Thread approved

The riders:
Partha Sharma, 20 years of age, studying to be a chartered accountant, and about 2 years and 15000 kms of 2 wheel experience. 1 hill ride done in the past till lansdowne.

Deep Singh Sethi, 23 years old, working in aviation industry. About 10000kms riding and no prior hill experience.


The rides:
Parth - 2010 Yamaha YZF R15
Deep - 2010 Bajaj Pulsar 180

We were supposed to be 3 riders and 3 bikes but Tanay, as fate would have it, dropped out 4 hours before the meeting time due to a family emergency and we were down to two.



Day 1

The route for the day was Delhi-Meerut-Bijnor-Najibabad-Kotdwar-Lansdowne.

We were supposed to meet up at 4:30 in the morning so as to minimize riding in the heat of the sun, but I overslept again and we were delayed by an hour. I finally left home at 5:15. Enroute my bag fell off as the bungee cord wasn't tight enough, picked it up and secured it well and continued, met up with deep at 5:30 at Inderlok Metro station.

Before Meerut we witnessed a crash which horrified us, An RJ registered interstate bus was trying to overtake this truck for about 15-20 seconds. We were all wanting to overtake the truck as it was going at about 40kmphr on a good road, but the bus driver really wanted to take the lead so bad that he risked overtaking the truck from the left. And just as the bus was finished overtaking it, a girl dressed in pink came too close to the bus. She was walking on the extreme left of the road which should've been fine under normal circumstances but then you don't normally see crazed interstate bus drivers willing to do anything and everything in order to shave off a few minutes off their daily run. The bus driver pushed the bus to the right and the rear of the bur rammed into the front of the truck. I was right besides the truck as this happened and Deep was right behind me. We both saw the truck's left front wheel braking off and the truck ramming into the divider and then it went onto the other side off the road. We were a little freaked after seeing this happen right in front of our eyes, but we did not stop. Reached meerut after riding a good distance behind that damned bus.

By 7:30 we were in meerut having some delicious chhole bhature.The we pushed on and reached the bridge above ganga ji. I so wanted to go and have a dip but then the rain god decided to greet us and it started raining.

Some pics at the bridge:
Deep showing off his N8:


I don't know why but I find the view from this bridge very soothing, All 4 times I've crossed this bridge I've wanted to stop and I've done so on 3 occasions. I just can't make myself cross this place without taking a 10 minute break. Some pics:





We started our steeds again in search of shelter and reached Jai maha kali tractors at Bijnor right off the highway. It was already 9:30. We stayed there a little while longer and then started riding again

A pic from the shelter:

Glad to know you guys escaped unhurt. I always like to stay away from BIG vehicles like Trucks & Buses; especially when 2 of them are fighting out their egos on the road.

Aside, good stuff there. Must be a good feeling to do your first long ride.

What was the total ride distance? Is your fellow-rider Deep a member here too?
Looking forward to more.

Good carry on,as far as that bus driver is concern he will soon know the consequences of rash driving and what did you say you wanted to take a dip in Ganga ji.... great people go Haridwar to take a dip and you wanted a dip in 700feet deep river great

Gr8 guys... Nice trip and really nice photographs... keep going...

First of all, hearty congrats to both of you on successful completion of your first long trip.
Next time on, make sure that you keep enough distance between yourself and the big vehicles so that even if you have to break hard, you still have at least 2-3 bike distance from the vehicle in front.

and continue the log, also Deep veere, post your side of the log too.

Great Parth, so it has started good good. When on highways you do witness some weird stuff, but its alright..... I am very happy for you to complete this tour. Keep them coming bro

Yes deep is an xbhpian too. The ride was 942kms in total.

I've been 50 kms of haridwar twice now and both times was not able to go there. Seems like a ride will have to be planned specially for meeting ganga ji.

Thanks bhaiyya, the rest of the log will continue in the evening, right now I'm in the office.

Bhaiyya you were one of the very few people who showed faith in me as far as this trip was concerned. I'm so very thankful to you for that. Will continue the log as soon as possible

Thank you sir, I will try not to disappoint you

Hi Parth,
Nice ride and pics buddy. Any more pics coming up ?
Thank God you guys are safe.

Take Care and Do Ride Safe

Anytime Parth, it was a pleasure to see you implemented it perfectly waiting for more now

Day1 continues...

We stayed at the tractor service house for a while and then left when the rain turned into a light drizzle. Wrong move it was as after 10 minutes or so rain returned in full swing and we had to ride in full on rain. Took a halt at a tea stall before najibabad, had some tea and namkeen but more importantly, dried off our clothes.

Till this time our mobiles were in our jacket pockets, and the worst had happened, Deep's Nokia N8 malfunctioned, first it didn't switch on then when it came to life it didn't switch off. It was like it had developed a mind of it's own. My humble cell on the other hand was working despite being wet, and after a quick fone call to update our position to our home it gave up on us too. Both our fones were down now. The only option left was to head on till the city and get the fones checked. We didn't stop at najibabad, but carried on till kotdwar where I got my fone dried up at a mobile repair shop. Deep's on the other hand was a costly gadget which needed nothing less than a nokia priority service station, which you can guess was not available in a town like kotdwar.

Time for some pics now.

On the bridge before kotdwar:



















And then started the twisties, the hill section starts from kotdwar and continues till lansdowne. We were enjoying the views as well as the ride on those snaky roads. Some pics from a break enroute lansdowne:

Great how are the road conditions Parth... and no pics of Lansdowne?????

Nice ride there Parth! Good to see you finally undertook this trip..

All hills have received rainfalls so landslides are very very common, we found everything from small pebbles to small rocks to big rocks to whole sides of roads dissapearing on this trip.

Kotdwar-Lansdowne the roads are good but with minor slides, but lansdowne-pauri there were some major landslides present.

Lansdowne ki pics bhi aa rhi hain, raaste mein hain, on day1 we clicked the max no of pics

Vaibhav bhaiyya you were quite literally the route map for this trip. aapka bohot bda haath hai ismein, many thanks to you for the info as well as the encouragement.