Hi, this is Arun and Im new to this forum. I am a member of Chennai trekking club and usually we organize treks but this was the first time I organized a bike ride for the club. Previously i had been to 1000+ rides over the weekend to ghat roads in andhra and javadhu and it was my aim to complete the ECR i.e. East coast road. So i sent out an invite and 5 bikers were ready for this task. So we were eagerly hoping for the Saturday to come.

Saturday 4am, the first mishap, flat tyre! I have an Apache RTR 160 which is close to 1 year old and this was the first time I had a flat and that too during the first ride I organized. I told the others to carry on starting 4am from chennai whereas i filled up air till 40 psi and went to guindy to fix the tyre. after it was done, I went back home and started the ride hoping to catch the others in Pondy. So I started from velachery at 5 am via OMR. To my amazement, after toll, my bike touched 128 kmph in OMR!! I was so much in love with my bike

I finally caught up with them at pondy around 7am. After having a oily breakfast, we headed for the pumps as the petrol in Pondy was cheaper. one more bike joined us and now we were 5 bikes and 7 people. ride from pondy to chidambaram was bad as roads were not good and there was too much traffic. finally we reached pichavaram at around 11am and went inside for sight seeing the mangrove forest. At 12 pm we left pichavaram and took the next break for watermelons and coconut water by the road.

Next destination was the Old danish fort near the beach. after spending some time and photos there, we headed off to karaikal where we had our lunch. the ECR road from karaikal was damn good but the only problems were the frequent goats and cows that made our bikes skid ;-) Our next destination was a small village where we refreshed ourselves and checked on our timings. We saw the sunset at thoondi reservoir and after this I again switched to ride alone without pillion. this time I was going ahead with pulsar 220 when my bike touched max 126kmph. Finally at around 8.30 pm we reached the pamban bridge which was an awesome sight indeed. We reached rameshwaram by 9 and we quickly took and room, bath and dinner. After some chit-chat we made plans for the next day and headed off to dreams.

Next day we reached Dhanushkodi by 4 am. But sadly we didn't know how to proceed as after a point, the road ended and there was just beach sand! determined to reach the destination, we took our bikes and left for the tip of the beach giving full throttle in 1st gear in the beach sand going at 20 kmph. We made it just in time for the sunrise and it was an awesome sight indeed watching the 2 oceans meet and the sun rising! the trip was totally worth it for this 20 kms riding in the beach sand! it was super fun and one of a kind experience.

After returning from Dhanushkodi, we bathed ourselves and the bikes and headed off to Trichy. the return journey, we just concentrated on speeds and it was just the highways. the best part was, I made Trichy to chennai in just 3.5 riding hours with 2 breaks Reached home with bloody eyes and sore bum at around 11.30 pm on Sunday. One hell of a trip it was!

Photos are in the links below:



Key things learnt from the trip -
-Gloves are very essential.
-Have to buy good polarized glasses and a dust mask.
-The tires skid a lot (damn goats and cows) at 40 psi.
-there are 4 kinds of breaks in the bike - front+rear+engine(clutch)-aerodynamic. When i sit upright from the aerodynamic position, my speed instantly reduces from 115 to 90 by leaving the throttle and no front or rear brakes
-When I'm on the highway i pity the cars which have to deal with the trucks traffic and tolls.
-East Coast Road is a very good road but riders have to be very alert for animals.
-removing the rear view mirrors and saree guard did help the top speed.
-the natural riding stance on Apache gives no no pain on the bum at all.
-Music and sleep are not a necessity when you are riding alone, its just a myth.