Log updated on 16th July 2014.

I recently did a Mumbai- Gorakhpur- Mumbai road trip covering 3400Km on my Kawasaki Ninja 250R. I would like to give few road updates and would like to let you know what to do and NOT to do while you are driving/ riding in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Please pardon my writing skills.

Day1, 25^th June, Wednesday:

Started from Thane, Mumbai on Wednesday, 25th June at 6am and my target for the day was Bhopal which is around 750Km via NH3. With the help of Rohit Upadhyay aka @beruoist, the route chosen was Thane- Nasik- Dhule- Indore-Bhopal. I reached Bhopal at 6PM covering 762Km including fuel breaks, breakfast break, lunch break etc. etc. Since the sun had not set, I continued to ride towards Vidisha via Sanchi which is a town in MP. I reached Vidisha at 8PM and the odometer showed 830Km. Road from Bhopal to Vidisha is a single lane road with some construction work going on in Sanchi. It took 2 hours to cover 68Km. I booked a Non-AC room in Vidisha at Rs.400 which had a good parking space.

Mumbai- Nasik-Dhule-Indore is 4 lane and is awesome to ride on but it was a windy day and I faced cross winds for about 400Km.

Indore to Bhopal is good too; however, one needs to be cautious while riding on Indore Bypass. It is a 6 lane bypass with a speed limit of 100Kmph as indicated by a sign board but the local people/ local buses/ trucks would not hesitate to drive on the wrong lane and will end up coming right at your face in your fastest lane, i.e. the right most lane. Some may flash their headlight asking you to shift to your center or left lane while some may not flash their light at all.

Logically, they drive on the wrong lane thinking it is the leftmost lane for them but they forget that it is the fastest lane for the incoming traffic. So, please be cautious.

After crossing the Indore bypass, the road will become smooth 4 lanes. Local folks use this road for daily commuting and you can find children playing across the road side. Anyone can cross the road at any point of time without giving a second thought about the vehicles on the road because they have been doing it for years. Hence, one needs to be very careful on this stretch too.

I missed the Bhopal bypass and wasted quite some time in Bhopal city looking and asking for road to Vidisha via Bhopal bypass. Bhopal to Vidisha via Sanchi is 2 lane road and is broken at some places. I thought I was in the wrong direction when suddenly the road turned into patch of sand and dust with no tarmac at all. A local guy said that it is the right route towards Vidisha and I could see cars, jeeps and other vehicles following that road. I felt pity on myself, my bike and for those who use this dirt track for everyday travelling.




Day2, 26^th June, Thursday:

Again, as per Rohit’s advice, the road chosen was Vidisha- Basoda- Bina- Malthone- Lalitpur- Jhansi- Kanpur- Lucknow.

I left the hotel at 6am and started riding towards Basoda. This is a freshly laid 2 lane road with hardly any traffic. Maintaining 100-110Kmph on this road was not that easy due to strong cross winds.

After crossing Basoda, I continued towards Bina and the roads turned to freshly laid 4 lane from 2 lanes. This was a very good experience. There was hardly any other vehicle on the road other than mine but the road is full of cows, buffalos, dogs etc. and you need to be careful on this stretch. I was surprised to see that many are not aware of this beautiful flat road. The cross winds continued and I had to ride tilted towards my left to counter its effect.

Bina to Malthone road is also 4 lane road as described above.

Malthone to Jhansi is one of the best roads that I have seen after Bangalore- Pune NH4. I guess it is a part of North-South corridor and was at its best possible condition. I stopped at a lonely dhaba and ate nice Aloo Paratha and Dahi. Wow, it was delicious and motivating. Temperature was increasing and there were no sign of rain. This road ended at a dirt track indicating that I had reached Jhansi. I had entered Uttar Pradesh, the state where I grew up, hurray!!…

I met a nice family from Delhi at the Dhaba and was bombarded with lots of questions such as:
1. Where are you from?
2. Which bike is this? What is the mileage? Price? Top speed?
3. Why are you doing this on a motorcycle?
4. When did you started and when will you reach?
5. How much petrol did you fill until now?
6. Wow… A Maharashtra registered bike in UP..!!

The question- answer round used to start as soon as I stopped for any fuel break, tea/ water break and I answered them with patience…. Phewww…!! A guy even declared that this is the same bike which was used by John Abraham in Dhoom. LOL..!






Coming back to the story,

Till Jhansi I have covered 300Km with ease. I had to cross Jhansi city and was stuck in the traffic for quite some time. I had to cover another 600Km and it was 11am already.

Jhansi to Kanpur (230Km) is a 4 lane highway but here is a catch. The road is bumpy bumpy and super bumpy. You will find huge tire marks of heavy trucks on two lanes and it will get difficult for you to choose the path to ride on. As a result of over loaded trucks, the road surface is up-down and wavy on which it becomes difficult to ride straight. Add the heat, Government buses, trucks, cars, jeeps on that road and riding your motorcycle becomes difficult and difficult. I had to stop for a couple of times to drink water. There was a procession going on in Kalpi (a small town towards Kanpur) and I lost another 30-40 minutes standing in the scorching sun. I was getting frustrated. Somehow I made it to the outskirts of Kanpur. There is a 6- lane road upgrade going on before Kanpur and I had to take lots of diversions which were unnecessary killing time. Finally, I stopped for lunch at around 2.30 pm and asked directions for Kanpur bypass towards Lucknow. A gentleman told to take the Kanpur bypass and reach Ramadevi circle and that 4-lane road continued till Lucknow. I was pissed off by the attitude of the local tempo, car, bus drivers and decided to ride aggressively. The reason was simple, they were the regular commuters on the road and felt free to change lanes, change directions, block a lane and stop anywhere and hence I took this decision to change my riding style and ride a bit rough though with caution.

It was 4.30 pm and I had reached outskirts of Lucknow after riding 75km from Kanpur. I asked for directions towards Faizabad via bypass and quickly landed on Lucknow- Faizabad- Gorakhpur highway aka NH28. I had to cover another 280Km. Now, Lucknow to Gorakhpur is a flat 6 lane highway on which maintaining 100-120Kmph is easy but hold on, how can I forget that I was riding in Uttar Pradesh and not in Maharashtra? Haah, the same old story of people driving in wrong lanes continued. It was too risky to ride in the right fastest lane because every now and then some idiot will come driving a truck/ tempo/ motorcycle towards you and it is your responsibility to change the lane ASAP. Ridiculous it was. I felt that these people do not deserve good 6 lane highways. Why in the world you will not ride in the 3 lanes allotted to you??? WHY WHY WHY??? Please be advised that there were no diversions which forced them to drive on the wrong lane. It was time. Yes, since time is precious, the local guys preferred to take a wrong lane and become a threat instead of driving for few kilometers and taking a U turn. The best bet for me was to ride in the center lane. At few places the roads turned into 4 lanes and I would simply ride in the left lane and close to the center line. This technique gave me ample road visibility and maneuvering time.

Haah, It was 6.30 and I had made it to Faizabad. The sun was about to set and I took a break to clean the visor and found that I had lost the 3M microfiber cloth. It was nowhere to be found. Arrrghhhhhh…!!! I asked the guy at tea stall to give a newspaper, washed the visor and my spectacles with water and cleaned them with newspaper. The results were not as good as that you get when you clean the visor with a 3M cloth. I had to ride the last 150Km in dark with not so clean visor and spectacles and had to face the headlights of the oncoming traffic, not to mention the jaywalkers who crossed the roads at their own wish. Riding/ Driving in Uttar Pradesh is tough and needs patience. People lack traffic sense and though I belong to Uttar Pradesh, I do not feel ashamed speaking about it. I started tailing a Mahindra XUV 500 from a safe distance in such a way that it blocked the headlight of the oncoming traffic and at the same time I was using the XUV’s headlight to look further. But this did not continue for long. The XUV driver’s ego was hurt after seeing a little motorcycle keeping up with it in his rear view mirror and he flew off leaving me behind ( this is what I think or maybe he thought someone is following his vehicle with bad intentions… ).

The low fuel light on the Ninja was lit up and I was out of cash although I had enough greens in my debit card. A small note that I would like to make- Most of the Petrol pumps in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh DO NOT accept payment by card. They accept cash ONLY. This resulted in me running out of cash. I stopped at 2-3 fuel bunks and enquired if there is a bunk that accepts card payment. To my luck, a guy told that there was a pump after some 20Km which would accept card payment. I reached that pump and the attendant told that due to a link failure in BSNL, the card machine is not working. Luckily, I found squeezed two 100 Rupees note in a corner of my wallet and a fifty. I was overwhelmed with joy. Quickly asked the guy to fill petrol worth Rs.250 ( ~3L) and rushed towards Gorakhpur, my home town. Just 17Km before Gorakhpur, when it is time to enter the city, the road conditions become poor to pathetic with rim bending potholes. It was difficult to find the road out of those potholes and even in that circumstances, vehicles behind me were flashing their lights and were asking for pass. Trust me, those 17Km were back breaking. Till now I was too tired, frustrated and irritated and made my mind to book the bike as luggage in train when I would plan to return back to Mumbai.

Finally, reached my home at 9.15 Pm and my sister, mother, uncle and aunt were shocked/ surprised/ amazed/ astonished to see me in my helmet and riding gears and above all, my motorcycle. Got a little scolding and lots of love from them. I checked the Odometer and it showed 901 Km. 901 Km in 15 hours. (300 Km in MP + 601 Km in UP).

I took this pic on the next day.



I have yet not calculated how much did I spend on the fuel but it should be close to 55-60 Liters and/ or Rs. 4000-4500.

I am not a good photographer and avoid stopping here and there to click pictures. Moreover, there were no rains in MH, MP and UP and it was dry everywhere. I have attached some relevant and irrelevant pictures that I clicked, thanks to my pathetic photography skills.

Summary:

Riding style:- Cruise constantly at 100-120Kmph and take breaks at either 100-130Km or after 1-1.5hr as required.
Mumbai to Vidisha- 830 Km in 14hrs.
Vidisha to Gorakhpur- 900 Km in 15 hrs.
Total one side distance- 1730Km in 29 hrs excluding 10 hrs halt at Vidisha.
Mileage- 28-30 Kmpl.

THREAD UPDATED:

Click here to read the reason, preparation and those happy moments at home:




Regards,

Apratim Banerjee.