Wow Great log & lovely Pics Akhil

I wonder why you did that, if you were anyways planning to halt for more than 30 mins you didntt need to keep the Fans running.

seems like an awesome trip for the brothers in arms...
damn when will i get to ride a bike again, all that i am doin these days is the 0bhp bicycling to and fro to office, and its too f**ing cold to take a 0bhp leisure trip

Wow !! Akhil Bhai you have refreshed my memories of adirapalli waterfalls !! that i hade visited as a kid !! lovely place amazing viewpoints !! and the yamaha brothers had a lot of fun i see !!??

one question !! how did the ppl there react to the full alpinestar suit !???

I too was thinking about the same thing. Probably Rossi-bhai wanted a repeat performance of his R1-push start!!??

Ken, I think that's the back-support belt that Akhil wears. Cos all of us had got it through the mass-order from CRAMSTER. Last time I saw him on the R1, he was wearing it. And yes it is very comfortable. Even I use one. I do not know if he got a kidney-support belt, though!

Ahan..... now I know the reason why Vish asked me Mithun's mobile number a few days back......

I just had to ask this question here. Aptness be damned
How do you come up with such precise suggestions Ken da..? Personal experience or a forum for the One..?

Some articles in between rides would do actually.
The SBK workshop thread for example.
Thanks to the air filter cleaning tutorial, Ken da is spared for the time being
Plus its been a while since Ive seen either of you (Akhil or Ken da) on the General SBK discussion thread..

Spot on Didn't want to spill the beans myself !

Akhil bro, man i just love the way you post the trip logs.Just Brilliant ! I'm still sad at my bad luck

BTW bro i know it's kinda wierd,but my name is 'Wish',not 'Vish'

Thanks. I want one of those too!

Help from friends and tourers here and abroad and their suggestions and some personal research. And now, personal hands-on experience. In my threads, you will see Bagsters strapped on in most of my photos. But they have their shortcomings too. Nothing is perfect. But they are the best bet so far.

Day 3 continued:

I called Joe from the petrol pump and told him we'll be getting into Trivandrum sometime around 3 PM. A slight drizzle welcomed our return on the road, and accompanied us all the way to Trivandrum. In the meantime, we were closing in steadily on Trivandrum, when we reached Varkala and I saw the sign which said Varkala Beach to the right. I took a split decision to visit the place, and signalled Mithun about it.

Varkala beach is about 20 kms from the highway, and Varkala itself is home to our Wiz and couple of other members. We rode to the beach, which is quickly weaning away tourists from Kovalam because of it's clean and calm surroundings. The landscape around the beach is quite striking, with sheer cliffs and undulations all along the beach.













I was happy that we came here and took the opportunity to see the beach. It was definitely worth the 45 minute detour from the highway.

As we were returning from the beach, I encountered two guys in the oncoming lane on an HH, who were waving frantically to me. I thought they were excited on seeing the bike, so I ignored them and carry on. A short 500 mts later, I saw them in my RVM waving and trying to catch my attention. I caught sight of the xBhp decal on the fairing and pulled over. They came over and introduced themselves as Sreeraj and Anup, friends of Wish and Joe. We spent a couple of minutes talking to them, and they invited us over to their place a short 5 minutes away from where we were. We went over there, took a few quick snaps, and got going. We wanted to catch the sunset at Kovalam and I was getting a bit anxious about coming all the way and missing it.

The Varkala Gang:




Called Joe and told him that we were on our way again. He was already waiting at Kazhakootam Junction, a good 25 kms away from where we were. I felt bad about making him wait (Sorry Joe!) and so we made quick time to the place. We found Joe and his red RD waiting by the road at the Junction, and told him of our plans. He said he'd lead us to the area where my cousin's place is located.





Joe led the way and I was loving the RD's magical tunes and the sweet smell of 2 stroke fumes.. At one point, we were all in a tunnel, and the three bikes put together generated a wonderful resonating tune in the tunnel. I wish I had a recorder and I'd have recorded that!

Soon, I realised that Joe was struggling a bit with his bike. Something wasn't right, and we hit some dense traffic. That's the last thing I wanted while on a tight schedule. And just a few minutes later, Joe pulled off the road to the side with clutch problems. We had a discussion on what to do, and we decided to carry on to Kovalam, and Joe would fix his bike up and catch up with us. After about 15 minutes or so, we got into my cousin's place, dumped our stuff. My cousin was away in Chennai so we had his house to ourselves. I parked the R1 because I was sure it would not survive Kovalam's swarming tourists. We rode out to Kovalam in Mithun's R15, with me behind the clipons.

We reached Kovalam after a few embarassing moments caused by me and parked up the R15.

Kovalam:





Kovalam has two beaches, Eve's Beach and Grove's beach. There is also a Shanghumugham beach that is supposed to better than these two, but I've never been there. Kovalam's beaches are famous for the black sand which are known to contain exotic minerals like ilmenite. We walked into Eve's beach and found a sizeable crowd enjoying the waters. We caught sight of a speedboat service and quickly jumped in and went for a quick spin. Just can't stay away from engines too long








After that, I got around to taking some photos, while Mithun went berserk in the waters again. He was having fun alright! We were just in time for some sunset pics and spent a leisurely hour and a half at the beach.






Joe in the meantime called to say that it was a minor problem and that he would come to Kovalam in sometime. I walked around and relaxed for a while taking photos and soon Joe called saying he was at the beach. It was getting dark by then and we met up with Joe and walked out. Joe told us he'd meet us again at my cousin's place and left. We also left after a few minutes, and were trying to see where to have dinner. We fixed up on a place called Arya Nivas in the town and had a massive dinner. Coincidentally, while we were in Trivandrum, the International Film Festival was going on, and I caught sight of a few screenings which I'd have loved to attend. But no time, and all I wanted to do was just sleep at that point.

We rode back, talked about the next day's plan. The original plan, pre-battery conking off, had been to stay that night in Kanyakumari, see the sunrise and ride to Madurai/Salem/Bangalore the next day. So were about 90 kms behind our scheduled route. We decided to make up the 90 kms by leaving earlier than usual and hit our pre planned destination as per schedule. It was going to be a tough day every which way we looked at it. But since the information we had that the Kanyakumari to Madurai stretch was all GQ and beautiful to ride on, we were confident of making the plan with some effort.

After sometime, Joe and Bharath (turbo) came by, and spent some time talking with us. It was nice meeting them and I try to meet fellow members wherever I visit, so that was a nice visit in Trivandrum. Thanks for taking the time out to meet us and help us out, Wish, Joe, Bharath and the others.








Joe then told us that he'd meet us in the morning before we left, and then we called it a night.

(Contd, will be up by end of the day)

assam trip , grrr . Rossi ,one piece suite show off , he he .

great write up and pictures, akhil. Looking for more.

Excellent write up and pics there Akhil sir..!!

Finally we have the R brothers touring together(just before the "Next grand step")..!!

Ohhh....forgot to mention...ur new A-Star looking good..

@rossiter bhai.
Thank you & mithun actually for those wonderfull moments!

Despite the clutch problems of the RD, the traffic, you still managed to see the Kovalam Sunset. I have seen Kovalam way before most of you guys were even born!! And I remember there were ONLY foreigners then.

Good to see the camaraderie amongst guys in the South who would make an effort to meet other riders coming from hundreds of kilometres away. I salute your spirit.

thanks for sharing pics & story !!! awsome