Nandi night

Firday night at office thinkin no ride this weekend too. Get a call from sanjay followed by keerthi for a mid-night ride to nandi hills. OK why not. But the by time i drop my team-mate home its 11.30. thought too late and home it is but. but called up keerthi ne way to know that he,sanjay,vicky and santhosh have left early and are some 20 kms from nandi hills. called up praveenS to see if he wanted to join, but he too is already out of town alone heading to nandi. well be it solo one way i decided to go tooo. ripped across the empty city to the other end of blore towards hebal. and once out of hebal and my headlamp was no good. reducing my speeds drastically. all the while feeling anxieus goin out in night alone. lot of wat if's goin in ma mind. but knew gyes would be there at the end of it so carried on. 4 lane road still in constuction had to shift roads every now and then. pretty bad at places had to go over many a patchs of slush. chased cars in good strechs doin 90-100. but pretty cautious of stray things on the road. Passed devanalli empty of living beings. continuesly on watch for the left turn for nandi. thought if i don get the turn past 5 kms from devanalli i do turn back.

but found it alright. now this is totally deserted at night. me riding alone at 50-60 dats wat my head lamp allows me to. 22 kms to nandi and carry on. some times switching of the head lights for 3-4 seconds to get the kicks. yeah pretty foolish. watch out for the the truns i need to make else would get lost may be. part of the road was half wet due to showers some hours back. I stop my bike at one place and switch off the head lights and kill the enjine to grasp the environment. with no light any where and and all non human sounds around. did get scared cos was my first night out alone. again carried on and took the final turn to nandi hills. now this is some 6 KMs of ghats. small one but good twisties. being night took it pretty slow. as in climb up i see mist!!!. and was getting colder. it got thicker higher i went. lifted my visor. but din help much. was so dense dat i could see only 10 feet ahead of me. i used to forget that my visor is up and try again and again to lift it up. hehe. was an amazing experiance. as the mist got thicker also had water droplets falling off. the 6 KMs felt like it was goin on and on. was feeling disorianted cos was not knowing which way i was goin. filled with anxiety and exitement together. living it up. guess would never have made up my mind to do it alone if gyes were not there at the end. was just following the walls and jsut 4-5 feet before i knew there was a hair pin bend. at one turn i see 4 lights paralelly placed. tought wat these gyes stood in a line with the lights on, err.. but it was sumo with 4 lights :D. finally negotiating all the turns reach the top to see the gyes waiting for me. i made it. Wat took u so long? was the question. yeah am pretty slow when alone.

it was 1.00 am and called up home saying dat got some client meeting at office and will be late. :D. now hungry cos i forgot to have dinner and keerthi provided me with kishmish. hehe. learnt sanjay had taken a fall due to gravel but was spared of any damage both him and his bike. this is kinda praveenS's back yard and he keeps coming here every now and then at all times. strolled around and took some pix with vicky's phone cam of the different effects with the lights and mists around. there was a light drissle always. it wasnt the rain but the mist forming water droplets. too bad most of the area is closed at night. mission accomplished and now time to head back. startup the enjines and down we go in a line. this time pretty easy with so many lights around. reach the foot of the hills regroup and rip to the main road. santhosh takes of leading and rips bad and 100+ and where i did max 60 while coming. me ripping after gyes cos now got the path lit by the bikes ahead. was thinking wats the big deal i felt while coming it seems so easy now. its totally different when alone and in group. get to the main road and then wat more ripping. gyes providing me tail lamp generously and i take it and have a ball of a time. were stopped by cops at devanalli. and the cop said "100 rs fine for riding at night, this will teach u gyes a lesson" phew!! now was it a sin riding at night. then reduced the fine to 50 bux each. sayjay said lets pay up and get out of there. but santhos, vicky and keerthi went to reason with the officer. din make no good. ended up getting shouted at. the cop says, "no other go u have to pay and we r not harrasing u too much also". well we actually paid not as fine but letting us go withing cousing us trouble. lost half and hour there. well the cop ordered to ride below 50. yeah right, we were 80 even before we got out of their sight. one more rip and fuel session before we reach bangalore. empty city roads pretty inviting and we gyes make full use of it. and home it is by 3.15. and to the bed pretty satisfied.

may be it was a very small ride alone just 70 kms but was a completely different exp at night. one does think a lot while goin solo. may be i am not used to it but there isnt the cusion like in group rides. may be this will help me make up ma mind to do some long distance solo rides.

Ride to check water level at KRS Dam

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pix by Santosh

Finally i get a day off from office and wanted to ride it out. planned to meet up gyes at our usual hang out sat night. but the wheather ws cheating with rain getting generous in the weekend while totally dry the whole week. saturday night out turned to a movie with sanjay,praveenS and keerthi. thought would do some ride later but the shower was still on. Thinkin in lines of a ride still but went home. vicky messages for a ride to check the water level at KRS mysore.

11.40 we meetup. vicky, santhosh and raghu in for the ride. Sanjay headed to krishna giri for he wanted to rip and be back home for work. he warned us bout he thresours mysore road in dark with rain from his previous ride. But we were ready to endure some of it and i wanted to make the day count. hit the mysore road 12.30. let the rippin begin. bangalore- mysore highway 4lane construction over due still to get completed. with lot of deviations in the way. Nice time to test my new tyres and also bit worried bout the wobbling in my bike. but carry on any way. just wanted to ride all day. we whip our throttles to max and zipping between the traffic. reach MTR in no time. covering 60 KMs and have some fluids. now were bettor streachs from there on with the construction work progressed. many humps were removed. was total fun with all four of ripping crazy overtaking every vehicle and stay close too at speeds 100+. boy when this road gets completed would be one of the fav routes. pass towns and in search of the next strech of the highway. it was more fun i guess cos we were gettin good strechs in alternates so some suspence in it. at one straight strech i again touch the top speed of 116 with 10.5k RPMs. the new tyres doin good job but have to learn balancing on the new rounder tyres which leans at the slightest wish. with less air resistance and crosswinds was fun. we apporach mysore and were greated with bad roads. at the entrance of mysore at 3 pm.

was pretty hot so vicky sujjested chamundi hills as it would be much kooler there. then chamundi it is. wow now some twisties. Its all new to me now with new tyres which leans mucy more than i am used to. but tyre holds the road. but the twisties over by the time i get the hang of it. we take a lazy stroll around the hill clicking at different views. was pretty kool and dats wat we needed after the rip. could see rain bursts afar. yeah we gonna see some of it too. vicky the event manager cajoling us to planetX for lunch. but santhos countering to make it quick time. the argument coninues even inside the planetX about where to have lunch and how to save time. Could see some girls giggle at the camotion we gyes were creating hehe. Finally we have lunch there looking at gyes goin zip-zap on the go-kart there. vicky invites his cousing along. 4.45 by the time we start to KRS some 25 KMs. reach there by 5.20. loyter around there with santhosh goin click happy. had some pix at the top of the dam. the best parts of the dam were allowed only with special pass. so watch the water in the croud. Vicky trying to convince us to stay till 7.30 to check the lighting but santhosh wanted to make a dash for home. we also felt so and we left for bangalore.

7.30 by the time vicked dropped his cousing and we start back. with rain threatning all the time. had rip some time but rain happned. now this was scary with the wet road not reflecting the from the road and we din know where we were goin. santhosh in agony with his tinted visor. single lanes was more trouble some. got fraustrated and i hitched at tail from a passing santro and ripped ahead. he was doin good speeds. at one point was following him at 100 in rain, with visor down with only the santrol rear light at guide. was kinda fun but risky, had to work quicly when he breaked. reached maddur and leggo the santro and waited for the gyes. have some maddur vada and coffee. there was no rain this part so made the best use of it. was too good on two lanes with sparc cars here there illuminating the straight roads and we could ride full throttly crouching in the dark. was a real rush. its shivalli MTR by 9.30 we stop there and wonder why did we stop here its hardly been 40 kms since our last break. some fluids and we leave. this time good streachs bit sparce and made good use of it. now we encounter a fast moving bike. tought it was pulsar but was hoddibaba with two villagers on. boy was this gye ripping. guess he was at constant 80 be what ever the tarrian. so go ahead on good road and when we slow dowl for towns and bad roads this gye zips past us. this happens many times. after some times din see him. by the way he was riding must have hit sumwer i guess. now its rain again reducing our speeds alot and also a lot of deviations. vicky and santhos riding with visor up catch eyefull and we stop a couple of times for them to clear their eyes. riding was now pretty slow more of a "jaan bacho". but was fun tooo a different experiance. kinda liked it cos i was all warm and dry in my new water proff jacket. reach devegoda petro pum by 11.15 and split for homes. around 360 kms on the odo. dunlops nice tyres but have to learn twisties on them again.

did it sound like hard work? no way enjoyed every part of it. atleast me cos was pretty starved for a ride owing for work in office. with vicky and santhosh at extream ends in plannin the events. if vicky had his way we do leave mysore by 9.30 and reach home by 4, and if santhosh had his way we do skip chamundi and see krs and come back by 8. with raghu observing the planning n me giving gyan in between it evened out and we got go to chamundi and also come home reasonable time. din get sleep some time getting scared bout the way we rode on the way back. but was all heart when riding there. one more day i will remember.