Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Travelogue Approved

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Niec start...Waiting for the rest

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

That's a long trip for start.. .
Carry on

Sent from my XT1033 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Beautiful start. Bring on the rest!

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Thank you folks for the encouraging words..


Well.. i have been into cycling quite a bit and workout some and hence the saddle sores and long hours on the bike were a no issue and hence the long trip to start with..


Also, i am trying to work out how to upload pics with captions and hence the 1st post pics and write up got intertwined..


Would want to continue with the review on my helmet (practicality of off road helmet for long rides) for this post (travelogue still being written) as follows:


OFF Road helmet practicality for long rides (500km plus) on tarmac (as against an On road/street helmet):


Having done 2 rides (900 kms in 3 days and 1900 kms in 4 days) following are my thoughts/review of the feasibility of using an off road helmet for long rides on tarmac:


PROS --


1. The shade / lid on it protects from direct sunlight all day long no matter where the sun be -- I drove for hours and did not feel the sun getting into my eyes at all (i am a bit sensitive to direct sunlight on my eyes and this helped me immensely there). Except for a brief period of sunrise and sunset when the sun is just at the horizon i could not see the sun at all during the rides..


2. The Helmet stays on beautifully and does not move even an inch while riding due to windblasts -- I did not face the issue of windblasts unsettling the helmet while riding (even at 125 kmph speeds). although i did feel the wind intensity when i turned my head sharply it wasn't anything scary.


3. Gives you a bit of room in front of the face -- I ride with a pollution mask on my face and despite that i feel there is some room in front of the mouth to give a comfortable kind of feeling for long hours of riding (totally psychological this maybe).


4. Range of vision (sideways) is better -- I personally feel that i could look sideways a lot more better with an off road helmet (have driven for almost 5 years with an on road helmet and i always felt my side vision was restricted.


5. Fantastic Ventilation -- Because of some room in front of the face there is ample air circulating and i never felt sweaty on my face. Although my head got a little heated up but that maybe because of the Bandana covering it.




CONS --
Not sure of any.


Verdict -- Absolutely loved it.

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Nice man!!
by the way, which helmet model is this? how much did it cost?
Do you feel any need of tinted visor during touring?

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

agreed with reviews of off road helmet.

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

The one that i used (in the pic as well) is the Vega off road helmet.. i dont exactly remember the model number but its available on flipkart and Snapdeal. I got it for about 1550 INR..

this one is non tinted.. infact tinted will be more of an issue then help since during night riding (with morons on the opposite sides at full beam) it reduces visibility to some extent and during day time the lid/shade takes care of the glare from the sun thereby eliminating any actual use of the tint..

i wouldnt go for touring with the tinted glass..

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Next up is my REVIEW on Long Distance Touring with a BACKPACK (and not a saddle/tank bag as against the popular travel accessory). I did my complete touring with this backpack (as shown kept on the bike).. its a Quechua - Forclaz 70 Ltr bag sold by Decathlon.. majorly a hiking bag but i took it on my biking tour.

REVIEW on Long Distance Touring with a BACKPACK --

PROS --


1. Spacious -- You can store the world in the bag. I stuffed all that i wanted in it and there was still space left to stuff even more..


2. Sturdy -- Damn stiff bag that stays in place when held in place with the chest and tummy strap. The rods in the bag (that come against the riders back) keep it stable and dont let it crumble.


3. Awesome build quality -- the Bag just doesnt know what giving up is.. you load dumbells in it or whatever but it just holds on everything in itself like a baby.. Faulaad ki Aulaad this thing..


4. Cheap -- picked this up for around 3k and its a steal deal for that kind of pricing.


CONS --


1. Neck may pain on touring if not adjusted properly -- i could not bend my neck backwards during riding at all initially and that forced me to stop every 50 kms initially for a quick break.. realized that i had tightened the straps on the bag too tightly.. loosened the chest and shoulder straps a bit and it worked like magic (the bag sat lightly on the pillion seat which is raised a bit on my NS 200 and hence was a made for each other thing).. no more strained neck during the rides.. additionally loosening the straps did not unsettle the bag by any means despite going 125kmph at times..


Verdict -- good touring partner for those who want to go with a backpack on a bike..

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Nice going!

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

when did you purchased this bag? all Quechua hiking bag > 50L i saw few months back were above 5K.

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Well.. I got this about 6 months back.. I am a regular at decathlon and keep fishing for stuff on deals.. ..

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

So, I'm the guy who had to convince mindless_wanderer to come along. I was switching jobs and took a week off in between. Obviously, being a wanderer myself too, I had this idea of chasing the sun from the east to west and what better way than to start from the beaches of pondicherry? - Turns out I was partly right, partly wrong and mostly ambitious as hell. It started with mindless telling me he can make it, telling me he can't almost at the last minute and saying yes on Wednesday. We head out on thursday!

The plan

The original plan was to do this 4 day tour over 5 days so as to have a backup/rest day in between since I knew Kerala is going to be very very slow. However, I had to travel somewhere on wednesday with my family and decided very ambitiously to skip the rest day. The whole idea was to ride through Bangalore-Pondicherry-Madurai-Kanyakumari-Trivandrum-Calicut-Mudumalai-Mysore-Bangalore.

The preparation


Most of the preparation was just a short visit to the mech to clean and tighten the chain and making sure there are no electrical glitches on the bike before the long ride. Oh and how can I forget loading up on dark chocolate and granola bars! Since I have done quite a few cycling tours, treks and weekend getaways, packing clothes and essentials was a simple affair

The ride
Day 1

Day 1 was a pretty relaxed ride from Bangalore to Pondicherry. I rode from my place in Vidyaranyapura to catch up with the sleepyhead at Madiwala junction and the ride until the exit to Krishnagiri was quite uneventful. Then we saw some beautiful sunrise over the clouds while spewing cold breath into the balaclava and wondering whether our craning necks would invite wrath of the pain gods. We stopped for breakfast at a place and tried speaking in broken Tamil only to have the restaurant guys speak to us in crystal clear Kannada. We decided to eat well since we would ride into the sun (lol no, we just wanted to eat and needed no excuses). One mini tiffen and one coffee each later, we were off, riding on the never ending stretch of highway dodging a few trucks. We were so tuned to riding on the highway and riding without a break that we overshot the right turn we had to take, or left turn, I'm not sure. We consulted our best friend google and she (of course it's a she, since she seems to think she knows everything) sent us wandering even more until mindless thought of an idea of going into the village roads. What followed was tracing our path back a few kms and I swear I could hear mindless using some mindless words against me, swearing under his big fat helmet.

Once we reached the beautiful tree lined village roads, I was able to calm him down by making a peace offering - a la dark chocolate. After grumbling over how much of sugar the chocolate bar had and eating less than half of originally intended quantity, we drank half a liter of water and left. Almost the entire way to Pondicherry was this beautiful single lane tree lined road which was amazing to ride on, especially after riding in the hot sun on the Krishnagiri highway.

After the tree lined roads turned back into the highway, we took a detour towards Aurovillle, only to find that there are no rooms available this afternoon until two days after. Bummed out, we were ready to leave when a German-American suddenly decided to bequeath his previously booked room to us, much to our happiness. We quickly dumped our bags in the office and head out for a hearty lunch at a nearby cafe. The dosa was dripping wet with what looked like three gallons of oil. But it tasted good, so I quickly gobbled it up, had some cold coffee and we went back to our allotted room for a quick nap preceded by some ghost stories by mindless of when he stayed at this place the last time he visited.

The evening was mostly uneventful except for an expensive but brilliant coffee at the pondicherry beach, some nice momos along the way and I don't remember what we had for dinner. At the beach, we discussed some childhood stories and our plan for the next day - or the lack of it.

This whole trip was designed with almost no chilling out or checking out places but having fun riding , just riding for 2000kms across the east and west coast. Next stop Kanyakumari - to be continued!!

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

On seeing your MAP plot Just have a quick doubt...Why Did you Guys Skip Dhanushkodi? That magnificent place left out for the crowded KL Locations ??Of course,,,Dhanuhkodi is not going anywhere... u can always visit later

Re: 2 bikers.. 2 bikes.. 4 days.. 1900Kms.. south india coastline.. pure awesomeness.

Yeah, we had to miss Dhanuskodi because our plan was ambitious as it is and I had to join work on Monday :P