Chikmagalur-Kemmangundi-Belur

My First loong ride of 2008 started off with this ride. My earlier ride was 2 days ride, so that doesn't count as a loong ride :P I was really looking forward to meet my Mangalore xbhp friends Zahin and sujay, whom we had met last year during our Ride to calicut. Also, Kemmangundi and Chikmagalur area had eluded me for long, so we decided that this time it's gonna be total offroading ride :P I had done some preparations for the ride, little did i know that this ride would take it's own twists and turns!


The stats:

Ride Duration: 3 days, 21st March 2008 Friday - 23rd March 2008 Sunday

Riders and Bikes:



Santoosh - Pulsar 180
Prasanna - Pulsar 180
Sunil Dhummi - Pulsar150
Gaurav - Avenger
Vaibhav - Avenger
Kartik Ayyar - Thunderbird
Praveen T - Unicorn
Vasanth - Zma


Total Kms covered: 640 kms for me, close to 1000 kms for others.

Route taken:

Day 1 : Bangalore>Kunigal>Channarayapattana>Hassan>Belur>Chikmagalur>Kemmangundi>
Chikmagalur
Total = 365 kms

Day 2: 6 guys took this route.
Chimagalur>Kudremukh>Karkala>Mangalore
Total = 185 kms

Day 3: Santoosh/me/sachin joined the 6 guys at channarayapatna.
Mangalore>uppinangady>sakleshpur>Hassan>channarayapatna>kunigal>Nelamangala>Bangalore
Total = 347 kms

Pics: Click here for my pics
Click here for Gaurav's pics



Retrospection of the Ride:

Kinda trivia, so figure it out!
1. When we left bangalore, we were 8 guys on 8 bikes.
2. People who reached Mangalore were 6 guys on 6 bikes.
3. People who came back to bangalore on last day were 10 guys on 8 bikes.
4. Renu and gang who were supposed to meet us on day 2 and ride to mangalore, didn't turn up, they rode to karwar or something.
5. Krishna dropped out on friday morning due to personal probs and Sachin dropped out due to his bike issues. His bike's piston rings were goner.
6. But sachin was one of the guys who rode back in the group on last day (sunday) to bangalore :P

Ok, let me let the cat out of the bag. Things in brief:

1. I CRASHED for the first time in my riding tenure on Friday night near kemmangundi exit at 8.30 pm or so :(
2. Santoosh and me stayed back in Chikmagalur on saturday and got my zma fixed, the rest of the guys left to mangalore in rain.
3. Sachin and his friend chalapathy came to chikmagalur in a bus from bangalore. They reached chikmagalur on saturday night.
4. Sachin and Chalapathy on zma and Santoosh and me on santoosh's pulsar.
5. We 4 went to Belur and took guided tour and pics on sunday morning :P
6. Met the guys who were riding back from mangalore in Kamat near Channrayapatna (we had coordinated our timings)
7. The entire gang rode back in formation with santoosh as lead and me as his pillion. I have taken lots of videos and pics of group riding.

Iam fine, My riding gears saved my ass. Caterpillar boots + fieldsheerpants + fieldsheerjacket + cramstertwistergloves +GPR Lid took the abuse very well. Zma's Right side front faring cracked and broke. Handlebar and front brake lever was bent, they were replaced in chikmagalur, no fork issues or anything else.

The fall was like from 50 kmph to zero in 1 second, i had jammed my front brakes instintively, the road was full of stones and mud, no tar, i saw a huge crater in front of me at nth moment and jammed front brake and fell on my right side, skidded for some 10 plus feet, ended up with bike on my leg.
Just a slight bruise on my right arm as the jacket slid up as i had not secured it properly :( Slight muscle pain near the right hip area due to the impact. Not a scratch on leg inspite of bike lying on my leg.

Lessons learnt:
1. Caterpillar boots rock, buying another pair for city use. The curent pair got ripped so badly that the steel toe is visible.
2. Get cramster spine protector, used sachin's back protector while sitting pillion, it did wonders to my back.
3. Get a good gloves with kevlar stuff in it and which has good wrist guard which can be secured (DSG Stuff in motomania)
4. Get a crashguard fixed on Zma.

The Ride log:

Day1 - 21st March 2007, Friday :

Since i was in night shift, i had to go to office at 10 pm. Checked mails only to know that Lovejoshi had dropped due to personal problems. Krishna had sent lot of weather updates in mail, looked like chikmagalur was under heavy downpour. Later krishna smsed me that he was dropping out due to personal problems. Got a call from Sachin, his bike's piston rings were gone unfortunately, so he was dropping out too. With riders dropping out like flies at the last moment, the total list of riders stood at 8. I hoped that there shouldn't be any more dropouts due to rains. Left office at 2 Am. Reached home and did packing and stuff. Was all ready to leave by 4.15 Am. Parents did the usual pooja for bike and i was on road by 4.30Am. I was supposed to meet santoosh at Yeshwantpur metro and team up with him to nelamangala crossing meeting point by 5.30 Am. Reached metro and santoosh showed up in 10 mins. We started towards Nelamangala crossing by 4.50 Am.

First surprise of the day, traffic jam! There was horrible truck traffic as soon as we hit NH4 right from Jindhal. Two rows of trucks were moving at stop and go pace. There was very little space to overtake from left as there was some construction going on and they had put up barracades. We somehow squeezed through and made our way through the maze of trucks. The jam lasted for half and hour and we reached NH4 Nice road junction. Found a huge 20 plus wheeler truck slowly crawling occupying both lanes, it was the culprit for the traffic jam behind! Once we over took that monster, it was smooth sailing, Santoosh wanted to get his front tyre's air checked as he suspected that it was over filled, we tried 3 bunks, none had air at that time. So moved toward nelamangala crossing. We both reached the Nelamangala crossing first and it was 5.40 Am. I knew we would be getting delayed as others had to pass through the same jam and come to the meeting point. I waited while santoosh went off in search of a bunk which had air.

Finally by close to 6, the junta started to drop in. Only Prasanna was expected to reach the meeting point alone. So we all waited and took our chai/sutta break. Finally prasanna showed up past 6 Am and santoosh too was back from air checking :P We started off finally at 6.20 Am with santoosh as lead and me as tail. It was a convoy of 8 bikes on NH 48. The weather was cloudy and looked it could rain any moment, so all of us were already wearing our rain gear, i even put rain cover for the cramster tank bag on my bike and we were off. We were doing good speeds as santoosh was leading constantly at 80. I had to catch up sometimes ripping as overtaking was slowing the group down sometimes. Santoosh's Jinga reflective jacket was working perfectly, he had a jacket like the traffic police in radium green colour, i could see him in my sight easily and it was easy for me to see if the lead was always in my view, so the entire pack is together.

We hit kunigal before 7 Am. We had done good speeds. Santoosh wanted to know if we needed to take a break, but with just 40 kms on odo from starting point, everyone was enthusiastic to continue, so santoosh said that our buttbreak/breakfast will be in Kamat hotel in Channarayapatna. That was around 75 kms more to go. We started off. Then on it was butt sore ride. The weather was still pleasant but unpredicatable, i just hoped that it shouldn't start pouring. We did good speeds, some 50 kms in it, cramps started, everyone was flexing their arms and legs :P Kamat hotel was no where in sight, prasanna slowed down and asked me how far was the hotel, i didn't know the exact distance so i told him it was another 5 kms or so, then he went back to his position. Finally after 20 more mins or so, we found kamat on the right side, it was like a mirage, everyone was hungry for breakfast, we rolled in to kamat at around 8.15 Am



Had Hearty breakfast, idli vadas never tasted so good :P after filling our tummies, we started from kamat at around 9.15 Am towards Chikmagalur. We had decided that our next butt break would be in fabulous Hassan-Belur road. 40 more kms to go. So we again rode in formation with me tailing. Hassan town traffic slowed us down a bit and we managed to squeeze past the town traffic and hit the fabulous Belur road.
I had been through this road in one of my earlier rides there is awesome photographic opportunity in the curves there. So i had told santoosh to stop in one of such scenic places. Santoosh stopped at 2 curves, but i didn't like that spot, i wanted the same spot where we had stopped in my earlier ride. Soon we found that spot with 10kms to belur. It was 10.30 Am and we had ample time on our hands to hit chikmagalur (35 kms to go) So we decided to take butt break and photographic break there.

Kartik hit upon the idea of taking pics of the whole group riding in formation and taking the curve. So prasanna and Kartik positioned their cameras and waited, the rest of us (6 bikes) went back and approached the curve with formation. The photographers were not happy with the result, we were too fast and too far from each other, so it was time for retake :P off we went again, this time there was some issue. Finally, we ended up doing the same stretch for around 6 to 7 times before the shutter bugs were satisfied :P It was time for me and santoosh to play shutterbugs, so we sent prasanna and kartik with the rest of the group to take the curve. We too asked for a number of retakes :P finally i got some good shots in prasanna's DSLR. Then it was time for Pulsars :P Prasanna and Santoosh's Pulsar 180s alone taking curves, that came out good too. By the time we packed up our photoshoot :P it was past 11 Am. So we decided to hit chikmagalur.

The road from Belur to chikmagalur was fun, with sharp curves and narrow tankbund roads. We hit chikmagalur in no time. Landed up in Hotel Rajmahal, where krishna had booked rooms. Found the rooms were pretty nominal at Rs 400 with tv! So we took 4 rooms and took quick rest and teamed up for lunch. We had awesome thaali lunch for just 40 bux! it came with 10 items with icecream in the end! It was time to move from hotel to kemmangundi, the offroading heaven :P We were out of hotel at 2.15 Pm towards Kemmangundi. The weather was still pleasant and cloudy, it looked like it could rain any moment, but it didn't :P We were enjoying the ride, the first sight of mountains excited prasanna, he stopped praveen (his cramster for the day :P) got his dslr out of praveen's tankbag and got a good shot of the mountain ahead. Then we moved ahead. Santoosh and rest of the gang were waiting in the deviation for Bababudangiri/Dattapeeta, the southern Ayodhya. Santoosh had already been to kemmangundi more than once, so he knew the in and outs of the place, he led again with me tailing the group.



One the way up, we found breathtaking views, for the first time in my life, i saw actual cloud burst and rain falling somewhere far from where i stood! it was just beautiful, you could hear the sound of rain but it was not raining where we stood, we could see the downpour in front of us. It looked like a painting! Everyone was excited, at the same time our rain gear came out for just in case scenario :P I had taken just the Tank bag and left the cramster saddle bags at hotel, i put the rain cover on the tank bag and after clicking many pics to our heart's content, we packed up and moved on. Dattapeeta is 25 kms from chikmagalur. We were stopping every 15 mins as the views were getting better and better! Finally we hit bad patches of offroading heaven:P it was just full of slush and mud and with water flowing across the roads, there were some crossings with up to 1 feet plus of muddy slushy water :P



The final 10kms or so to Dattapeeta was very narrow curvy roads, the road quality was okaish compared to the slushy roads earlier, that day was a muslim festival, so we encountered lot of tempo trax and sumos in this final route. some 5 kms to Dattapeeta we found an elevated spot, from there the scenery was too good. So the shutterbugs went click happy, i took some shots of zma with backdrop of mountains, while Vaibhav was up to his posing antics :P He even climbed up rocky walls of mountain to someextent and gave spiderman pose as santoosh suggested, while kartik captured his moment of glory :P It was still 3.50 Pm and we had loads of time (or so we thought!) Santoosh wanted to click pics of entire group riding together from far in those ghat roads, so off went everyone and did some 2 trial rides, till santoosh got a good shot in kartik's camera :P



We packed up and rode to Dattapeeta The entrance was huge iron gates, after paying entry fee, to our left we saw a HUGE area of land with secure fencing, i had seen such fencing in TV in Ramjanmabhoomi this was something similar to that. There was huge crowd of Tempo traxs and Sumos with lot of people around as it was festival. We stopped at a vantage point and saw the controversial entrance to the shrine. The actual shrine was underground, the loong entrance was surrounded by 6 foot high iron barricade with fencing. I gave up the idea of a visit to the shrine as it would take lot of time due to crowd, we were about to take a snap of entrance, when a police man shouted at us to move on and not stand at that point, not wanting trouble in a troubled land, we moved on and went to the back entrance of the shrine. I took a pic there of the Shrine from back and the barricades. Sad state of affairs when it comes to matters of faith indeed :(



It was 4.10 Pm. Santoosh asked everyone if we should continue to kemmangundi (40 kms more) or turn back to hotel. Everyone was tempted by the views and excited at prospects of seeing greener pastures ahead, so everyone voted to proceed to kemmangundi. Santoosh led and i tailed, we left Dattapeeta towards kemmangundi. For next 1 hour, we rode and rode, road was getting from bad to worse, muddy to slushy, inclines and slopes! it was mad bad offroading of a life time! Everyone got tired in half and hour, we took a quick butt break in between, at this juncture i realised that i had forgotten my lighter at hotel, while I had my ciggies, i desperately wanted a fag as the offroading took it's toll on me, none in the group had a light (damn these nonsmokers! :P) to our amusement, we found two kids staring at us, they overheard about my requirement, gaurav just approached them and they promptly handed over a matchbox! ah, bliss of a fag! These kids were amused seeing a bunch of wierdly dressed people on bikes in the middle of nowhere, wanting to light a fag :P

Seeing my moment of joy, gaurav lit a fag :P that pissed off many in the group :P We were urged to finish our fags soon as everyone had got there energy back, we both took our own sweet time to finish the fag (much to the irritation of nonsmokers :P) Here i explained the meaning of the word Kemmangundi to Gaurav, In Kannada, it meant Pothole of Redsoil! :P Gaurav in his typical unfazed response told "It's not a pothole man! it's Red soil Ditch!":P Finally ended the 10min extended break and moved on. At around 5.15 Pm, me, prasanna, kartik and praveen found a nice spot to take pics and stopped, but there was no sign of others who were ahead of us. We thought they would have gone ahead and will turn back. but when we went towards the incline for a photoop, we saw the reamining 4 riders in the opp mountain :P they had stopped some 1 km frm where we had stopped, but they were on another mountain! I wanted to click, but realised that my tank bag was on santoosh's bike (he wanted to try the tankbag) and My camera was in it, i frantically waved and yelled at santoosh who was in another mountain to come back :P but he couldn't hear or see me i guess! :P so i resigned to my fate and started to admire the scenery.

Thankfully, Kartik and Prasanna had their cams, so they took lot of pics. Kartik was busy clicking pics of his bull with the background, while praveen/me and prasanna were clicking in his cam. We 3 realised that all of our bikes were of silver colour :P So we started clicking the silver beasts with background. Meanwhile, we saw that vaibhav, sunil and santoosh had trekked the mountain on their side! they were standing on the edge on top of mountain! We four packed up and rode towards the rest of the guys who were high on mountain :p The scenery from there was the best i had seen, the elevation was too good and on all sides we were covered with short mountains with very small grass grown on them, looked like windows xp wallpaper :P Santoosh came down from mountain and showed me the snaps he had taken in my cam, to my surprise i found snaps of me and others riding in the mountains :P He had clicked from top and captured us riding through the winding mountain roads, kewl!



By then, the mountain climbers had come down :P people were making fun of them asking what was on the other side of the mountain, prompt came the reply, "another mountain!" some one said "bay of bengal!" that was hilarious indeed! I then noticed that we had parked our bikes in a perfect lineup, so i immediately snapped pics of the line up of bikes with the background, this turned out to be one of the best pics of the ride :) Then i hit upon a idea of road level shot with timer, so all riders can be captured with their steeds. First shot was through, but i wanted another one, this time i ran after setting the timer on cam but i did not have time to go to the other side of my bike, stand and pose, so i squatted on the ground! :P Both the pics came out very well. This break had got extended to more than half an hour, we finally packed up and started to move by 5.50 Pm. 15 plus kms to go!



Finally as the sun was beginning to set, we hit kemmangundi guesthouse area at around 6.15 Pm. Funny thing was it had only one hotel/canteen, nothing much available to eat. Only biscuits,coffee/Tea. Few guys wanted Idli/Vada, santoosh who has been there earlier, told them that they will take order and give it for morning breakfast :P Seriously, this place was strange and spooky. Also Santoosh gave a countdown and bang at 6.30 Pm the lights went out! Looks like they have electricity only during day and not night! so power was expected only the next day. We ordered coffee/Tea, i shared the chocolates i had bought from home, next few mins were spent with gadgets, santoosh showing some funny videos and listening to a hilarious xxx song from his phone :P After much needed relaxation, we set out at 7.20 Pm. Chikmagalur Hotel from there was 45 plus kms.

It was pitch dark, our bike headlights were the only source of lights around, the roads were bad, there was no tar, only stones and mud! initially it was difficult to ride, but later on everyone got the hang of it, we were doing slow speeds, meanwhile reducing distance between eachother and chugging along like a train of bikes to get better visibility. At every turn, i had to use high beam for a short burst and then back to low beam to see the road surface, continuing in highbeam would mean glaring the rider in front of me, so used to dip it back to low beam. The road surface was pathetic, the little bit signs of tar which were there initially vanished and the road became a dirt track with lot of stones, very rarely we encountered vehicles on our way, at one point, i found only 2 localites in 2 bikes commuting, we over took them. I over took them and the road was curving, kartik was ahead of me, used highbeam for a split second and them dipped back to low beam, only to see a HUGE pothole the size of a crater ahead of me. I was doing 50kmph, what happened next, changed a whole lot of things for me.

I saw the crater ahead of me at the last minute and instintively did something, next thing that i noticed was that something was wrong because my view changed, i was not seeing my bike's console in front me, i felt strange, i heard sounds of screeching and metal rubbing round, i felt my right hip hitting something, right side of lid hitting something, my view changed, i was seeing the road from ground level, i was wondering what was happening, at this time my right arm started to burn, then i saw my bike's tail lamp with it's rear wheel spinning, i was wondering why i was seeing my bike's tail lamp when iam riding! Then my view got clouded in dust and the taillamp of my bike which was the only light visible to me, started to fade in that cloud of dust. It then hit me that i had crashed!

I lay there for few seconds, it again hit me that i had crashed for the very first time in my biking tenure of 6 years! I was on ground on my right side, i tried to get up, but my leg was not free, felt something on my leg, it was my bike, my leg was stuck under my bike, whose tail lamp I was seeing. I knew that i would have been hurt badly, i wondered what damage the bike would have suffered, what would i do next, how would i reach back home with a broken bike, what would i tell my parents, so many thoughts ran in my head. Meanwhile, the localites on 2 bikes, whom we had overtaken earlier, reached and one of them lifted my bike. I didn't even see who lifted my bike at that moment, i stood up as soon as possible, i felt burning sensation on my right forearm inside my riding jacket, as i stood up, my right hip joint pained a bit. I thought i had fractured my hip or something!

I turned around to see that kartik had come back along with vaibhav and they both hastily parked their bikes and came towards me, kartik/vaibhav and the 2 localites were asking me something, but i couldn't hear them, my ears had a strange ringing sound, i thought i was in a bad dream, as a last ditch effort to "wake up myself" from the bad dream, i shook my head very strongly, then i started to hear what all of these guys were telling me, they were asking me if i was all right, but i myself didn't know if i was allright! I took few steps and tried to walk, i was able to walk, but with each step my right hip pained, i thought that i should have had hairline fracture there. The burning sensation on my right forearm inside my riding jacket got worse, so i knew that i would have scrapped my forearm above my elbow. Kartik got worried that i might have got head injuries coz i was still shaking my head, i then told him that i was all right and i was shaking my head coz i thought it was a bad dream. He asked me to remove my helmet, i removed my helmet and soaked in the aftermath of crash.

Others had gone ahead, i knew that they would be waiting ahead. The localites were asking the same questions and i assured them that i was fine and thanked them. They told me that just as i was about to fall, they saw my rear brake lights lightup, they believed that i had jammed my front brakes instintively seeing the crater and i fell. I still don't know what i did at that point of time or how i fell! They left later. I told kartik that i couldn't believe that i had crashed. Vaibhav and kartik tried to console me, but then i remembered my bike, i went near it and turned on ignition, thankfully it came on. Saw some engine oil had leaked on to ground, my fear was that the forks or front disc might have been bent, i asked kartik to check if my bike was moving, he pushed it a bit forward and confirmed that front wheel was rotating. I was relieved to some extent. Then he tried to start my bike, it was not starting, the headlight was not coming on. I got worried. Then i asked kartik to press the headlight socket inside the faring once, it might have got loose, he did that and the headlight came on, but it was still not starting. Told him to leave it for sometime. After few seconds, he tried again and the bike started, then i noticed that the handlebar was bent very badly towards the right side.

It was too crooked to ride, to keep the bike straight, the handle had to be turned to the extreme right, the front brake lever was bent downwards to such an extent that a light touch was enough to engage the front brake. I asked kartik to ride my bike and check if fork had got busted or such, he rode for some distance and came back, he told me that fork seemed to have bent but it was rideable, at this point santoosh came to the scene. He first enquired what had happened and once he came to know that i was shaken beyond myself, he took charge of things. He checked my bike and rode for a short distance and told that fork seemed to be okay and only handle bar and brake lever were bent. He told that others were waiting few meters ahead near a petrol bunk and suggested to move till there to check on things as there was no light where i had crashed. I hopped on to my bike and my heart broke seeing the bike's condition.

The entire handlebar was crooked, the right side front faring was shattered, again many thoughts came to my head as to how i was going to deal with this post crash scene. My right hip joint was still paining with every pothole we took. Santoosh then stopped and asked me if was able to ride my bike, i was not able to ride with a crooked handlebar properly, so he took my bike and i rode the pulsar. We slowly rode for some 100 mts and i saw a petrol bunk on the right of the road, everyone was waiting there, We rolled in to the bunk. I had difficulty in getting off the bike as my right hip was paining. Removed the lid and sat near a stone. I noticed that the Cramster tank bag was still on my bike, i had forgotten that it was there! It hadn't budged even when i crashed! had it come off or such, my Camera kept in it would have become history! Gaurav started to talk to me and i kept on telling him and others that i couldn't believe that i had crashed. Time was around 7.40 Pm, we still had some 40kms to reach hotel. Meanwhile santoosh took my bike to the road and was doing something to it.

I decided to take stock of things, i removed my jacket and noticed my right forearm which was burning had scrape marks and i had peeled skin for 2 inches are so, removed my riding pants a bit and check on my hip, the right side had swelled a bit, But the pain was bit less than what i felt when i had tried to stand up for the first time after the fall. Praveen asked me to clean my right forearm wound with water and apply cotton, the petrol pump chaps gave us water and i washed and dressed up the wound with cotton. Then i went towards santoosh, he had magically straightened the handle to a large extent! He assured me that the bike was and rideable, only the handlebar and front brake lever were bent. Then i realised that everyone was getting delayed because of my crash so i told everyone that we need to move and reach hotel, but everyone told me to relax for a while and forget about reaching hotel. I again sat down and all the thoughts came to my head. I was getting rest less and worried about the next course of action, i cursed myself for crashing.

Time flew and after more than an hour since i crashed, i told everyone that we can ride back to hotel, everyone again enquired me if i was ok, i assured them that i was ok to get back on saddle. So we all packed up and started to move. Santoosh asked everyone to move ahead and asked me to ride my bike while he would lead, we got out of the petrol pump and there it was! Well tarred road! I had ridden in bad roads from afternoon and i crashed just 100mts short of good roads! my luck was bad! :( Santoosh was doing 40kmph and i was following him, after some time, he stopped and asked if i could ride my bike. I was still having problems with the crooked handle, so he told me to ride his pulsar and he would ride my bike. I asked him how far we were from hotel and he said 40 change kms to go, he told the road ahead was good (it was NH) and it was a straight road, that calmed me down to someextent and we switched bikes. I hopped on to his bike with slight pain in right hip and he lead me at constant 40 kmph, gradually he increased speed and caught up with everyone ahead, he told me to tail him and others would tail me.

It was longish ride, the longest 40kms of my life! all the while, thousands of thoughts ran in my head, the road was curvy, uphill and downhill mix of both, very less on coming traffic. He was doing 60kmph for sometime and later pushed it to 80kmph. He was indicating every turn with indicators, so i could follow him easily, the entire gang were riding behind me very cooperatively, no one honked even once or over took me. It started to drizzle after sometime, but santoosh's technique of indicating every curve and turn helped me a lot and i managed to follow him. It was well past 9.30 pm and we were riding for more than half an hour, i couldn't see any signboards or see the odo meter reading in his bike as it was drizzling, i just made it a point to keep tailing him and follow his signals. We rode and rode, after 45 mins in to ride, i signalled for a break near a shop, santoosh told me that we were hardly 10 mins from our hotel at that point, that pepped me up and using every last bit of energy and focus, i rode and finally we reached our hotel!

It was 10.30pm. The moment we entered the hotel, it started to rain heavily! raingods were with me atleast for that moment, i thanked my stars that i managed to reach hotel after my crash, riding for more than an hour! climbing the stairs to reach our room took some effort with the pain. Santoosh came to the room, that's when i started to notice the damage on riding gears. The fieldhsheer jacket was intact, not a single tear, there was mud on right shoulder, elbow and back of the jacket. My riding pants had mud all over them, but two small holes near the right knee armour, i felt bad that i had damaged my new Fieldsheer adventure riding pants, but was thankful that they saved my leg, there was not a single scratch on my legs, thanks to them. Then i noticed that my Caterpillar boots had some damage. The right boot had severe scrape marks near the toe area and just above the toe area, the leather had ripped off and the steel toe of the boot was visible! it looked like my bike's silencer headshield had cut my boots, but the CAT boots did their job and protected my feet, my riding gears had proven themselves to be effective!

The Cramster twist glove that i was wearing didn't tear, they had also taken a beating, but were still intact. My forearm had scraped as i hadn't tightened the cuff of my riding jacket tightly. During the impact, the elbow guards of the jacket took the impact, but as my hand came parallel to the road and as i was sliding, the riding jacket slid up my hand and i had the scrape injury, entirely my fault. Also the riding pants hip armour had taken the impact initially, but as i slid on the road, the hip armour moved to the side as i was wearing my riding pant a bit loose, hence my right hip area muscles had got strained. The GPR helmet that i was wearing had scrape marks on the right chin part, the visor had got scratched badly and taken the whole impact. But still the visor hadn't come loose/broke, the visor mechanism was still intact! I had successfully crashtested GPR Helmet, Cramster Twist Gloves, Fieldsheer Congo sport riding jacket, Fieldhsheer adventure riding pants, Caterpillar boots and cramster tankbag! The tank bag didn't have a single scratch on it, it had latched on to my bike's tank and didn't loosen up even a bit after my fall.

I removed all my riding gear and slipped on the tshirt and cargos. Santoosh assured me that my right hip joint swelling was due to muscle strain/damage and not because of hairline fracture. I used Relispray over the affected part and rested for a while. I told santoosh that i would stay back in chikmagalur, fix my bike's handlebar and front brake lever on saturday, get the bike checked and go back to bangalore on sunday. But he told me that it was not in my best interest to ride my bike myself all the way to bangalore. He told that he would stay back with me to fix the bike and we could inform Sachin about my crash and if he was free, he could come down to chikmagalur on saturday in bus and we all could ride back to bangalore on sunday with me riding as pillion. I was feeling guilty that i had ruined santoosh's ride, but he assured me again that it was not an issue with him and since it was raining heavily, he wasn't in mood to ride till mangalore. I didn't want to disturb sachin either, but santoosh convinced me to call sachin and see, if he couldn't make it, then we both could ride back.

So i called sachin and informed him that i had crashed. He couldn't believe that i had crashed! To my surprise, he told that he would come to chikmagalur by bus and meet me! It was like he read my mind! but I was again feeling guilty that i was troubling too many people at one go, but he brushed aside my concerns and told me that he would be in chikmagalur on saturday. With next course of action clear, i was relieved a bit, but still i was feeling guilty that i was troubling so many people due to my stupid crash. Then santoosh and me decided to inform others about our plan and went to their room. Guys had ordered food in advance as they had known that we would be delayed to reach hotel after my crash, so everyone started having our well deserved dinner, albiet a bit late. I informed about my plan for the next day and asked the guys to carry on to mangalore as per our original ride plan. After some convincing, the guys decided to move on as per ride plan as they knew that santoosh and sachin would be there to deal with my post crash scene.

I somehow didn't feel hungry, had light dinner. After some light talk realised that it was well past 12, so wished the guys good luck and retired to our room. The remaining guys (6 bikes) had decided to start from chikmagalur towards mangalore at 8.30 AM the next day. In room i lighted up cig and tried to do a postmortem of the events that had unfolded, it made me realise that i was damn lucky to have escaped with minimal injuries and even the bike was rideable after the crash. But no matter what i did, i couldn't remember how i managed to crash! My next thoughts were how to deal with parents and how would i manage my office commutes as my bike had to fixed in bangalore for major damages. Santoosh told me to calm down and not to worry too much, he told that he's used to dealing with post crash scenes and knew that things would get better as time progresses and went to sleep.I finished my fag and tried hard to sleep, but the same thoughts came back to haunt me, but later, slowly i drifted to sleep.

Day2 - 22nd March 2007, Saturday :

I woke up at 7 AM. I had forgotten about previous day's crash for like 5 mins :) after that it hit me and i started my day with a smoke. Thankfully, the swelling on my right hip had gone down considerably, so was the pain, now i believed santoosh's words that i didn't have hair line fracture :P Saw flurry of activities in the other room, the guys who were to leave to mangalore were getting ready, they enquired about me and i assured that i was feeling better after good night's sleep. Everyone packed up at 8 Am but it was still raining heavily, so we decided to have breakfast together. After breakfast, everyone started to mount their saddle bags and tankbags for the long ride ahead, rain didn't seem to slow down. I went towards my bike to survey the damage with my cam, the extent of damage did shock me.



My Zma had taken lot of impact, but still she was rideable for 40 kms. My riding gears had saved my ass. Thanked my stars a day late!:P Meanwhile the 6 Guys were ready to brave the rains and start their long journey to mangalore. Santoosh had briefed them about the route details and landmarks. 6 bikes rolled out of hotel at 9.30 Am in heavy rains, while we wished them luck.



Santoosh and me headed back to our rooms. Sachin called me and informed that he would be reaching chikmagalur by 8.00 Pm. We had lot of time on our hands, so we decided to take it easy. It was still pouring cats and dogs, we got ready and left hotel by 11.00 Am, upon enquiring, we found a fairly big Herohonda showroom in the city. We reached the showroom by 11.30 Am. Santoosh was riding my bike while i sat pillion. The service supervisor there was very helpful and friendly. Despite it being saturday, he took my bike in and assigned mechs to fix things. He looked in to all the concerned areas. He even let us inside the service area to take a look at the work being done.



Handle bar and front brake lever were available, but plastics were not. So they replaced the handlebar and brake lever. They checked the front forks and assured us that nothing was amiss and bike was very much rideable to bangalore. They even removed the front faring on my request so i could inspect the extent of damage. The entire right front cowl plastics were gone, one of the reflector's mounting points was also broken. They did a neat job of securing the broken parts to some extent and let us try the new handle postion and brake lever level etc. They finished their job in 1 hour and the bike was ready by 12.30 PM! Engine oil level was low as some oil had leaked after fall, we bought Castrol power1 from near by store and oil was changed too.



Amazingly, the supervisor knew Mr vandhan from Saimotors in bangalore! He also informed me that they had sold only one Karizma from past one year! so much for a 5 year old model :P The bill was for Rs 296/- i was indeed surprised by everything. We thanked the supervisor and tried to tip him for his excellent quick work, but he wouldn't take it! after lot of convincing, he accepted my tip, he even invited me to visit them if i come back to chikmagalur in future :) Wish all Herohonda service centers were like this!

Santoosh rode and i sat as pillion, we went to a doctor to check my forearm wound. The doc was skin specialist. He dressed up the wound and gave me a tetanus shot. Gave me pain killer tablets for the right hip area and charged just 100 bucks! Imagine what it would have costed for the same treatment in bangalore! It was well past 1.30 by then and me and santoosh headed for lunch. We got excellent northindian thali with 10 items including icecream to boot for just 40 bucks! The taste was too good. Chikmagalur is an amazing place to be in, the cost of living is very less compared to the looting in bangalore! We headed back to our hotel and rested. All the while it was still pouring cats and dogs. We got update from the guys who left for mangalore that they were taking Kudremukh route from balehonnur, and it was still pouring there. They had covered good distance compared to the time they started.

By evening, sachin called and informed me that he was in bus and would reach by 8, his friend Chala was also accompanying him. So me and santoosh decided to explore chikmagalur city and also buy famous coffee powder from there. Santoosh was wearing my riding gear as i found it easier to wear his Duckback rain suit. Took a pic of him fully kitted up.



The rain was still heavy. It was as if someone had turned on the shower and had forgotten to turn it off! :P from morning it was raining in constant speed with out any variations! Santoosh wanted to get his bike's air checked at an indian oil petrol pump, since he believed that only IOC bunks air pressure guages are accurate. So we started our hunt for an IOC bunk. Believe it or not, with in a stretch of 4 kms, we found 5 BPCL bunks, 4 HP bunks, but not a single IOC bunk! After more than 45 mins of city riding, we found one bunk on the outskirts! They hadn't turned on the air compressor! finally after santoosh talked to them about our hunt for IOC bunks, they turned on the air compressor and he filled in air and also topped up petrol. We headed back to hotel and took my bike to bunk to fill up fuel. After filling up, we found a coffee works shop and bought natural coffee powder for folks at home, picked up a duct tape and headed back to hotel.

At hotel, taped up zma's broken plastics to hold things together using duct tape. It held up things pretty neatly. At around 6.45 pm the guys who left in the morning, messaged us that they had reached mangalore safely, but it was pouring all through their route. At 8.30 Pm. Sachin called up and informed us that he had reached chikmagalur bus stand, which was walkable distance from our hotel. Santoosh and me walked up to the bus stand and met sachin and chala, at this point the rain slowed down to a drizzle thankfully! After sachin settled down, we all went to a near by hotel for a much required booze cum dinner session :P I narrated my crash story to sachin with complete rewind and playback type details :P We were about to wrap up our session at 11.30 Pm, when prasanna called from mangalore. It turned out that they were boozing too after a wet wet ride of 200 kms in 9 hours! Poor souls were too tired to do anything and it was still raining in mangalore, so instead of hitting the beach, they hit a bar :P We wound up our sessions and headed back to our rooms at 12, we had decided that we would try to tag with the guys starting from mangalore the next day, so we had lot of time on our hands, we decided to go to Belur next day (30 kms)

Day3 - 23rd March 2007, Sunday :

Wokeup lazily at 7 Am only to see that rain had returned in full form! We decided to have breakfast and then decide about Belur, by the time we had breakfast, rains stopped completely! Rain gods were blessing us i guess! We checked out of hotel in chikmagalur and started towards belur at 8.30 Am. Santoosh riding my zma and me as pillion and Sachin riding santoosh's bike with chala as pillion. Santoosh wanted to try my cramster saddle bags on his pulsar, so the saddle bags were on his bike. But with the saddle bags on, there was very little space for pillion to keep his leg in pulsar, so we switched back the saddle bag to my zma and switched bikes too. So i was pillion with santoosh on his pulsar while sachin rode my zma with chala as pillion. The ride out of chikmagalur was good, since the rains had stopped, it was still cloudy and at far off mountains we could see amazing cloud cover moving around like thick layer of smoke.

We rode leisurely and reached Belur in 40 mins at 9.15 Am. We decided to take guided tour of the temple. Sachin found a guide for 150 bucks and our guided tour started. I have been to belur earlier, but at that time, we hadn't taken a guide, i felt we should have taken a guide during my last visit because there is just so much details about the temple and the carvings that with out a guide, we won't understand them. The guide explained lot of things about the temple, the carvings, the architecture etc. I was just spell bound seeing few scientific techniques which were used in few sculptures.




We were through with our Belur guided tour and photography by 10.30 Am. We got message from Kartik that they had started from Mangalore at 8Am and would be reaching Sakleshpur by around 12. We still had plenty of time, so we took a big break in KSTDC Mayura Hotel in Belur, much to amusement of the hotel staff, they were curious about Cramster Spine protector which i was wearing (borrowed from sachin) They even checked out our riding gear and i was like a live example to them about the effectiveness of riding gear :P We moved towards hassan after the break and were in Reliance Petrol bunk in Hassan by 12 Pm. Kartik messaged that they were taking lunch break in Sakleshpur, so we decided to Head towards Kamat Hotel near Channarayapatna for lunch. The Spine protector was really doing it's job very well, My back was totally relaxed inspite of me wearing a backpack sitting as pillion.

Santoosh's riding style took sometime to get used to :P I was shit scared initially sitting as pillion behind him, but later on i got the hang of it. He used to maintain a constant speed and slow down only when necessary, very different from the way i ride, but he was riding very cautiously too. I was getting bugged sitting as pillion in a ride for the first time, so used my Nokia N73 Phone Cam for capturing video/photos, they surprisingly came well! We reached Kamat Hotel in 45 mins and proceeded with our lunch. Finally, Kartik and gang reached Kamat, just as we were through with our lunch. While we were chit chatting in parking lot, we saw few fully loaded bulleteers riding in to hotel, they parked beside us. They too were fully kitted up and bulls were LOADED to max with their panniers on :P

One of the riders spoke to us and we came to know that they were RTMC Bullet group members. We introduced ourselves as from Bikenomads. Santoosh briefed everyone that we were going to ride in formation now on till bangalore and he would lead, sachin would follow and the rest would be behind sachin. The mangalore troupe were dog tired from all the wet riding they had done from the previous day, so they agreed to his idea. We started off in formation, i was using my Phone cam to capture videos and photos again, the videos came out very well, with all the remaining 7 bikes riding in perfect formation with headlights on. We took two butt breaks on the way and reached Nelamangala crossing by 5.45 PM. Few guys from here would take NICE Road, while few would take the inner roads.

Next up, we stopped at NICE road junction. Here kartik, sunil, vaibhav and Gaurav parted ways, while Sachin, prasanna, Santoosh and praveen carried on through the city roads. Traffic jam welcomed us with open arms as we entered NH4 towards city. After gruelling ride through the stop and go traffic, we all reached Malleshwaram by 7.00 Pm We hit the CCD there and chilled out for a while. It started to drizzle after we reached CCD :P Rain gods had blessed us for a long time indeed!



After lot of talks and smokes and cold coffees and snacks, we decided to move. From here Sachin hopped on to prasanna's bike as they stayed near by to each other. Santoosh bid goodbye early and left as he had some work. I had to ride for the first time after i crashed. Initially i felt the bike was kind of rough, but later got used to it. I dropped Sachin's friend Chala on the way home and reached home at 9 Pm. I just sat on the bike for 5 mins or so doing nothing after i reached home, i was letting it sink in that i reached home in one piece after all the fuckups :P Then proceeded to removed the saddle bags and tankbag.

An extraordinaary ride came to an end. My investments on riding gears saved my ass big time, i decided to buy the cramster spine protector as it helped my back a lot and get myself a good leather touring gloves with kevlar which extends till forearm.
I don't know how i will ever express my gratitude to santoosh, sachin and all the other co riders in this ride. Everyone stood by me, helped me pull up my socks and complete this ride and reach home in one piece. Santoosh and Sachin especially went out of their way to help me and ensured that i reached home in one piece, i can't thank these two guys enough. Iam thankful to have such helpful selfless souls as my friends and co riders.

Coming back to my bike, she's bruised and hurt, but still she didn't let me down. After the crash, she hauled a rider with pillion and cramster saddle bags, all the while she was being belted at 100 kmph. My love and respect for her went up, will be fixing her up soon, most probably by this weekend.