Ride Preparation
the riding gear
- Daijya Helmet
- DSG Primal Gloves
- DSG Nero Jacket
- Acerbis Riding Pants
- Fox Kneeguards
- AXO Primato boots
the toolkit. ( I may not remember the correct spanner sizes)
1 Open end 22-23 size spanner
1 (16-17) ring spanner
1 (13-14) ring spanner
1 (10-11) tube type fastener
1 ( ) tube type ""
1 Spark plug wrench
1 cutting plier
1 wrench plier
misc stuff
Camera Tripod
Cleaning liquid
Cloth (for cleaning headlight etc etc)
Engine Oil 1 ltr pack
Spark Plug
60/55w Bulb (in case the HID kit goes phutt and I have to replace the entire thing)
55w Halogen bulb (which fits into the low beam of the HID kit I have, in case the bumb goes phutt)
3 x 15 amp , 2 x 20 amp fuses.
stuff for myself
Water bottle 2 ltrs
Glucose water 500ml
Chocolates (7 pcs of star)
2 Extra visors (one tinted one clear type)
First aid kit (bandages, antiseptic liquid, burnol, iodex
etc)
Day 1 (Tumkur - Pune)
The evening of 28th Jan passed away in packing up clothes and other accessories I'd be needing for this trip. Got cramster's saddlebags in order to carry all the tools needed. Checked cash and all the bike paper(s) etc.
Man o man i can't sleep
getting all the goosebumps that I am doing to do something this big when I've never done. I lay on the bed trying to sleep, but can't. Log on to xbhp, orkut etc etc. nervously clicking links that I didn't even intend to.
It's past midnight. No sleep yet. finally lay down and im resting with my eyes closed. Everything outside is damn silent. Can hear a dog barking at some distance. Can see its 1:30 am already....
Then at 2:30 am the phone rings. Its Jasir (xbhp : Jasirman) , I had told him to call me up in order to wake me for sure. Well I just managed an hour's sleep I guess. Get up , take a bath, forcibily relieve myself. Sit and have a smoke. I am thinking hard, did I miss out on something ? perform a last check on the toolkit and all the essential stuff. Charge my Camera's batteries, and my cellphone as well.
its 3:30 am now, I finally lock the house up (since I was alone at that time) put the saddlebags, dump the backpack on the seat, and tie it up with 3 bungee cords. excellent stuff these cords are. the green bungee cord given by
Kiran (xbhp : Kirosh 03) its still in an excellent condition.
Turn the fuel tap to on. see the fuel meter showing beyond the full mark (as usual) Start the bike. Ignites on the first crank. let it idle for a while, 3-4 mins.
Get the bike off the stand. Phew its heavy
. Get on the bike and I am off. Slowly cruise through the city and watch out for any drunkards who may come into the way. Reach the highway junction to pune. Cops stop me for a check since its like 4am. Well they know me, and I tell em I am going to pune on bike , they go
but tell me to watch out for trailer trucks without any indicators running.
ride through the bad patch of 3-4 kms outside tumkur. then the good stretch comes. FLip the HID on and im now at 80-90kmph. A mad volvo bus overtakes me at 110+
swerves at the diversion and keeps going... darn I have to watch out for these speedsters.
The HID is awesome. period. IT IS FABULOUS, I can see all the lane markings, road signs and other trucks without indicators with ease. even dogs which are on the road side I can see by the reflection off their eyes. Good thing.
Rip rip rip till I reach chitradurga. its nearly daybreak, so I stop at a roadside tea stall. I meet some truckers heading to gujarat. Have a few words with them while sipping on a glass of nice kadak chai
. Then I clean up the visor and the headlight of bug splatter (or bug chutney as termed by Navnish)
The Daybreak while having tea at Chitradurga
Ride off and the bad roads start,
Praful, Praveen Shirali (Hydroxide) had already told me beforehand about these roads being bad till hubli. Speed is down to 60-70kmph
The roads look good, but they aren't. Too much of shoddy patchwork.
The roads are there, 4 lane at many points.. but **** there are too many up's , down's , shoddy patchwork etc etc. Then there's a roadblock ahead with a huge crowd. wonder what it is.
an accident involving three trucks. two are overturned on their sides and the third has a severly dented . bashed in front. seemingly the 4 lane suddenly ends without a warning and into a 1.5 lane wide road. Apparantly the trucks were overtaking each other and they all got screwed. All this happened in the night. Easy mistake to make but a big price to pay.
next stop is at 120kms before hubli. Have enough water, take a pee break. Eat a 5 star. have some glucose water. Refreshing truly. Ride through the utter nonsense of the supposedly GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL corridor.
Then I reach hubli, immediately the roads are again well marked and have a uniform surface. Have a break and eat some light food. Start off , have a glance at the fuel meter, its low, But I have enough fuel to make it till Belgaum.
A small lake in between Hubli and Belgaum
Belgaum, where the dreaded V.T.U university is located is not too far away now
But the roads , nonetheless bring back the "" on the face.
Now the roads are awesome, traffic is moderate so no issues. Some motorists in skodas and innovas bother me by going past at 130+ without any honking or flashing. Grr. (nothing against skoda and innova owners here) Reach Belgaum and tank up at a IOC bunk. HEY ! the fuel price is down by 5 bucks
??!?! I am happy
.
Ride off and stop at a dhaba 15 kms after belgaum...
order Aloo Mutter, Kadi, Anda Bhurji, 5 Roties , and a Coke. the bill is
52 bucks only. AWESOME !, I give the cook some 10 extra bucks for the really really tasty food. Rest for an hour there. check the bike tyres and other things in the checklist.
The Dhaba where I had lunch and had a break for an hour
So I am off now, the roads are concrete + tarmac at times. Traffic is even lesser now. The bike stays at >90 <100 all the way. Encounter some light twisties (Praful calls em ghat ke naam par dhabba
) In one of the curves a buffoon in a tavera is unable to negotiate these curves and brakes in the middle of the road
I saw the opposite lane is empty so take a tighter curve and avoid the fellow, and ride on.
Reach the Maharastra border, and after a while I reach Kohlapur... And off to Pune now. the roads are straight and boring, pass by lush fields. Slow down since the traffic has increased.
Amazing roads with beautiful surroundings. I simply loved the ride on these roads
These roads are better than most of the runways of airports in this country
The last pic in which m tripod is intact
Now why riding gear is important. Ill Elaborate.
There are tractors carrying hay which is like 10x the size of the trailer itself. the tractorwallah can't see who's behind. I honked and as I was overtaking the fellow takes a right turn without any indication. To avoid colliding with the tractor I had to brake hard from 50kmph and I was brushed agaisnt a concrete barrier. I fall down on the right side, and the right arm of the jacket has taken abuse. Just above the Elbow guard and below the Shoulder guard. this area is not padded. But the Abrasion resistant jacket has worked well. The crashguard also has chuna on it. My arm hurts a lil bit so I stop. The tractorwallah rides on without a care. Screw you, you miserable...
I check my arm but no signs of any injury. its back to normal in a few mins. So I then check the bike. DAMN IT ! my tripod had melted on the silencer !
the bike had fallen on the side where the tripod had been loaded. I swear a lot , really a lot. my tripod is ruined
. remove it from the silencer and bungee it, have plenty of water, and some chocolates and ride on.
Flat out roads all the way to pune
I am now 100 kms from pune. I tank up. Call up
Praveen Shirali (Hydroxide) and he gives me the direction to enter pune. There are some nice curves on the way, and two tunnels and one is a 1 kilometer long one.
The Curve after the first short tunnel
AWESOME. the cold wind refreshes me. Its dark already. Switch the HID on and ride on. Crossed the 1km long tunnel and stop. Call up Praveen again and he tells me the place to meet up.
So I stop at the place praveen mentioned. He arrives on this Black ZMA-R, with riding gear. Been a long time since I saw any biker in riding gear. Feels good. We rode to his home. He helped greatly in tightening the drivechain which had gone slack. the Odo reads 847kms now. ,his mother made excellent food, and we have a hell lot of talk talk and talk
and I am off to sleep.
Perfect end to Day1.