Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Triplog Approved

Nice and muddy. Perfect for the weather.

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

The teasers look exciting. Roll the rest.

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Thanks Monk

Thanks a lot! The rest coming soon

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Cool teasers and that's one of my favourite place to visit, BTB which are the places you visited in Chikkamagalur, . ? I am also planning for a dual/group ride there in sometime, how is the place and till what time in the morning the fog will be covered. . ? Bring on more pics. . .

Cheers!!!

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Cool teaser keep coming

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Prologue:


The ride planning had been going on for a long time & Chikmagalur was one place I had to tick off the list (yeah, I had never been there before ) I was still unsure till the last day whether to join this ride or go for another ride on Sun as I had some minor work on Sat.


And I couldn’t have been more correct about this decision! So many adventures, so many experiences, my first proper off road ride.. all of us just had one thing to say, “We have to be back here again before monsoon ends!” Rohith Raghav barely missed getting bumps as a gratitude for taking the initiative for this ride


Also, this ride has earned special respect for one of our fellow rider Canute from me and everyone else! He is a true gentleman who cares for everyone. He is one of the best group rider I have ever seen, not a single dog was left which wasnt pointed at, thanks to him & his one selfless deed by him will be remembered always! More details will be revealed as the story unfolds!


Day 1 :

The ride started as planned. Me, Canute and Srikanth and his pillion Bhaskar met first at around 5am and Rohith joined us later. The actual meeting point was NICE road, Nelamangala toll road junction, but no one actually turned up there.



We met Vinay and his friend Mohan later on the way. After the usual exchange of greetings and introduction, we started the ride casually cruising towards Mayura Hotel at Belur cross. So in total it was, 7 of us on 6 bikes.


It was the first ride of Srikanth with the group and frankly, I was a little worried as we didn’t know anything about him or his riding style & we were also worried about his safety since he will be riding with pillion on complete off roads with incessant rains, but to my great relief he very quickly picked up group riding techniques & usage of hand gestures, indicators etc and rode very sanely for the rest of the ride. I was very impressed with his eagerness to learn and a very calm riding style. Please excuse the lack of riding gear on his part, but lets face it, we all started riding that way only. And Srikanth has promised to gear up before next ride


Photo shoots on first pee break...





Canute, helping out rohit with the tail bag..





Srikanth (left) and his pillion Bhasker.. (Sorry the cam shook a little)





Mohan, trying to get the best angle..





Vinay, trying to fix something..





Nothing to be said about NH75..





The ride was smooth throughout & we took the deviation from Hassan towards Belur. The road is very scenic all the way till Chikmagalur.

Some pics on that route,






No, Canute and Vinay were not fighting!





I had to stop to click all this greenery..






And here comes Canute, looking for me







Our plan was to reach Chikmagalur by noon, check into a hotel, freshen up, have lunch and then conquer Mullayanagiri and Bababudangiri. So we reached there by 11:30am as planned and began searching for a decent hotel with parking. Found a hotel and we were going towards it crossing the street. The road was empty apart from few parked cars and I was making a turn towards the hotel & as I neared the edge of the road… BAM!

To be continued…

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Lovely ride and beautiful pics guys! It's a real nice route and with the rains and the green.. lovely!!

Cheers & Ride Safe

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Thank you sir! We were all lucky to have been there at the time when it is at its best! The forest route to Kemmangundi was truly breathtaking. Rest of the log will be ready soon

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

..and just when it was getting interesting, it ends. Eagerly waiting for the whole log bro!

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

More pictures please...

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Way to go! Bring on the rest

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Day 1 : Part 2



Well, it was not really a BAM but a minor thud.. sorry


What happened was one of parked cars on the edge of the road started off the moment I reached there & the car kissed the left footpeg making me lose balance slightly & I ended up putting the bike down.


I think driver must've been really scared looking at the kind of gear all of us were wearing, one smack on his face with DSG revive and 32 - 0 teeth in 1 second But of course nothing happened, we got the bike up & he was on his way..


We stayed at Hotel Rajmahal and the rooms were 650/- for normal 2 bed room & 850/- for deluxe 2 bed room (has enough space for extra bed) So we booked 2 normal & 1 deluxe for 7 of us.


After freshening up, we had lunch at some small restaurant there and we were all set by 1:30pm.


I come down to my bike and was furious that someone stole the RTR logo from the handlebar! I have heard people stealing it in Blore but I had to come all the way till Chikmagalur for that to happen. Anyways it was a minor thing & the later adventures made me forget it completely




We were back on the saddle, some had to fuel up & we were good to go. On passing Chikmagalur town, there is a deviation for Mullayanagiri & there is a checkpost where you have to pay a toll for 10 bucks per bike (Not sure why it is anyways). After that it is just greenery, tarmac, rain & caaarnering But there were wet leaves on most of the portion, so we had to be very careful..


I had forgotten to mention about rain! It was almost continuously raining here ensuring camera stays safely inside the bag I wore liners for both jackets and pants (which was surprisingly comfortable for the entire trip) & some others were having duckback rain coats, DSG Nero & Srikanth/ Bhaskar's jackets were also water resistant.




These were the few pics clicked when rain gods showed mercy or when I was crazy enough to take the camera out


Canute's colgate smile






Enroute Mullayanagiri...


Vinay posing with his P180..






It immediately started raining and we headed towards Mullayanagiri peak. The rains were insane and the winds were even more insane.
We couldn’t take our cameras out anywhere in peak point because of horizontal rains, yeah you read it right it was raining horizontally!! There was so much wind and we were almost amidst clouds so it should be believable! We just parked our bikes saw whatever was visible in the range of 30 feet from us and headed back


On the way down, it stopped raining briefly, meaning out comes the camera!




Pic says it all





There were some water droplets on the lens..





RTR admiring the view






The hairpins!!





Robo dance by rohithraghav





Dance finished, now time to pose






This is the deviation to be taken to reach Bababudangiri (The one where our bikes are parked). You take the one on the left to reach Kemmangundi..
Just look at the fog!!





Canute's headlamps, in all its glory





A somewhat clear pic after cleaning the water from the lens..





On the way to the peak..










Almost close to peak point, we saw a small trail leading away.. so we followed it & man the winds were in excess of 80kmph! This video should make it clear! Just look at my tank bag cover & also how quickly that grass flew off! This was recorded on my mobile.






At the Bababudangiri viewpoint.. & camera gets wet again!







I dont know what you were holding but it looks like you were transferring your power to it








There was hot tea/omelettes/biscuits available at one of the temporary shacks. Was wondering how it was able to withstand such winds! After a small break there we headed back to Chikmagalur town & it was slowly getting darker. The later portion of the ride was quite uneventful and there was no point in stopping fr pics either. I think by about 7pm we reached hotel.



Day 2 will be up soon...

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur

Nice pictures again. Good that they made off just with the logo. Can you imagine???
BTW, how did the red Avenger do? Top speed? Handling et all??

Hope you guys did not have a tough time keeping up with that Cruiser .

Re: Monsoon mania @Chikmagalur



Beautiful..!! Amazing stuff of CKM..