santoosh

Did a 1000 km ride ? or even a 200 km short sprint?
This thread is for the road conditions in the most common S Indian roads taken by tourers or exotic routes with amazing scenery and bad roads.

whatver it is Please post ur updates on the routes such as Road Blocks , avoid these routes and preferred routes .

This would be of great help to other ppl who would be heading the same side sometime soon.

Here's my updates

Bangalore-Madikeri

Roads are beautiful till Bylakuppe/Kushalnagar , about 220 kms from bangalore .

After that the last 35kms to madikeri are in bad shape.its oly potholes.
tar roads are a rarity.

Alternate route-
After kushal nagar- head to Dubare- from there ask for Chethalli - and there to madikeri.
No traffic on this route , additional few kms , V scenic .


Kannur- Bangalore

Kannur - iritti - Virajept

The road from kootupuzha to virajpet is closed .
There is rather no Road.

Take the road from iritti to Manathavadi , then to Sulthan bathery, Gundlupet , Nanjangud , Mysore.

From mananthavady when u ask for mysore , they ll guide u the shorter way thru HD kote .The roads in Kerala are good.
As soon as u reach Karnatake..Jai Karnataka

Pls dont take this ,
I took this yesterday in the rain and i took 3+ hours to cover 40 kms.
Will post the pics of the so called road , it looks like some archelogical excavation.

I hope we get inputs from other Ppl.

Santa

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rossiter

Thread approved and stuck

ravi@17bhp

Really nice idea Santoosh. It would help tourers immensely. I definitely would update about roads when I do a tour.

RED

Bangalore-Himavad Gopalaswamy Hills (as of Aug/09)

Road Description:
State Highway - 17 is as you all know good till Mysore(*there are alternate routes), 140 kms from bangalore.

Next 60kms to Gundalupet is a bit busy during day with a couple of bad patches (like the road between KR Market and Kengeri)
Some road work!(Aug/09)

last 20kms is bad (speeds below 40kmph)

Adjectives for the place:
- Cool breeze(10 degree centigrade)
- Lush Green
- Trekkable
- Wildlife (Everything you find in Bandipur)
- Hill ranges
- Krishna Temple
- Overnight stay
- Rock climbing

more soon

santoosh

Thanks red , Someone atleast had the time to update :-)
hoping for more inputs from ppl.

Doing hampi and other places this weekend . will update on that too .

Santa

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04 Pulsar 180 V1
06 Comet GT 250
07 ZMA-R
08 YZF-R15
10 Access
11 ....?....--> GT-650

DarthVeda

Bangalore to NH48:

Most of you will take NICE road and hit NH4 and then turn left at nelamangala for NH48.

I suggest to take the Doddaladamara road (Big Banyan tree) on Mysore road (SH17). It's just after the kengeri road flyover, you have to take a right. Head in this road to meet Magadi Road, go through magadi and head towards to Kunigal to meet NH48.

Kalasa to Kottigehara:
When you exit Kalasa, you will see a fork in road, the right goes to Kottigehara but this road is not so good, instead take the left to goto Magundi and then you will join the road from Chikamagalur which goes to Kottigehara, this is far better than the other road

If you are coming from Kottigehara towards Kalasa then you have to continue straight instead of taking left towards Kalasa at the very first intesection meet on the way.

vams

really a vry nice idea,i wud definitely go thourgh this thread when i head on for the tours in future it wud rather help many.

please make this thread move on guys

HydBiker

Around Hyderabad

NH 7 almost complete and good on both sides for at least 100 KM. On Bangalore side the double road is till Kurnool. Kurnool to Ananthapuram is not good. Drive carefully. On Nagpur side the GQ ends at Kamareddy and a typical NH starts. Watch out for idiotic drivers.

NH 9 worst as usual but road doesn't those big bumps and potholes now. Traffic is the biggest pain. Both sides. Especially towards Vijayawada. Heavy winds. 280 KMs takes 5-6 hours easily. In that time you can cover over 350 KMs on SH1 and reach Ongole which is 150 KMs ahead of Vijayawada.

SH 1 Good but watch out for an occasional pothole that can give u a decent jerk. That is till Nagarjuna Sagar. After the ghat section and before Macherla you gotta be careful - looks like a good road but it is very patchy. Watch out for pot holes from 10 KM before Nekarikallu till Addanki.

You can take the Nasararaopet & Chilakaluripet route to hit the NH 5 instead of going to Addanki and join teh NH 5 at Medarametla.

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silver_falcon_46

It would also be good to mention the time of the year when you traversed this route. Another person doing the same route during a different time of the year (lets say monsoons) will not have the same experience. Hence, please do include this detail too.

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rossiter

@Darthveda: That fork you were talking about. Isn't the one on the left which slopes upward and curves left?

I took that route in May 2008 while returning, and while coming into Kalasa I took the Kottigehara route. Absolutely terrible road the Kottigehara one. Still no improvements or what?

I found the Magundi route bad upto Balehonnur from Kalasa. After that was just brilliant.

@silver falcon: Good tip there. And where are your road updates from the I-day ride?

Here are some of my road condition updates:

1) Bangalore - Shivanasamudra Falls:

Travel date: 20th Aug 2009.

Bangalore-Maddur-Malavalli-Shivanasamudra: Bangalore to Maddur is a well-known road to most people. It is a well-laid highway all the way to Mysore, save for some town traffic in between and couple of new speedbreakers that have been added. Small part of the highway just after Bidadi is undergoing maintenance, so the highway becomes an undivided two laner.

Enter Maddur, and take a left turn to head to Shivanasamudra/Talakad/Kollegal/Dindigul. It is a well-marked turn. The road upto Malavalli is patchy with a lot of undulations. I did this ride on an MT-01 (heavy, and un-flickable bike) so it wasn't very comfortable. On our Indian bikes, it should be a piece of cake.
From Malavalli to Shivanasamudra, the road improves to a newly laid buttery smooth surface, until 2 kms before Shivanasamudra. Road re-laying is going on, and the undivided 2 lane road becomes a very narrow 1 lane road till just before the turnoff into Gaganachukki.

There is an alternate route to Shivanasamudra which is through Kanakapura, and is much better, but would take the same travelling time.

I took about 1 hour and 40 min to cover the 120 kms (Kengeri-Shivanasamudra), and it should take maybe the same time, give or take 15 min via the Kanakapura route.

More updates on more roads coming up soon