December 20thThe Spark:The Prep before the ride:The start of the Ride:
The Journey:
Pune to SolapurRoad: Expressway, Time taken: 4hrs, Breaks: 10, Condition: Excellent 4 Lane, Avg Speed: 95kmph.
Till Hadapsar that is the pune city end I felt a little cold but nothing I could not shake off. The second I touched the starting of Pune-Solapur expressway the temperature dropped another 3 degrees or something. My speeds reached 100s within seconds and I was flying on the butter smooth roads. After a few minutes chills started creeping in and then I realized that my street gloves were useless in this cold. Still I took the battering I drove on. But not for long, the temperature was freezing cold at 100kmph and soon I started taking breaks whenever I saw a tea stall. All total I had to take a total of 10 breaks before I hit Solapur. Hot tea was the only think that kept me going.The roads were butter smooth with very less traffic, but I lost time due to the cold weather.
There are 2 break points. One in Indapur & other in Tembruni where you might find traffic due to rail crossing and construction work. 90% of this Expressway is superb. You can easily average 150 if you are on a SBK. Also since the traffic is comparatively less on this highway say to Pune-Bangalore one you can drive a bit faster than the usual
Solapur to OmergaRoad: Single lane, Time taken: 2.5hrs, Breaks: 1, Condition: Not Good, Avg Speed: 60kmph.
7:00A.M I stopped my Pulsar for a second. Took some pictures. Had a pee break. Phew!! It felt good. Also now the Sun was rising the cold and fog were gradually lifting and this was a welcome break. Once you cross Solapur immediately the road becomes single lane from sparkling 4 lane highway. Now you have a single lane road till zaheerabad where incoming traffic will come flying at you. Also the road condition is not in the best of health. Omerga is a bit of an uphill climb and you can have a bit of traffic in here as large trucks and goods carrier are stuck moving slowly up the hills. Also you have L&T which is carrying out the 4 Lane work upto Zaheerabad which leads to further slow moving vehicles.
Took a 10 min break near a dhaba to refill my water and have some snickers.
Omerga to HumnabadRoad: Single lane, Time taken: 2hrs, Breaks: 1, Condition: Very Poor, Avg Speed: 50kmph.
It was as if I was playing a game of how many potholes I can dodge. I kept on dodging until there was nothing left of the road to dodge. The roads after Omerga were bad. It was difficult to go above 70kmph at any time. 2 times I had to panic brake as I saw a pothole big enough to swallow my bike whole. Again, L&T is working on this. When I touched the Karnataka border I was stopped at the toll post by the border police. They were amazed to know I was travelling from Pune to Hyderabad on bike. They left me alone after hearing this only. No more checks J. This was another break. It was already 11:00 by the time I crossed Humnabad.
Humnabad to ZaheerabadRoad: Single lane, Time taken: 1hr, Breaks: 0, Condition: Average, Avg Speed:Zaheerabad to Balapur X roads (Hyderabad)Road: Double lane, Time taken: 3hrs, Breaks: 1, Condition: Average, Avg Speed:The ending:
The return trip was the same route with minor changes. For starters I took the ORR to exit Hyderabad. Fantastic piece of road even the service lane. Ideal for drag races!!! On my return leg I was stuck in traffic post zaheerabad where there is small railway crossing. Since this was my first long distance trip i got to know a lot of things the hard way. Since then it has been more like a learning on the way curve. In last 6 months i have been to Bangalore, Goa, Malvan all on my bike and everytime i get to learn something new. This was a long pending post, feels good i have penned it down

Start from Hyderabad: 2:00 P.M, Reached Pune: 12:30 A.M
Problems I faced:
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