Wayanad-Ooty Trip
Had been on a wonderful ride to Wayanad-Ooty with Xbhp B'lore gang.
Formation riding ;)
Click here for a sweet WriteUp by fellow rider Varun
Highlights:
15 Gyes, 14 bikes, 3 days(25th-27th March,05), 3 states(Karnataka,Kerala,Tamil Nadu :D) 750 KMs.
Riders:
1)Varun Garde - Bullet Standard
2)Neil & Sai - Bullet Electra
3)Jeol - Feiro
4)Paachu - F2
5)Keerthi - Unicorn
6)Amit - p150 dtsi
7)Sachin - p150 dtsi
8)Aadi - Enticer
9)Pramod - ZMA
10)Ashwin - p180 dtsi
11)Vicky - p180 dtsi
12)Santosh - p180 dtsi
13)Anuroop - CBZ*
14)Praveen(me) - CBZ*
Following is log of events from my point of view. The Two logs can can ba as different as they are. :D
Here it goes:
Put an alarm for 4:15 in the morning. Got up many times before to check is it time yet. Up and ready. Anuroop already waiting for me in front of woodys by 5.15 AM. I meet him. felt some thing missing. He forgot his jacket. He was goin back home thought would accompany him still felt some thing missing and am feeling unusually cold. Yes of all the things I forget my helmet. :D which I wear always. Fetched it from home and was waiting for anuroop when a thumper came along. Kafka was the name aka varun. Thought cool a thumper joining along. Then came anuroop and we headed to family mart.
every body surpriced and happy to see sucha big turnout for a three day ride(well half them wanted to come back the second day, atleast in the beggining). The planning paid out. tooks some half an hour for introduction and foto session of bike line up. me stuck my backpack to my pillion seat using the reliable net bunjee. since it was big group it was decided to break the group in into 3 sub-groups of 5 bikes each and would stick to the group. 6:15 and enjines started roaring and off we went one and all roaring towards mysore road. sub-group!!! may be it was for next ride.:D well the start of ride through mysore not a pleasure exp. in mandya the aadi fell due to an errant splender. nothing happened but the people who helped to lift bike did so using front break liver and broke it. we wandted to avoid mysore city but now had to go in for the liver. entered mysore city at around 10:30. yes big group, lots of traffic and breaks, break fast etc. group separated in the traffic to reunite at the palace. it was 12:30 by the time we left mysore. the people staring with wide eyes at big canvoy. then on the ride turned to be good. headed towards gundelpet. the roads were good, and was time to take out the fraustration for blr-mysore road. anuroop took off and not to be seen for quite some time. me and vicky were ripping to him give company. lot of wind resistance, and had to use aerodynamics to go past 105. must say the 2 cbzs gave good compitation to the p180. then Anuroop and Vicky ganged up on me to keep seedo around 50 to wait for others. I was like not the waste the road and either stop together or go ahead and wait at some bad stretch of road. Just then ashwin zips past us. Me and Vicky look at each other with a grin. Then what, visor done, body crouched and ashwin new designated target and throttle re-engaged and vroom vroom till gundelpet. reunited at gundelpet headed towards kalpetta. this was great road with ride through the forest. couple of gyes spotted dears too. nice curve roads broken at places. 6 bikes got left behind and had to wait long for them to come. reason a sachin misjujded a curve and slided down at speeds of 70. luckily nothing happend to him but wound on shoulder and scrapes on his hands. then i thought even though it was so hot i would not let go my full leather glouse.
reached sultan bathery by 2 in noon, where rooms were booked by mods. tired of heat went ot nice hotel for lunch, the small town staring at the canvoy. by the time we where ready for sight seeing it was 4:30. place of visit edkal caves. now this is where the fun began. some thirty 20 kms of nice winding roads lead to cave with natural back drop. slurrp!! this time it was jeol, vicky and me in the lead takin those awsome bends. hit a dirt road for the cave and which led to a KM of steap road of concreat and stones of about 40+ degrees. was at the end of the canvoy when the aadi's enticer lost ground and fell. well aadi jumped out before. then came some group of 25-30 people and lifted the bike and moved it with the rider sitting on it to the side. din know what they were doin, looked like trying to help but where chanting in chorus and tell other to go ahead. we din know what to do with such big croud. just then neil's thumper which stopped to look back also got stuck. now croud got even more exited and ran towards the thumper, turned it around with the 90 kg rider and brought it a lil down and turned it back up again. chanting the same *mantra*. this time the neil being mallu and understood what the gyes were chanting and was smiling so we breathed easy that these people meant no harm. but the gye was in shock and exitement cos he could do nothing and was at the mercy of the croud. later he told that the gyes were chanting "who told u to come in bike, why did u get stuck here". sai caught all the action in vedio cam. finally left the enticer there and thumber and rest of us climbed to the top. all of us couldnt stop laughing at the events. left the bikes and by the time we reached the cave entrance it was 5:45 and the cave closed at 5:00. but lookin at the big turnout the gye obliged to show it for some time. it was like goin into some craves and the view inside was awsome. a huge boulder suspended between two stones. and we were under it. guide explained it was cause of earth quake some 30 thousand years ago. fotos clicking all the way. at the end of the cave there was 2 foot wide gap between huge stones the height of 100+ feat. since it was lread 6.15 we were not allowed to trek some 300 more meter to the summit cos it was dark. well it was the dangerous climb down. used the enjine breaking. it was so steap that the tyre would slip in first gear. so used the second gear still slipped some times. came done safely and it was dark and made way back to guest house by 8 and every body crashed swearing to leave the next day early in the morning. my trip meter read 298.
day 2:
every one was up and ready to go early in the morning by 9:30!!!. i tried the thumper for the first time, an electra. requested the gye to start it for me. just drove around in circle with in the guest house premices and din go out side from the dreadful tought of kicking the bullet in case it died. ne way could not get the actual feel of bullet in the compund but it felt lot of hard work. then i took the zma for a 10 km spin in the winding roads. it was a bliss with beautiful environment and zma, takin leaning turns at 80. again beating my self not goin for one. then tried the enticer which had pretty good pickup. came to know that it was ported, was now of 13.5bhp according to a dyno test and some gyes even managed to do wheelies on that one.
breakfast over by 10.30, destination 'meen mutti falls'. stopped in between many times for fotos and vedios in the beautiful back drop. got some nice vedios of snaking bikes one behind the other. click click click. jeol and vicky doin wheelies and stopies. it was getting hot, hot humid. reached entrance of falls by 11. takin a dirt road in between a tea plantation area. now the big one km trekk began. it was hot and we were getting tired. with the help of a guid went through non existant path in mountain climbing up and down. had to cross a narro path of about 6 inches wide, with an abbys below. holding dearly to the stones above. then it was a big decent to the falls. gulped natural water trikling down a stream at mid way. looked like it would never end all the while thinking have to do it all again to get back. finallly reached the falls and got in the water. it was refreshing to get massaged by the water fallin from above. the water level was till my chest. i dont know swimming. took support from others and moved around.
ok its 2.30 and time to go back. then began the mammoth ascent. 3.20 by the time we reached our dear bikes. gulped butter milk which instantly refreshed us, but it began to do some work in our stomachs. now we head back to sultan bathery the same twisti roads but this time lil scary while goin down. the same trio vicky, jeol and me along ashwin leading the way. at one sharp right hander leant so much the i scraped the toe of my right shoe. before i recovered from the lean to my shock, found a left hander hairpin bend just ahead, thought would eat dirt, but rapidly down shifted and managed to stick to the road. A family with a car parked around the first right hander were wathching with dazed eyes. one gye had a vedio cam and by the time the 1st 3 bikes left he was filming the following bikes. each gye seenin being filmed gave more chamak and lean. reached main road reagrouped and went towards the hotel. in my ignorance i took my first blind turn over taking a bus and found a truck coming the other side. but i was confident i could make it so din panic, down shifted and skweezed through. but it was real close with the truck gye yelling at me. sweared never ever hit a blind curve. by now the butter milk had done its work and many of us felt the need to go to the rooms insted of lunch for err ... :D.
lunch over by 5.30 all while discussing where to go now. any place but sultan bathery cos morning it would be same thing every one would be late. by now most all the people who planed to leave the second day wanted to stay for third day too. Calicut or OOty?? with the show of hands ooty was decide. all set by 6.15 evening with the knowledge of riding 80 KMs of narro ghat section in night. befor leaving, the jeol called me for a drag, though i told i dont have pickup, theres nothing to loose so went for it.
drag 1:
Me and jeol(feiro), flag down and off i go. at the end found no fiero. it had died in the first gear and din drag. i was like an idiot draggin alone.
drag 2:
my cbz, jeio(fiero), and vicky(p180dtsi). jeol told us go first and would follow. flag down and was surprised to see my self quicker off the mark, appoaching the end saw some vehicle coming and got up and slowed down and the p180 ripped past and claimed victory. :D the fiero
just behind me.
ok it was now dark and 80 kms to OOty. since bikes could get lost, we decide to drive in a line. now this was a sight to see. i on purpose went at the end to see the snaking tail lamps. it was awesome 14 bikes goin in unisom(what ever that means). we had to go through many towns with narrow roads and a lot of people, who were amazed to find such a unheard of line up of bikes. since i was at the back could catch the expressions of the people. kids jumpin in joy, counting bikes, waving, young gyes giving envyous faces, dazed . senior citizens giving disapproving looks. vehicles stopped for us to proceed. it was like goin in a procession with hundreds of people staring at us, all geared up and luggege loaden. this will be imprinted in my memory for long time. when out of town could track the road easily cos the tail lamps. could see the leading bikes go opposite directing below us while snaking down. but later the roads got wider and speeds increased. Neil's thrumper ferriying two gyes couldnt keep up the cos of the undulating tarrain and also chain started breaking off many times. had many stops waiting of left behind bikes and sync was lost. at times riding along in the dark, gettin scared to death with sudden bends with abbyse on either sides. un relenting trucks managed to break the chain. the road gettin worse and worse. stopped for foto session near very tall trees. let the thumpers go ahead and rest left soon later. it was gettin chilly, and many regretting not bringing their gloves. finally reached ooty 10.30 in the night. took four hours to do 80 KMs. horrers of managing big groups exposed. trip meter read 455. found some 4 small rooms and every one cramped into bed in the cold whether. guess i hardly slept for an hour.
day 3:
got up in the chilly morning in ooty. left towards mysore early in the morning by 8.30. stopped for many foto sessions. got down the hill on some road with 35 hair pin bends. there was a view point at one of bend with lot of parkin space. parked our bikes and click click click. could here echos. we shouted and made all kinds of animals sounds. one kid from a hut below shouted back. we were all goin crazy. just then an esteem with family pulled up half way and took a reverse fearing for their lives seen us 15 goons who came on bikes. we were laughing our butts out. now time to go. the fiero gye left for bangalore early as he had to reach home for easter lunch. rest of us went towards gundelpet with 'gopal swamy' mountain as next dest. now the whether gettin hotter as we went away from ooty. promod left as he had to go to manipal. climbed the peak but it was hard on our bikes cos of the rough roads and steap climp. had to do with 2-3 gear and some times 1 gear. got some nice pics of views from top. we decided to hit mysore country clup for lunch as one gye was memeber there. we spelt it 'kantri club':D. now we head towards mysore and had to pass through bandipur forest. the roads were awsome. i got the irresistable urge to chase p180s.:D may be it was the heat. stopped to take pics of deers only to be chased by the forest guards. stopped in middle. had running race :D all gyes goin nuts. had lunch at a hotel outside the forest range. occupied the whole parking lot. 2.30 time to hit mysore.
headed towards kelpetta and to mysore. there u go again. my cbz, 2 p180s ashwin, santhosh and a p150 - amit kinda racing. Wow 150 cc bikes giving good chase to the 180. over took the p150 some times even though the rider was also full throttle and crouched. his speedo was 110 while mine was around 108 that time:D. got close many times to the 180s but rode din let go past. over took a p180 once may be he was not racing. out of the blue i see anuroop in my RVM. he had done a 120 to catch up wid us. it 105-110 all the way till mysore ring road. it was fraustrating as my speedo never went past 110 where even the enticer topped 115 and so did the unicorn and p150s and fieros.
reached the mysore ring road 3.45 pm. wide open race circuit type roads and no traffic what else. 2 180s-ashwin and vicky were setting a race, and i went along side uninvited and started to drag with them from the flag of. me and ashwin off the mark first. the ashwin pulled away and vicky went past me after 3-4 seconds. was feeling the lack of power. oh dumb-me was still in fourth gear think was in 5th. then started chasin them. after some time i was gettin closer to them and some thing would happen, road turns or some vehicle would cause slow down and the p180s picked fast and went. this happened many times. the p180 riders were good, taking leaning turns at 110+. vicky actuall used to shift his body to the side in the turn. on one instant i was closing in on vicky who was full throttle crouched and with a lot of road left. i was getting closer and closer. i could not believe it. it was flat without gradiant. i was getting exited that i would create a history overtaking the p180 like the powerfull lamb did in our chennai trip. was cajoling my bike "go baby go". the gap reduced to 10 feet and closing, my bike screaming at 9k RMP with 110 on the speedo. but lo some small kids with damn big cycles thretned to cross the road and we slowed down honking and the 180 pulled away. i am absalutely sure if it was not for the kids i would have over taken the p180 dtsi. then vicky over took ashwin and lead. but i did close some gap caused by the intersections but it would take a lot of time to do that. then out of now where the other cbz - anuroop arrives doin a 120. now 2 cbz giving good compatitaions to p180s. at the end of 25 KM drag. the CBZs were hardly 30 feet behind the 180s at the end of the drag. was never so happy wid my bike before. later the p180 gyes said the touched 125 while my speedo never crossed 110. vicky claimed that i was not even in the drag and was far behind. cant blame him when there are people who say p150 beats crap out of cbz how could he accept that cbz came close to p180.:D even though i was behind them i was eating the gap feet by feet though slowly. this i did with all three 180 dtsi's over there. so technically i was faster:D. if only those kids din come in my way, i would have taken cbz to new glory like moonie once did, but this time beating a dtsi. cant believe it came so close to 180 thinkin what could be the reasons. i had deff advantage over those gyes. weight they were 75-85 while yours truly weighs 49 kilos. :D and also two of them had cramster bags fixed may be it caused some drag. but vicky i was about to beat din have one.
reached country club at 4.15. had lunch and some gyes had swim in the swimin pool. by the time we left for blr it was 6. the traffic chayotic. vehicles donts consider bikes as part of the traffic. each was struggling to go past other vehicles. by the time we reached maddur it was 8. as we had to stop many times to regroup and each of us had atleat one close call. bullock carts goin with out a reflector and we would realise it only late and scramble for place to avoid collision. aadi din see us parked and went ahead missing us and we could not reach him. now every one was frastrated by the traffic. but now like anuroop said it was pay back time for the blr- mysore traffic. we assighed each gye a number and we decied we would follow that order and not over take each other just stick to the gye ahead. paach brain at work for this. now this was a boon. we again formed the chain this time more organised cos of the numbers. now 11 bikes following close behind each other in order. it was like one long vehicle. we din allow any other vehicle to cut our chain cos of the formation. but once we were to the left we allowed any vehicle faster than us to go. one gye said it was like serpant crawling in cruise speed which touched 90 some times. we could see people were impressed who waved at us when we took breaks. some cars wanted to over take us, tail would let them go. by the time they reached the head some vehiche would come opposite and the car broke the chain and came left and lost speed. then in an instant all the traling bikes zipped past the poor car to join the chain and leaving it behind. one poor car under went this atleast 4 times continuesli:D. any way we were the fastest vehicles in the road and wouldnt come in their way. we maight have pissed of some people but it ensured us trouble free ride and nobady took us for granted. busses, trucks one and all had to give us way even in some towns with lot of traffic. it was a great experiance. at one point some 10 gyes on 5 bikes (pulsars and fieros) driving recklessly wanted to disrupt our chain coming between. but we were too fast for them and kept the formation intact. they got bored and left us. when ever a deviation or a bump indicators would start of from head to tail. then on it was very smooth ride with no trouble at all. reached blore at 9:45 pm. aadi who missed us reached safely earlier and so did jeol and promod.
now that was one awesome experiance. 750+ kms with such a large group was one big task. keerti and paachu two of the gyes had taken pains to arrange for stuff when ever we stopped. may not be much riding just 750 KMs for three days but we had great fun. we did all tarrain riding - high speed, twisties, bad bumpy roads, dirt road, steap uphill roads. did trekking, played in water falls. felt the burning heat and were frozen in ooty. that truned out to be so good no body had expected. a total 1000+ pics and two full lenght vedios. well that was on hellave trip. my trip meter read 765 reaching home.
Formation riding ;)
Click here for a sweet WriteUp by fellow rider Varun
Highlights:
15 Gyes, 14 bikes, 3 days(25th-27th March,05), 3 states(Karnataka,Kerala,Tamil Nadu :D) 750 KMs.
Riders:
1)Varun Garde - Bullet Standard
2)Neil & Sai - Bullet Electra
3)Jeol - Feiro
4)Paachu - F2
5)Keerthi - Unicorn
6)Amit - p150 dtsi
7)Sachin - p150 dtsi
8)Aadi - Enticer
9)Pramod - ZMA
10)Ashwin - p180 dtsi
11)Vicky - p180 dtsi
12)Santosh - p180 dtsi
13)Anuroop - CBZ*
14)Praveen(me) - CBZ*
Following is log of events from my point of view. The Two logs can can ba as different as they are. :D
Here it goes:
Put an alarm for 4:15 in the morning. Got up many times before to check is it time yet. Up and ready. Anuroop already waiting for me in front of woodys by 5.15 AM. I meet him. felt some thing missing. He forgot his jacket. He was goin back home thought would accompany him still felt some thing missing and am feeling unusually cold. Yes of all the things I forget my helmet. :D which I wear always. Fetched it from home and was waiting for anuroop when a thumper came along. Kafka was the name aka varun. Thought cool a thumper joining along. Then came anuroop and we headed to family mart.
every body surpriced and happy to see sucha big turnout for a three day ride(well half them wanted to come back the second day, atleast in the beggining). The planning paid out. tooks some half an hour for introduction and foto session of bike line up. me stuck my backpack to my pillion seat using the reliable net bunjee. since it was big group it was decided to break the group in into 3 sub-groups of 5 bikes each and would stick to the group. 6:15 and enjines started roaring and off we went one and all roaring towards mysore road. sub-group!!! may be it was for next ride.:D well the start of ride through mysore not a pleasure exp. in mandya the aadi fell due to an errant splender. nothing happened but the people who helped to lift bike did so using front break liver and broke it. we wandted to avoid mysore city but now had to go in for the liver. entered mysore city at around 10:30. yes big group, lots of traffic and breaks, break fast etc. group separated in the traffic to reunite at the palace. it was 12:30 by the time we left mysore. the people staring with wide eyes at big canvoy. then on the ride turned to be good. headed towards gundelpet. the roads were good, and was time to take out the fraustration for blr-mysore road. anuroop took off and not to be seen for quite some time. me and vicky were ripping to him give company. lot of wind resistance, and had to use aerodynamics to go past 105. must say the 2 cbzs gave good compitation to the p180. then Anuroop and Vicky ganged up on me to keep seedo around 50 to wait for others. I was like not the waste the road and either stop together or go ahead and wait at some bad stretch of road. Just then ashwin zips past us. Me and Vicky look at each other with a grin. Then what, visor done, body crouched and ashwin new designated target and throttle re-engaged and vroom vroom till gundelpet. reunited at gundelpet headed towards kalpetta. this was great road with ride through the forest. couple of gyes spotted dears too. nice curve roads broken at places. 6 bikes got left behind and had to wait long for them to come. reason a sachin misjujded a curve and slided down at speeds of 70. luckily nothing happend to him but wound on shoulder and scrapes on his hands. then i thought even though it was so hot i would not let go my full leather glouse.
reached sultan bathery by 2 in noon, where rooms were booked by mods. tired of heat went ot nice hotel for lunch, the small town staring at the canvoy. by the time we where ready for sight seeing it was 4:30. place of visit edkal caves. now this is where the fun began. some thirty 20 kms of nice winding roads lead to cave with natural back drop. slurrp!! this time it was jeol, vicky and me in the lead takin those awsome bends. hit a dirt road for the cave and which led to a KM of steap road of concreat and stones of about 40+ degrees. was at the end of the canvoy when the aadi's enticer lost ground and fell. well aadi jumped out before. then came some group of 25-30 people and lifted the bike and moved it with the rider sitting on it to the side. din know what they were doin, looked like trying to help but where chanting in chorus and tell other to go ahead. we din know what to do with such big croud. just then neil's thumper which stopped to look back also got stuck. now croud got even more exited and ran towards the thumper, turned it around with the 90 kg rider and brought it a lil down and turned it back up again. chanting the same *mantra*. this time the neil being mallu and understood what the gyes were chanting and was smiling so we breathed easy that these people meant no harm. but the gye was in shock and exitement cos he could do nothing and was at the mercy of the croud. later he told that the gyes were chanting "who told u to come in bike, why did u get stuck here". sai caught all the action in vedio cam. finally left the enticer there and thumber and rest of us climbed to the top. all of us couldnt stop laughing at the events. left the bikes and by the time we reached the cave entrance it was 5:45 and the cave closed at 5:00. but lookin at the big turnout the gye obliged to show it for some time. it was like goin into some craves and the view inside was awsome. a huge boulder suspended between two stones. and we were under it. guide explained it was cause of earth quake some 30 thousand years ago. fotos clicking all the way. at the end of the cave there was 2 foot wide gap between huge stones the height of 100+ feat. since it was lread 6.15 we were not allowed to trek some 300 more meter to the summit cos it was dark. well it was the dangerous climb down. used the enjine breaking. it was so steap that the tyre would slip in first gear. so used the second gear still slipped some times. came done safely and it was dark and made way back to guest house by 8 and every body crashed swearing to leave the next day early in the morning. my trip meter read 298.
day 2:
every one was up and ready to go early in the morning by 9:30!!!. i tried the thumper for the first time, an electra. requested the gye to start it for me. just drove around in circle with in the guest house premices and din go out side from the dreadful tought of kicking the bullet in case it died. ne way could not get the actual feel of bullet in the compund but it felt lot of hard work. then i took the zma for a 10 km spin in the winding roads. it was a bliss with beautiful environment and zma, takin leaning turns at 80. again beating my self not goin for one. then tried the enticer which had pretty good pickup. came to know that it was ported, was now of 13.5bhp according to a dyno test and some gyes even managed to do wheelies on that one.
breakfast over by 10.30, destination 'meen mutti falls'. stopped in between many times for fotos and vedios in the beautiful back drop. got some nice vedios of snaking bikes one behind the other. click click click. jeol and vicky doin wheelies and stopies. it was getting hot, hot humid. reached entrance of falls by 11. takin a dirt road in between a tea plantation area. now the big one km trekk began. it was hot and we were getting tired. with the help of a guid went through non existant path in mountain climbing up and down. had to cross a narro path of about 6 inches wide, with an abbys below. holding dearly to the stones above. then it was a big decent to the falls. gulped natural water trikling down a stream at mid way. looked like it would never end all the while thinking have to do it all again to get back. finallly reached the falls and got in the water. it was refreshing to get massaged by the water fallin from above. the water level was till my chest. i dont know swimming. took support from others and moved around.
ok its 2.30 and time to go back. then began the mammoth ascent. 3.20 by the time we reached our dear bikes. gulped butter milk which instantly refreshed us, but it began to do some work in our stomachs. now we head back to sultan bathery the same twisti roads but this time lil scary while goin down. the same trio vicky, jeol and me along ashwin leading the way. at one sharp right hander leant so much the i scraped the toe of my right shoe. before i recovered from the lean to my shock, found a left hander hairpin bend just ahead, thought would eat dirt, but rapidly down shifted and managed to stick to the road. A family with a car parked around the first right hander were wathching with dazed eyes. one gye had a vedio cam and by the time the 1st 3 bikes left he was filming the following bikes. each gye seenin being filmed gave more chamak and lean. reached main road reagrouped and went towards the hotel. in my ignorance i took my first blind turn over taking a bus and found a truck coming the other side. but i was confident i could make it so din panic, down shifted and skweezed through. but it was real close with the truck gye yelling at me. sweared never ever hit a blind curve. by now the butter milk had done its work and many of us felt the need to go to the rooms insted of lunch for err ... :D.
lunch over by 5.30 all while discussing where to go now. any place but sultan bathery cos morning it would be same thing every one would be late. by now most all the people who planed to leave the second day wanted to stay for third day too. Calicut or OOty?? with the show of hands ooty was decide. all set by 6.15 evening with the knowledge of riding 80 KMs of narro ghat section in night. befor leaving, the jeol called me for a drag, though i told i dont have pickup, theres nothing to loose so went for it.
drag 1:
Me and jeol(feiro), flag down and off i go. at the end found no fiero. it had died in the first gear and din drag. i was like an idiot draggin alone.
drag 2:
my cbz, jeio(fiero), and vicky(p180dtsi). jeol told us go first and would follow. flag down and was surprised to see my self quicker off the mark, appoaching the end saw some vehicle coming and got up and slowed down and the p180 ripped past and claimed victory. :D the fiero
just behind me.
ok it was now dark and 80 kms to OOty. since bikes could get lost, we decide to drive in a line. now this was a sight to see. i on purpose went at the end to see the snaking tail lamps. it was awesome 14 bikes goin in unisom(what ever that means). we had to go through many towns with narrow roads and a lot of people, who were amazed to find such a unheard of line up of bikes. since i was at the back could catch the expressions of the people. kids jumpin in joy, counting bikes, waving, young gyes giving envyous faces, dazed . senior citizens giving disapproving looks. vehicles stopped for us to proceed. it was like goin in a procession with hundreds of people staring at us, all geared up and luggege loaden. this will be imprinted in my memory for long time. when out of town could track the road easily cos the tail lamps. could see the leading bikes go opposite directing below us while snaking down. but later the roads got wider and speeds increased. Neil's thrumper ferriying two gyes couldnt keep up the cos of the undulating tarrain and also chain started breaking off many times. had many stops waiting of left behind bikes and sync was lost. at times riding along in the dark, gettin scared to death with sudden bends with abbyse on either sides. un relenting trucks managed to break the chain. the road gettin worse and worse. stopped for foto session near very tall trees. let the thumpers go ahead and rest left soon later. it was gettin chilly, and many regretting not bringing their gloves. finally reached ooty 10.30 in the night. took four hours to do 80 KMs. horrers of managing big groups exposed. trip meter read 455. found some 4 small rooms and every one cramped into bed in the cold whether. guess i hardly slept for an hour.
day 3:
got up in the chilly morning in ooty. left towards mysore early in the morning by 8.30. stopped for many foto sessions. got down the hill on some road with 35 hair pin bends. there was a view point at one of bend with lot of parkin space. parked our bikes and click click click. could here echos. we shouted and made all kinds of animals sounds. one kid from a hut below shouted back. we were all goin crazy. just then an esteem with family pulled up half way and took a reverse fearing for their lives seen us 15 goons who came on bikes. we were laughing our butts out. now time to go. the fiero gye left for bangalore early as he had to reach home for easter lunch. rest of us went towards gundelpet with 'gopal swamy' mountain as next dest. now the whether gettin hotter as we went away from ooty. promod left as he had to go to manipal. climbed the peak but it was hard on our bikes cos of the rough roads and steap climp. had to do with 2-3 gear and some times 1 gear. got some nice pics of views from top. we decided to hit mysore country clup for lunch as one gye was memeber there. we spelt it 'kantri club':D. now we head towards mysore and had to pass through bandipur forest. the roads were awsome. i got the irresistable urge to chase p180s.:D may be it was the heat. stopped to take pics of deers only to be chased by the forest guards. stopped in middle. had running race :D all gyes goin nuts. had lunch at a hotel outside the forest range. occupied the whole parking lot. 2.30 time to hit mysore.
headed towards kelpetta and to mysore. there u go again. my cbz, 2 p180s ashwin, santhosh and a p150 - amit kinda racing. Wow 150 cc bikes giving good chase to the 180. over took the p150 some times even though the rider was also full throttle and crouched. his speedo was 110 while mine was around 108 that time:D. got close many times to the 180s but rode din let go past. over took a p180 once may be he was not racing. out of the blue i see anuroop in my RVM. he had done a 120 to catch up wid us. it 105-110 all the way till mysore ring road. it was fraustrating as my speedo never went past 110 where even the enticer topped 115 and so did the unicorn and p150s and fieros.
reached the mysore ring road 3.45 pm. wide open race circuit type roads and no traffic what else. 2 180s-ashwin and vicky were setting a race, and i went along side uninvited and started to drag with them from the flag of. me and ashwin off the mark first. the ashwin pulled away and vicky went past me after 3-4 seconds. was feeling the lack of power. oh dumb-me was still in fourth gear think was in 5th. then started chasin them. after some time i was gettin closer to them and some thing would happen, road turns or some vehicle would cause slow down and the p180s picked fast and went. this happened many times. the p180 riders were good, taking leaning turns at 110+. vicky actuall used to shift his body to the side in the turn. on one instant i was closing in on vicky who was full throttle crouched and with a lot of road left. i was getting closer and closer. i could not believe it. it was flat without gradiant. i was getting exited that i would create a history overtaking the p180 like the powerfull lamb did in our chennai trip. was cajoling my bike "go baby go". the gap reduced to 10 feet and closing, my bike screaming at 9k RMP with 110 on the speedo. but lo some small kids with damn big cycles thretned to cross the road and we slowed down honking and the 180 pulled away. i am absalutely sure if it was not for the kids i would have over taken the p180 dtsi. then vicky over took ashwin and lead. but i did close some gap caused by the intersections but it would take a lot of time to do that. then out of now where the other cbz - anuroop arrives doin a 120. now 2 cbz giving good compatitaions to p180s. at the end of 25 KM drag. the CBZs were hardly 30 feet behind the 180s at the end of the drag. was never so happy wid my bike before. later the p180 gyes said the touched 125 while my speedo never crossed 110. vicky claimed that i was not even in the drag and was far behind. cant blame him when there are people who say p150 beats crap out of cbz how could he accept that cbz came close to p180.:D even though i was behind them i was eating the gap feet by feet though slowly. this i did with all three 180 dtsi's over there. so technically i was faster:D. if only those kids din come in my way, i would have taken cbz to new glory like moonie once did, but this time beating a dtsi. cant believe it came so close to 180 thinkin what could be the reasons. i had deff advantage over those gyes. weight they were 75-85 while yours truly weighs 49 kilos. :D and also two of them had cramster bags fixed may be it caused some drag. but vicky i was about to beat din have one.
reached country club at 4.15. had lunch and some gyes had swim in the swimin pool. by the time we left for blr it was 6. the traffic chayotic. vehicles donts consider bikes as part of the traffic. each was struggling to go past other vehicles. by the time we reached maddur it was 8. as we had to stop many times to regroup and each of us had atleat one close call. bullock carts goin with out a reflector and we would realise it only late and scramble for place to avoid collision. aadi din see us parked and went ahead missing us and we could not reach him. now every one was frastrated by the traffic. but now like anuroop said it was pay back time for the blr- mysore traffic. we assighed each gye a number and we decied we would follow that order and not over take each other just stick to the gye ahead. paach brain at work for this. now this was a boon. we again formed the chain this time more organised cos of the numbers. now 11 bikes following close behind each other in order. it was like one long vehicle. we din allow any other vehicle to cut our chain cos of the formation. but once we were to the left we allowed any vehicle faster than us to go. one gye said it was like serpant crawling in cruise speed which touched 90 some times. we could see people were impressed who waved at us when we took breaks. some cars wanted to over take us, tail would let them go. by the time they reached the head some vehiche would come opposite and the car broke the chain and came left and lost speed. then in an instant all the traling bikes zipped past the poor car to join the chain and leaving it behind. one poor car under went this atleast 4 times continuesli:D. any way we were the fastest vehicles in the road and wouldnt come in their way. we maight have pissed of some people but it ensured us trouble free ride and nobady took us for granted. busses, trucks one and all had to give us way even in some towns with lot of traffic. it was a great experiance. at one point some 10 gyes on 5 bikes (pulsars and fieros) driving recklessly wanted to disrupt our chain coming between. but we were too fast for them and kept the formation intact. they got bored and left us. when ever a deviation or a bump indicators would start of from head to tail. then on it was very smooth ride with no trouble at all. reached blore at 9:45 pm. aadi who missed us reached safely earlier and so did jeol and promod.
now that was one awesome experiance. 750+ kms with such a large group was one big task. keerti and paachu two of the gyes had taken pains to arrange for stuff when ever we stopped. may not be much riding just 750 KMs for three days but we had great fun. we did all tarrain riding - high speed, twisties, bad bumpy roads, dirt road, steap uphill roads. did trekking, played in water falls. felt the burning heat and were frozen in ooty. that truned out to be so good no body had expected. a total 1000+ pics and two full lenght vedios. well that was on hellave trip. my trip meter read 765 reaching home.
posted by Praveen at 5:35 AM
1 comments
