Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Travelogue Approved

Is that Kanyakumari?

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Bring it on bro... And congratulations .....

Regards.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

An awesome T-log in making I believe. Bring on the full story of yours and beloved Mia.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Nice teasers. Now bring on the rest.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

5000 kms, 16 days and you show us one photo,

Waiting for your awesome t-log bro...roll it forward

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

+1

Yeah.. thats not fair.. just one photo.....
We want more. I am sure he is busy writing something beautiful....

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Yup that is Kanyakumari, with Mia, the two kanyaen ;-)
i have been shit busy whole day, parents madd over my ignorance of all routine mundane stuff

pics rolling up immediately...

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider


with my new biker friend Parvez, in Pune, on my way to Solapur-Zaheerabad-Hyderabad.

Day 1 started with leaving from Panvel towards Hyderabad. On the way, i had a coffee and bun maska with Parvez at Hadapsar, a good half hour well spent, proceeded towards Solapur. The road is beautifully done up.





On the beautiful Pune Solapur Highway, giving a new name to "sitting like a king"
I was doing a good 120, an N650 rider passed me at around 150. no, i did not click him.
the road is good, but i predict it will become bad shortly, there are no flyovers to the villages and they are already growing.
Solapur onwards is a road work in progress. The pace is good, hopefully it will be done by year end.




Some random dam on the way to Solapur.

Went almost 5 km off road just to search for the dam, there was no water, so the whole thing was a downer, especially considering that the road was not at all suitable for my Mia...
I was (obviously) unable to reach Hyderabad the first night, stayed for the night at Zaheerabad. Next day was spent with relatives in Hyderabad.



Srisailam dam south east of Hyderabad. a small but beautiful dam



Srisailam dam, another view and the downriver side. Hot as shit, but worth the climb. roads were beautiful.



at Srisailam. I might be the ONLY person who has gone to Srisailam, even had lunch there, and not visited the temple itself!!!!



Bright Green Mia with Red Hot Mirchi, apparently i got too close to the mirchi, my eyes started stinging and that didn't stop for the next 2 hours!!!!



Nagarjuna Saagar Dam with proof of visit. a photographer convinced me to get two "professional" shots clicked. they came out worse than my cell camera shots!!!



Sunrise at Nellore



Roadside Breakfast at Nellore





Visiting Sriharikota and Pulicat lake bird sanctuary

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Extortion by kids in the name of Pongal. There were totally 10-12 kids, only these many were ready to get clicked.
Pocket was lighter by 120 bucks, heart warmer by a 100 degrees.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Wow, this promises to be a super ride, bring it on. Off special interest to me would be if you can include how the bike performed on such a long ride, road conditions, hotel stays etc.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

you can bet this was a hell of a ride. lemme try to answer your questions...

the bike handled splendidly on the entire trip, but obviously, by the end there have been some niggles creeping in.

1. the gears are not downshifting when aggressively reducing speed, i guess clutch adjustment is due.
2. various bushes in the suspension are creaking, they need to be removed, de-rusted and regreased.
3. the brakes need to be replaced/cleaned, they are not completely worn out, but the bite is gone.
4. something is wrong with the power, she is just not pulling as strongly as before.
5. my radiator fins are all bent, they need to be rectified, the fan runs almost continuously.
6. tyres are balding. need to be replaced.
7. chain gets loose very quickly, got it tightened twice in the last 2000 km.
8. front fork oil seal is busted. needs to be replaced.

akshay u too have the ninja, how many km done? what is your take on spark plugs? my fuel economy was excellent (as much as 32 kmpl in Kerala) so do they need to be replaced? i think just cleaning them should be good enough. what say


road conditions, please check the road conditions thread, i have given an exhaustive response for maharashtra roads. more il put up soon.

hotel stays, i generally booked on makemytrip app in the evening, about an hour before entering the city of intended stay. because i never knew whether i would reach the place i wanted to reach that day. the main thing i checked before booking was the availability of safe parking, everything else was secondary.

anything else i might have missed out?

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Thanks for your reply, it seems you have some extensive work to be done on your bike and expense as well. Just a word of advice regarding the chain, do also check for worn out sprockets as the symptoms that you have described regarding this could entail a complete change of sprocket and chain and since this is the final transmission on the bike it would be a major factor contributing to the sluggishness that you describe. Should you get the chain set replaced, the swing arm and rear suspension can be cleaned and greased at the same time. The rest of what you have mentioned to get repaired should get your ride back to ship-shape and I wish you all the best.

I have clocked 28000 km over the last 2 years and apart from a few tyre changes, brake pads (once), headlight bulb and sprocket chain set (using a x-ring chain now, which believe me is worth the extra expense), my bike runs as good as new. I haven't needed to change the stock spark plugs as yet, though got the gap adjusted once and points cleaned during a routine service. Thanks for the information on using makemytrip for hotel stays, I must download and try it sometime.

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Actually i am hoping that there won't be any extensive work to be done, the service centre guys will try to get me to change the bushes (they love trying to get us to change stuff) but i will force them to do my bidding.

i am planning to change the tyres, and just get the spark plugs cleaned. that should do it for now, because Mia will not be used extensively for the next 6 months.
worn out sprockets wouldn't give a problem with sluggishness, they would give a problem with chain coming off. but anyways, as u suggested, i will get it checked.

i have been happy with the stock tyres (they have done mumbai-leh-mumbai as well) and i am thinking il go with the same ones again. brakes, i will go for karizma pads.

regarding makemytrip app, it was a good app, this was the first time i used it, came away satisfied...

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

After reaching Pondicherry and checking into a hotel there (makemytrip), i planned my next day, plan was to quickly check out auroville and move on towards rameshwaram... but the meeting with a trio of guys from delhi got me to change my mind and stay an extra night. they were not bikers, but celebrating a birthday. it was great fun. we even decided to go to a party the next night.





i have been to auroville a decade and a half ago, when there wasn't so much rush, and they allowed people to go inside the globe. now there is a 2 day cooling off period before being allowed inside.
auroville came across more of a cult following, a throwback to the swinging 60s hipster movement which somehow got transplanted from the west. I had the distinct feeling of a place stuck in time.
the plates on the globe are stainless steel, and for reasons best known to them, are covered with a gold film.



i must agree, a lot of tress and different types of those at that....

in the afternoon i met a local who had a small but highly functional farm with many medicinal plants as well as other food items which allowed him to literally, "live off the farm". It was an educative experience and came off more knowledgeable. (he requested no pics)



I found the "speaking tree" from the times of india editorial



also a sea of flowers. sidenote... i really really must make a visit to Kaas.



the three new guys i met in Pondicherry. they were quite young, 20-22, made me feel so old :/ but had great fun with them nevertheless.





The Rock beach face at night with Mia, clicked after fighting,arguing, cajoling and begging with the policemen on duty. the MH number plate sure helped . The blurry one clicked by one of the 3 new friends, he was an iphone guy (that was his defence)

The next day not so early morning i left for rameshwaram, along the much acclaimed and beautiful East Coast Highway.



After a lunch of parota and a gravy of unknown ingredients,



i took a short detour which ended up with roads (and bridges) such as these:



The ECR might be only a 2 lane, but superbly constructed and with little to no traffic, a dream to ride on.



with mia and me (before i had a selfie stick)

I reached Rameshwaram after sunset, and while checking into a hotel, met 3 riders who had come all the way from Mysuru in 1 day. they had reached a night earlier, and were scheduled to leave the next morning. I again had a great time with them, went for non veg dinner right next to the temple, went to the holy bath point, pambhan bridge at midnight, then a photo session of the bikes after that. i managed to get a selfie stick from them which helped me a lot on the rest of the ride.



this was the closest I got to the temple in Rameshwaram



The night ended at 2, and i was planning to reach Dhanushkodi before sunrise at 6.



View of Sunrise from my hotel
obviously after sleeping post 2, i wasn't going to wake up in time. I finally reached Dhanushkodi at 7, and it was quite deserted. The sheer beauty was breath taking.
The little village at the tip was just stirring, no major activity happening.
I crossed the road and got onto the mud path, which ran about 2 km further east till the very edge of the Indian landmass.



this was literally, the end of the road, with nothing but some scrubs and sand beyond. for obvious lighting reasons, no pics facing east were possible.



Ek selfie (with Mia) toh banti hai



Despite being advised against taking the heavy bike into the sand by the three bikers i met in Rameshwaram, keeda toh tha. The bike got stuck less than a metre out into the sand, and the "adventurous" journey which lasted maybe 10 seconds, took half an hour to undo!!! i have a video which i will share as soon as i finish posting the pics.



The obligatory shadow selfie





I moved onto the dhanushkodi beach, clicked the remanants of the structures there, mainly the church. It must have been a small but very well structured piece of architecture to have stood the test of time and sea.



a small but beautiful sailboat adorning the seaside.





kids being kids, throwing sand into the sea and playing in it, building forts.

After coming back from Dhanushkodi, i did go to a temple afterall



A beautiful place, not because of the physical stuff inside, but more of the aura that place had.
It was 12 am before i got a chance to depart from Rameshwaram, after a bike washing guy lovingly gave Mia a bath (sounds so sleazy :P)



lunch at a local restaurant.

While crossing Pambhan there was so much traffice that I did not get a chance to catch a train crossing the bridge. a huge downer.







but I did manage to steal a couple of shots before being shooed off the bridge by the police.

The ride from Rameshwaram to Kanyakumari was uneventful on the beautiful ECR, tho there was nothing worth clicking anywhere, except when...



Just before entering Kanyakumari, the sunset between a sea of windmills had me stopping literally every few minutes to click a slightly different view of the sunset.

I checked into the Seaview hotel, and i instantly loved the place, because this was the view offered to me from my balcony.



what else could one want???





oh yeah, the view of the Vivekananda Smarak and Thiruvallur Statue.

The day ended with a stroll in the market, north indian aloo paratha for dinner, and passing out on the bed without even changing clothes!!!

to be continued...

Re: South Indian Garland Tour- 5000km, 16 days, 7 states, 1 rider

Nice going there brother. Looks like you have hell load of fun.