

I woke up at 3.45 Am, i was to be in nelamangala crossing (our consolidated meeting point) by 5 Am. So i took my stuff and started mounting the saddle bikes on zma and i was ready to roll by 4.25 Am. My parents did their routine stuff, did a neat pooja for the bike, broke coconut and ran over lemons by 4.35 Am and i was on road.

The excitement was too much, i could feel the butterflies in my stomach, but all that drowned when i saw the truck traffic in yeshwantpur! i was dodging and making way through the trucks for atleast 10 kms and well past jalahalli circle. I had estimated that it would take me 30 mins to reach the meeting point and i was right. I rolled in exactly at 5 am on zma's clock at nelamangala crossing. The weather was too cold, even though i had worn gloves, i could feel the coldness in my fingers. Stopped at the chai shop in junction and waited for other guys to roll in. It was 5.10 Am and still no sign of other guys, i was the only one waiting there, much to the amusement of few truckies who were amused at my riding gear and loaded bike!
Well, another ciggy smoked and finally by 5.20 Am, Chamoli bhai rolled in with his avenger, along with him was gautam sharma and Gaurav All three avenger brothers were there :P After the hi's and hellos, we settled down for another cuppa tea, then at 5.30Am, The Koramangala folks rolled in, Aditya on his P220 with his wife Sapna, Lovejoshi on his Bull "red eye" with his wife Tanya and other stags like nfsnfs aka santosh, Sunil dhummi and otehrs, the crowd was growing!

But still no sign of our great sweep, my good old friend Mr renukumar and his pulsar 180! I got a call from prasanna, he's shot past crossing and is waiting ahead near the toll gate, i tell him to wait there for us, so he can join the brigade when we start. Question was when to start! it was 5.45 Am, all the junta were accounted for except the sweep, i tried calling renu, but he didn't answer, so i decided to wait till 6Am and see if he catches up. Meanwhile the entire junta got talking, i was just standing and observing the entire junta. Wow! i had never imagined that one day, i would get to ride with some many guys, We were a total of 12 bikes and 16 people! and i was the one who knew the route, so i was technically the lead. It was a great honour indeed, but also thoughts of whether i can lead successfully and maintain the composure of the group cropped up, i told myself, what ever happens, happens for good, so let me go with the flow and see.

It was 6.00 Am, still no sign of Mr renu kumar, I call him on his cell and no answer, meanwhile junta start getting impatient, Lovejoshi is frustrated that we all have been made to wait for one guy and looks like he's gonna rain punches on me if i try to talk to him! :P so i keep my distance from the tatoo man!:P Then finally by 6.10 Am, i see our spot come in and stop next to me. I gave him a kick on his butt with my steel toe CAT shoes to show my frustration and collective frustration of the group! Then renu explains his story and turns out cops were checking and blah blah... So after final round of Tea, i brief the guys, Iam gonna lead, you guys stick to your positions as per the sheet (yeah, i had got printout of the details of junta :P) All agree, i see veteran nfsnfs mumbling, i know things aren't going down well with him, he's not used to slow riding :P

Finally! at 6.25 Am We all start the bikes and roll! caravan of 11 bikes to start off with. It was a sight to see! then prasanna joins the brigade from the toll gate ahead and now we are 12 bikes riding in formation in a straight line with me leading the pack, i was just letting this thought in mind when i see someone over take me from left, whoosh! who was that breaking the rules? Well, it was our own nfsnfs! true to his name, he had enough of slow riding and rips ahead! ok, let everyone ride as per their comfort i feel. Then see the numbers in the formation are interchanged in the rear view mirror, i see the avengers are last with few pulsars and me followed by Aditya's P220 and LJ's Redeye. Then after some distance, prasanna goes ahead whoosh! okay so he wants to give nfsnfs some company in fast riding, so I leave the speedsters ahead and lead the remaining 9 bikes.

It's heavenly to ride on wide 4 laned road, early morning with minimal traffic. We gobble up kms and after an hour or so, i give a small pit stop, Then carry on again. We had planned to have breakfast in Kamat near sira, i missed it. I realised that after nfsnfs who had gone ahead of me, tells in sign language while riding parallel to me. So i find the next hotel on the service lane and pull over.



Entire junta decend on the hotel, taking the chaps there by surprise! They have only idly and dosa, fine! anything will do as everyone was damn hungry! We gooble up breakfast and after sutta and teas, we roll on. I decide to stop at Reliance A1 in chitradurga next. So we roll on, we are covering good speeds and tarmac is never ending 4 laned bliss! But all good things come to an end, so did the 4 laned runway! we hit the two laned road just outside chitradurga, i spot the A1 plaza and pullover and wait for junta to regroup. After 10 mins, the entire gang is together and we roll in to A1 plaza at 10.15 Am. We take a relaxed tea sutta break and i brief junta here again.

We decide that prasanna and nfsnfs are comfy riding faster, so they both will go ahead of us, while the remaining lot will follow me. I also warn the junta that NH13, which we are gonna take hence forth towards hampi (150 plus kms) is total opposite of what we had see till then, i tell them that based on sachin's report 2 weeks earlier, the road was a mess, 2 laned potholed road to hell with lots of trucks thrown in. So i tell the junta to be very very cautious and show them the handsignals which i will use to warn the riders while i ride and ask them to follow the same so the riders behind me could get the message. All set, we roll out of A1 plaza by 10.30 AM.



It was getting hot now! the weather was getting too damn hot, iam used to sun, so i enjoyed, i could make out that the rest of junta were really hating to ride in this road at this time of the day! NH13 starts off as a clean road with good tarmac and lots of trucks, hardly after 20 kms, we get samples of potholes, i give the handsignals and never stop till we reach hampi later! The road gets progressively worse as we proceed some 40 kms, the potholes become lunar craters and we have to search for patches of tar to ride on, coupled with the trucks! it was dangerous to overtake a truck too coz you never knew when the truckie would swerve right to avoid a pothole, when you are overtaking him! so i had to watch out the truck's path ahead too and then over take. After an hour or so, the butt aches, the cramps start, all the abuse of riding on potholed road shows up, so i pull over near a tree with lots of shade for a butt break and the junta too pull up. It was a much needed butt break for everyone!



To be Cont'd....

Cage Drive to GS Hills - Bandipur - KRS and a wedding

Last weekend's ride in a cage to Gopalswamy Betta left me confused and excited.
Confused coz i didn't get the "feel" of the journey like in my bike rides and Excited as we reached Gopalswamy Betta bang on sunrise! It was an awesome view from there. I thoroughly enjoyed the places and my friends company. Only thing i hated was sitting like a couch potato in passenger seat, with my ass strapped to the seat with a seat belt and seeing the whole world through the windscreen "TV"
The frustration increased when i saw 5 Bulleteers on their way towards Mysore, while I was stuck in the cage. Also on the last day while returning at night, i saw a zma and cbz riders on their way back to bangalore. I felt like a smoker with out his fag! :P

My first outing to nature spot with my new addition to my travel kit, Kodak Z650 Camera! Finally i was able to realise my dreams of capturing nature's beauty in my own camera, all thanks to sachin, who generously gave away his cam for a good price to me. Will upload snaps and stuff some time.
The sunrise view and scenic view of Gopalswamy Betta was awesome, on our drive towards bandipur, we spotted peacocks and Deers. Then the customary wedding was attended to and the last day we went to back waters of KRS called Blue lagoon.

Am more exited now about the upcomming BikeNomads meet in Hampi this weekend. This time there are large number of riders and Bangalore leads the list with 11 bikes! Can't wait till friday!

Ride to a Wedding, Jogfalls and NH4

Well, finally found time to update the ride log of my previous post.

This time, It was a ride with my trusted pillion buddy girish. Target was my colleague Ravindra's wedding in his native in Shimoga Dist, Shikaripur taluk.
So me and giri decided to hit the road on my zma and catch up Jog falls, as in my previous ride just 2 weeks back, i couldn't get a glimpse of jog due to extra ordinary fog! and we decided to ride back via NH4.

The stats:

Ride duration: 13th Oct 07 (Saturday) to 15th Oct 07 (Monday)

Riders: ME!
Pillion: Girish
Bike: My trusty Zma

Total Kms covered: 888.9 Kms


Route taken:
Day1 :Bangalore-tumkur-arsikere-bhadravati-shimoga-sagar-Jogfalls-Sagar-Sorabh-Shikaripur

Day2: Shikaripur- Balligavi-Shikaripur

Day3: Shikaripur-Harihar-Davangere-Chitradurga-Sira-Tumkur-Bangalore

Pics:
Will upload Pics shortly.

Retrospection of the Ride:
This was one heck of a ride! I was thoroughly drained out by the time i reached bangalore! First day's ride was smooth, Thankfully weather gods had mercy on us and it was not foggy or rainy, so we caught a good view of Jogfalls.
Next day the Scenic rural beauty of Fields and agricultural land in my colleague's native village left us speach less! The last day's hellish ride back to bangalore via NH4 was simply mind blowing! I never had to fight my sleep so hard ever in my life! It was pit stop every hour at night and freshening up to stay awake and ride back in NH4. Girish's handicap of not knowing how to ride a bike pushed me to my limits. Managed to reach home with out any incidents and slept like a log for full 14 hours! much to the ire of my boss :P

Last Ride before loosing Bachelorhood

Don't get me wrong, it ain't my life that's at stake! :P
I was referring to my next ride's pillion's status!

The last time i did a ride with a pillion was in March 2006 to Hampi

After that i realised taking pillion only abuses your bike and accelerates the ageing process of bike. Now iam back to square one, albiet temporarily.
Iam all set to go off on a relatively long ride to shimoga to attend my colleague's wedding but this time with a pillion, my friend girish.

I started my touring life with my first long ride with girish as pillion towards coastal karnataka in jan2006 this will be my last ride with him, with his status as "bachelor" coz he's getting hitched next year!

Sigh, friends grow up so fast! just reminds me that iam getting old too! But marriage is still no brainer for me at this juncture of my life, i still have some gas left in my tank to go on and still have my reserve to burn up before i hit a petrol bunk! lol

Newayz, all said an done, got the bike serviced and readied for the ride and just one more day to go before we embark on our memorable ride!
This ride is dedicated to girish's soon to be lost bachelorhood!

Raid De Sigandur-Jogfalls-Gokarna-NH4

Well, after the mangalore - calicut ride, it was inevitable Goa ride season, unfortunately my co rider sachin's leaves got cancelled and we had to junk goa plans and i had to figure out alternate plans. Most guys were ok with 4 day ride (constraint was getting leaves not riding :P) So i chartered plans with my xbhp and bikenomads friends.
We almost finalised Pondicherry, but opted out as it was too boring for 4 days. Then it was decided as Rameshwaram!
We were done and next day (2 days before ride or so) i see news and TN bandh is announced on Oct1st or something, which exactly fell on our ride time, now who would want to get stuck in TN with a KA bike and that too on a bandh day??
So the last minute planning led us to the following ride, which by all my ride standards was through THE WORST ROADS i have EVER ridden.


Time for stats:

Ride duration: 29th Sept 07 (Saturday) to 2nd Oct 07 (Tuesday)
Riders and Bikes:


Vasanth - Zma
Venu - Zma
Balaji+nandish - Thunderbird
Manas+Arpita - Thunderbird
Prof.Nanjundappa - Unicorn
Ho0ligaN aka Chetan - Unicorn

Total Kms covered: 1119.7 Kms

Route taken:
Bangalore-tumkur-arsikere-bhadravati-shimoga-sagar-Jogfalls-honnavar-kumta-gokarna-kumta-sirsi-haveri-ranibennur-davengere-chitradurga-tumkur-Bangalore

Pics:
My pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/SigandurJogfallsGokarnaNH4Ride

Manas's Pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/manas.saran/GokarnaRide29thSep2ndOct07

Hooligan aka Chetan's Pics:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/chethan.krishna/Gokarna

Pics from other riders awaited.


Retrospection of ride:
Can say that this was my first ride that i enjoyed in rains, it was perfect mixture of light to very light drizzle, sun was playing peek a boo and nature at it's best and all places covered with carpet of greenery. The foggy ghat roads and Foggy views was just amazing! It was first time that we had two bikes of 3 models and taking group pics was fun as we parked same model bikes parallel to each other.
Prof Nanjundappa (English Literature - Christ college) new Bikenomads member, joined us for the first time,This was prof's first group ride, he's been a solo rider all along. We thoroughly enjoyed his company and prof too liked the group attitude and went along with kids like us :P
In the end, me, prof along with manas and arpita rode back to bangalore,while the other three covered Yana and caught up with us late night. Our ride back from kumta to bangalore was uneventful, we took plenty of stops along the way and did a leisurely ride and hit chitradurga by evening and Kamat by 8.45Pm and waited for yana riders to catch up with us. The log is from chetan who did yana along with balaji and venu, Am too lazy to write one of my own :P

Log from Chetan aka Hooligan (xbhp):

Day 1 Saturday
===========
Woke up at 3.30am when my alarm went off, took a quick shower and got ready to leave by 4am. Our meeting point was Metro at yeshwantpur, went there to find vaas,venu,manas and arpita waiting. Since, I had originally planned to leave in the noon, I hadn't filled up fuel, changed engine oil or washed my bike. However, I had kept a liter can of oil thinking that I will have it changed enroute. From metro, I went to the shell pump on Dr.raj road(which is open 24hrs) and tanked up with 900 rupees of fuel(17.8 liters) and went back to metro to find that the other riders still hadn't arrived. so, I told vaas that I will move ahead and wait for them along the way as I had a 10 minute job at hand(I had to give some stuff to my friend as I had changed plans at the last minute). I instantly regretted having forced so much fuel into the tank as my Bike started jerking violently once in a while. The rest of the gang arrived and we moved towards tumkur with me leading, we reached tumkur very soon and waited for manas to catch up as he was(is) still running his bike(bird) in..

We continued riding with prof leading while vaas and balaji tagged along with manas to give him company. We halted at Arsikere and had breakfast. We took a second place at some other place where me and venu had a tender coconut each. The roads from here onwards were totally bad-ass with unending potholes, we made steady progress and halted yet again to have tea at a roadside shop. we reached shimoga and took a break, I found a small mech and had my engine oil changed, we also had lunch at a small time shop(manas couldn't distinguish between mandakki and chitranna that was server, shame on you man ).

We stopped at a nice place along the way to sagara to click some pics, manas' bird had a flat tyre, mounted manas' saddlebags on my bike. prof and manas went back to a small town which we had passed while the rest of the gang carried on towards sagara..

We suffered some more crappy roads and made it to sagara, found a hotel and crashed. After some much needed rest,sleep and tea we went to vardamoola, where river varada originates.. walked around a bit and came back to a place where there was some yakshagana show going on(recommended by prof's old time friend, who is staying in sagara). The style of yakshagana we saw there was very different from what we usually see on tv etc. We came back, had dinner at hotel and went to sleep.

Day 2 - Sunday
===========
Got up at 6.30 or so and got ready to head towards sigandur where you can cross the river on a ferry along with bikes/cars/buses etc. The others went to tank up some petrol, in the meanwhile me and vaas downed a cup of tea. The road from sagara to sigandur is again horrible, we stopped along the way for some pics, then moved ahead. reached the boat place and had breakfast, the ferry arrived by then, we put our bikes on the boat and went to the other side, dint even get off the boat(much to the annoyment of the boat crew) and came back to this side again ..
came back, packed up checked outa hotel and started heading towards jog falls, the roads from here onwards is excellent with fast and flowing curves, we reached a small bridge just before the jog falls and waited for the others to catch up, took some snaps and then moved on to jog. We were reluctant to leave our bags on the bikes, but couldn't carry it along with us either, so balaji and nandeesh spoke to 2 cops who were standing nearby and asked em to keep an eye on our bikes(nandeesh even slid 20bucks into 1 of the cops pocket ). Much to our disappointment, it was completely misty and we couldnt see the falls, it cleared just for a few minutes however. We decided to push ahead, come back to the parking lot to learn that those 2 cops are nowhere to be seen , but all our bags were intact.. we had lunch at jog itself and moved towards honnavar. Manas felt he should top up engine oil, but we couldnt find oil anywhere, so continued.. its ghat section from here onwards, it was competely misty, it was tremendous fun to ride in that atmosphere etc. we stopped along the way for some pics . Slightly after the ghats, the roads were freshly laid and very wide so we started belting heavily, I asked vasant to click few snaps of me cornering but donno what settings to keep(borrowed cam u see ) as most of the images came blurred.. then reached honnavar and took another break for pepsi/tea..

From here onwards to Gokarna we had to take NH17 which has trecherous potholes, me and venu saw balaji going *dhandhana* over 3 successive huge blind potholes at 80kmph with his saddlebags pillion bouncing all over the place. to be frank, we both were little shocked so we hardly exceeded 60kmph after that. we regrouped 20 kms from gokarna, manas' misfortune with flats wasn't over yet, so he was filling up air every 15-20kms and moving ahead while his bags and pillion were strapped to venu's Bike for the ride till gokarna. The gang moved ahead to find accomodation while I tagged along with manas, finding places along the way for him to fill air into his tyre. when we were 4kms from gokarna, called up vasant to ask directions to the hotel. When I got into gokarna, a person standing at the corner of the road which vasant asked me to take to get to the hotel, said "you guys are from bangalore right? 6 bikes, i own the resort I'll show you the way".. we went along with him to find the rest of the gang waiting, It was raining heavily since sometime already and we could see the sea whenever the sky lit up with huge lightnings.

To get to the hotel the owner was taking us to, the following has to be done- do about 1km of hard downhill offroading on slippery gravels(no lights, ur headlamps only) park the Bike at the bottom in the middle of nowhere with no shelter/security, walk 15 mins in some (paddy)fields along with all over luggages. while doing the downhill part, prof even dropped his bike, this seemed like a ridiculous option so we went back up the off road thing in the dark in the rains, on the way up a gate had to be opened, so I stopped my Bike on the uphill while vaas opened the gate and went ahead, but I had stopped on very slippery gravels under both my front and rear tyres, couldnt even get off the Bike coz it was uphill and slipping, venu put his front tyre against the rear tyre of my Bike and I managed to go up without any more issues.. we exchanged some words with the hotel/resort ppl and went off to find some other place to stay.. found some crappy hotel and crashed for the day... rented 2 rooms for 6 of us, but ended up using only 1, coz the other room was riddled with all kinds of insects on the bed..

Day 3 - Monday
===========

Got up early morning and headed towards om beach, the same way that had taken us the crappy resort the previuos night, we stopped along the way for some snaps and moved ahead and saw the off road course we had done the previuos night, no man in his right sense of mind would have done that in day light, we simply fell for it the previuos night

anyway, we got to om beach, went to namaste restaurant and had breakfast, after which vaas,prof,balaji and nandeesh went to play in the water..
I dont get into water, I've never liked it, donno why, I hate getting wet.. so I stayed out, even venu decided to stay off it.. so we both decided we'll walk along the beach. It started raining heavily after a while, after the guys were done with playing we came back and some bhel puri and left to the room, in heavy rains.. we decided to leave our bikes in the hotel and started walking towards gokarna beach, took some snaps along the way and reached the beach to find that it was totally unclean, so we just had tender coconuts. on the way back vaas,prof,venu found some hotel which serves good fish, me being strict veggie went back to hotel along with balaji and nandeesh.. had a bath then we went and ate lunch at some veg hotel.
balaji's bird was also having low pressure in the Bike so we decided to go have it checkd and found that there were 2 punctures, got it fixed. came back to hotel packed up everything and then went towards sirsi.. on the way we found the yana checkpost, stopped at the side of it for 1.5hr long discussion on what should be our plan, should we go ahead to sirsi, halt and then come back to yana or go back now and stay in kumta and go to yana or should we skip yana altogether.

Finally it was decided that we should get back to kumta as that was closer to yana than coming all the way back from sirsi, on the way back I had my very on *dhandhana* on huge successive potholes(only this time I was blinded by a truck's headlights so I locked up my rear wheel just before the potholes, and it happened at the entrance of a corner), I observed everything around me in slow motion and just held on to my Bike while it jumped all around the place.. I came outa it unscathed, I was totally shaken, went ahead slowly and stopped venu and told him what happened stopped at the side for a while. We found a nice hotel and halted there for the night(best hotel we stayed in on the trip), had dinner and went to bed

day 4 - Tuesday
============
We got up early and checked outa the hotel by 5.15am. Me, venu and balaji with nandeesh would go to yana and then to bangalore while the rest of the gang left directly to bangalore along with us.. we reached yana checkpost by 5.50am and dumped our luggage there and waited for it get little brighter as per the checkpost person's advice, we left by 6.15 and started the 16kms of offroading to yana..it was not a difficult course, total gravels + small slushy (not so deep) patches, we made the first 8 kms with no probs, here is the only house along the way where we can get jeep/food etc but since we went this early it was closed, we felt since we did the first half pretty easily we can easily go all the way up, shortly after that I got 1 step closer to being a nomad when I answered nature's call in the forest itself , we continued up the hill and came across more some water streams, etc etc which we negotiated easily.. then came the hardest part, suddenly we encountered 300+ meters long slushy patch with very deep bus/jeep tracks, we struggled real hard for the first 2-3 of such long slushy patches, with our bikes getting stuck, wheels getting buried into the slushy ground completely, we did a lot of physical work to lift the bikes back up onto whatver dry patches were available and continued..

little later we realised its best if we got off the Bike and walked it on such slushy patches, we did some more of those slushy patches and came across a really super bad-ass one, all the bikes got badly stuck at different places, nandeesh said I shud better push my Bike all the way back till the beginnin of the slushy patch and walk it on the other side of the road, while pushing it back, I lost balance on the slush(as it was making my feet sink) and leant the Bike away from me onto the sidewall, my right hand mirror took the beating and got loose, I decided enough is enough, I wont take any more chances and walk till yana rock formations as it was only 3kms ahead, and found a dry bit of land there and parked my bike, we got the other two bikes going and I rode pillion with venu, at the very end of the off road course the whole path was filled with fresh slippery moss, bakaji's Bike did like 270 degree turn, when the rear slipped on the slush and the front tyre stayed as is.. his left peg got bent, finally yana.. it had taken us 1hr 45 mins to do the 16kms of offroading

yana is a very beautiful place, I cant describe it, so I wont even start with it. It's just such a beautiful places within lush green forests, untouched.. virgin beauty I should say..we left our helmets, gloves on the bikes itself without any locks etc.. we started walking up the steps, on the way we took a break at a small temple, few minutes later saw that there was a leach sucking my blood outa from my leg.. got rid of it and moved ahead, my watch stopped working, do fastrack watches stop working at such measly altitudes? .. anyway we totally enjoyed the place till 9.40 and started climbing the flight of stairs down, we were super hungry after all this, and wanted to get back to civilization and eat something.. our helmets, gloves were totally untouched.. there were only few ppl ther and nobody had even bothered to touch our stuff outa curiosity either..

this time we knew the trick about dealing with those long slushy patches, we walked our bikes back, this time venu went too far near the edge and lost balance the same way I did, this time there was no wall on the outside from stopping his Bike crashing completely to the ground... me nandeesh and venu lifted his Bike back up, no damage except bent brake lever, we went ahead and reached the only house there at the 8km mark.. he offered to make us fresh chitranna and we got our bikes water washed from the person, ZMA had special offroading problems, mud/slush/stones had gotten everywhere.. front mud guard specially, which prevented the wheel from moving completely, venu had a tough time getting all that out.. nice food it was, we gulped a lot.. the others were tempted to stay back at his place for the day, but I had to get back and it was getting late already.

we made back to the check post by 12.45, collected our luggage and mounted it onto our bikes, balaji got his footpeg straightened while I got my mirror fixed, we left to sirsi by 1.15 .. its ghat roads again and we did some real good speeds and made it to sirsi in just 50 mins.. got, took a small break in sirsi, network coverage was back so we got msgs from the other group which had left ahead.. they were hardly 100 odd kms ahead of us.. hmm, we belted till haveri in the next stretch and were on the NH4 by 4.10.. it started raining badly now, but we kept riding, doing some decent speeds and stopped at ranebennur reliance pump where the other gang had had lunch in the noon at 5pm.. had some food, filled up enough to reach bangalore and started ripping again, this stretch of NH is very pathetic, 1 stretch of 4 lane and sddenly 1 long stretch of very bad roads with no warning plus trucks and rains really hampered our speeds, we made it to outskirts of chitradurga by 7.45. Now the discussion started, me and balaji were having no probs with riding in the dark, but venu's visor was holding him back and he was doing 40-50kmph.. so balaji suggested we take a room in chitradurga, leave the next morning early and make it bangalore(230kms) by breakfast time, but I wanted to get back home so I suggested they both can stay, I'll ride solo till tumkur where the other gang was having dinner and tag along with them.. we wasted some 30 mins on thinking about wat to do, finally balaji said we'll try riding till sira, if venu is comfortable we'll go ahead else we'll find a nice place and sleep.. the NH4 from chitradurga is fully complete and well lit, so its really a nice stretch, we let venu go ahead and we started 5 mins later.. balaji took the lead and I hung on to his tail, with a safe distance of course, mainly coz my right rear hand indicator had snapped sometime during the ride and the indicators werent functioning as a result.. we started belting the crap outa our bikes, we held a steady 100-110kmph and overtook venu sometime later, and took a break near a reliance pump near sira.. the road is superb, markings and all, sexy it was.. we waited for venu to catch up and left again, balaji doing 90-110kmph and me hanging onto his tail(again with a safe distance of course ).. we made it to tumkur(kamat near dobbspet) by 10.50.. 170kms in 2 hrs, real fun it was.. Manas and Arpita had already left, met vaas and prof, had dinner, settled all the bills, balance and stuff and we left kamat by 12.15am, I was feeling very sleepy after the dinner, I shudnt have eaten I guess.. anyway, I just tailed vasant with droopy eyes till bangalore.. reached yeshwantpur by 12.50, we shook hands and exchanged greetings and went home by 1.15 am

Mangalore-Bekalfort-Calicut-Waynad

God's own country kerala - this was my third innings there from december and couldn't get enough of the twisty roads there! It all started with sachin and me planning our second innings in waynad as our last ride had to be cut short. Floated around the idea to few guys and Manas confimed, kartik joined in at the last moment along with his friend balaji and his pillion santosh and thus formed the waynad riders.


First the stats: Ride duration: 4 days (28th April 07 (Saturday) to 1st May 07 (Tuesday)
Bikes and Riders: 5 Bikes and 6 Guys.
Me - Silver Zma
Sachin Koppikar - Red Pulsar 150 Dts
iManas Saran - Red Avenger
Kartik Ayyar - Red Bullet Thunderbird
Balaji & Santosh (pillion) - Black Bullet Thunderbird

Total Kms covered: 1228 Kms
Route taken: Day1: Bangalore>Kunigal>Hassan>Sakleshpur>Bantwal>MangaloreDay 2: Mangalore>ThanneerBhaviBeach>Mangalore>Kasargood>Bekalfort>KannurDay3: Kannur>Mahe(pondicherry)>Pakkadbeach>calicut>Kalpetta>KuruvaIsland>KalpettaDay4:Kalpetta>Lakkidi View point>Tushaaragiri Falls>Kalpetta>SultanBathery>Gundlupet>Nanjangud>Mysore>Mandya>MaddurCfday>Bangalore

Retrospection of the ride: This was the best birthday gift to me, I got my riding gear before the ride (new lid, jacket and gloves) and went on this ride the very next day of my birthday.
Most hilarious ride of mine till date, thanks to funny bone tickler santosh and sachin. Did what ever i din't want to do in a ride - Night riding, riding in rain, offroading, offroading in rain, extending saddle time for more than a hour. But at the end of it, it was all worth it! My zma's battery conked off in this ride and had to manage with no horns, kick start (!!) and dim lights for 2 days.

Thanks to sachin's cam, this time too i could get quality pics.
My Pics : http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/MangaloreBekalfortCalicutWaynadRide
Manas: http://picasaweb.google.com/manas.saran/SeaNHillsTourKerela
Kartik: http://picasaweb.google.com/kartik.ayyar/MangaloreCalicutKalpettaRide

Day1: 28th April 2007 Saturday:
All set to go, i was up and ready by 4.45 Am and i got a call from Sachin, it was any biker's worst nightmare (which l lived through once) informs me that he has a flat rear tyre. Now he's tense and has second thoughts about making it to the ride. I ride off to the meeting point (yeshwantpur Metro) and meet all other guys, i inform them about the problem and we all decide that we will wait for him after covering some distance. After informing sachin that we will wait after hassan, we start off towards NH4, Had breakfast in mayura hotel by 8 near channaraayapatna, Sachin was stuggling to get his flat tyre fixed, we decided that it would be better if we visited shravanabelagola and then proceeded to hassan, that way we would have seen an extra place while waiting for Sachin. On reaching the place, manas and me decided to guard the bikes loaded with cramster and tankbags so the remaining guys went off for sight seeing. Manas and me emptied few cigs, few bottles of cool drinks, tried few pics and got bored, by then it was past 11Am and the sun had come out to trouble us, it was getting damn hot, So once the guys returned from the hill climbing, we decided to push off. So we went off towards hassan and past hassan we stopped at a nice big tree, under the shade. It was 12.50 Pm and got update from sachin that he had started off from bangalore at 9.30 Am. So we decided to wait. It was a looong break, took lots of pics, cigs, soft drinks, got detailed introduction done with new riders balaji and Santosh. Finally at around 2 Pm, sachin joined us and after resting for sometime, we decided that it is better to skip belur - charmadi route as we had to reach mangalore by evening and decided to do the usual route of sakleshpur via shiradi ghats. The formation ride started with me being somewhere in the middle most of the times and sachin taking the lead. We hit shiradi ghats, the roads were patched up and very few stretched were totally screwed up, but it was horrible to ride on these roads, then the tarmac changed for better, soon we started enjoying the smooth tarmac and speeds increased.


Stopped at a curve for ciggy break and took few pics, pushed further ahead and stopped somewhere before uppinangadi for lunch at around 4ish. After hurried lunch, we started off towards mangalore. The nearer we got to mangalore, the traffic became insane! Local buses were being driven like autos by maniacs! taking lefts and rights and not giving way to overtake and most horrible, braking in the middle of the road! These guys were totally insane! Finally we reached mangalore entrance (circle) by 6.30 Pm, Stopped and asked for directions and moved on. We reached city and got confused by the oneways and the traffic. Sachin had the hotel details where we had to crash for the day, turns out that the hotel is deep inside the city and it was already dark. Then i remembered that I had Mangalore Xbhpian zahin's number, i called him to ask about decent hotels there, to our luck, Zahin went out of his way and asked our location and turned up with fellow xbhpian Sujay!.
Then they took the trouble of going around the town to find out about hotel details while we guys waited. They found a hotel and led us all there. We were so grateful to these guys for taking time off and helping us, dumped our stuff in hotel and discussed with zahin about beaches to visit the next day and they suggested thanneerbhaavi beach and they were willing to join us next day at 5 AM! we were so humbled by their help, after dinner at a hotel with zahin, we crashed out at the hotel, what a day!

Day2:29th April 2007 Sunday:
I was up by 4.30 and saw zahin's message, he was already downstairs waiting for us! Then all of us could move on only by 6Am.
On the way Sujay joined us and led us in his zma. We were there at the beach pretty early, parked the bikes in sand and took lots of group pics and line up pics


Then it was time to get in to the beach, all guys jumped in and we had a blast. Sachin and me tried out xbhp and BN poses too!


Later It was time for beach ride! Except two bullets, all three of us, sachin, me and manas got our bikes on to the beach shore and had a blast, i tried burnouts and riding, the sand was not so hard and i had a tough time keeping the bike in line, then while taking a U turn, waves came in and soaked the sand beneath the rear wheel and my zma got stuck in sand! Zahin helped me pull it out and it was back to riding in the beach, Kartik too tried out zma's beach riding capabilities :-) Now it was time to get back our bikes to the road and boy oh boy, was it tough! It was a huge circus to get the bikes back on road, thanks to zahin and sujay, we managed to bring out the bikes in one piece! I surveyed the beach riding damage, entire bike was full of sand, it need a wash real bad, so off we went to a service station and got all our bikes water washed. After breakfast party thrown in by zahin, we reached hotel and were able to move out of mangalore by 1 Pm, not before taking group pics with our hosts zahin and sujay and thanking them for all their help and time, we requested them to give us a chance to play hosts next time they are in bangalore. Discovered that my battery was dead so no more self start! back to hard ways of life! Kickstarting was major pain in the ass, also speedo was not working, i got worried, it turned out to be a loose speedo cable, cable tightened, problem fixed! but not before resetting my trip meter accidentally trying to self start! damn, this was gonna me my first ride with out trip meter pics :( We started off towards kasargood, the roads were crowded for some 20 kms and too many autos and trucks and what nots! It was damn humid and everyone was sweating like a pig! We reached kasargood and decided to go to bekalfort. some 15 kms from kasargood, we were in the fort, guys went in while me and sachin and manas guarded the bikes and lugguage and had our lunch, then we went in to explore the fort, it was a magnificient fort, built along the shore of the sea and offering great views of the coast line. This is the same fort where the song "tuhire" from film "bombay" was shot at. After our photography sessions, we moved out of bekal fort towards kannur at 4 Pm. We got amazing straight roads for a while and then short bursts of twisties, somehow manas went ahead of us and i managed to spot the guys ahead of me and after a quickie ciggy break, moved on and found manas waiting some 30 kms frm kannur. Poor chap had done saddle sore ride of 2 hrs thinking we were ahead of him! Calicut seemed far fetched at 90 change kms from the spot we were on, so we decided to land at kannur for the day. We reached the town by 7pm after horrible night ride and truck traffic, found a very good hotel at very cheap rate and crashed in after dinner, not before another round of laughter session thanks to sachin and santosh.

Day3:30th April 2007 Monday:All rose early and started off at 6 Am towards calicut, Me and sachin went ahead and took the great deviation towards calicut. We hit a railway crossing and made use of the waiting time with tea and ciggy break, other guys joined in. Then We had to ride through gulli roads (it was a NH!) never seen so many narrow National highways passing right through towns in front of houses and shops! in no time we were in pondicherry! (no no, not the east coast one, this one is Mahe on westcoast!) it was an union territory hardly 30 kms! Then we reached the kappad beach crossing. Balaji and kartik had gone ahead of us, so they had to return back to join us to kappad beach. We found a good beach resort for breakfast. For 150 bucks, had a royal buffet breakfast starting from southindian to north indian to continental stuff! all filled up to the brim and hit the beach for photography sessions. The beach was too good, isolated and virtually free of locals and crowds. Found a Bangalore scorpio with KA board, with it's rear wheel stuck deep in the sand, the guy had tried beach riding and got screwed badly! took lot of innovative pics like reflections from helmet visor and stuff, it was time to move on to kalpetta, waynad - the land of eternal twisties! We started off towards kalpetta, by the time we left, the scorpio was freed by localites from sand. It was boring ride under hot sun till calicut, after tanking up there, we took the deviation towards kalpetta, Twisties started! Last time me and sachin had been there, they were still tarring the twisties, now it was done and the freshly laid tarmac with broad shoulders for cornering welcomed us, we rode on! Everyone seemed hungry for twisties and ateup the curves thrown at them with good speeds, finally we reached our usually pitstop, a shack bang in the middle of a twisty, had lots of liquid intake to prevent dehydration and moved on, more twisties, enjoyed to the core and reached our usual hotel by 1 Pm. What a ride! Everyone was content with the amazing twisties we had gulped down so far, so it was decided that we move out at 3 pm to kuruva island, sort of a jungle island surrounded by river, 50kms from kalpetta as per the maps. So we took off again at 3pm. We went on and on, the roads were good, we had to deviate after 50 kms and found out that kuruva island was another good 20 kms! Narrow ghat section road! our idea of watching sunset at lakkidi view point was no brainer now, So we went on, sachin who was ahead of us got stopped by cops, later all of us reached the spot and cops let go of us telling that we were over speeding! So we decided to stick to 60s, Me and manas rode together and sachin. kartik and balaji went ahead of us and they missed a turn towards the island, so me and manas went off in the right direction, took some good pics in the woods, the road was isolated surrounded by woods, later moved on and the offroading stretch had to start. The damn island was till 4 more kms, it was like a jeep trial full of mud and stones surrounded by greenery, we stopped and waited for the guys, soon we head the bullets and the guys joined us. We did the offroading together, it was a test to the shock absorbers of the bikes and santosh the pillion on bullet was doing all kinds of acrobatic moves to avoid the bumps tranferring to his rear! We finally reached the place and got in after taking the tickets, it was greenery all around and just a walking path, took loads of pics and we knew as we walked towards the island that we had to ride back in dark some 70 kms to our hotel. We reached the river and found a rope tied to a tree on our side of the bank and another tree on the other side of the bank. a guy was standing on a raft made of bamboos and pulling himself and the raft towards us. Soon he reached our shore and we all got in, the moment we all got in, water got in! we had to precariously sit on the raft while the guy pulled himself and the raft using the rope to the other side of the bank, we reached the shore of the island. It was nice to be there secluded place, surrounded by greenery. Soon we hit dead end, there was the river at the end of it. After quicky fag break we decided to head back at it was already 6 pm. On our way back, it started to get cloudy and it started drizzling by the time we reached our bikes and it heaven opened up and started to rain cats and dogs! we took cover near a tree and as we were seeing the offroading muddy stretch soon became a trecherous pool of slushy mud and stones, rains didn't show any sign of slowing down, so we decided to push off in rain as we wanted to get out of the 4 km offroading stretch before darkness setin, so off we went in the rain, it was totally insane thing to do, offroading in rain that too with day light fading away, all our bikes were fishtailing and the rear of the bikes were swinging left to right, it was scary sometimes as it was getting real difficult to maintain the balance, my bike was skidding a lot as the tyres have almost worn out, some how we managed to get out of the ordeal after some 25 mins of hellish ride and we were relieved that we could get out of that stretch in one piece! took a fag break and rain stopped, it was getting dark and now we had to ride in formation coz the same twisties that exited us earlier will be bothersome now on as it had rained and cornering abilities will be goner, so with kartik and balaji leading, me in between (due to weak battery, pathetic headlight and no horns!) manas behind me and sachin tailing, we started the return back journey to hotel, it was 60kms of rain drenched, shivering riding in the dark experience, we maintained steady speeds of 50 - 60 kms (as per the cops earlier!) Sachin would race ahead and inform kartik to speed up or slow down if the formation was not intact, we noticed few trees had fallen down on the road due to the rain and that too at blind turns, it was good that we were doing moderate speeds. We stopped after 1 hour in total darkness in elephant infested area, kartik took group pic of all of us in total darkness and it came amazingly well, especially manas, his jacket's reflective layer shined like light due to the flash and he was looking like 80s disco dancer! After a fag /tea break we moved on, reached sultan bathery, had another break and managed to reach hotel finally after 2.5 hours from the time we started from the island. We all congratulated eachother for amazing discipline through out the night ride. After a quickie dinner, gulped down much required beer and whisky and everyone crashed in their rooms one after another, me, balaji and manas were up late and talking about all things under the sun, balaji gave insight on his experience in jeddah, saudi arabia.

Day4:1st May 2007 Tuesday:Started off early by 5, our schedule for the day was Tushaaragiri falls, some 50 kms from kalpetta via lakkidi view point. Sachin and me went ahead and reached lakkidi view point by half and hour and what a sight it was! Clouds covered the gaps between mountains below and it looked like we were looking at the himalayas! I went click happy, soon other guys joined in and started the photography sessions. The usally crowded view point was virtually deserted that early morning, there were loads of monkeys accompanying us, no humans! took awesome pics of scenery below and it was time for our orkut snaps! Pics of guys taking the twisties with their bikes, So first up was manas, kartik, balaji and me postioned ourselves and santosh was the signalling guy :) We were ready and santosh signalled manas, who made a good entry and exit of the curve and got captured in our cams. Next up was yours truly, this was gonna be my first set of bending pics, so off i went and got signal and came towards the entry, bent the zma and went out of the exit curve, Kartik and sachin couldn't it properly, so there was a second run and this time they got it. Similarly balaji and sachin got their pics taken. Now it was time to move on, Me and sachin informed others that now the roads leading to falls will get narrower and it will be very steep, so with me leading we went down the same twisties that we had done the previous day while coming in to kalpetta, had breakfast near the deviation from NH to get in to tusharagiri waterfall and moved on, the ghat roads were hardly 3 feet wide and were having some 50 degree inclination, zma took on the inclinations with ease and as we began enjoying the mini narrow ghats, we missed a turn and we went ahead, the ghat road ended and i stopped and enquired, we had to turn back so off we came the same steep inclination and sachin took the lead and we landed up in tushaaragiri waterfall. This time too the falls had very less water flowing but consolation was we were first and no tourists had flocked there, so water was clean, it was time to dive in and all guys jumped in except manas, who was chasing a butterfly to get a macro shot (or matrimondial shot? ) finally he managed to get good shots of the butterfly, while the rest of us enjoyed the dip in in water. We moved out and started riding back to hotel, reached hotel around 12 after butt breaks in between, the narrow ghat roads near the falls were just amazing to drive through, kerala has amazing road quality for the kind of terrain and rain fall they get, it's a very good achievement. Had heavy lunch and we could push out of hotel only by 3.30pm. We knew that we had to hit mysore before darkness, else get stuck in single lane NH at night (nightmare!) We did good speeds and made it a point to take a butt break after every 50 kms. We hit bandipur forest stretch, amazingly even this road was tarred this time! It was a pleasure to ride on, as soon as we crossed in to karnataka, a big pothole welcomed us, later the road got better, i saw balaji honking and signalling to me and we stopped to find kartik was no where to be seen, since he was the last guy, we waited, then kartik comes in and says that he saw elephants in the forests and shows up snaps, damn, we were so engrossed on road, we had missed the jumbo herd, so we decided ride real slow through out the bandipur stretch to see if we can sight any animals, to our luck we did, found a car parked on the road side and people looking in to the jungle, we all stopped and right there some 20 feet frm us was a big herd of around 15 elephants, just walking around. We silently observed them for a while and soon the place got crowded, so the jumbos got disturbed and they retreated inside the forest. We moved on with sachin leading the pack and we hit junction at mysore at 6.30 Pm. It was the beginning of four lane mysore - blore road, all guys went beserk and became throttle happy, with me leading the pack, it was such a joy to ride in wide 4 laned slightly curvy road, in no time i saw the srirangapatna board, so slowed down, rest of the guys formed the formation again and we started to ride with usual speeds till there was day light, as darkness set in we rode again in formation with kartik and balaji leading and sachin me and manas tailing. We hit maddur coffee day at 8 pm. Ordered stuff, it was time for maths class from my santosh, he did lot of calculations and told each of us owe X amount to such and such guy and in the end, we all ended up paying all the cash to santosh :) Pushed off from maddur coffee day, again rode in formation, maintaining constant speed of 80 and signalling eachother and others for overtaking, changing lanes etc. We reached Bangalore university campus junction by 10 pm. Had our last fag break together, congratulated each other for a ride successfully completed, did a quick retrospection, bid good byes to eachother and split up, not before initiating planning for our next ride! :)

Waynad - Belur - Halebeedu

God's own country kerala seduced me in december and i was planning a ride to cover waynad in kerala after the december ride as we couldn't do waynad then. This time fellow xbhpian and BN member Sachin teamed up with me and we were off to discover nature's beauty in waynad. But the trip took a twist of it's own as sachin had to head back to bangalore due to family emergency and i ended up doing belur and halebeedu on day 2 and day3 with Kamlesh and karthik ayyar.


First the stats:
Ride duration: 3 days (17th March 07 (Saturday) till 19th March 07 (Monday)Riders: Me and Sachinkoppikar
Bikes: My Silver ZMA and Sachin's Pulsar 150 (Waynad) Kamlesh and Karthik ayyar on their Bullet Thunderbirds (Belur - Halebeedu)
Total Kms covered: 972 Kms

Route taken:
Day1:
Bangalore>Mandya>Mysore>Nanjangud>Gundlupet>Sulthanbathery>Kalpetta

Day 2 : Kalpetta>Sulthanbathery>Gundlupet>Mysore>Srirangapatna>Pandavapura>nagamangala>Bellurcrossing>Hassan >Belur

Day3:
Belur>Halebeedu>Belur>Hassan>Channarayapatna>Kunigal>Bangalore

Retrospection of the ride:
Had to do 70 plus kms of solo riding after deviating from srirangapatna as sachin headed back from bangalore and i went towords blr-hassan road to join the bulleteers to belur, Riding solo with out another biker was a first for me. Waynad's awesome twisties gave me cornering lessons, Saw the most narrowest ghat section roads! Bandipur forest stretch was a pleasure early morning with fog and mist and ofcourse the bangalore - mysore stretch was a delight. Hassan -belur road was again a delight. Temples of belur and halebeedu were amazing. Was lucky to witness solar eclipse in full glory and capture it on cam.

My Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/WaynadBelurHalebeeduRide

Kamlesh's Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/kamlesh.sanwal/HaleBiduBelur

Kartik Ayyar's pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/kartik.ayyar/BelurHalebeedu

Thanks to sachin's generosity in lending me his kodak camera, belur and halebeedu have been captured in full glory. No annoying mobile cam pics this time :p

K for Kerala and Karizma!

Kerala - God's own country eluded me time and again, i never seemed to have time to visit this much advertised state. So it all started after goa ride when few riders from goa meet suggested that we do a long stretched out chillax ride some where in december end. Then towards the fag end of november, things started to fall in place and we ended up choosing kerala as our destination. Since most of the guys were not able to get leaves, we planned to start off with a big group and ride towards munnar and from there two of us would move on to interior kerala for whole week. Tour we did! it was my first taste of Kerala and i got hooked! This is my longest ride till date!

First the stats:
Trip duration: 23rd Dec 06 (Saturday) till 31st Dec 06 (Sunday)Riders: Me and Parvez Shah

Bikes: My Silver Zma and Parvez's Yellow Zma

Total Kms covered: 1876 Kms
Route taken: Bangalore>Munnar>Idukki>Thekkady>Trivandrum>kovalam>Trivandrum>kanyakumari>Trivandrum>
Cochin>Thrissur>Palakkad>Coimbatore>Bhavani>Dharampuri>Bangalore

Retrospection of the trip: Kerala is truly god's own country, not a marketing hype and Karizma rocks in ghats!


My Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/vaas2000/KForKeralaAndKarizma

Parvez's Pics:http://picasaweb.google.com/parvezshah/DialKForTour

Excuse me for the quality of pics as they were taken on my Nokia 6230i 1.3 mp Phone cam and parvez's Sony 810i 2 MP phone cam since neither of us own a cam :(