Friday, November 19, 2004

Divali Gokarna Blast

My first long ride: 1200 KMs in 3 days.



Click here for more PIX
Pix Courtesy: Moonie and vivek.

Video of us at 100+ speeds.

dats me the second bike and video taken by moonie.

this being my first really long trip the whole of three days and the preceeding one week was really exiting. Wanted to give a detailed trip log for the blr-gokarna-blr part. Well it was some 10 days before the ride that moonie proposed the divali dash. i was like ummm too big for me naaaa. Then i caught cold, which usually last for a month - me havin some sinus problem. cos of which cant stand movin air on my face. Friday one week before the ride i see the list of people for the ride growing. then i remembered my sharavan belgola trip where i did 330 Kms in one day. Then just thought how about i give it a go. The hair on the back of my head stood stright. i could feel that i was already getting better from my cold. First thing i did was visit my doc. give me something to get rid of the cold. saw the doc for 2 more times in between. Sat - went to get my bike serviced in anticipation. bought banjee cords. venturing out means risking more cold. weather was cold too. well i go or not wanted to prepare myself for the ride.

Monday - weather being unletting. i checked up the forcast for bangalore, mangalore, gokarna which promised sunny days from sat. just then saw moonies post of post poning the trip by one day. was boost and i announced i was interested though tentative. mentally fighting cold all the while. some flat renovations were being scheduled and was also will people in my home would let me do it. thought it was all over. still kept the hope. thru - went for new helmet that would let less air onto my face. steelbird sb13 - uh uhuu to big for me. finally got steelbird br85 which fit me snug. evening broke the news at home. took a lot of centimental cajoling to let me go. my cold too was in controll.

the day before -
friday was really bad weather but the forcast promised sunny days ahead. rahul had other plans and could not make it so could not nithin. sharath and sanjay could not get leaves at their office i was the lone cbz gye. moonie and sojish planned to reach blr by eight. but like monie said were delayed and tired. i called up vivek at 11 in the night to decide the meeting point. i thought i would be a passive rider and routes all are decided. Then first time spoke to moonie, he said "Hi praveen, How are u? Do u have some nuts?" HUH!!! naaa i dont have any. well his custome silencer nuts had given way. The he said how to go to gokarna???? well understandbly he was very tired from the trechours and rainy mysore road. well told would try to find out and time to do some work. called up sanjay. he sujjested us to go by mangalore and also told to callup ashok as he had good idea of alternate routes. ashok was at mangalore sujjested us to go by mangalore and shivamoga while coming as they were both completely different kinda roads and could enjoy both. which was spoton. thanks ashok. gokarna 600 KMs from blr aaaaaaaaah said to myslef dont tell at home cos i had saidt it was around 450. meeting time morning 6.30 and sanjay told he would come to see us off. packed my stuff. tank was already full. the troop - moonie, sojish, vivek and me. thought would hold back the ZMAs a bit and which i did too. but the gyes were patient and encouraging.

Day One - saturday the 13th
morning alarm 5.30. ready by 6.45 and met sanjay and went to viveks place. well good morning fellas time to wake up. sharat too came to see us offf. chit chat chit chat. bags tied up to the bike with bunjees. pushed off to have breakfast 8.30. in Venkat's place by 9.15. Vivek and sojish left for marathalli to get their camera. while moonie got hi silencer nuts finally. and got the bikes washed. vivek and sojish back. time to move 11.00. all the while the halting places for the night kept changing from Gokarna - batkal - kundapur and finally mangalore. time to fill the ZMAs's tummy. the IOC gye claimed that he put 16 liters in the zma's 15 liter tank. he won. any way 11.45 out of bangalore. well time to rip rip rip. goods roads nice speeds. 1.00: butt break and click, click, click. again reached the top wach on my bike 112 which later moonie said was 107 on the sigma as he was right behing me at that time. at around 2.00 another break at a tea shop. this was the same place where we had a break on the Shravan Blgla trip. guess this is a fav route for bikers, cos over heard the tea stall gyes taking bout people comin on bike and a lady claimed to have seen big bike with a big tyre. the gap in her hands were about a foot. all the road getting indications from people that our head lights were on. planned to have lunch at kamats's near channarayapattna. lunch at 3.00 pm mangalore 200 KMs to go. phone update to home. some clicks and moved of at 3.45. after some time came the ghat section i think (charmudi ghat). my first ride on the ghats was reall scary at first. tended to get off the road at turns. the zma riders quite used to it and were enjoying the twists and turn. but was growing with confidance with every turn. butt break near the abandned donigal railway station at around 5.15. refreshed my memories of my trek i attempted with arun and gyes on the abandned railway track with bridges and tunnels. rainy, slippery and scary. but this day was sunny. then i took the lead and and was really enjoying the ghats and my speeds to increased. over took a M800 at a straight patch and immidiatly on the turn saw a truck and oil tanker commin from the opposite direction side by side. was in speed and had to go right in between the middle of the two bahemoths. oh boy what was my heart was pumping hard. later ZMA gyes said they had to go off road because of the trucks. which is about one foot below the road and a abbys near by. what the heck was in sprit was again ripping through the ghats. then moonie overtook me signaled me to slow down. thought may be i was being too aggressive. only find out later that vivek wanted to take some moving picks from sojish's bike. gettin dark. took butt break at around 6.50. mlr still 50 Kms to go. tea stall gyes celebrating the divali so no tea. and power went in the shops. a truck pulled over about ten feet from moonies bike and blinkers were not on. tought was not a safe place and moved on. moonie guiding us through the dark. reached mlr at around 7.30. called up ashok, who sujjested a hotel but found one near by 560 a room a night. mlr hot hot hot. dinner. planned leave tommorow by 6.00 am. my bike was about to hit reserve and dint wanna take chances 6 in the morning so went and filled my tank to the brim. 380 Kms in a day that was my highest ever. but new would do more in a day or two and then all go ZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzzZZZZ.

Day two - sunday the 14th,
got up at 7.00 am watched AXN and pushed off to gokarna early in the morning at 8.30 am. ZMAs turn to fill the tanks. reached malpe beach around 9.30. some clicks, beach walk and no hotel near by for break fast. moved and stopped at a ok looking hotel in kota. 10.30. breakfast idlis in some strange shape. was very hot. some juice. then moonie suggested chain tightening and lumbricating for the bikes. got it done for all the bikes. pushed off at around 11.45 gokarna 150 more to go. could feel the increased pick up after the chain treatment. then passed the Maravanthe road strip with sea one side and river on the other side which never met. clicks. were maintaining good speeds all the way 100 was common. overtakin every vehicle in sight. signals while overtakin really helped. but on straight roads cbz takes long time to over take a speedy car. thats the time when black zma zipps past me every time hihihihi. my right palm was lil sore but kept on. CBZ throttle is hard. argh. 1.00: butt break. on the left was a formattion of trees and after some distance nothin. thought it was the sea. then got a crazy idea and we went off road about 6 feet. it was slope. no trackion as all bikes were swaying. crossed about two foot ball fields lenght and reached the shore line. was a very pretty site. clicks. sojish tried some rubber burn out for picks. err (mud through out) and got stuck. me and moonie could not go to help cos bikes wouldnt stand on the loose mud. then parked our bikes near trees where because of the roots stands held on. pulled the zma and headed back to the road. i was the last climb back to the road. took a slant path to climb but front slipped and was goin done and bounced on my bike. took beating on the groin. ouch. then went perpendicular to the road and climbed up. it was hot - gokarna where r u. on a downword gredient witha left turn was takin a leaning turn only to find out being in the path of a on coming truck. heart was in my mouth and lent even more and zipped past the truck. gosh would have caused the truck some real damage. passed honnavar where we saw the turn to take while going back to blr throught shivmoga. reached gokarna around 2.15. followed the croud into the narrow and busy roads and after a struggle reached the beach. very hot. not place to cool of. place was thronged with devoties for the temple. where is the exoticity we imagined. none of us being religiously inclined felt royally pissed. were dissopointed. had tender coconuts and thought of goin to karwar some 40 KMs from there. moonie wanted to make some use of the place, stripped to jogs and went for a dip in the sea. sojish followed for snaps. time 3.00 me n vivek enquired about OM beach, only to find out we missed a turn. it was some 8 KMs on the other side of a hill. no time to waste but moonie and sojish far out at see. some how managed to catch their attention and were back on bikes. was really hot. let go my jacket, gloves and helmet. i know not goood. but trust me was really hot could not go at a slow dusty pace with all the gear in the heat. took the right turn and then it started the mother of all bad roads. steep up hill climb for 3 KMs full of gravell stone and dust. at the top nice view. clicks. then down hill switched our our enjines but no repriev from the bad road. ultimately reached the end near an abbys. no where to go. were really pissed us off all for nothin. moonie took his bike on some really steap path. nice picks of the bike there. got a good view of the beach shaped like om. a tea stall gye said we ther is parkin for vehicles in compound which we had to knock for it to open for us. then what trekked on our bikes back only to miss the gate and go further. then on worker told us to go back. after all this didnt wanna go the karwar. went to gate and started banging hard. a gye came after good 10 mins. saw a couple of bullets and RD350s parked there. one bullet had two fuel inlets at the top of the tank. The lone hotel was full with firangs. was small trek in itself to get down there. me and sojish went in search of a place to dump our things. water so near and yet so far. but found a place which we dubbed a resort. with tinivini rooms for fifty bucks a day. no lights nothing. but what the heck should try something different. reached moonie and vivek who had ordered our lunch. yummy. then hit the beach and stayed there till the last ray of the sun. very secluded place. no croud cos hard to reach. indians were a minority there. dried up and went to the hotel. no cell signal and waited long time in pco for calls. then me and moonie went to sleep on the beach which i always wanted to do. and talked some teckhi stuff. clear sky and and so many stars could even mark out the galaxy. was very dark with no lights. we used our night vision sences to find our way to the hotel and see sojish indulged in a chess match with firang. then went back to our *resort* where they had prepared food and was tasty too. then went for party at bon fire. some gyes performed some stunning fire tricks with props. water levels always rising find our way back and slept on the platform out side instead of the stuffy room. planned to hit bangalore the next day. though wanted to stay some more time there. then ZZZZZzzzZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZ


Day three - Monday the 15th
up by 6 took a lone walk on the beach. moonie got up and we hit the water again. 7.30 other gyes got wakey wakey. tea cofee. was in jeans climbing a rock hit my nee. a small wound. just thought what a fall on the bike would do. but on the brighter side got to use my medical kit in my bike for band-aid. took our stuff trekked up to our bikes and pushed off early in the morning at 8.45 am. the bad road did not feel so tiring this time cos we were fresh. Me and sojish were braggin to have reached 30 kph speed on that road when moonie said he did a 60 over there. phew. Honnavar 10.00 long break fast. Bangalore 431 KMs to go. 11.00 start. i swaped bikes with moonie. yeah zma thought would now see how it felt like at 125 speed. but the the road then on towards shivmoga was very scary. very narrow, winding both horizontally and vertically. road like this and also zma new to me. was really holding on to my nerves. moonie dissapeared with the cbz only to take picks when we rode towads him. then swapped back the bikes. and was big difference. now needed to changes gears at 7k RMs to keep up the speed. after some time got used to it and took lead till jog falls. 1.30. was devoid of water only a trikle in standards. soon moved on. were low on fuel. put 100 bucks of fuel at a small pump. reached shivmoga. 3.00. tanked up. the gye managed to put 12.09 liters of fuel in my cbz's 12.5 litre tank which had not yet hit reserve. was very hungry did not argue. lunch and hit the road by 4.00. blr 250 more to go. 5.00 butt break. tried to take some vedios of us ripping. saw all the vehicles people staring at us whome we had over taken at 100. was good to see people staring at us when we were ripping. this route was different witih lots of trees by the road compared to mlr route. the we picked up the pace to cover up as much distance as possible with the day light. reached arsikere by 6.30, cos of the traffic ate up all our remaining day light. enquired some gyes the way to bangalore. for which a gye sarcastically pointed and said yeah right blr this way 150 KMs. but we had to move one. moonie lead us in the dark and were doin 80. though of following some vehicle that over takes us. but moonie dint need one i guess. butt break at tumkur 8.30. tumkur-blr 4 lane expresss way with a huge divider. what to say. full throttle all the way. the ZMAs got stuck behing some trucks and i was chargin in the night at at 110 on the speedo overtakin all thats movin on wheels and thought i was the king of the road and just then the 2 ZMAs cooly past by me doin 120. ehh.. ehm. reached outskirts of blr- butt break. wanted to avoid the city traffic so sujjested i would take the lead and go by hebal. was at speed when a cyclewala out of no where decided to cross the road right in my path. jammed my breaks hard. and my bikes started wobbling badly. the cycle had good pickup and passed me centimeters before i hit him. let my body looose thinkin time to go down after serviving a 1200 KMs journey. but luckely the bike recoveded and rode on. phew that was close. at signal the ZMAs wizzed past me where we were supposed to take a turn and missed. then i had to catch up with speeding ZMAs on the ring road to tell them about that, which ate some kilometers. finally, took another route through the ring road and ended up doin a parikrama of bangalore before reaching viveks house at 10.20 night.
did somewere aroudn 550 KMs my highest in a day so far. too bad did not see the meter in the morning for the exact number. trip - the end (for me and vivke. moonie and sojish have 750 KMs more to munch on)

This was the most craziest, adventures thing i have ever done so far. joining the bike groups has changed my life and am doin things which i never thought that i should,could or would do.(like mike witney says)

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