Riding Golden Quadrilateral: Some Places, Some Pics

While buying foods in Chennai before my departure, I bought some packets of Marie biscuits and made a blunder of buying two large slabs of Cadbury's Silk fruit and nut chocolate, without realising I would be riding on my Thunderbird 500, fully exposed to the natural elements, unlike driving in my XUV 500 with the comfort of automatic climate control set at 24 deg C. Somewhere near Rajahmundry, AP on the first day evening, when I tried to open a packet of chocolate, I realised it had become a paste, tending towards liquid state. Not wanting to discard it, I carefully opened it and 'drank' the contents! Next morning, I noticed that the other chocolate pack had solidified like a potholed irregular road surface, losing its original shape of slab with grids, thanks to the air-conditioned hotel room at Vizag, which I ate in the morning itself.

















The hot climate in AP and OD made my VIAIR digital tyre pressure gauge's rubber handle sticky, which attracted all the dust, resulting in a dirty rubber handle, which requires a thorough bath.















I really had a bad time in Agra: my smartphone ran out of charge, all the maps downloaded earlier were lost, the toll receipt for ₹ 175 paid, while entering Yamuna Expressway was also lost somewhere, when I was trying to fix my smartphone, and then, MapMyIndia Lx130, I managed to break an arm of my sunglasses, while removing them with my helmet on, forced to pay ₹ 50 at Jewar toll plaza of Yamuna Expressway again due to my losing the toll receipt - my pleading to check their system for the registration number of my Thunderbird 500 did not help. All these things happened, when my hotel was just a coupla hours away! Due to these multiple confusions, I did not click any pics on Yamuna Expressway, which I had planned earlier.













When I was clicking photos at India Gate, a vendor selling sunglasses approached me and I bought a fake Ray-Ban sunglass with rubber arms for just ₹ 100 as I had to ride for another 2,700 km. I have a pair of genuine Ray-Ban sunglasses at Chennai!













Ride details concluded. Thanks for going through.
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Thanks for the appreciation and wishes, vinodnairksa.

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Sir, your last post consisted of landmarks from almost the entire nation!
Wishing you many more happy miles!

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Thanks for the appreciation and wishes, [MENTION=57323]krishna77[/MENTION].

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Sir in your journal you have mentioned about chain cleaning and Servicing the bike at certain stops. Do enlighten us about what maintenance routine you follow for the bike in general as well as at long tours.

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

On 22 Feb 2016, I rode to Voyage Motors, Udaipur and got my bird serviced in my presence without any prior appointment. M/s Jasbir Singh Gandhi and his son, Jatin Gandhi took personal interest in getting my bird serviced on top priority. Not only that. Mr Jasbir Singh Gandhi test-rode my bird after servicing to confirm that everything was alright. I got back my bird at 2 pm. At that time, Blue Bird had already completed 4,150 km of Golden Quadrilateral ride.



As regards to chain lubricating, I had carried TVS chain lubricant spray, old tooth-brushes and lots of old cloth. Once in 500 - 1,000 km, I used to park my bird at a truck lay-bay, clean and lubricate the chain and continue my ride. I did this only during day time.

I had also carried spare engine oil for topping up, but did not use it even once. Of course, the entire engine oil was replaced at Voyage Motors, Udaipur during servicing.

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Great travelogue, the dedication with which this epic journey was done is simply mind blowing.

I am sure this will inspire an entire generation.

Regards

Vinod

Blue Bird's Flight-Path


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Thanks for the superlative compliments and appreciation, [MENTION=77469]vinodnairksa[/MENTION].

Re: Blue Bird's Flight-Path

Sir,

First of all salute to your mile munching ability. I stay in Guwahati and whenever I tell my colleagues that let's go to shillong(90Km away)/ Kaziranga(250Kms away)they roll their eyes in such a way as if I had asked for their kidneys & they are only half of your age I guess. I have a few questions-
1. How did you manage to ride so many KMs without stopping? Have you used gel seat?
2. What tools did you carry with you? You have mentioned engine oil and chain lube, but did you carry any spare tubes since RE has tube type tires?

Regards,

Ritabroto

Re: Blue Bird's Flight-Path

Thanks for the appreciation and compliments, Ritabroto.

Accompanied by my wife, I drove to Shillong in my erstwhile Linea in April 2012 and Kaziranga NP in my XUV 500 in April 2015. I enjoyed visiting NE.





I have plans to ride to NE in my bird, lemme see.

I have been practising for this big, mega ride of 6,353 km from the past 2.5 years with many one-day rides of 1,000+ km like Chennai>Kanniyakumari>Chennai, Chennai>Ooty>Chennai, Chennai>Kodaikanal>Chennai, etc. This thread has all those details. All the hotels were selected after going through users' reviews and booked one month in advance, so that I would have a destination to reach. During the planning stage, I decided in favour of riding Kolkata-Delhi without overnight halt as I had done similar rides earlier without any issues.

No. My Thunderbird's seats are OE stock ones without any modification. However, I used to take a break of 15 minutes for every 2 hours of ride.

Spanner/Allen key/screw-driver sets; digital tyre pressure gauge; 12V portable tyre inflator.

No. I took the risk. Thankfully, no puncture/no breakdown/no accident/no falling down/no cops/RTO problem! I had carried spare clutch cable.

Re: Blue Bird's Flight-Path

Sure sir!! It will be my pleasure to meet with you. BTW how's the road condition from Guwahati to Siliguri?

Regards,

Ritabroto

Re: Blue Bird's Flight-Path

Thanks, [MENTION=72750]Ritabroto[/MENTION]. While going to Guwahati/Tawang, I drove via Bongaigaon>Nalbari, most of it was 4-laned, but some diversions were there for the construction of bridges.



So, while coming back from Kaziranga NP, I drove via Goalpara>Abhayapuri, which was mostly 2-laned, but very good road. I liked the Goalpara route.



In West Bengal, most of the 2-laned roads were good, but a small stretch of road near Bagdogra was bad.

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Read your entire travelogue. Hats off to you. Tremendously inspiring

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Thanks a lot for the appreciation and the compliments, [MENTION=81750]Sabrewielder[/MENTION].

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

i really like the last part of travelogue u have pasted the pictures of almost all part of our country sir,,, one of the richest post i have seen since a long time,,, it is such a motivational post indeed ,,,,,,,,,,,

i have a little query sir how does the auxiliary white light performs ,,its cost viability and effect upon the battery ?,,,,if u cd please tell a little about it sir,,

re: My Motorcycle Diaries

Thanks a lot for the appreciation and the compliments, @Lone Wanderer.

I got those LED lamps fitted on my Thunderbird 500 specially for this GQ ride. They were brilliant. I bought them from Sandhya Auto Spares, J C Road, Bangalore and got them fitted by my trusted electrician Taj at Pudupet, Chennai. Taj felt that it is better to get a pair of base-plates welded to the crash-guard and fix the LED lights on the base-plates. He ruled out my suggestion of drilling holes directly on the crash-guard itself to avoid disfigurement due to welding. Finally, I rode to the nearby welder Umapathy and got the work done. Later, I bought fuse carrier and base-plate for accommodating the switch. In the midist of his busy schedule, he completed the job neatly.



























If the stock headlight and the LED lights are swithced on simultaneously, when my Thunderbird 500 idles at 900 rpm, the weak battery icon appears on the instrument cluster indicating charging current is not sufficient to meet the conumption. But, the moment I raise the rpm, the weak battery warning vanishes! So, I used the headlamp + LED lights combo only when I was riding on the 4-lane highway in good speeds [above 2,000 rpm].

Your location indicates Varanasi. I crossed Varanasi bypass by midnight. All the four lanes of the higway on both the ways were occupied by trucks! Not only that; they occupied the service roads on both the sides too. I rode zig-zag in between the trucks in the available gaps. I rode on the embankments and some off-roading too and on the wrong side for km together. I cannot forget that riding amidst traffic jam by midnight!