B'lore-Kudremukh-Kasargod-B'lore
Twisties mania!!!
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Pix Courtesy: vicky(member of IndianNaturePics).
Click here for a kool WriteUp by Varun
wednesday night on a casual talk with sanjay, sujjested ride to kudremukh. He was interested cos of ride planned in BN gettin flopped. Arun piched in. Initial plan was for kudremukh,karkala and agumbe. Nithin and badri very much in Then called up vicky cos the area was familiar to him. He was more interested in kasargod. Then let sanjay and vicky meet and thus came up with a plan for both kudremukh and kasargod in 2 days, estimating an approx 1000 KMs. very much doable with rippers around. No more people from BN and we posted the ride plan at xbhp. kafka was in for the trip. wohav what a protest with a lot of pressure to post pone to next week. But we decided to go for it seeing Mr Murphy in good mood that weekend. Friday night Ashwin shrinidhi decide to do a days ride and come back to bangalore and ashwin still thinkin oneday or twoday not wanting to hurt is pretty PMs feelings. But bikes come first. Nithin and badri back out cos of inevitable reasons. Me and vicky do some last minute shopping for extra tubes and visors which came in handy.
date 30th April 2005.
Day 1:
Set the alarm at 4 in the morning with family mart decided as the meeting point. But no use cos was awake most of the night with exitiment. Finally 4 and called sanjay and woke up vicky and invited him to the ride. 5.30 outa my house and go to my bike. n again i forget my helmet. this has become a ritual for rides i guess. wait for varun at woodyes. He shows up thumping. Bad timing for his bullet to be in runin. So would not get to see him rip like he did on the wayanad trip. 5.45 and every body there and surpriced to see even amit joined us. Now suddenly we were eight men standing there.
1)Varun aka kafka - Bullet std
2)arun - fiero
3)sanjay - rx 135 - k&n
4)vikcy - p180dtsi - SLR
5)ashwin - p180dtsi - k&n,pirralis,kramster
6)amith - p150dtsi
7)shrinidhi - p180dtsi v2
8)me riding the star - not the tvs - CBZ*
with a quik intro we head towards hassan. takin turns giving varun company. a uneventful ride till nelmangala crossing. a round of tea and was seven. now the beauti of a road beakons. every one transfer their itch in right palm to the throttle and vroom vroom. with shrinidhi holding on for a bit longer and for he was givin kafka company. but the road broke him too and he geared up to burn the road. am sure kafka would understand. . thought would chase the 180s again. and did give them company but cos of lack of torque and pickup in case we had to slow down cos of the opposing traffic. they were gettin away and i had to fully crouch to gain some extra 5kms on the speedo. touched 115 in an incline and looked at the speedo only to be suprised by a small turn. dumb me. but took it any way. the last time i did 116 was on a flat road without incline support with tackho redlining past 10k RPMs. after some time my back started complaining and so un-crouched n leggo the 180s and the magic din work this time. OK racer spirit was still in me and amith gave company. again taking advantage of my weight over took him easily also cos cbz has slightly more power. n also amith was not utilising the full power in each gear and did not down shift. later gave him some tips. one blind man leading another blind man. took a break to regroup and waited for varun for some 20 mins. he was makin use of his new camera phone and also since he saw much bigger world to the side of the roads. then he comes and leaves within 5 mins. poor fello was turning out to be an endurance ride for him in true sence. as again the 180s get away dodgin the traffic. this strech it was me and sanjay and amith in the race mode. amith got stuck behind a truck and lagged a bit. then its the rx buzzing by. great torque and also had k&n would zip away. with sustained speed of 105 i catch up with him but could not over take him. then used aerodynamics to do so. could easily go past him. OK cbz has bettor topend compared to an rx135 with k&n also. but with any obstruction sanjay would simply zip past. poor me goes to 3rd gear rev to 8k rmp then 4th and fifth to catch up wid him.
reach channarapattna around 10. and thought would wait for arun and varun since the roads were confusing. get a call for the 180s they have reached kamat hassan. me shocked how fast were they to reach hassan 30 KMs ahead of us cos we were ripping to the max. any way varun turns up after 20 mins and we gear up for a 30 KMs pitstop. i pull ahead and ofter kopla KMs find kamat. hehehe the 180s were ahead of us only by a KM or 2 and not 30 KMs. i get in. but before i stop arun goes ahead as the kamat was thought to be 30 KMs away. any way he calls us reachin hassan and we ask him to have food and wait for us at sakleshpur bypass. we have a lazy break fast treated by sayjay cos he had lost a be with vicky on some distances.
11.30 and startoff and meet arun waiting for us at sakleshpur bypass. now this where the fun began with wide twisties. were doin leans past 90KMph. many times biting lips gettin into the curves and could do nothing but commit more lean to come outa the curves. i never leant so much at that speed in the life.(err.. 10 months since i got bike). every one dodgin the traffic and i had a close call with a santro. awsome wide curves coming in alternates makin me feel alive. reach sakleshpur around 12.30 and shaak up in vickys uncles place while vicky and varun go out for changing enjine oil of the thumper. 1.30 and we move towards hornadu. get some nice twisti narro roads but after some section turns out to be pothetic. have a photo session and this time it was varun leading and rest following close by. it was like pot holes non existant for the thumper and riding cooly at 70s. then some 10 KMs to hornadu temple the road switchs on to a smooth tormac. then what just rev up and blow the fraustation of the past hour and hit the curves at 80-90 speeds. though were taunted by a kopla cars not givin way but we were too zippi for them. i over took it goin to the outer edge of the road with adrenelin pumping. finally reached hornadu temple at 3.30. every body's face lit up cos of the road. we stop and then get the feel of the heat. darshan or food. unanimously voted in favor of food first. . the food was just what we needed. the place being marbel floored was kool and temple food delicious. SLURRRP!!!. never thought i could eat so much. went for darshn with vicky managing to get his shots from his camera from the photo restricted place, all the while mastering his ability to manipulate the guards to get his shots.
4.20 and have some sharbath at ashwins friends place. after some R&D it was discovered that it kokam sharbath. 4.50 by the time we leave from there. bid shrinidhi and amith good bye cos they were leaving bangalore, with ashwin deciding to stay. 5.15 the time we reached the beggining of kudremukh sanctuary. looked like a loosing race for sunset in agumbe cos we still have 80 KMs to cover in a hour in the twisties and also lakya dam in the itenary. now begins the best twisties i have seen. with great roads and B E A Uuutiful environment. takin turn like we never did at 70-80s leaning to the max many times touching my shoes to the ground in the process. too bad i couldnt manage peg scrapping. but sanjay was doin something new to us - silencer scrapping. with his torquey rx taking the bends scaring the rest. made many quick stops for pics and road on. what a shame could spend the whole day at those places. then went for the lakya dam. 5.50 but the view was tempting and once again vicky managed to pursuad the national gaurd to get some pics of the place. click click click he went with the gaurd shouting "real nikal dunga". but he aint got not real. ok again race for agumbe for sunset. still 50 KMs left. it another beath takin ride for 20 KMs. living life to the full. ashwin and vicky goin great guns ahead and be close behing only to be separated me not wishing to squwees through some opposing vehicles and break. had close call for takin a curve a bit fast and went off road the outer edge and bike wobbling voilently and stones hitting my foot. un wittingly reved hard and the bike stabled out by itself. wow thought i was done far. even though scary din dampen my sprits hit the curves again. stop at deviation for agumbe and mlr at 6.15. well it was last cause now cos we still had 30 kms to agumbe and sun beggining to set. well decided to go to agumbe any way coming this far and take it easy from now on. have some photo session and leasure tea. with gye coming from qualis said the way i breaked all the people in the qualis got scared. well it was nothing cos i did break a bit late cos i have disks u see. was holding vicky's sig(i dont smoke) at that time and i must have looked like one mean lean gye . just then one more qualis passes by and gyes in that waving at us and shouting "suparb suparb". later me showin off my harvest of weed on my bike from my off road adventure.
6.45 and we start of for agumbe in the dark. this time doin the single file formation so that every one stays close by. with vicky leading and sanjay just behind him with his head lamp so bright that could see vickys shadow on the opposing trees. 7.30 reach agumbe park our bikes and get on the viewing platform in pictch dark. our eyes got adjusted after some time and could see stuff bettor. with night sky so clear could go see all the constalations that one could. wid my favrite orian missing. some photos again. ashwin with a grin announcing that the platform we are standing was rebuilt 3rd time cos it keeps falling. non the less a nice view and were seeing the struggling mini truks coming up the agumbe ghat. yeah we are goin there next. 8.15 we move towards karkala climbing down the agumbe ghat. wishing all the time we do be doin dat road in the day time. some part being made of concreate we had to extra careful not to slip. finally get down the ghat and break for dinnar to munch on the famous "neer dosa" read water dosa. each of us gulping on 4 plates of dat. almost 10 by the time we leave for karkala. with some roads being narrow and vicky and sanjay leading hit a straight strech and doin 95-100 with nothin other than based on the trajectory of the tail lamps ahead. once i lost them it was speeds of 50-60 thats wat i can afford with my stock cbz light. we reach karkala by 11 ish. and take a break. vicky tried to do stoopies in my bike but wheels locked rather than lifting the back where as pulled off an awsome stoppie on his bike just after. may be my disks have got more byte that its lockin the wheels sooner. we reach mangalore outskirts at 12.10 or so only to be stopped for checking. with the cop givin us advice that take a halt at mangalore. he also gave us an idea for next trip which we dumb gyes din think of. he said, wouldnt it be bettor to hire a sumo or something and instead of us gyes travellin single. it would save fuel and we can enjoy more and stuff. n we were givin looks as if that was a much bettor idea not wanted to go against the cop. had many rounds of checking noted out number plates and names. and similar talk. 1.00 reach kasargood and hunt for a place to shaak up. were loosing time fast. the only place we found was unstayable. it was 2 am by the time we disapproved that room. i was all the while more willing to sleep on the foot path along wid my bike. every body dead tired. then we think we go the a resort near bekal fort itself co we were goin there any way in the morning. bekal fort it is but not place to stay there. now i realised how we get sleepy while riding bikes which i never thought would be possible riding. ashwin also learnt how to jump humps while riding in sleep. were sujjested kanhangad for stay by a bunglo's watch man. failed which the watch man had to let us in the compound and we to sleep on the path way. as arranged by our witty vicky. kanhangad was like a ghost town in the night with not even a *** in sight. bettor get the stayin info at the place before hiting it. finally at 4 am we find a 3bed room at kanhangad and crash in it. we were all on the move for the past 24 hours cos we got up yest 4 am to get ready for the ride and had coved 600 KMs on the odo by then. then it was 'crash and burn' no it was 'crash n snore'.
day 2:
well it was already day two when we crashed. ne way will start from the events from when we got up. i broke daylight at around 8 and found every one paralyzed on the beds and sanjay kooly dozing out side the room on a sofa. slowly one by one logs turned into humans and were ready to go by 11.30. not towards bangalore but for sight seeing!!!!. we were already 6 hours behind schedule. sanjay facinated my by net bunjee cos of the ease i could strap on my bag on the bike where he tied his stuff with 'suthli' coir thread. sanjay wanted to try all the bikes so left his bike and rode mine and i being pillion went went for break fast. and head for bakal fort and reach by 12.30. not particularly impressive in the heat. would be good in monsoon thought. would be really waste to come for the fort mainly. but we had a lot of twistes and this was a side dish. walked along the walls. lot of clicks of the see view. had some fun at the juice vending shop inside. had hand made water mellon juice. they used kives for that. the heat already takin a toll we needed some water play. then we head for kappil beach. with dumb ness genetically inherent we took our bikes all the way to the beach. me an ashwin though left our bike a lil distance behind. but varun cajoled his thumper all the way to waters edge to park it on the stones just kopla feet above the gushing water. then it was pics on the thumper fighting for our turns. i guess varun could have had a good business in the evening with tourists wanting a pic sittin on a thumper with the see in back ground. play around a bit. the beach is steap and din get the confidance for goin further but arun was havin a gala of time and one with the sea for some time. got a call from a coleage and asked 'kaha pe hai tu?'. i said 'beach per!!', him'kaika beach', i '@kasargood some 400 KMs from blr', him 'bike pe gaya na. tu pagal ho gaya hai!!'. sayin this he hung up the phone . then some gyes went for swim in the back waters. OK 3.00 and we have 400 KMs to cover. we head out to the room. one hell of challenge to get our bikes of the sand. goto room take bath and clean up and hit the restraunt for lunch and fuel up and and we headed to bangalore at 4.45. 5.00 reached the start of the moto gp trach. err.. that what we dubbed road from kanhangad to karnataka border heading towards talakaveri. this was one hellave road with awsome curves and and also we could see atleast 2 to 3 curves ahead and could decide our flight path easily without worry bout oncomming vehicle. vicky and sanjay zipped ahead. me and ahswin goin together. some curves had banking tooo. doin leans at 80+ living life out. people watching us with wide open eyes and mouth. we did show some people desi moto gp. at one instance a family who were takin a break could see me and ahwin do a full right lean, and immediat left and then a immediate right. din bother for their expressions cos we were all for the road. now the roads getin tighter and revin around in 3rd and second gear. learnt a lot about enjine breakin this trip and the way its conveniant compared to using breaks. took a break after a breath takin ride. there was a hanging bridge on a lake. the view was awsome. could see some kids swiming afar. ashwin gettin naughty bounsing on the bridge increasing my love for dry land. was metal bridge and moving up and down. then after a pics session headed for talakavery. took a tea break at kerala karnataka border till day light was gone.
started for talakaveri at around 7 and still 300KMs to go. night time we get on to the single line formation again. vicky leading again supported by sanjays bright headlamp behind. this was a ride in a forest and roads as narrow as 4 or 5 feet winding and undulating. was enjoying every bit of it. speeds were 30 something. wishing every second we do be doin that road in day light. i surely wanna do that road again in day time. there were 3 gyes who had come on a cbz and waving at us. dunno what they were doin there. we were on a twistie mania so much so that we could categorise twisty roads. vicky kinda had a headon collision with qualis for since all the vehicles being at speeds of 20-30 could easily stop. but him feeling the pulsar tank heavy dropped his bike. . reached coorg at around 8.45. raced to a petrol bunk to fillup cos another 15 mins no fuel to reach bangalore. we hit a restraunt and order a nice dinner as if we had reached our destination. 250 KMs more and atleast 5 hours to be. have a lazy dinner thinkin wheather to stay of carry on. it was decided to carry on and left towards bangalore again in a line from around 11. passed through many small towns with peole staring. reminding our wayanad trip where 14 bikes were goin in a line in the towns. with wider roads some times ripped. cos felt the need to open the throtlle cos was a long time gone past 90s. with the ride being a real endurance ride, butt hurting real bad. learnt many new postures to sit. to name a few riding with legs on the crash guard, with legs on rear foot pegs, with foot in the hole of the crash gaurd. vicky's innovation was to sit with thigh on the seat and reast of the body side of the bike and the foot dangling at the other end and ashwin doin the joe dance (joe a character from the friends serial). 12.35 we reach outskirts or mysore and take lazy break. 1.10 leave for banglore and lo vicky thick in action grabs some exess bagage on the rear tyre. yes its flat tyre in the middle of the night.
found a petrol bunk with good bright lights. sanjay had brought toolkit for changin tube and air pump also. n i had an broutht a new spare tube what luck. but past half an hour found out not easy to do that on a pulsar compared to rx. ashwin burnt his hand from the silencer. things not goin good need help. the petrol bunk operator told about punture shop just near by. when we pulled out the shrap nel outa tha tyre, it sure looked like a work of the punture gye planted to get business. it was a flat trinanglular piece which prolly stood on a supporting base which would rip of when a tyre has eaten the tooth. but we were not in position to be judgemental. vicky and sanjay went to get the tyre fixed. varun and ashwin discovedred the bliss of sleeping open air in a petrol bunk. could realise it from their deep snores echoing around. while me and arun not getin sleep were discussin our spoils, bikes and trips etc and tryin out diff bikes. the rx which had k&n filter was giving jolt when ever i left clutch. finally by 4.15 gyes back after fixing the punture. totally drained out of energy again break at a tea stall at 5. loads of sleep accumulated and again feeling very sleepy. 5.30 start of for bangalore all the while wondering why isnt bangalore coming. and finally reach bangalore by 7.15. bid a tired adios and reach home by 7.30. with the trip meter reading 24. err... its a 3 digit trip meter so rolled over 1000. so total trip of 1024 kms.
slept and informed office of comming late. went office on monday by 2 noon. and could not do any work not surpisingly. one hellave trip. tested both out bike and ourselves to the limits. were behind schedule by a full 12 hours. cos we messed up the schedule. but in the end was an awsome experiance to be cherished.
Click here for more PIX
Pix Courtesy: vicky(member of IndianNaturePics).
Click here for a kool WriteUp by Varun
wednesday night on a casual talk with sanjay, sujjested ride to kudremukh. He was interested cos of ride planned in BN gettin flopped. Arun piched in. Initial plan was for kudremukh,karkala and agumbe. Nithin and badri very much in Then called up vicky cos the area was familiar to him. He was more interested in kasargod. Then let sanjay and vicky meet and thus came up with a plan for both kudremukh and kasargod in 2 days, estimating an approx 1000 KMs. very much doable with rippers around. No more people from BN and we posted the ride plan at xbhp. kafka was in for the trip. wohav what a protest with a lot of pressure to post pone to next week. But we decided to go for it seeing Mr Murphy in good mood that weekend. Friday night Ashwin shrinidhi decide to do a days ride and come back to bangalore and ashwin still thinkin oneday or twoday not wanting to hurt is pretty PMs feelings. But bikes come first. Nithin and badri back out cos of inevitable reasons. Me and vicky do some last minute shopping for extra tubes and visors which came in handy.
date 30th April 2005.
Day 1:
Set the alarm at 4 in the morning with family mart decided as the meeting point. But no use cos was awake most of the night with exitiment. Finally 4 and called sanjay and woke up vicky and invited him to the ride. 5.30 outa my house and go to my bike. n again i forget my helmet. this has become a ritual for rides i guess. wait for varun at woodyes. He shows up thumping. Bad timing for his bullet to be in runin. So would not get to see him rip like he did on the wayanad trip. 5.45 and every body there and surpriced to see even amit joined us. Now suddenly we were eight men standing there.
1)Varun aka kafka - Bullet std
2)arun - fiero
3)sanjay - rx 135 - k&n
4)vikcy - p180dtsi - SLR
5)ashwin - p180dtsi - k&n,pirralis,kramster
6)amith - p150dtsi
7)shrinidhi - p180dtsi v2
8)me riding the star - not the tvs - CBZ*
with a quik intro we head towards hassan. takin turns giving varun company. a uneventful ride till nelmangala crossing. a round of tea and was seven. now the beauti of a road beakons. every one transfer their itch in right palm to the throttle and vroom vroom. with shrinidhi holding on for a bit longer and for he was givin kafka company. but the road broke him too and he geared up to burn the road. am sure kafka would understand. . thought would chase the 180s again. and did give them company but cos of lack of torque and pickup in case we had to slow down cos of the opposing traffic. they were gettin away and i had to fully crouch to gain some extra 5kms on the speedo. touched 115 in an incline and looked at the speedo only to be suprised by a small turn. dumb me. but took it any way. the last time i did 116 was on a flat road without incline support with tackho redlining past 10k RPMs. after some time my back started complaining and so un-crouched n leggo the 180s and the magic din work this time. OK racer spirit was still in me and amith gave company. again taking advantage of my weight over took him easily also cos cbz has slightly more power. n also amith was not utilising the full power in each gear and did not down shift. later gave him some tips. one blind man leading another blind man. took a break to regroup and waited for varun for some 20 mins. he was makin use of his new camera phone and also since he saw much bigger world to the side of the roads. then he comes and leaves within 5 mins. poor fello was turning out to be an endurance ride for him in true sence. as again the 180s get away dodgin the traffic. this strech it was me and sanjay and amith in the race mode. amith got stuck behind a truck and lagged a bit. then its the rx buzzing by. great torque and also had k&n would zip away. with sustained speed of 105 i catch up with him but could not over take him. then used aerodynamics to do so. could easily go past him. OK cbz has bettor topend compared to an rx135 with k&n also. but with any obstruction sanjay would simply zip past. poor me goes to 3rd gear rev to 8k rmp then 4th and fifth to catch up wid him.
reach channarapattna around 10. and thought would wait for arun and varun since the roads were confusing. get a call for the 180s they have reached kamat hassan. me shocked how fast were they to reach hassan 30 KMs ahead of us cos we were ripping to the max. any way varun turns up after 20 mins and we gear up for a 30 KMs pitstop. i pull ahead and ofter kopla KMs find kamat. hehehe the 180s were ahead of us only by a KM or 2 and not 30 KMs. i get in. but before i stop arun goes ahead as the kamat was thought to be 30 KMs away. any way he calls us reachin hassan and we ask him to have food and wait for us at sakleshpur bypass. we have a lazy break fast treated by sayjay cos he had lost a be with vicky on some distances.
11.30 and startoff and meet arun waiting for us at sakleshpur bypass. now this where the fun began with wide twisties. were doin leans past 90KMph. many times biting lips gettin into the curves and could do nothing but commit more lean to come outa the curves. i never leant so much at that speed in the life.(err.. 10 months since i got bike). every one dodgin the traffic and i had a close call with a santro. awsome wide curves coming in alternates makin me feel alive. reach sakleshpur around 12.30 and shaak up in vickys uncles place while vicky and varun go out for changing enjine oil of the thumper. 1.30 and we move towards hornadu. get some nice twisti narro roads but after some section turns out to be pothetic. have a photo session and this time it was varun leading and rest following close by. it was like pot holes non existant for the thumper and riding cooly at 70s. then some 10 KMs to hornadu temple the road switchs on to a smooth tormac. then what just rev up and blow the fraustation of the past hour and hit the curves at 80-90 speeds. though were taunted by a kopla cars not givin way but we were too zippi for them. i over took it goin to the outer edge of the road with adrenelin pumping. finally reached hornadu temple at 3.30. every body's face lit up cos of the road. we stop and then get the feel of the heat. darshan or food. unanimously voted in favor of food first. . the food was just what we needed. the place being marbel floored was kool and temple food delicious. SLURRRP!!!. never thought i could eat so much. went for darshn with vicky managing to get his shots from his camera from the photo restricted place, all the while mastering his ability to manipulate the guards to get his shots.
4.20 and have some sharbath at ashwins friends place. after some R&D it was discovered that it kokam sharbath. 4.50 by the time we leave from there. bid shrinidhi and amith good bye cos they were leaving bangalore, with ashwin deciding to stay. 5.15 the time we reached the beggining of kudremukh sanctuary. looked like a loosing race for sunset in agumbe cos we still have 80 KMs to cover in a hour in the twisties and also lakya dam in the itenary. now begins the best twisties i have seen. with great roads and B E A Uuutiful environment. takin turn like we never did at 70-80s leaning to the max many times touching my shoes to the ground in the process. too bad i couldnt manage peg scrapping. but sanjay was doin something new to us - silencer scrapping. with his torquey rx taking the bends scaring the rest. made many quick stops for pics and road on. what a shame could spend the whole day at those places. then went for the lakya dam. 5.50 but the view was tempting and once again vicky managed to pursuad the national gaurd to get some pics of the place. click click click he went with the gaurd shouting "real nikal dunga". but he aint got not real. ok again race for agumbe for sunset. still 50 KMs left. it another beath takin ride for 20 KMs. living life to the full. ashwin and vicky goin great guns ahead and be close behing only to be separated me not wishing to squwees through some opposing vehicles and break. had close call for takin a curve a bit fast and went off road the outer edge and bike wobbling voilently and stones hitting my foot. un wittingly reved hard and the bike stabled out by itself. wow thought i was done far. even though scary din dampen my sprits hit the curves again. stop at deviation for agumbe and mlr at 6.15. well it was last cause now cos we still had 30 kms to agumbe and sun beggining to set. well decided to go to agumbe any way coming this far and take it easy from now on. have some photo session and leasure tea. with gye coming from qualis said the way i breaked all the people in the qualis got scared. well it was nothing cos i did break a bit late cos i have disks u see. was holding vicky's sig(i dont smoke) at that time and i must have looked like one mean lean gye . just then one more qualis passes by and gyes in that waving at us and shouting "suparb suparb". later me showin off my harvest of weed on my bike from my off road adventure.
6.45 and we start of for agumbe in the dark. this time doin the single file formation so that every one stays close by. with vicky leading and sanjay just behind him with his head lamp so bright that could see vickys shadow on the opposing trees. 7.30 reach agumbe park our bikes and get on the viewing platform in pictch dark. our eyes got adjusted after some time and could see stuff bettor. with night sky so clear could go see all the constalations that one could. wid my favrite orian missing. some photos again. ashwin with a grin announcing that the platform we are standing was rebuilt 3rd time cos it keeps falling. non the less a nice view and were seeing the struggling mini truks coming up the agumbe ghat. yeah we are goin there next. 8.15 we move towards karkala climbing down the agumbe ghat. wishing all the time we do be doin dat road in the day time. some part being made of concreate we had to extra careful not to slip. finally get down the ghat and break for dinnar to munch on the famous "neer dosa" read water dosa. each of us gulping on 4 plates of dat. almost 10 by the time we leave for karkala. with some roads being narrow and vicky and sanjay leading hit a straight strech and doin 95-100 with nothin other than based on the trajectory of the tail lamps ahead. once i lost them it was speeds of 50-60 thats wat i can afford with my stock cbz light. we reach karkala by 11 ish. and take a break. vicky tried to do stoopies in my bike but wheels locked rather than lifting the back where as pulled off an awsome stoppie on his bike just after. may be my disks have got more byte that its lockin the wheels sooner. we reach mangalore outskirts at 12.10 or so only to be stopped for checking. with the cop givin us advice that take a halt at mangalore. he also gave us an idea for next trip which we dumb gyes din think of. he said, wouldnt it be bettor to hire a sumo or something and instead of us gyes travellin single. it would save fuel and we can enjoy more and stuff. n we were givin looks as if that was a much bettor idea not wanted to go against the cop. had many rounds of checking noted out number plates and names. and similar talk. 1.00 reach kasargood and hunt for a place to shaak up. were loosing time fast. the only place we found was unstayable. it was 2 am by the time we disapproved that room. i was all the while more willing to sleep on the foot path along wid my bike. every body dead tired. then we think we go the a resort near bekal fort itself co we were goin there any way in the morning. bekal fort it is but not place to stay there. now i realised how we get sleepy while riding bikes which i never thought would be possible riding. ashwin also learnt how to jump humps while riding in sleep. were sujjested kanhangad for stay by a bunglo's watch man. failed which the watch man had to let us in the compound and we to sleep on the path way. as arranged by our witty vicky. kanhangad was like a ghost town in the night with not even a *** in sight. bettor get the stayin info at the place before hiting it. finally at 4 am we find a 3bed room at kanhangad and crash in it. we were all on the move for the past 24 hours cos we got up yest 4 am to get ready for the ride and had coved 600 KMs on the odo by then. then it was 'crash and burn' no it was 'crash n snore'.
day 2:
well it was already day two when we crashed. ne way will start from the events from when we got up. i broke daylight at around 8 and found every one paralyzed on the beds and sanjay kooly dozing out side the room on a sofa. slowly one by one logs turned into humans and were ready to go by 11.30. not towards bangalore but for sight seeing!!!!. we were already 6 hours behind schedule. sanjay facinated my by net bunjee cos of the ease i could strap on my bag on the bike where he tied his stuff with 'suthli' coir thread. sanjay wanted to try all the bikes so left his bike and rode mine and i being pillion went went for break fast. and head for bakal fort and reach by 12.30. not particularly impressive in the heat. would be good in monsoon thought. would be really waste to come for the fort mainly. but we had a lot of twistes and this was a side dish. walked along the walls. lot of clicks of the see view. had some fun at the juice vending shop inside. had hand made water mellon juice. they used kives for that. the heat already takin a toll we needed some water play. then we head for kappil beach. with dumb ness genetically inherent we took our bikes all the way to the beach. me an ashwin though left our bike a lil distance behind. but varun cajoled his thumper all the way to waters edge to park it on the stones just kopla feet above the gushing water. then it was pics on the thumper fighting for our turns. i guess varun could have had a good business in the evening with tourists wanting a pic sittin on a thumper with the see in back ground. play around a bit. the beach is steap and din get the confidance for goin further but arun was havin a gala of time and one with the sea for some time. got a call from a coleage and asked 'kaha pe hai tu?'. i said 'beach per!!', him'kaika beach', i '@kasargood some 400 KMs from blr', him 'bike pe gaya na. tu pagal ho gaya hai!!'. sayin this he hung up the phone . then some gyes went for swim in the back waters. OK 3.00 and we have 400 KMs to cover. we head out to the room. one hell of challenge to get our bikes of the sand. goto room take bath and clean up and hit the restraunt for lunch and fuel up and and we headed to bangalore at 4.45. 5.00 reached the start of the moto gp trach. err.. that what we dubbed road from kanhangad to karnataka border heading towards talakaveri. this was one hellave road with awsome curves and and also we could see atleast 2 to 3 curves ahead and could decide our flight path easily without worry bout oncomming vehicle. vicky and sanjay zipped ahead. me and ahswin goin together. some curves had banking tooo. doin leans at 80+ living life out. people watching us with wide open eyes and mouth. we did show some people desi moto gp. at one instance a family who were takin a break could see me and ahwin do a full right lean, and immediat left and then a immediate right. din bother for their expressions cos we were all for the road. now the roads getin tighter and revin around in 3rd and second gear. learnt a lot about enjine breakin this trip and the way its conveniant compared to using breaks. took a break after a breath takin ride. there was a hanging bridge on a lake. the view was awsome. could see some kids swiming afar. ashwin gettin naughty bounsing on the bridge increasing my love for dry land. was metal bridge and moving up and down. then after a pics session headed for talakavery. took a tea break at kerala karnataka border till day light was gone.
started for talakaveri at around 7 and still 300KMs to go. night time we get on to the single line formation again. vicky leading again supported by sanjays bright headlamp behind. this was a ride in a forest and roads as narrow as 4 or 5 feet winding and undulating. was enjoying every bit of it. speeds were 30 something. wishing every second we do be doin that road in day light. i surely wanna do that road again in day time. there were 3 gyes who had come on a cbz and waving at us. dunno what they were doin there. we were on a twistie mania so much so that we could categorise twisty roads. vicky kinda had a headon collision with qualis for since all the vehicles being at speeds of 20-30 could easily stop. but him feeling the pulsar tank heavy dropped his bike. . reached coorg at around 8.45. raced to a petrol bunk to fillup cos another 15 mins no fuel to reach bangalore. we hit a restraunt and order a nice dinner as if we had reached our destination. 250 KMs more and atleast 5 hours to be. have a lazy dinner thinkin wheather to stay of carry on. it was decided to carry on and left towards bangalore again in a line from around 11. passed through many small towns with peole staring. reminding our wayanad trip where 14 bikes were goin in a line in the towns. with wider roads some times ripped. cos felt the need to open the throtlle cos was a long time gone past 90s. with the ride being a real endurance ride, butt hurting real bad. learnt many new postures to sit. to name a few riding with legs on the crash guard, with legs on rear foot pegs, with foot in the hole of the crash gaurd. vicky's innovation was to sit with thigh on the seat and reast of the body side of the bike and the foot dangling at the other end and ashwin doin the joe dance (joe a character from the friends serial). 12.35 we reach outskirts or mysore and take lazy break. 1.10 leave for banglore and lo vicky thick in action grabs some exess bagage on the rear tyre. yes its flat tyre in the middle of the night.
found a petrol bunk with good bright lights. sanjay had brought toolkit for changin tube and air pump also. n i had an broutht a new spare tube what luck. but past half an hour found out not easy to do that on a pulsar compared to rx. ashwin burnt his hand from the silencer. things not goin good need help. the petrol bunk operator told about punture shop just near by. when we pulled out the shrap nel outa tha tyre, it sure looked like a work of the punture gye planted to get business. it was a flat trinanglular piece which prolly stood on a supporting base which would rip of when a tyre has eaten the tooth. but we were not in position to be judgemental. vicky and sanjay went to get the tyre fixed. varun and ashwin discovedred the bliss of sleeping open air in a petrol bunk. could realise it from their deep snores echoing around. while me and arun not getin sleep were discussin our spoils, bikes and trips etc and tryin out diff bikes. the rx which had k&n filter was giving jolt when ever i left clutch. finally by 4.15 gyes back after fixing the punture. totally drained out of energy again break at a tea stall at 5. loads of sleep accumulated and again feeling very sleepy. 5.30 start of for bangalore all the while wondering why isnt bangalore coming. and finally reach bangalore by 7.15. bid a tired adios and reach home by 7.30. with the trip meter reading 24. err... its a 3 digit trip meter so rolled over 1000. so total trip of 1024 kms.
slept and informed office of comming late. went office on monday by 2 noon. and could not do any work not surpisingly. one hellave trip. tested both out bike and ourselves to the limits. were behind schedule by a full 12 hours. cos we messed up the schedule. but in the end was an awsome experiance to be cherished.
posted by Praveen at 12:40 AM
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