Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Shelton - I am glad I could be of little help to your ride. Now don't stop the riding bug and get the touring stint running high on your nerves. Waiting to read the remaining story of your ride.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Ha ha ha, don't worry we'll make sure we meet only during some bike trips! So don't forget to inform me when you next come to Mumbai!

Yes, Even I was quite happy with the FE

Yes, planning on few more rides before summer sets in provided I get leave

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Day 2: Bangalore to Coimbatore (365kms)

After a sound sleep, got up at 5:30am and was back on the saddle at 6:45am and since my friend’s place is near MG road I was in hosur road in no time. This time there was no big number in my mind and with just 365kms to cover I took it slow till Hosur and at hosur there was construction work going on everywhere. Soon after hosur was left behind the roads were absolutely amazing and it was business as usual for the Duke there after. After munching miles for around 2 hours I was nearing Salem and I stopped for my first fuel break. Had the sandwich I had packed before leaving and after few minutes started again.




At the petrol bunk

Just when I was enjoying riding with a feel that I was in my territory and closing in on my ultimate destination a “gentleman” wearing a white shirt and white lungi on his pink scooty almost spoiled the feel of having all the safe miles I had before that! There was a usual crossing on the main highway and there were about 3-4 bikes waiting to cross on both the sides of the road, I slowed down a bit looking at the crossing and all the bikers waiting to cross looking at me coming stopped and waited for me to go by. Seeing them wait, I flashed my light and I was continuing at the same pace and just before the crossing this “gentleman” looks at me and starts to cross!!! He starts looking straight and crosses with no idea what was coming onto him. The first thought was to break but what if some car was trailing me and rams into me so all that I could do is honk and swerve to the right a bit to avoid him but at the same time I had to make sure I din’t hit the divider. I missed this gentleman’s scooty and the divider by few inches and totally shaken up for a moment but very angry that this guy almost ruined the whole trip. I was looking for a break in the divider soon after the incident and really wanted to go back and give this “gentleman” what he deserves but thought against it because I dint want to ruin the whole trip by doing something really unpleasant and just carried on.

In no time I was past Salem and was cruising towards avinashi where I did my under graduation and I was looking for the college building which is close to the highway and was surprised to note that the roads have changed a lot and I had to really keep looking to spot the building. The bus stop on the road where I used to board the bus during college days wasn't there anymore and it was little disappointing even though it is good to have bigger and better roads.

Avinashi to Coimbatore was the last stretch and those days I knew this road inch by inch because of my commute everyday for 4 years and once again I was surprised to see lot had changed. The worst part was there were speed breakers on the middle of every flyover! I hit the speed breaker on the first flyover at more than 100kmph and for a moment was scared about damaging my bikes spoke. It was alright and from there on I was careful on the flyovers but it was really frustrating to have speed breakers on them.

It was pure ecstasy the moment I entered my sweet Coimbatore and I felt like “Yeah I’ve done it!!!!!” and it just took me around 15 mins to reach my home and by 11:00am I was at home. Few pictures after I reached home:


The Duke visits Home!




My super excited Nephew

Stats of the day:
Total Kms: 365kms
Time taken: 4hrs 15mins
Petrol: 14ltrs (There was still petrol left)

Very happy and satisfied with the whole trip, I settled in for a long holiday at home and most importantly for Christmas and New year celebrations with family. Details of my return journey to follow. My personal records were shattered in the process, so stay tuned!

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

pics ain't visible.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Corrected

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Nice log there. I always love the 'home coming' type of logs. Waiting for the next part.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Liked the trip details. As I am planning to buy 390, I feeling more GAS to buy anytime soon. TFS.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

My suggestion would be - As soon as you see an intersection or people about to cross or any animal grazing along side your side of the road immediately slow down to speeds which can avoid contact with the object if it stops in front of you for any reason. I will give you examples why I say that.

1) Somewhere in the year 2000 my senior in college was going home inside delhi city limits. A female senior was her pillion. He was travelling smoothly at around 60 km/hr when a cyclist tries to cross the road. He can easily do that as he was quite far. My senior maintained his speeds calculating this cyclists speed(He was on foot and pushing the cycle). On the middle of the road this cyclist spots the scooter my senior was on. He panicked and dropped the cycle on the road and ran to safety!! Fcuk!! My senior rammed the cycle and both pillion and him fell on the ground. The lady broke two teeth of hers, I dont remember any more details. They went to police with this cyclist (daily wager from some xyz manufacturing industry) and the same story.. garib hun sahab and all. He got away with it.

2) My most recent trip to vizag two weeks back with my family. I was doing speeds in excess of 100 km/hr when an intersection came on the expressway. I always slow down near intersections without fail. There were a group of students and a husband wife daily laborers about to cross the road, they had just finished crossing the other side of the road and now waiting for me to cross so that they can cross. It was around 6.30-7 in the morning. I dont know what happened to the lady, she just kept crossing the road when all else were waiting. I was already at 75ish speeds. I further slowed down spotting her. She could cross the road if I maintain my speeds and she hers! Seeing whats happening her husband runs and pulls her back. I have no option but to drop speeds fast and my immediate reflex was hitting the horn at what the hell they are up to.. I nearly stopped just before this couple. They had already cleared the road and I hit the gas again. If I didnt slow down near the intersection and further slowed down after seeing this lady cross - Both husband wife would have been in deep trouble.
What is there to learn in all this - No matter what happens to her on the road, she sprains her foot or all of them come on the road at the same time. I am safe or atleast would hit these people with very less impact. Though I would not label them idiots.. early morning, very less traffic, there is hardly anyone on the road; one can easily forget that he/she is on the expressway.

The other good thing that happens when you start slowing down is that the people behind you would come to know about dangers ahead and would take suitable measures to avoid rear-ending you.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Dude waiting for the next part bro...

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Thanks mate!

Thank you! Yes go ahead and buy this if you want to do serious mile munching!

Thank you for the suggestion mate, much appreciated. I think you missed the part where I've said "I slowed down":

I slowed down
I'm someone who takes minimal risk and in cross sections I make sure I always slow down because I know there are people like this everywhere but this as I said earlier was too sudden and that too at the very last moment when I was only about few hundred meters away. Moreover, there is a difference between people walking across and a guy in scooty who can simply zip through in no time! That's exactly what happened. Nevertheless, I'm happy that was the only moment in the whole trip and I'm unscathed!

Yes, will try to complete it by the end of day

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

@shelton_jh - I read your travelogue and had some questions as a fellow D390 owner- hope you don't mind .

The questions are helpful for any D390 owner who have some or the other fears regarding their bike.

1) How was the chain before and after the trip. Did you clean/lube it in between your trip? Was there chain slapping?
2) Wind blast - was it a problem?
3) Did you have any punctures ? Reason is I found punctures while going for first service and never knew it was there and I am told the tires are sensitive being soft compound.


Thanks & regards,
Sanjoy

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

No problem at all, Answers in Bold!

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Return Journey: (Details at the end of the post )

After an awesome time at home, I had to do the return leg which might get little boring, your mind is already starting to think of all the good moments at home, how you’re going to miss home and you just don’t want to budge! But I had to for obvious reasons, thus started my return journey on January 5^th on a pleasant Sunday morning.
Coming back from home after a long trip it’s usual that your bags get heavy and sometimes you need to take another bag too! This time I just had a back pack for my onward journey and my old saddle bags of my pulsar came to my rescue which was safe in my house at Coimbatore all these years. It fit perfectly on the Duke and it was fully packed the night before my travel.

Got up at 4:20am and was ready in no time. At 5:35am I set out with a heavy heart after saying bye to Mom, brother in law and my sisters. The Salem highway is just 500metres from my home and the moment I hit the highway my mind was completely focused on the job at hand! Mission Satara (~1100kms which would break my previous record of 1015kms on a single day), stay the night, start early next morning and reach Mumbai. But at the same time Plan B was very much in my mind

It was pretty cold and this time I dint make the mistake of not being ready for the cold temperatures! It was little tough to cover the first 45kms of the ride till avinashi since every flyover had speed breakers and there was early morning truck traffic too. After avinashi it was good roads and in no time I was past salem heading towards dharmapuri when I had my first Fuel stop, drank lots of water, popped in a chocolate bar and was back on the road again. Just one thing was in my mind: have to cover as much distance as possible before lunch break!


The Duke in it's typical touring mode




Miles to go before I complete the mission

At around 9:30am I was going past electronics city and was looking for the exit to Tumkur which was easy to spot thanks to the sign boards. There was a Toll booth after I entered the Nice ring road and I thought it is going to be the usual stuff for me by taking the last lane and going past the toll but to my surprise I was stopped and was made to pay a toll of 65rs. . The ring road was longer than I thought and boring too, but it was business as usual munching miles and was heading towards north Karnataka. It was around 1pm that I felt I have to stop for lunch and that’s when I spotted a Kamat restaurant in a petrol bunk near a place called Ranebennur. I had covered around 650kms in 7.5hrs and I was pretty satisfied with the timing so had a relaxed lunch and this time I had no headache since I had hydrated myself properly unlike last time. At around 1:45pm I started my journey again and again the setting was perfect for musings, this time it was about the time spent at home, how tough is arranged marriage just like love marriages (Yes, had to meet a girl too this time!!!), what will happen to the tourer in me after marriage and it went on and on.

At the same it was all business as usual and I just wanted to do as many miles as possible before sun set and I hardly stopped other than the usual fuel stops. It was 7pm when I was almost reaching Kolhapur and I felt I needed a coffee break. It was to my great surprise I saw a small bakery which is hard to find usually near a petrol bunk. There started an interesting conversation with the shop owner, after he had served with me hot bajjis he sat next to me and this is how our conversation went (in hindi):

Shop Owner: Where are you coming from?
Me: Coimbatore
SO: What?
Me: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
SO: Whoa! Good, when did you start?
Me: This morning
SO: What??????? Seriously???
Me: Yup! Started…
SO: What time did you start?
Me: 5:30am
SO: That’s awesome! Where are you headed to?
Me: Mumbai, that’s where I work and I’m returning after my holidays
SO: So you went all the way to Coimbatore on your bike for holidays?
Me: Yup
Still not able to believe it he went in to a frenzy and went all around the place pulling everyone he knew like the puncture shop guy, few from the petrol bunk and started talking about me and the trip. Then started questions on the bike and lot of bla bla later he asked me one question which I liked a lot!

SO: Sir, are you going straight to Mumbai today or stop somewhere in satara?
Me: (after a short pause) Yes, I’m going home straight!
SO: (Another puzzled expression on his face) Sir, are you serious?
Me: Yes

Then a series of questions followed, after it got over and as I was getting ready to leave that’s when my mind started to think of Plan B again! It was another 410kms to home and I was calculating how long will it take with dinner and all. I just sat on my bike and started "Mission Mumbai" not knowing for sure will I be able to make it. My body held up well till then and my heart was up for it so it was again another mile munching session till satara and it was 8:20pm when I reached this hotel called maratha palace in satara which was the hotel where I had planned to stay the night. Since plan B was very much in my mind I thought I would have dinner and then decide whether to stay or keep going.

As I entered the hotel I saw that it was full of people since there was some marriage function going on. Crowd crowd crowd was all that I could think of and that was something I dint want to be in, so instead of parking I just carried on towards pune. I totally forgot about this Satara – Pune stretch by now till I saw the first flyover construction work going on! Yes this stretch is full of flyover construction work and I had totally forgotten about it, during my onward journey it was day time and I dint have much difficulty but this time it was a different story altogether.

Avoiding deep cuts on the roads, taking numerous diversions with cars and jeeps always on your heels and cutting across just in front of you but the biggest disadvantage was that it was night time. I was in for a very tough 120kms to Wakad Bridge which was my planned stop for dinner. This stretch took a toll on my body thanks to the stiff suspension of the Duke every pothole I hit I got a very hard feedback and it dint do any good for my already tired body. For the very first time in the entire trip I was badly wanting to stop and was just looking at the trip meter every now and then to see whether I’m nearing Wakad or not. But whenever I saw the meter I felt it has stopped working and seemed like eternity by the time I finally reached wakad bridge. Now all that I wanted is a small place to have dinner and then decide the next course of action. By this time it was too cold and I was shivering by the time I found a restaurant and sat. It was 10:10pm! I was totally drained out, all I wanted was some rest.

I made a call home and all my folks were saying “take a room and get some rest”. I just said I’ll decide once I had my dinner and how I am feeling. While having dinner my thoughts were only about reaching Mumbai and not staying cause I dint want to stay in a hotel at all after so many joyous days at home and moreover heart was saying “complete it”. After dinner and coffee I felt better and I thought I’ll complete it, dint want to come this far and not accomplish Plan B. Only worry was the cold temperature and I had to go through ghat sections as well. The thought of my good old days when I used to go to Ooty wearing just a T-shirt (yes never ever knew the importance of a riding gear back then) and the fact that I was still very much alert even after being on the saddle this long got me going. I called home again, told them I’m going straight to Mumbai!

Thus started the last stretch of my journey at around 11:20pm (Yes a solid 1 hour break it was). Familiar roads, only 140kms to cover, night time, good pleasant weather and the feeling of completing the journey in one day made me keep going and by 12:00am I was in lonavala which I feared would be very cold but surprisingly it wasn’t. It was indeed scary though! When I was crossing the ghat section before it joins the expressway it was absolutely lonely, dark and It was just me, bike and the road. Even though I loved it, thoughts like what if someone tries to stop me, do I have the energy to stand against such incidents were starting to rise up but the sheer pleasure of riding alone in the night and that too the ghats were enough for me to continue focus on the job at hand!

Mumbai welcomed me with bad roads due to construction work going on everywhere and after successfully negotiating all that I pulled into my parking lot at 1:25am. I was dead tired but beyond all that the joy that engulfed me was amazing. I thought to myself “Yeah!!! I did it, I did it, I made it from Coimbatore to Mumbai in one shot!” Called up home and told I’m back in Mumbai in one piece!


Mission accomplished!!!

As I going up on the lift to my house, I was thinking I almost did a saddle sore! Whoa!!! I know the last 200kms is the toughest in a saddle sore but still what looked like an impossible feat to me when i first read about it seemed very much possible now. I was pondering over it and thought to myself:
Would I try the saddle sore now? No, not necessary.
Would I try this again? Again no, not necessary.
But who knows, you never know once you are in the saddle you just want to keep going!!!
I just let these thoughts go aside and thought about doing much more relaxed and pleasure rides visiting places I’ve always wanted to like Rajasthan. After a nice bath, ate some home made cake and went to sleep thanking God for the wonderful protection all through the journey. I had to go to office the next day!

Mission Mumbai Completed! (Plan B accomplished ;P)

Stats of the day:
Total kms: 1378kms
Time taken: 19hrs 50mins
Petrol: ~50ltrs
Toll on the body: Only neck pain!
Bike's performance: Flawless!!!

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

awesome , its super awesome ..
I guess a windscreen will give you more easy mile munching ability ..

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Such a wonderful thread. You deserve a helmet's off for riding so many kms in a single day. Congrats once again.

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Awesome....the return trip was seen by me as pure passion, the love of biking and that's where we get this divine stamina to finish what we had started. I bet this journey will remain fresh with you in the years to come. .... ride safe

Sent from my Micromax A110 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: A 2750km Solo - round trip to Home for Christmas and New Years on my Duke 390!

Thanks a lot man! All your rides are truly an example of passion for riding!
Yup, planning on a windscreen to increase the comfortable cruising speed!

Hey Thanks a lot Ajay, I'm a mere mortal compared to lot of legends here we have in our forum. This was possible only by the inspiration i get from rides made by these people and of course the inbuilt passion to ride!

Exactly Benoy! It was just the love of biking and the inbuilt passion that kept me going and yes this is going to be evergreen and special since it was trip home!